Your Dubbo shed build, stage by stage: what actually happens on each day
From accepted quote to handover a shed here takes 8 to 16 weeks, and only 3 to 10 of those days have anyone standing on your block. A double garage is 2 days of erection once the slab has cured. A 12m x 9m enclosed farm shed is 4 to 8 days. The long parts are steel lead time, 2 to 6 weeks, and approval, which runs from the same week for exempt development to about 3 months for a full development application. The rest of this page is what happens on each of those days and what we need from you.
Every stage, how long it really takes, and your job in it
These are real durations for the Dubbo and Orana region, not best-case numbers. Where a stage has a range, the difference is almost always access, weather or council.
| Stage | How long | What happens | What you need to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Site measure | 1 to 2 hours on site | We measure the block, check the fall, the soil, the wind exposure and the access, and talk through size, height and use | Be there if you can. Know what machinery has to fit and how tall it is at full lift |
| 2. Design and quote | 3 to 10 business days | Engineered layout, portal spacing, footing sizing and a fixed written quote with the slab and doors itemised | Read the exclusions list. Ask about anything you expected to see and cannot find |
| 3. Approval | Same week to 3 months | Exempt development needs no application. A complying development certificate is typically 2 to 4 weeks. A development application through council is commonly 6 to 12 weeks or more | Sign the owner consent forms promptly. This is the single biggest cause of delay |
| 4. Steel order and detailing | 2 to 6 weeks | Shop detailing, roll forming, sheet cut to length, doors ordered. Nothing visible happens on your block | Lock in the colour and door sizes. Changes after this point cost money |
| 5. Site prep and pad | 1 to 3 days | Clear, cut and fill, build the pad above surrounding ground, compact, set out and peg the building | Move everything off the pad and 3m around it. Mark your irrigation, poly pipe and septic lines |
| 6. Footings | 1 to 2 days, plus cure | Pad footings bored and poured to the size the site classification called for, anchor bolts set | Photograph the open holes before the pour. It is the only chance you get to see them |
| 7. Slab pour | 1 day, then 7 days cure | Mesh, vapour barrier where specified, pour, screed, finish, saw cuts. Trucks come and go for 3 to 4 hours | Keep vehicles, kids and dogs well clear. Agree the washout spot before the first truck |
| 8. Frame erection | 1 to 2 days garage, 3 to 5 days shed | Columns stood, rafters lifted with a telehandler or crane, purlins, girts and bracing fitted, frame squared and plumbed | Keep the access lane clear all day. This is the day the crane cannot be moved |
| 9. Roof and wall cladding | 1 to 4 days | Roof sheets, flashings, wall sheets, gutters and downpipes. The loudest and windiest-dependent stage | Expect noise from 7am. Park the good car somewhere else |
| 10. Doors and finishing | 1 day | Roller and access doors hung and adjusted, seals fitted, silicone, swarf sweep and magnet roll of the site | Open and close every door yourself while we are still there |
| 11. Handover and paperwork | Same day, papers in 1 to 2 weeks | Walk around, defect list if there is one, engineering and compliance documents issued, final invoice | File the certificates with your insurance papers. You will want them one day |
Timings for the Dubbo and Orana region. Approval times depend on Dubbo Regional Council and the pathway your build takes: see rural NSW shed permits.
Prepare-for-the-crew checklist
Tick these off in the week before the crew is due. Every item on this list is something that has cost somebody a day at some point. Your ticks are saved in this browser, so you can come back to it, and the print button gives you a paper copy for the fridge.
Access and the pad
Services and safety
The household
Paperwork and decisions
Tell us before the truck is loaded if any of these are true
Want a build date and a written stage plan for your block?
We come out, measure, and send a fixed quote with the stages and the realistic dates on it, so you know which weeks matter.
What the days actually feel like
Access, parking, power and water
Access decides more of the schedule than anything except weather. On a town block the problem is usually width: a 19m truck cannot swing into a narrow driveway, so we plan to unload on the street with a crane or offload at the kerb and shuttle in. On a rural block the problem is surface. A loaded truck on wet black soil does not go anywhere and leaves ruts you will be grading out for a year, so after summer storms we simply wait, even if the sky is blue.
