How to Price a Bin Store Installation: Labour, Materials and Margin Guide

Summary

A bin store is one of the smallest jobs a landscaper or carpenter will quote, and one of the easiest to under-price, because the visible product — a timber box to hide three wheelie bins — looks trivial next to the base preparation, the timber treatment spec, and the regulatory checks that sit underneath it. Get the base wrong and the store racks and the door binds within a season; get the fire-safety position wrong on a near-boundary store and the customer has a compliance problem, not just a cosmetic one.

The price is driven by three things: the base (paving slabs or a small concrete pad, following the same principles as shed base pricing guide scaled down), the construction (a simple slatted timber frame vs a fully roofed, lockable store with hinged doors), and the number and size of bins it needs to hold, which the local authority — not a national standard — actually dictates. For the planning and fire-safety framework in full, see wheelie bin storage regulations; this guide focuses on the cost breakdown, labour, and worked example.

This guide covers the standard domestic scenarios — small slatted store, kit/flat-pack store, bespoke built store, and larger communal store — with 2026 UK material and labour pricing.

Key Facts

• Basic timber slatted bin store (2-3 bins, open-fronted, no roof) — £350-£700 supplied and fitted
• Roofed timber bin store with hinged lid/door (2-3 bins) — £700-£1,400 supplied and fitted
• Flat-pack/kit bin store (composite or treated timber, off-the-shelf) — £400-£900 supplied, £150-£300 to fit
• Bespoke framed timber store (larger, lockable, matched to house cladding) — £1,200-£2,400
• Larger communal store (5-6 bins, flats/HMO) — £1,800-£3,500+
• Masonry/brick-built bin store — £2,000-£4,500+, effectively a small block/brick outbuilding
• Base (paving slabs, small footprint) — £150-£400, following the paving-slab base pricing in shed base pricing guide
• Base (small concrete pad) — £300-£650 for a typical 2-3 bin footprint
• Timber posts set in postcrete — following the same one-third burial depth principle as fencing, see fence post installation depth
• Pressure-treated timber (slats/frame) — £8-£18 per linear metre depending on section size
• Composite/WPC slatted panels — £25-£45 per m² supplied
• Hinges, latches, lockable options — £15-£60 depending on spec
• Standard 240L wheelie bin footprint — approximately 580mm wide × 730mm deep × 1070mm high (varies by manufacturer; confirm with the local authority)
• Typical 3-bin store internal width — around 2m to allow manoeuvring clearance
• Labourer/carpenter day rate — £160-£260 regional, £220-£320 London
• Typical labour time — 0.5 day (kit/basic) to 1.5 days (bespoke, roofed, on a fresh base)
• Ventilation — louvred panels or gaps recommended for odour/pest control; not a fixed numeric requirement for small domestic stores
• VAT — 20% standard rate

Quick Reference Table

Detailed Guidance

Sizing before pricing anything

Before quoting a bin store, confirm with the customer (or better, the local authority's waste team) exactly what bins the property is expected to hold — general waste, recycling (sometimes split into more than one bin), food waste, and garden waste all vary by council, and there's no single UK-wide standard number or size. Standard 240L wheelie bins are around 580mm × 730mm footprint, so three side by side with room to manoeuvre typically needs an internal store width of about 2m — but always confirm actual dimensions with the specific council before finalising the design, since manufacturers vary slightly and a tight-fitting store is a daily annoyance rather than a neat drawing. See wheelie bin storage regulations for the full sizing and collection-access detail.

The base — same principles as a shed, smaller scale

A bin store doesn't carry the load of a garden room or a heavy workshop, but it still needs a level, stable, well-drained base or the doors and lid will bind within a season. For a small domestic store, paving slabs on a compacted hardcore sub-base are the most cost-effective option (£150-£400) and follow exactly the same logic as the paving-slab base covered in shed base pricing guide — most of the labour is in the ground preparation, not the visible slabs. A small concrete pad (£300-£650) is worth the extra cost on soft or uneven ground, or where the store will be a permanent, larger installation serving multiple households. Where the store is timber-framed with posts set into the ground rather than sat on a base, follow the fence-post principle of burying roughly one-third of the exposed post height in postcrete, adjusting for clay or waterlogged ground — see fence post installation depth.

