SIX years ago, farm shed manufacturer, Now Buildings, embarked on a path of re-examining the way farmers used their sheds.
National wholesale manager, Trevor Walker, said traditional sheds had three sides closed and one big side open, and had pillars inside to support the roof.
Mr Walker said the company had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on research, some of it in cooperation with Bluescope Steel, on better designs and better and quicker ways of assembling sheds.
It had decided that sheds could be built without pillars and without 45 degree knee braces in the corners, and with wider gable lengths.
It would provide a lot of extra space for machinery and allow farmers to stack bigger volumes of hay.
It also provided for wider entrances.
“All farm machines are getting wider and higher,” Mr Walker said.
“We also had to find ways to improve connections systems so would we not have knee braces.
“So we developed a unique double bracketing system.”
He said that and other innovations have resulted in sheds that are quicker and easier for farmers to assemble.
Now Buildings can also supply combination sheds, with up to six 20 metre sheds beside each other and giving an opening as wide as 120 metres with very few posts.
“They are selling like hot cakes,” Mr walker said.
Now Buildings is an Australian owned company and has more than 30 years’ experience.
Trevor Walker, together with his sons, Nick and James, work in various positions in the company.
It has a central plant on the Gold Coast hinterland in Queensland which makes key components such as brackets, and 21 plants throughout Australia that make the purlins the metal sheets for walls and roof.
Its NSW depots are at Tamworth, Dubbo, at Cardiff in Newcastle, Albury and Queanbeyan.
The result of all this effort is that Now Buildings has become Australia’s leading wholesale shed company, supplying trade, businesses and farmers direct, delivering nation wide from its 26 depots across Australia.
Farmers are supplied with all the necessary materials, including galvanised steel framing, Colorbond or Zincalume roof and wall sheeting, guttering, downpipes, brackets, screws, bolts and rivets.
The company uses specialised laser cutters worth more than $1 million that can cut brackets to within one-hundredth of a millimetre.
“We use only the best quality steel from Bluescope Steel,” Mr Walker said.
Buildings are designed to go on concrete slabs or on piers but with in-slab high tensile brackets rather than on-slab brackets, which significantly reduces movement or sway.
Kits come in flat packs and are usually delivered within three to four weeks of being ordered, or buyers can pick them up directly from the regional centres.
Mr Walker said a key point was that there was absolutely no cutting of parts involved for the farmer.
He said all the effort put into research was starting to pay dividends.
“The days of the old farm shed are really gone.”
