Covering (wall mounted) sign boxes w/ banners?

[White Haus]

Working on a project for a customer that is re-branding a couple of locations. They want to cover up their existing sign boxes with a temporary banner, which will be up for 3-6 months.

Both locations are in different provinces so I can't do a proper site check.

One box is 74" H x 96" W (lexan face) Wall mounted on corrugated steel building
One box is 80" H x 236" (Flex face) Wall mounted on corrugated steel building

Is it feasible to do this with a banner? Can you just add a 3-4" bleed on each size so that they can wrap around the returns and screw into the box? (Is that even safe/smart to do?) They don't seem too concerned about drilling into the boxes.

Given the size of the larger one, and how expensive shipping will be, I might try to get a local company to do a proper site survey and handle the whole thing depending on how this goes.

Trying to look after this customer but also want to make sure this is done properly, which is hard to do remotely.

Thanks guys.

 

[WYLDGFI]

Sure. Banner works...have done many times for clients.

 

[Bradley Signs]

I don't do much banner work anymore, but I have seen that done in many places around the Metroplex....
But for the sake of MY sanity, will you make sure it is on straight?

 

[CanuckSigns]

Hey Pat:

We have done this in the past for clients and it's never been an issue, we did it for 2 politicians for the last election where they couldn't justify $3000 + on a sign face for a temporary campaign office, they were up for 3-4 months and were in great shape when they came down. I got the banners printed at 4over and had them put grommets every 2 feet, then just used self-tapping tek screws to screw the banner to the box.

 

[Billct2]

Just give yourself a good margin and extra material for the wrap. That way exact measurements aren't critical

 

[unclebun]

Although screwing into the cabinet would work, I would take issue with putting a ton of holes in a light cabinet. More entry points for water, and multiple light leaks. And if the screws are too long and placed just wrong, wiring damage. Unless they are going to discard the cabinets when the new signs come.

If the coverup is truly temporary, duct tape would work...comes in colors to match the cabinet.

 

[White Haus]

Thanks for the tips fellas!

Unclebun, I'm a little concerned about this too. I think just to be safe I would encourage them to cut the power to the box for now while temporary banners are in place, and have the company installing new faces down the road patch/fill the holes when that time comes.

 

[White Haus]

Hey Pat:

We have done this in the past for clients and it's never been an issue, we did it for 2 politicians for the last election where they couldn't justify $3000 + on a sign face for a temporary campaign office, they were up for 3-4 months and were in great shape when they came down. I got the banners printed at 4over and had them put grommets every 2 feet, then just used self-tapping tek screws to screw the banner to the box.

Thanks Scott. Where you happy with the 4over banners? These banners will have a fairly solid grey (yay) background so I'm a little concerned about quality. I need to outsource them either way but hadn't considered 4over. One is in AB and one in SK so either way shipping will be involved.

 

[CanuckSigns]

4over is my go-to for large banners, the quality is perfectly acceptable for this application. You can order a small sample banner to your shop of the design for less than $20 if you want to make sure before you pull the trigger. Only issue I've had is on occasion the grommets are too close to the edge of the banner and I feel they could rip easily, so I usually order the banners hemmed and put the grommets in myself.

Signs365 just rolled out Canadian shipping, I've never used them but they have good reviews on here.

 

[White Haus]

4over is my go-to for large banners, the quality is perfectly acceptable for this application. You can order a small sample banner to your shop of the design for less than $20 if you want to make sure before you pull the trigger. Only issue I've had is on occasion the grommets are too close to the edge of the banner and I feel they could rip easily, so I usually order the banners hemmed and put the grommets in myself.

Signs365 just rolled out Canadian shipping, I've never used them but they have good reviews on here.

Sweet, thanks. I'll check out S365 as well, but 4over's pricing on these banners is pretty damn impressive. Not much more than my cost to print them in-house.

 

[WYLDGFI]

We can ship to Canada as well FYI. Our greys are solid and streak free.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Last time I did a temporary banner, I went through a lot of extra work to make sure it would cover the face and then some so we could screw into the cabinet. I woke up the night before in a cold sweat, thinking about all the sh*t you might run a self tapper into, all the holes you will put in a lit cabinet, and how hard it would be to make sure it is going to be level when finished. I trimmed the banner to the face size and screwed it straight to the lexan. Poor guy hadn't even been in the office for a month before the gov shut down dentists...
But really, go straight into the face with screws. Plastic holds pretty well with self tapping screws, and you will not be introducing areas where wind can get behind the face, like you would if you folded and tucked the corners. Not to mention the immense time savings, especially considering the customer doesn't give enough of a sh*t to pay for an actual face change...

THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I had a client buy a bunch of locations around the country and we had everyone install the banners to the sign face directly. Self tapping screws w/ washers... no worry about how it looked when it was wrapped around the cabinet, no damage to the cabinet, and from the pictures of the installs you'd be hard pressed to discover it was a banner... if it's a pan face just put the banner on the flat part of the pan. (Just remember to turn the cabinet off to prevent a bleed at night) And make sure that local codes will allow it.

It's always best to get a survey from the people that you'll use to install it. These are simple, get a survey, order banner and drop ship from S365 (or whoever) and get the installers to install.

 

[White Haus]

Last time I did a temporary banner, I went through a lot of extra work to make sure it would cover the face and then some so we could screw into the cabinet. I woke up the night before in a cold sweat, thinking about all the sh*t you might run a self tapper into, all the holes you will put in a lit cabinet, and how hard it would be to make sure it is going to be level when finished. I trimmed the banner to the face size and screwed it straight to the lexan. Poor guy hadn't even been in the office for a month before the gov shut down dentists...
But really, go straight into the face with screws. Plastic holds pretty well with self tapping screws, and you will not be introducing areas where wind can get behind the face, like you would if you folded and tucked the corners. Not to mention the immense time savings, especially considering the customer doesn't give enough of a sh*t to pay for an actual face change...

THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I had a client buy a bunch of locations around the country and we had everyone install the banners to the sign face directly. Self tapping screws w/ washers... no worry about how it looked when it was wrapped around the cabinet, no damage to the cabinet, and from the pictures of the installs you'd be hard pressed to discover it was a banner... if it's a pan face just put the banner on the flat part of the pan. (Just remember to turn the cabinet off to prevent a bleed at night) And make sure that local codes will allow it.

It's always best to get a survey from the people that you'll use to install it. These are simple, get a survey, order banner and drop ship from S365 (or whoever) and get the installers to install.

Thanks guys, I like this idea. Do you have any pictures of how it turned out? I'm just wondering how visible the washers would be.

I take it hemmed edges & grommets may not be necessary if we go this route? Customer is hoping to "re-use" them afterwards but we all know how that goes.

 

[WYLDGFI]

If its hemmed and grommeted....fender washers, it can probably be used again if screwed into the existing plastic face. Shouldn't be an issue. Re-use...is a relative term as well. Sure its going to get hit by elements and all.

 

[White Haus]

I totally forgot how hilarious this dentist's last name is... This was a 5'x10', 20' or 30' up, grommets every 12" and no hem. Originally it was just going to be a couple of months, otherwise I would have folded and grommeted at the least.
View attachment 146707

Thanks! And yeah that is a pretty ironic last name for a dentist lol.

 

[Gino]

Ya might wanna make sure if it's acrylic or poly before you go drilling holes and self tapping screws into it.

 

[White Haus]

Ya might wanna make sure if it's acrylic or poly before you go drilling holes and self tapping screws into it.

Good point Gino. I also just remembered that the big one is a flex face.

Back to the original plan to wrap and tap.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Thanks guys, I like this idea. Do you have any pictures of how it turned out? I'm just wondering how visible the washers would be.

I take it hemmed edges & grommets may not be necessary if we go this route? Customer is hoping to "re-use" them afterwards but we all know how that goes.

I know you said they were flexface, but wanted to answer your question anyway. I had them paint the 2ashersband screws white to match the background... wasn't very noticeable. BUT I get the client in check and tell them .... if we use banners, that is temporary, not warranteed and fasteners will be visible. Don't like any of those things? Then let's talk about a real sign face.

 

[White Haus]

I feel dumb for suggesting this after re reading the original post.

No worries, appreciate the suggestion anyways! I hadn't thought of going right into the face.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I know this is a dead horse, but we just finished putting for lease faces up on flex faces we had blacked out a few months ago. We used sherwin williams DTM (because we had extra and it sticks to most anything) and covered the whole flex face. Today we came back with 3m ij35c and matte arlon 3420 laminate, and I'll be damned it went down smooth as silk, 2 at 5x15 and 1 at 5x24, took about an hour each sign face including setup and breakdown of the truck. Depending on your crew, this could be a viable option, but banners would be quicker for almost any crew.
(I didn't censor the customers info, so please don't call and tell him how easy his job was!)

Is that the infamous "jib" I see there?