Design the ultimate warehouse shed with shed designer.

What is a warehouse shed?

A warehouse shed is a steel-framed Australian commercial building used to store goods, run distribution, host light industrial work or operate as a workshop-fleet hybrid. Under the National Construction Code, a pure storage warehouse is Class 7b: a building used for storage or display of goods or produce for sale by wholesale (Australian Building Codes Board, NCC 2022 Vol 1, Part A6, Building Classification). Add an office over roughly 10% of floor area or a manufacturing process and the classification splits into multiple classes, which drives fire separation design.

ShedDesigner's warehouse templates are built from 100% Australian-made BlueScope steel, clad in Colorbond®, and engineered to AS/NZS 1170.2 wind loading and AS 4100 steel structures. Pick the closest template, set your span, eave height, bay count, roller-door size and mezzanine, then submit your design once for free comparable quotes from ShedSafe accredited dealers in your region.

Sizing the envelope

Three numbers decide whether the warehouse runs efficiently for the next 30 years.

Clear span. Most Australian warehouse buyers land between 18 and 30 metres of clear span without internal columns, which lets you swing a forklift inside two rows of pallet racking with truck access through the centre. Spans up to 60 metres are routine with engineered portal frames (Standwell, Commercial sheds and industrial buildings). Above 30 metres, the cost-per-square-metre starts climbing.

Eave height. 6 to 8 metres is the practical sweet spot for combined forklift, three-tier pallet racking and rigid-truck or B-double clearance through a 5 metre tall roller door (Steelcorp, Structure heights and sizes for warehouses). Going lower forces a layout choice: forklift OR truck, not both. Going higher is fine, but it ramps wind load and steel cost.

Roller door size. A 4 metre wide × 5 metre tall industrial roller door clears most rigid trucks. A 5 × 5 metre door clears semi-trailers and B-doubles. The practical maximum on commercial roller-door product is roughly 5.1 metres tall × 5.4 metres wide (Steel-Line industrial roller door range). Plan turning circle as well: a 19 metre semi needs about 25 metres of hardstand to swing.

If you need a Class 8 factory build instead, see also our broader commercial designs category.

Slab, structure and standards

Two specs worth checking on any quote.

Forklift-rated slab. A typical warehouse slab on grade runs 150 to 200 mm thick at 32 to 40 MPa, reinforced with SL82 mesh, on 150 to 200 mm of compacted crushed-rock base placed in 75 mm lifts to 98% Standard Proctor. Light pallet storage tolerates the lower end of those numbers; counterbalance forklifts and heavy racking push the slab to the heavier spec. Talk to your dealer about your point loads at quote stage. Slabs are not poured to a generic figure on serious commercial work.

Steel and engineering. ShedDesigner's commercial warehouses use BlueScope structural sections (300 to 450 MPa hot-rolled and cold-formed) engineered to AS 4100 Steel structures and AS/NZS 1170.2 Wind actions. Mezzanines are engineered to AS 1657 Fixed platforms, walkways, stairways and ladders and AS/NZS 1170.1 Permanent, imposed and other actions, which sets the access and load specs.

NCC class and fire separation

Mixed-use warehouses are where most Class 7b buyers first hit a council problem.

The mixed-use rule in NCC Part A6: if an ancillary class (a Class 5 office tucked into a Class 7b warehouse, for example) occupies up to about 10% of floor area, the whole building can be classified to the dominant class. Above that, the parts must be classified separately, and fire separation under NCC Section C kicks in (Australian Building Codes Board). Practically, this means a 200 m² office attached to a 3,000 m² warehouse is usually fine as one classification. A 600 m² office attached to the same warehouse is two classifications, two fire-rating regimes, and a different building permit pathway.

Confirm the split with your dealer and your private certifier before locking the design.

Before you get quotes

A 2026 commercial warehouse shed lands between $400 and $500 per square metre installed for the shell, with turnkey pricing including office fit-out, plumbing, electrical and hardstand running $1,100 to $2,500 per square metre depending on inclusions (ABC Sheds, Industrial shed cost; Steelcorp, Commercial building costs). A 30 × 60 metre warehouse shell sits roughly between $720,000 and $900,000 before fit-out.

Capital works deduction. Commercial buildings, including new steel sheds used to produce income, generally qualify for a capital works deduction of 2.5 per cent a year over 40 years under Division 43 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, and buildings used mainly for eligible industrial activities may qualify for 4 per cent over 25 years (Australian Taxation Office, Capital works deductions; Capital Claims, Division 43). A quantity surveyor preparing the depreciation schedule is the standard pathway when actual construction cost is not separately determinable. Confirm eligibility with a quantity surveyor or registered tax agent.

100% Australian-made BlueScope Steel. Across structural framing and Colorbond® cladding. BlueScope's COLORBOND® steel cladding for sheds and garages carries a warranty of up to 15 years against corrosion to perforation, with the exact period set by location and application (BlueScope, Garages & Sheds Warranty). Check your build on BlueScope's online warranty estimator.

ShedSafe accredited dealers, no exceptions. Every dealer on ShedDesigner is third-party assessed under the Australian Steel Institute programme.

One design, multiple quotes. Your warehouse design goes out to dealers in your region. Every quote prices the same shed, in the same steel, to the same NCC class, the same wind region and the same roller-door spec, so the quotes you get back are directly comparable.

Browse the broader range on our Commercial Designs page.