Shed and garage demolition: small jobs, done properly

Not every demolition is a house. The leaning garage, the asbestos-roofed shed, the sleep-out nobody's entered since 2009, the old dairy on the block you just bought — outbuilding demolition is half our phone calls. Small jobs, but the asbestos and permit rules don't shrink with the building. Here's the guide.

What it costs

• Garden shed (up to ~20 sqm): $500–$2,500 removed and disposed. Steel sheds at the bottom; timber-framed, cluttered or asbestos-clad at the top.
• Single or double garage: $1,500–$5,000 including slab, more if the slab is large or access is tight.
• Bungalows and sleep-outs: $2,500–$8,000 — these are small houses: often lined, wired, and (pre-1990) reliably fibro somewhere.
• Farm buildings — dairies, workers' cottages, machinery sheds: quoted on inspection; old dairies are notorious for asbestos roofing and buried fuel or chemical storage.
• Asbestos surcharge: a full asbestos-cement garage (walls + roof) commonly adds $1,500–$4,000 in licensed removal and disposal.

The asbestos reality — smaller building, same rules

Outbuildings are where asbestos cement survived longest: corrugated "super six" roofing, flat sheet walls, and fences. The same rules as a house apply — identification first, licensed removal for anything beyond trivial quantities (over 10 sqm requires a Class B licensed removalist in Victoria), wrapped transport, licensed disposal, dockets. The weekend-DIY garage demolition that snaps dry asbestos sheeting over the trailer is genuinely the most dangerous asbestos exposure route left in regional Australia. If the shed predates 1990, get it tested before anyone touches it — samples cost $25–$200.

Do you need a permit for a shed?

Often yes, sometimes no — Victorian regulations exempt demolition of some small freestanding outbuildings (broadly: small non-masonry structures not on or near boundaries and not tied to other buildings), but the thresholds are specific and councils apply them, not guesswork. The practical rules of thumb:

• Freestanding small steel garden shed: usually exempt — but confirm.
• Garage, bungalow, anything with a slab and services, anything attached to the house, anything in a heritage overlay: assume a building permit applies, and Section 29A consent if a street-facing element is involved.
• Anything with power, water or gas connected: services must be properly disconnected or made safe regardless of permit status — a garage sub-main torn out live is an electrocution, not a shortcut.

Our 60-second permit check covers outbuildings, and we confirm the permit position with the surveyor as part of every quote — small jobs included.

Worth knowing

• Bundle and save: the expensive part of a small job is mobilisation — machine float, crew, tipping run. Demolishing the shed and the garage and the concrete paths in one visit costs far less than three visits. If a house demolition is even a maybe, do the outbuildings with it.
• Slab decisions: keeping a sound garage slab for a new shed can save $1,000+ — but check the new shed's permit needs and levels first.
• Salvage: old sheds hide value — hardwood beams, galvanised iron (buyers exist for rustic corrugated sheets), bricks, and the scrap-metal run pays for part of the job. It's itemised in our quotes, per the salvage guide.

Farm clearances: the multi-building special

Rural blocks around Horsham, Echuca and Ouyen regularly need the full sweep — old house, dairy, machinery shed, sundry lean-tos — and these jobs have their own checklist: asbestos roofing on nearly every pre-1980 farm building; chemical stores and dip sites needing careful handling; buried fuel tanks beside old machinery sheds (a genuine find, priced with unit rates, never ignored); and long float distances that make single-mobilisation bundling worth thousands. A whole-farmyard clearance quoted as one job routinely comes in 25–40% under the same buildings quoted separately, because the machine floats once, the asbestos crew attends once, and the trucks run full. If you've just bought a rural property with a shed graveyard on it, walk us over the lot in one visit — photo, rough size, suburb is all we need to start, and most outbuilding quotes land within a day.