A disaster, costing you thousands of dollars can change the landscape and Shed Safety and Shed Safe shed installation became an issue after Cyclone Larry in 2006.

Throughout Queensland, Cyclone Larry resulted in roughly AU$1.5 billion in damage. At the time, this made Larry the costliest tropical cyclone to ever impact Australia.

After the event, as usual, it was decided that something had to be done about steel building and shed building standards. Unbelievably, Government Regulators and Building Certifiers asked the Australian Steel Institute (ASI) to ensure design compliance with the Building Code of Australia for steel sheds. Why the need to ask for this? Steel buildings should have been compliant but Australian standards were ignored. It was also discovered that shed failures were not limited to cyclonic areas building standards were an issue for sheds all over   Australia.

The ASI eventually published the Steel Shed Design Guide for Portal Frames Sheds and Garages in 2008.This design guide provides guidance for engineers & designers in the correct application of design codes for steel sheds across Australia.

As a way of keeping the public happy, most of the large major culprits who were ignoring guidelines became founder members of a ShedSafe accreditation program. This is used to persuade the public that design compliance is being adhered to.

The organisation was supposed to provide an opportunity for Shed suppliers to demonstrate their compliance with the Building Code of Australia using the ShedSafe third party accreditation program. In theory a great idea but it is always a bad idea to place a fox in charge of the hen coop!

Sheds should meet the requirements of the Building Code of Australia which has requirements for structural and community safety.

Every wind region has different ‘standards’ because the wind loads on a shed is the main force sheds need resist. The wind will always find the weakest point in a shed. A deflection, (bend or sag), of 10mm over 3m is all that is permitted by Australian Standards most sheds we know of are NOT deflection compliant.

We are not suggesting that a shed accreditation programme did not do ‘the right thing”. It is easy to submit a building for accreditation which would pass the necessary tests. That does not mean that is the building that will be built. It would be impossible for a national accreditation board to inspect the engineering of every shed built. The easy way out is to give a ‘general accreditation’ to the one compliant building that was submitted.

A small analogy would be getting permission to build with a minimum of 600mm concrete foundation depth. You run out of concrete, so half the foundations are filled in again with a 200mm concrete top layer. Who is to know?

You cannot rely on an engineering certificate. Just as back in 2006, most sheds are still being installed below the basic Australian Standards. It may take another major disaster before this is policed properly.

At the very least, check the span and strength of your  Top hats, (top hats are used for roof purlins or wall grits. They span between portals and other structural framing elements. In particular in applications where there is a higher wind loading or where heavy-duty sheeting is to be installed). As we stated above, a deflection, (bend or sag), of 10mm over 3m is all that is permitted by Australian Standards . Try the  Top Hat Span Test  designed for your easy use, to ensure your quote is compliant and therefore covered by your insurance!

While most sheds appear to be robust, all the structural parts of the shed need to be designed correctly. If not they will not withstand the wind loads. You can now check this out for yourself. You do NOT need to depend on the calculations provided by the consulting engineer engaged by the shed supplier. In many cases, the engineer is only interested in being paid to pass the engineering at the lowest possible cost. Cost may often come before structural integrity. Sometimes little attention is given to the actual calculations to meet Australian Standards.

There are now freely available tools which do all the calculations for you. If you already have a quote for your new steel building, we strongly recommend that you check the engineering here at this independent site  shedhealthtest.com.au. Unless its  Professional Choice ® , you will almost certainly find that your choice is not up to Australian standards.

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