Prepping Your Shed For Bushfire Seasons

With bushfire season fast approaching, now is the perfect time to prep your shed. Prevention is key, as fires can start quickly and move fast. To help you prep your shed for bushfire season, use the checklist we’ve created below:

• Clean your gutters. Ensuring that your gutters are free from debris such as leaves from nearby trees is the best way to prep your shed for bushfire season. Cleaning your gutters will significantly lower your shed’s ability to catch alight should it face an ember attack. Remember: embers from bushfires are the most common cause of home damage from bushfire attacks, and they can travel up to 40 kilometres. This means that even if the bushfire isn’t on your doorstep, your shed can still see damage and catch ablaze if the right conditions have been allowed.

• Install gutter guards. Not only will gutter guards prevent leaves and debris from getting stuck in your shed’s gutter downpipes, but it will also significantly reduce the amount of build-up. This will keep the on-going maintenance to a minimum. By installing gutter guards will make your life easier when you do go to clean your gutters, as you won’t have to worry about clearing out the downpipes.

• Remove any flammable materials. While this can be tricky as some sheds are built purposefully to store such items, during bushfire season it’s important. Materials such as wood, chemicals, and hay are the perfect items to add fuel to an ember attack or bushfire, which is what you’re obviously trying to avoid.

• Ensure weather stripping is intact. If you haven’t already, install weather stripping around the insides of the windows and doors to seal off your shed. How to test your weather stripping is intact: try to slide a piece of paper between the door and door-jam on the other side. If the paper can fit through, your weather stripping needs repairing.

• Give your shed some space. If you haven’t built your shed yet, this one’s for you. Ideally, you should build your shed at least 20 metres away from your home or work. While sheds aren’t made from flammable materials, the contents within your shed could be. The steel of the shed will heat up if exposed to the extreme heat of a fire, potentially igniting flammable materials stored within the shed. If your shed is within close proximity to your home or work, it increases their chances of catching alight due to wandering embers or direct contact from the flames or heat from your shed.

Of course, we hope that your shed will never face a bushfire, however with this checklist you can take comfort that you’ve done everything you can to protect it, including the first line of defence; cleaning your roof, gutters and downpipes.

If you have any questions about how best to prepare your shed for bushfire season, chat to our helpful staff today.