Sheds N Homes Albury-Wodonga is offering its clients virtual reality headsets in its showroom to walk through their new shed and see it going up in real time.

Sheds N Homes managing director Shaun Barker said the technology was brand new to the company. 

He said virtual reality gave people a better appreciation for the dimensions and size of their projects.

“People are visual,” he said.

“They like to see their shed, they like to see where the roller doors are going in and they like to see the scale of the project.” 

Having opened a Sheds N Homes showroom in Borella Road, East Albury, two weeks ago with Kelly Sandford-Handley, Mr Barker said their clients had already embraced the new technology.

He said people were given goggles and a controller to walk through their shed design, inside and out.

“The response to it has been amazing,” Mr Barker said.

“Anybody who uses the internet, will want to use this.

“Though we had an 80-year-old lady in the other day who was blown away by it!

“It’s the way forward for the building industry.”

Mr Barker said the company also offered 3D augmented reality, which was a combination of real and computer-generated imagery.

He said the advantage of this technology was that it could be used anywhere once the app was downloaded.

“With a mobile or tablet you can use the camera to view your shed design as a 3D model wherever you are, provided you have the ‘anchor’ image,” he said. 

“When viewing your 3D shed you can change design colours from the steel range, swap build materials, zoom in or out and view from every angle.

“The advantage of this is when, for example, the husband comes in to order a shed, he can take the design home to show it to his wife and family.

“People can change their mind on details, it’s no problem, people will change their mind anyway; the feedback is just more immediate.”

Ms Sandford-Handley said building growth in Albury-Wodonga continued to be strong.

“Everybody wants a shed,” she said.

“We offer sheds that are site-specifically engineered.” 

Mr Barker said the technology had tripped up only one person.

“We did have one person almost walk into the (showroom) window but I caught them just in time!” Mr Barker said.

Sheds N Homes services Albury-Wodonga, North East Victoria and the southern Riverina.