Why Cheap Sheds Pass Approval But Fail Early
Owning a quality shed should mean you have a steel structure that delivers year after year. Thats how you get maximum return on your investment. That’s how you get long-term satisfaction from your product.
Here’s the thing about cheap sheds - they start off strong and look good in the beginning. They pass building approvals and everything seems hunky dory early on. Then the cracks start to show - roller doors fall out of alignment, colours fade to white, flashings leak and a lack of bracing means things start to rattle in the wind.
Building approval and longevity aren’t the same thing. Fully compliant Queensland sheds can still struggle over time.
Let’s take a bit of a closer look at why this is the case.
What Shed Approval in Queensland Covers
If you’re building a shed in Queensland that’s over 10m2, you’re generally going to need council approval. This applies to most councils across our South East corner, whether you’re in Toowoomba or on the Gold Coast.
Planning approval is required before construction begins and deals with zoning, setbacks and site coverage. Once you have this approval, construction can begin.
The shed still needs to be certified as compliant once construction is finalised. A certifier may check on works at key stages during construction, and will need to do a final inspection to sign off at the end.
They’ll be checking that the shed is compliant with the National Construction Code and the relevant Australian building standards. There are a lot of boxes for them to tick - but most professionally built sheds will pass and be certified compliant.
You’ve now got a legit and compliant shed - excellent! What you don’t know though is how your shed is going to hold up over time. There are no guarantees when it comes to this.
Steel Quality
Steel is the first raw material that cheap shed manufacturers cut costs on. They can save up to 50% on their steel bill if they go with an imported brand. It will still meet the minimum compliance standards, but lower tensile strength and unpredictable performance don’t bode well for the longevity of your shed in Australian conditions.
Australian steel, notably BlueScope, is manufactured and tested for local conditions. It has a tensile strength of 450–500 MPa, whereas lower-quality steel clocks in at around 250 MPa. Your stronger steel is going to be more resilient over the years - you can even walk on the roof to clean the gutters without worrying about denting it.
There’s also consistency in quality with BlueScope. Engineers can accurately design a shed knowing exactly how the frame will perform. Australian standards are much higher than overseas, so there’s no second-guessing around cheap imported steel.
You pay more, but you get more out of your shed, year after year. That’s why we always recommend BlueScope Steel.
Cheap Sheds Decline Over Time
A cheap shed will degrade slowly rather than fail suddenly. The joy you get from your new shed when it passes certification declines with it. The frame will shift, the doors get stuck and rust appears. You find yourself doing more and more maintenance because the warranty period is well and truly over.
Cheap sheds that use imported steel will fade to white over time too. Next time you’re driving through a housing estate thats been established longer than five years, keep an eye out for the houses with steel roofs that have faded to white. It’s normally about one in 10 - those builders used imported steel.
Brackets
Every force acting on a shed passes through brackets and fixings.
Cheap sheds often underspecify these components using thin plates and minimal fixings. They’ll meet minimum capacity but over time, repeated flexing leads to fatigue and deformation.
Quality sheds use thicker brackets - they help tie everything together and give a shed powerful rigidity. A shed with hot-dipped galvanised brackets will fare much better than one with Zinc brackets, particularly where it comes into contact with concrete.
You Don’t Save with a Cheap Shed
You can try to save money by compromising on the quality shed you buy, but bear in mind that the installation, plumbing, earthworks and concrete slab are all likely to cost the same. Your shed kit is worth around 30% of the total investment into your shed. If you save 20% on the kit, that will work out to be around 5% of your total costs.
It’s not worth it - especially seeing as you’re skimping on the most visible part of the shed.
Minimum Compliance vs Longevity
Sheds on the cheaper end of the spectrum are built at the very minimum level to pass the compliance checks. They tick the boxes, but they leave little margin for error:
Imported steel could be used to cut down on building costs.
Base Metal Thickness (BMT) isn’t determined with longevity in mind.
Weak brackets are used.
The concrete slab is built using low-MPa concrete and a very basic slab design.
Minimum spec engineering simply doesn’t account for the rigours of daily life. Hard weather, temperature swings and heavy daily usage. Strong engineering is like insurance, you don't need it until you do. Any shed owner who has been through a SEQ cyclone will tell you that.
That’s where cheap sheds falter in the long run.
Base Metal Thickness (BMT) of Cladding
Base Metal Thickness (BMT) of the steel cladding used also determines the strength and durability of your shed. BMT doesn’t include paint or coatings - it’s a measurement of the actual steel thickness, which is what will be carrying load and resisting bending.
In real terms, 0.42 mm BMT is a solid benchmark for shed cladding in Australia. It provides meaningful resistance to flexing, hail, denting and long-term fatigue. Thinner options, commonly 0.30–0.35 mm BMT, are often used in cheaper sheds. These reduce costs and will pass approval, but when it comes to durability you’re better off with a thicker option.
A shed built with adequate base metal thickness in the cladding is designed to handle decades of real use - not just pass certification.
With Stockman Sheds, Approval Is the Starting Line
At Stockman Sheds, certification of your shed is the starting line for a long race that includes year upon year of reliable use. We build our sheds to last by using:
Expert and experienced shed designers
Local shed builders boasting generational knowledge
BlueScope Steel and Colorbond materials
BMT of at least .42mm
Thicker steel on our brackets than our competitors
32MPa in our concrete slabs, with rebated edges and piers under every column.
We go way beyond minimum engineering specs that are designed to simply pass approval. If you want to find out more about what goes into that, chat to a member of our team today.
