Are you shopping around for a shed? does it need to be rated for a Cyclone region? You will probably have noticed the big price difference between the Reg. A sheds you see in shiny adverts with smiling fellas splattered with a little grease and those wind-swept fields with photo-shopped sheds advertisements and the reality of the dollars you have just been quoted for cyclone region rated sheds. HUGE!

Why should I pay so much more for cyclone region sheds? This is a very common questions and the simple answer is this...

• Properly designed and engineered cyclone rated sheds from ShedSafe accredited dealers have a lot more steel in them than region A or even B sheds and so you have a shed that for 360 days a year is way over rated and when you need it to be...rated for very strong winds.

To help illustrate the differences we ran two different buildings through our engineering and take a look the differences in specifications.

First up we look at a

• 6 x 9 x 3 enclosed 3 bay shed with 3 roller doors in Region A ,
• Terrain Category 3, Topography 1, Shielding 1. Importance level 1,
• with a site wind-speed of 34m/s.
• Typical usage, enclosed storage not near the home, well sheltered amongst existing substantial buildings.

and at the other end of the scale with the same shed for

• Region C, Terrain Category 2,
• same topography and shielding,
• Importance level 2,
• with a site wind-speed of 62.22m/s.
• Typical Usage , exposed, domestic car garage near home.

In a nutshell Looking at the table we see that the structural steel goes way up, as a guide the weight of the steel in the kit goes up by about 600 kg and on top of that there's 18kg more fasteners in the kit. That's an overall increase of structural weight and thicker wall cladding of 50%.

BIG SHED? Let's have a look at what happens when we make the Shed four times bigger and pull the front wall off it making it into a Open Front Farm shed 12 x 24 x 4.2 with 6m bays.

First up shed is a 24m x 12m span with 4.2m walls, open front farm shed 4 bays

• Region A, terrain Category 2. (Open exposed farm land)
• Sheilding and Topography :1,
• Importance level 1 (Isolated Farm shed)
• Site wind speed 37.3m/s

Then we place the same shed in Region C, a 24m x 12m x 4.2m open front 4 bay farm shed.

• Region C, terrain Category 2. (Open exposed farm land)
• Sheilding and Topography :1,
• Importance level 1 (Isolated Farm shed)
• Site wind speed 60.16m/s

In a Nutshell we find that there is over 3000kg more steel and an extra 60 kg of fasteners in the Region C. farm shed. That's over a 50% increase in Structural material and Fasteners when compared to the Region A shed. What's this mean in layman terms? If your offered a cheap shed for Region C or D then watch out. It's likely to be under designed using engineering for the wrong district or old engineering that would'nt pass a decent inspection today using new guidelines produced after Cyclone Larry and proven by Cyclone Yasi. If you want to give your investment the best chance of standing after the next "big one" then expect to make a sound investment decision shed that will cost a bit more but be worth it in the long run.

Would you like a quote for a shed to go into Region C or D?