It’s a fair question and it’s the one that decides whether the shed is up before Christmas or halfway through next year. The honest answer is that it depends on your council more than anything else.
Most jobs land somewhere between two and four months from the day you order to the day the shed is finished. Some are quicker. Plenty are slower. Here’s what each stage involves and where the time actually goes.
A note before you read on. The timeframes below are indicative only, based on how jobs typically run. They’re not a quote, a commitment or a guarantee. Council processing times, weather, trade availability and manufacturing schedules all move around, and your job will have its own set of variables. Treat this as a planning guide and confirm the real numbers with us for your specific build.
The Short Answer
For a straightforward domestic shed on a clear, level block with a council that’s moving along, you’re often looking at somewhere around two to three months start to finish.
For a larger build, a difficult site, or a council that takes its time, four to six months is realistic. On rural blocks with site works involved, longer again.
The reason the range is so wide is that only two parts of the process are actually under anyone’s control. Manufacturing and erection run to a schedule. Approvals and weather don’t.
Working Out What You Need
Typically a week or two, sometimes longer.
This is the part you control, and it’s worth not rushing. Size, layout, door positions, roof pitch, cladding and colours all get locked in here, and changing your mind after plans are drawn costs time.
If you’re still deciding between sizes, have a look through the shed types and the gallery, and get the block sorted in your head. Where it’s going, what’s around it, how the truck gets in.
If you’re buying off the shed kit specials page, this stage is quick because the size and spec are already set.
Order and Deposit
A few days.
Once you’ve decided, we send out an order agreement. You pay a 10 percent deposit, and that’s what triggers the engineering. Nothing moves until that’s done, so if you’re on a deadline, don’t sit on the paperwork.
Engineered Plans
Usually a week or two, depending on complexity and current workload.
After the deposit we send out engineer designed plans for submission to your local council. These are drawn for your site, not generic, so they take account of your wind region, terrain and footing requirements.
Bigger or custom buildings take longer to engineer than standard sizes. Cyclone rated sheds take longer again, because the engineering is more involved.
Council Approval: The Big Variable
Anywhere from a few days to around eight weeks. Sometimes more.
This is where the timeline lives or dies, and it’s the part nobody can promise you.
Some councils turn a shed application around quickly. Others are backed up for weeks. If your block is in a bushfire, flood, heritage or character overlay, or if the shed needs a planning approval as well as a building one, add time. If council comes back with a request for information, the clock effectively restarts while you answer it.
In some states a private certifier can handle the building approval faster than council will. It costs more and it doesn’t apply everywhere, but if you’re on a deadline it’s worth asking about.
Two things that help. Get the application in complete the first time, and ring your council early to find out what they currently need and roughly how long they’re taking. A five minute call can save you a month.
Site Prep and Slab
A couple of weeks, plus curing time.
You supply the slab, so this runs on your concreter’s availability, not ours. Clearing, levelling, drainage and access all happen here, and if the block needs cut and fill or a retaining wall, that’s a separate job with its own timeline.
Once the slab is poured, it needs to cure before anything gets built on it. Your engineer and concreter will tell you how long for your slab, and that’s the number to follow rather than anything you read online. Rain will push all of this out, and in a wet stretch it can push it out a long way.
Good news is this stage can usually run in parallel with the approval and manufacturing, provided you have approval in hand before you pour. Sequencing it well is the easiest time saving in the whole job.
Manufacture and Delivery
Around 15 to 20 working days, subject to current schedules.
Your kit is made to order, then delivered to your site. Final payment is requested five business days before delivery.
That timeframe is what we typically work to, but it’s not fixed. Peak periods, remote delivery locations and larger custom buildings can all stretch it. We’ll give you a realistic date once your order is in the system.
Putting It Up
A few days for a small shed. A couple of weeks or more for a big one.
Depends on the size, the crew and the weather. The bigger variable is usually availability. Good shed erectors get booked out, especially in spring and early summer when everyone decides at once.
Book your builder while you’re waiting on approval, not after the kit lands in your driveway. Kits sitting on site waiting for a crew is one of the most common ways a job drags on.
Add a bit more time if you’re having power, lighting, insulation or concrete aprons done after the shell goes up.
What Actually Causes Delays
In rough order of how often we see them.
Council approval taking longer than expected. Incomplete applications going back and forth. Rain stopping site works. Builders being booked out. Changes to the design after plans have been drawn. Access problems discovered on delivery day. Waiting on a separate approval for plumbing or on-site waste.
Almost none of those are about the shed itself. Most of them come down to sequencing and how early you start.
Working Backwards From a Deadline
If you want the shed up by a particular date, work backwards from it and be generous with every stage.
As a rough planning exercise, count back the erection window, then delivery and manufacturing, then slab and curing, then approval, then engineering, then your own decision making. Add a buffer on top, because something will move.
What that usually means in practice is that if you want it finished before the wet season, or before Christmas, you want to be ordering a good few months out, not a few weeks. Again, that’s a guide rather than a promise. Your council and your weather will have the final say.
The most useful thing you can do is ring us early with the address and the date you’re working towards. We’ll tell you honestly whether it’s achievable, and if it isn’t, we’ll tell you that too rather than take the order and hope.
Call 1300 887 433 or send through your details and we’ll work through the timeline for your site. More answers on ordering, delivery and payment are on our FAQs page.