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Question Do you hem your banners?

Do you hem your banners?


  • Total voters
    21

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
Regular 13oz scrim banners. We hem them with banner tape and grommet every 24".

Had a customer asking if we hemmed our banners - I say yes (who doesn't?!) and she told me that in the past they have gotten banners that were not hemmed at all just grommets. The banners looked cheap and unfinished (to which I said - I'll bet they did) and they looked really bad after a few weeks... fraying etc... and they faded really quickly as well (probably printed on the cheapest/fastest quality level).

So, just out of curiosity, I'm wondering if not hemming them is a thing - or if it's just as cheap and lazy as I think it is.
 
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Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
At the sign shop I worked in, we hemmed every edge with grommets every 24" for the most part. We did temporary sponsor banners that were used for about a week for a hot air balloon festival that we only hemmed the sides with grommets in each corner though.
 

Geneva Olson

Expert Storyteller
I think this has come up before on here. I only hem 2 sides. Where the grommets are going to go. So top and bottom usually. I remember right after this question was asked before, I started looking at banners in my area. I noticed that a lot of people around here only hem the top and bottom of the banners. When I order the larger ones from B2signs, they are hemmed on all 4 sides.
 

Stacey K

I like making signs
I don't hem the senior banners. I hem all the other ones unless they are inside. I just did a 2 sided 18oz and I did not hem it.

I never thought of hemming only the top and bottom I might try that!
 

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
I don't hem the senior banners. I hem all the other ones unless they are inside. I just did a 2 sided 18oz and I did not hem it.

I never thought of hemming only the top and bottom I might try that!
18 oz double sided is different, we don't hem those either, especially when 2-sided, the fold over on the one side would look terrible.
 

ikarasu

Active Member
We hem everything. It only takes 5 mins to hem a banner and it'll give it a nicer look and be much more durable... We've had some clients have a banner on the side of their building for 4 years and it's still perfect.... Then we see some banners hanging halfway down the building because they ripped. $.50 in tape and 5 mins to produce something more durable / higher quality.... Why not? Cutting corners on something cheap and trivial isn't worth it
 

Rmurray321

New Member
Regular 13oz scrim banners. We hem them with banner tape and grommet every 24".

Had a customer asking if we hemmed our banners - I say yes (who doesn't?!) and she told me that in the past they have gotten banners that were not hemmed at all just grommets. The banners looked cheap and unfinished (to which I said - I'll bet they did) and they looked really bad after a few weeks... fraying etc... and they faded really quickly as well (probably printed on the cheapest/fastest quality level).

So, just out of curiosity, I'm wondering if not hemming them is a thing - or if it's just as cheap and lazy as I think it is.
This sound like someone with an Aqueous printer and media. It tends to be thicker and they definitely don’t last a long time.
 

tulsagraphics

New Member
99% of my banners get hemmed, including 18oz! (the exception being very small ones, like a 2' x 1' -- in which case I use 18oz smooth face so they stay flat). Everything else gets sewn (double-stitched, TEX 92, and quite frequently with 1" nylon webbing -- hey, it's Oklahoma). The only other exception is the occasional welded hem, for aesthetics, on interior jobs (per client request).

I would never use hem tape. It's expensive, time consuming, doesn't give you a nice finished product, and doesn't give you the option for D-rings, rope, velcro or any multi-sided options like sign covers.
 
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MacD

New Member
We use banner up tape and taps. Never had a issue with holes stretching or tearing. We do use grommets a lot of the times instead of just pouncing them.
 

DL Signs

Never go against the family
Depends on use. Ones that'll only be up for a very short time, like single day event banners we do for a local radio station, no. Others, yes.

Place I retired from, we hemmed every banner, but there we sewed the hems, had a double needle machine. Sewing is really fast, and cheap. I miss having that machine, but we don't do enough here to justify buying one.
 

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
Depends on use. Ones that'll only be up for a very short time, like single day event banners we do for a local radio station, no. Others, yes.

Place I retired from, we hemmed every banner, but there we sewed the hems, had a double needle machine. Sewing is really fast, and cheap. I miss having that machine, but we don't do enough here to justify buying one.
It would be nice to have a sewing machine. For banners that do need to be sewn, we send them out to a local place that has the capacity to do really long banners, we also have them finish our pole banners.
 

Geneva Olson

Expert Storyteller
Banners are intended to be consumable, so I don't know how long anyone wants them to last. I do banners for the local hs ...most all of the sports. I just finished up 2 rounds of banners with the baseball team for this season. They were using some of my banners from last year. No problems.
 

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
I don't, they are for the cheapest customer, I hit print and they're lucky if I trim it straight.
On the other hand, I run them at 20 passes and grommet every 18".
Wait, 20 passes? every 18"? no kind of hem?
Are you spacing the grommets closer because there is no hem?
20 passes?!
 

JBurton

Signtologist
Wait, 20 passes? every 18"? no kind of hem?
Are you spacing the grommets closer because there is no hem?
20 passes?!
Ha, yes, because I like making strangers on the internet do a spit take.
No kidding, I only print 1 banner a week, and all of my prints run at 20p unless it's a mesh or perf that can't take the heat. I don't make money on prints, or at least not most of my money, it all comes from fab work. I price something like a 3x6 banner, $100-$150 depending on how many phone calls/emails it took, but I'll opt for upselling a banner frame and offer up installation. We knockout a banner frame from 2" square tube, weld it up, auger a pair of holes and set in concrete for around $1k if it's in neighborhood. I'll guarantee the banner will look great for over a year on my frame, and haven't had a single issue with one's we've installed.
18" is just what I've leaned toward, not for any reason other than 'hmmm, lets get 6 grommets across 10' instead of 5.'
 

Stacey K

I like making signs
For the record, I prefer the look of a clean, unhemmed banner so I avoid hemming when I can.

In the probably 1,000 senior banners I've made with no hems that are on the chain link fence for 1-2 months each, I've only had one grommet tear off so I'm pretty confident with the no hem approach on those. I have a lot of customers that re-use banner yearly for brat fry's so I always hem those.
 
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