The two photos accompanying this blog should never happen even if you are buying Carports and Sheds for Townsville and Mackay or anywhere in a Cyclone-prone area. A carport or shed built to all Australian Standards for your area will withstand any cyclone up to category 5.

Carports and Sheds for Townsville and Mackay must be properly certified.

Buying a carport or shed for any cyclonic region means that you must thoroughly check the engineering certification. Too many businesses will have an in-house certifier or will use a ‘back-yard engineer’ to certify their product. A properly certified shed or carport, anywhere in Australia, will withstand the worst winds that your area can experience. You can learn how to do this yourself later in this article.

Damage caused by Cyclone Debbie

The photo of the destroyed carport was taken in Bowen after Cyclone Debbie in 2017. The Bowen property market faced a long road to recovery after the cyclone with over 50% of properties being damaged. This included houses, sheds, and carports. Landlords lost out as well as homeowners as properties had to be pulled from the market to allow owners to file insurance claims and wait for repairs. Re-builds and repairs took a very long time as local tradies were flat out with the huge amount of work. People had to find alternative accommodation and local businesses suffered for years until repairs and replacements for shelter were eventually completed.

Prioritizing claims caused more business loss.

Understandably, it was very challenging for those looking to fix up their carports and sheds as assessors prioritized major claims; those where people were left without homes or where roofs were ripped off entirely.

The impact of the cyclone on most properties ranged from $2,000 - $3,000 but the total loss for some homes was estimated to be $4 million. As usual after a cyclone, electricity and emergency services were busy for months with repair work following the disaster. It’s easy to imagine that a shed or carport damaged in these circumstances will be replaced or repaired quickly. However, the reality is if your business depends on that destroyed shed, it may take an exceedingly long time before it can be used again.

You need never have a damaged shed or carport.

Professional Choice Sheds state that all this business down-time, insurance assessing, repair and re-build is unnecessary if the structure is supplied to the full Australian Standards for a cyclonic region.

Having a shed on your property provides great benefits for a range of commercial and personal uses. However, it is essential to ensure the structure is safe in all weather conditions. It is not just material damage as one day someone will be severely injured or killed by flying debris.

Devastating weather events like Cyclone Yasi also wreaked destruction on houses, carports and sheds alike when packing winds of around 250 kph. To prevent these issues from arising in the first place, it is important to review building regulations prior to constructing any type of shed. Do not depend on a signed certificate because most are probably false.

What to look for and how to “test” your quote

We always advise that you should get at least 3 quotes and test them. Quotes can be easily tested on the independent website www.shedhealthtest.com.au. Your first concern on a bad quote should be if the necessary information you need to do the Shed Health Test is not given on the quote. You can always contact the people who supplied you the quote and ask for the written information you require.

If the information is not provided, the Shed Health Test informs you of three reasons the information will not be provided:-

1. They are not doing the required calculations, which means they should not be selling the product.
2. They are doing the required calculations, but the results are not National Construction Code, Building Code of Australia or Australian Standards^® compliant, which means they should not be selling the product.
3. They are not providing the type of steel they are advertising, which means they should not be selling the product. (source www.shedhealthtest.com.au).

The simple answer to this is REJECT THE QUOTE, it will save you a lot of time and hassle in the future.

It's essential to ensure that the construction complies - Carports and Sheds for Townsville and Mackay

When you purchase a shed, it's essential to ensure that the construction complies with your local cyclonic wind rating requirements. That's why all Professional Choice Sheds and carport kits are engineered specifically for the site they're installed in - things like prevailing wind speeds, topography, terrain and shielding are taken into account. All our carport and sheds meet (or even exceed!) Australian Standards. We ENCOURAGE YOU to test our quotes out on the independent shed health test, so you can feel safe knowing your structure is built to last against even extreme weather conditions!

Your Compliance Certification

Professional Choice Sheds will have the most renown and largest Consulting Engineering Business in the southern Hemisphere sign off on your new structure. We have no ‘in house certifier” paid for simply signing off on any drawings they are given. We do not deal with one-man band, backyard certifiers paid for signing off on what they are given. You can depend on Professional Choice Sheds to supply you with a carport or shed that will survive any category 5 cyclone!

Summary - Carports and Sheds for Townsville and Mackay

Choosing a shed is a major decision. Do you want to invest in a properly certified, reliable, long-lasting structure, or just settle for something cheap and temporary? At Professional Choice Sheds, we ensure that our products are built tough using only the best Australian materials. Your Australian made high tensile steel and a properly vetted design will guarantee you a safe investment that abides by all Australian Construction Standards for sheds and carports. Don't settle for less - choose Professional Choice Sheds and remember to check out our quotes for quality against all others. The easiest thing to note on a Professional Choice quote is the mass. Our sheds are commonly 40% more mass than most competitors simply because the competitors are supplying imported mild steel and often just not enough steel to build a structure that will withstand and Category 5 cyclone.