Ian, very kindly helped me set up the overhead tarpaulin to shade me for the day.

This turned a half hour job in to a 5 minute job.

We also noticed that the 8000 screws I had just purchased for fixing the floorboards in fact needed a square headed driver.

I was about to head back to the hardware store, and lose two hours, when I thought to ask Ross if he had any.

He very generously gave me 3 and saved me a lot of time.

Up to 10.30 am went on finishing off rivetting the criss-cross bracing. Last week I ran out of the longer rivets I am using through the 6 mm PFC's.

I finished these off today as well as the remaining 1.9 mm purlins.

After this I unloaded the floorboards I had brought with me on the utility and carried them up the staircase to the loft floor.

The rest of the day went on installing the first row of floorboards.

I was not surprised that this was a slow process.

First I needed to test that the various pieces were all compatible - ie tongue and groove at the exactly the same position.

After that I needed to select two lengths, trim them to size and make sure that they were an exact fit.

Then I trimmed off the tongue for the first row.

If I had brought a table saw with me this would have been just a few moments work but instead I had to mess around with a "renovator" tool for half an hour to shave it off.

Then a whole lot more time to make sure I had alligned the floor boards to the edge of the stud frame wall.

Eventually I used a plumb bob to ensure they were level. Then I had to fudge this allignment to allow the boards to be straight.

In fact, by using a straight edge, I found that the boards were slightly bowed so I had to force and clamp them in to line.

Finally I had to countersink and drill the floorboards and then drive in the screws.

By this time it was 6.00 pm and I still had to stack the floorboards and cover them as well as take down the overhead tarpaulin.

Fortunately, this was when Sandy and Jim turned up and gave me a hand. Much appreciated as I was on my last legs.

I have a countersinking bit, that also allows me to drill the non interference hole through the wood.

In order to countersink by 3 mm it needs to create quite a large crater.