Construction — matching spec to the job

A basic slatted store is a simple pressure-treated timber frame with slatted sides for ventilation, open at the front or top — cheap, fast, and adequate where the store just needs to screen bins from view. Adding a roof and a hinged lid or door protects against rain getting into open-topped recycling bins and looks tidier from the street, at roughly double the basic price. A bespoke framed store — matched to the house's existing cladding or fencing, often with a lockable door — is a genuine small joinery job and priced accordingly. For larger household counts or shared/communal use (flats, HMOs), the store scales up in both size and construction standard, and fire-separation and capacity are increasingly matters of planning conditions rather than the tradesperson's discretion — see the communal considerations in wheelie bin storage regulations.

Materials — timber vs composite vs masonry

Pressure-treated softwood is the standard, cost-effective choice for domestic slatted stores. Composite (WPC) slatted panels cost more but need less maintenance and don't need re-treating. Where the store sits close to a boundary or an existing building, material choice becomes a fire-safety consideration, not just an aesthetic one — a combustible timber store built hard against a fence or wall increases the fire load at that junction, and a metal, GRP, or masonry store reduces it. Masonry/brick-built stores are effectively a small block outbuilding and are priced closer to a garden wall or small structure than a joinery job — see garden walls for comparable foundation and construction pricing at that scale.

Fire safety and planning — the two checks that matter

Most single-dwelling bin stores fall within permitted development as a small outbuilding under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, provided they stay within the general height and garden-coverage limits for outbuildings and aren't positioned in front of the principal elevation. The check that catches people out is proximity to a boundary: Building Regulations Part B (external fire spread) becomes more relevant the closer a combustible timber store is built to a boundary or to another building, because the store is effectively a fire load sitting next to a structure. For a freestanding store well away from boundaries this is rarely a practical issue on a single house; for a store built hard against the house, a garage, or a shared boundary fence, it needs proper consideration and, where there's doubt, a conversation with Building Control. Full detail, including conservation area and listed building considerations, is in wheelie bin storage regulations.

Pricing Example (Roofed timber bin store, 3 bins, 2m × 0.8m footprint, regional)

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a bin store cost?

A basic open slatted store for 2-3 bins costs £350-£700. A roofed timber store with a hinged door is £700-£1,400. A bespoke store matched to the house's cladding runs £1,200-£2,400, and a larger communal store for flats or an HMO is £1,800-£3,500 or more. The base preparation and materials, not the labour hours, usually make up the larger share of the price on a domestic job.

Do I need planning permission for a bin store?

Usually not for a single dwelling, provided it's a small detached outbuilding within the general permitted development limits for outbuildings and not positioned in front of the principal elevation. Listed buildings, conservation areas with an Article 4 direction, and flats/maisonettes are much more likely to need planning permission — see wheelie bin storage regulations for the full position and the boundary height limits.

Does a bin store need to be fire-rated?

A small, freestanding domestic timber bin store well away from boundaries and other buildings is rarely a practical fire-safety concern. A store built close to a boundary or hard against the house or a garage needs the Building Regulations Part B external fire spread position checked, and may need fire-retardant-treated timber, extra separation, or a non-combustible material (metal, GRP, masonry) instead. Communal stores for flats and HMOs are treated more strictly under BS 5906 and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

What base does a bin store need?

A level, compacted base is essential even for a small store — paving slabs on hardcore are the most cost-effective option for a domestic 2-3 bin store, following the same principle as a shed base at smaller scale (see shed base pricing guide). A small concrete pad is worth the extra cost on soft ground or for a larger, permanent installation. Skipping proper ground preparation is the most common reason a bin store's doors or lid start binding within a season.

How wide should a bin store be for three wheelie bins?

There's no single national standard — confirm bin numbers and sizes with the specific local authority first. Standard 240L bins are roughly 580mm × 730mm footprint, so three side by side with clearance to manoeuvre typically needs an internal store width around 2m, but always check actual dimensions with the council before finalising the design.

Regulations & Standards

• Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 — permitted development rights for outbuildings, including bin stores

• Building Regulations 2010, Approved Document B — external fire spread, relevant near boundaries and other buildings

• BS 5906:2005 — waste management in buildings, code of practice; used for sizing and fire-separating communal bin storage

• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 — duties on the responsible person for shared parts of multi-occupancy buildings

• Building Regulations Approved Document A — structure, relevant only where the base is treated as a structural slab (large/communal stores)

• Planning Portal — Outbuildings

• GOV.UK — Approved Document B (fire safety)

• GOV.UK — Household Recycling and Waste Collection

• BSI Shop — BS 5906

• wheelie bin storage regulations — full planning, fire safety and bin-sizing regulatory detail

• shed base pricing guide — base construction pricing this guide scales down from

• fence post installation depth — post-in-ground foundation principle used for framed timber stores

• permitted development householder — wider permitted development rules for outbuildings