The crew arrives in two or three utes and a trailer, so allow parking for that plus room for a telehandler or a franna crane on frame day. We carry a generator, so power is a nicety, not a requirement, but a 15 amp outlet within 30 metres saves fuel and noise. Water only really matters on concrete days, for washout and for dust suppression on a dry Dubbo westerly.
Noise, dust and smell
Frame and cladding are the loud days: impact drivers, rivet guns, the occasional angle grinder, and steel sheets being handled. Council sets permitted construction hours as a condition of your approval, and the usual NSW pattern is 7am to 6pm on weekdays, 8am to 1pm Saturdays and nothing on Sundays or public holidays. Check what is written on your own consent, because it governs.
Dust comes from the pad work, not the steel, and it is worse in a dry spring than after rain. There is very little smell on a shed job: some silicone on the last day and the smell of wet concrete on pour day, and that is about it. The real nuisance is swarf, the fine steel filings from drilling and cutting. It rusts within days and stains concrete, decks and paintwork, which is why the last thing that happens is a broom and a magnet over the whole site.
Pets, kids and working from home
Dogs are the number one incident on shed sites, not because of the dogs but because gates get propped open when three people are carrying a 6m sheet. Put dogs inside or in a run for the days we are there. Roof sheet edges are genuinely sharp and offcuts sit around until the sweep, so keep kids and bikes out of the work zone entirely.
If you work from home, the days to protect are frame and cladding. Site measure day, doors day and handover are quiet. Nothing about a shed build requires you to be home, but being there for the set-out and for handover is worth an hour of your time in both cases.
What has to move before we arrive
Everything on the pad and 3m around it, which is more than people expect. The usual list is the woodheap, star pickets, the old trailer, garden beds, the clothesline, poly pipe, a sprinkler line nobody remembers laying, and a fence panel or two. Mark your septic and its trenches and any unmapped water line: an excavator through a poly main on a rural block is a genuinely bad afternoon. Lodge a free Before You Dig Australia enquiry regardless. It costs nothing and it covers the mapped services.
Weather, and what actually stops work
Two things stop a Dubbo shed build. The first is wind: above roughly 35 to 40 kilometres per hour we stop putting roof sheets on, because a 6m sheet is a sail and a person on a roof holding one is a serious incident waiting to happen. The second is mud. Summer storms through November to February drop a lot of water quickly, and the black clay stays soft for 3 to 5 days afterwards.
Frost is the winter version. We will not pour concrete when the morning is below about 5 degrees with frost on the ground, because the top of the slab does not gain strength properly. In the other direction, a run of 40 degree days means very early starts on pour days and extra curing attention. None of this is anyone dragging the chain: a shed put up in the wrong conditions is a shed with a problem in it. Our seasonal timing guide explains how the Orana calendar actually runs.
What a clean site looks like at the end, and where the waste goes
When we hand over, the slab is swept, the swarf is magnet-rolled, offcuts and screws are picked up, the silicone is tidy, the doors have been run up and down a dozen times, and there is no packaging left anywhere on your block. If you can walk barefoot across the pad and park a car in the shed the same afternoon, the site is clean.
Steel offcuts and any old shed sheeting go to a scrap metal yard in Dubbo, not to landfill, because scrap steel is worth money and tipping it is not. Cardboard, plastic strapping and screw boxes leave with us. Spoil from the pad is either spread where you want it on site or carted off, and that gets decided before we dig rather than after. Concrete washout is contained on site and never goes into a stormwater or table drain, which is both good practice and the law. Once the shed is up, the maintenance guide covers the wash and bolt check that keeps it in warranty.
Get a build date and a stage plan for your shed
Tell us the block and the access and we will come out for a free measure, then send a fixed written quote with the realistic stage dates on it, usually within a few days of the visit.
Build day questions we get asked
How long does a shed take to build in Dubbo from start to finish?
How much room does the crew need around the shed pad?
What stops a shed build on the day in the Orana?
Does the crew need power and water from the house?
How noisy is a shed build and what are the permitted hours?
What happens to the waste and offcuts at the end?
Ready to book a build window?
Free measure, fixed written quote, and honest lead times for the Dubbo and Orana region.