Anyone have this request...................................................... ??

[Gino]

New customer wants us to remove and plug up the holes from six different stores in a mall. No raceways, just all individual channels. Fine & dandy. They also have about a 75' tall pylon sign at each end of the mall. It has broken faces, broken lamps and torn out 'H' dividers bent all over the place. However, they do not want us to touch ballasts, wiring, sockets or lamps. I've always been with the belief that when you leave a sign after working on it, it should work 100%. They said they will sign a waiver, but can they come back and say we did damage later on ?? The company is in Illinois, but the mall is in southeast PA.

Gino

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Times are tough and have you seen how much the damn ballasts cost now?

 

[Stacey K]

Maybe they don't plan to light the signs?

I used to love going to the mall...our closet one closed years ago.

 

[Johnny Best]

Have fun with that. What do they want you to fix on the sign. Just faces?

 

[netsol]

they probably need to have the sign faces "intact" (blank but intact) and have no intention of lighting it.
perhaps the mall is being sold? or need to comply with inspection or insurance regs.

much the same way we are REQURED (since 1982) to remove "inactive" communications wiring when a new tenant comes in (how can you POSSIBLY KNOW what wiring will be used by the new tenant SO YOU SHOULD REMOVE EVERYTHING. ) an incredible waste of expense and effort, even from our government!

 

[Gino]

They plan to have the lights retro-fitted to LEDs by their electric company, while they re-do the whole parking lot and fix a lotta things in bad repair all over the place. 6 of those signs need to be removed and they want new faces where they're missing and might as well replace the name-change ones in their words. You can see the 'H' dividers need to be re-welded and some of the retainers, too. You can see fallen and broken lamps inside. Looks like someone else tried doing it and started breaking things and finally gave up. So, these faces will be tended to and then 6 stores worth of individual channels sets and blade signs removed.

 

[JBurton]

Not surprising really. The last shopping center we started on turned into a brand new structure, since the cost of new faces and track was over $20k. Yours looks to be in good shape compared to that heap of trash.
This doesn't actually look like divider bar, more like sandwiched .063 on the face and angle on the inside. Gotta love how some jacka$$ figured on making the polecovers stick out past where the face needs to slide in from. Also the different flavors of black used, the lamps left behind (at $20 a lamp disposal fee, no surprise), and the divider coming up short.

 

[gnubler]

I've always been with the belief that when you leave a sign after working on it, it should work 100%.

Over half of the lit signs in my area don't light up at night, or have partially burned out bulbs. No one's working on them. I've done polycarb panel inserts for customers on these dead cabinets and tell them they have to deal with their landlord to get the electric working.

 

[Gino]

Not surprising really. The last shopping center we started on turned into a brand new structure, since the cost of new faces and track was over $20k. Yours looks to be in good shape compared to that heap of trash.
This doesn't actually look like divider bar, more like sandwiched .063 on the face and angle on the inside. Gotta love how some jacka$$ figured on making the polecovers stick out past where the face needs to slide in from. Also the different flavors of black used, the lamps left behind (at $20 a lamp disposal fee, no surprise), and the divider coming up short.

That's why I think there are so many bent ones.

 

[ikarasu]

Certain ballasts are taking us a month to get in.


I'd take before and after photos, close.uos.of everything you think they might come bite you in the ass for.

If we see a small scratch on a window we're frosting we usually grab a photo... Takes a minute to inspect and document, and photos are so small these days. It's saved us a few times!

 

[Gino]

Well, we would not replace ballasts or bad lamps. We only retrofit these things now. They'd either go LED or nothing.

 

[JBurton]

Well, we would not replace ballasts or bad lamps. We only retrofit these things now. They'd either go LED or nothing.

Really? Like if they had one lamp out you'd leave them be or offer a couple grand worth of retro? It's hard to argue that when one lamp is so cheap, but then again it takes a certain breed to even tell you it's a lamp vs socket without unhooking power and tearing into the raceway.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

If it's only 1 light out he pays the local homeless guy 5 bucks a night to sleep inside the sign with a flashlight on.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Don't worry about. Take before and after photos.

 

[Scotchbrite]

Not surprising really. The last shopping center we started on turned into a brand new structure, since the cost of new faces and track was over $20k. Yours looks to be in good shape compared to that heap of trash.
This doesn't actually look like divider bar, more like sandwiched .063 on the face and angle on the inside. Gotta love how some jacka$$ figured on making the polecovers stick out past where the face needs to slide in from. Also the different flavors of black used, the lamps left behind (at $20 a lamp disposal fee, no surprise), and the divider coming up short.

I think based on the fasteners you can see the intent was to unscrew the dividers to pull the panels. I'll bet the bent pieces are from the screws vibrating out in the wind. Although I don't quite understand what's keeping those panels in the sign with those pieces bent out.

That sign looks like a hot mess. I wouldn't be concerned about fixing the mechanical and not the electrical. But maybe we're still small town enough we don't have shitty customers that would try to accuse us of breaking something we didn't touch.

We'd pull the lamps while we were at it, but we don't have lamp disposal fees.

If we have a customer that doesn't want to fix the lighting we offer them the alternative of using ACM for the faces. Just make sure they understand it will never be able to be illuminated.

Anymore if it needs a ballast it's gonna get LED retro'd.