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Has anybody used PostCoats?
- Thread starter thinksigns
- Start date
Locals Find!
New Member
Interesting product. But, I don't see myself spending an extra $7 a post just to cover them. Much easier to paint them for less than a $1 and about the same amount of time.
jfiscus
Rap Master
Yes, I have used them a few times on sign posts. You can buy them at Lowes in the fence/treated wood section. Just figure them into the pricing for your project. They are easy to install over straight posts & cut/drill easily. Then just screw the caps on.
Here is a photo of a sign with the post sleeves on it:
http://www.inservicesolutions.com/images/signs/MemorialGardens.jpg
Here is a photo of a sign with the post sleeves on it:
http://www.inservicesolutions.com/images/signs/MemorialGardens.jpg
jfiscus
Rap Master
Sorry, I didn't watch the video of what a post coat actually is until now...
Looks like a piece of shrink wrap junk to me. The product I've used in the past is NOT this.
Hopefully this link works...
http://www.lowes.com/pd_253565-5885...4934297__s?Ntt=post+sleeves&page=3&facetInfo=
It's a solid sleeve of think vinyl that slides over the post once it's set in place.
Looks like a piece of shrink wrap junk to me. The product I've used in the past is NOT this.
Hopefully this link works...
http://www.lowes.com/pd_253565-5885...4934297__s?Ntt=post+sleeves&page=3&facetInfo=
It's a solid sleeve of think vinyl that slides over the post once it's set in place.
Pat Whatley
New Member
18 month life span. Good for short term signs, I guess.
Letterbox Mike
New Member
Just ordered a roll of white, I'll let you know how it works.
We do a ton of temporary site/real estate signs that go up on 4x4 posts and we usually either slap a coat of white paint on them in the shop or out in the field. We use Rustoleum oil-based white paint, latex doesn't hold up well enough we've found. A lot of these signs are quick turn, 1-2 days at most, and we try to keep a good pile of pre-painted white posts in stock so we don't have to worry about it, but that's a pain. A stockpile of posts takes room, and laying 20 8' 4x4s out to paint and then dry for 2 days takes up a ton more room. This may be a great solution to that, we could make up white posts on-demand as needed without waiting for paint to dry...
I'm just curious how durable the coating is when it's on there. Should be interesting.
We do a ton of temporary site/real estate signs that go up on 4x4 posts and we usually either slap a coat of white paint on them in the shop or out in the field. We use Rustoleum oil-based white paint, latex doesn't hold up well enough we've found. A lot of these signs are quick turn, 1-2 days at most, and we try to keep a good pile of pre-painted white posts in stock so we don't have to worry about it, but that's a pain. A stockpile of posts takes room, and laying 20 8' 4x4s out to paint and then dry for 2 days takes up a ton more room. This may be a great solution to that, we could make up white posts on-demand as needed without waiting for paint to dry...
I'm just curious how durable the coating is when it's on there. Should be interesting.
Letterbox Mike
New Member
Bumping this to the top...
Ordered a roll of the PostCoats, came in a few days later, we just haven't had an opportunity to test it until now.
Works more or less as advertised. If you're looking to make a high-end "nice" post for a high-dollar sign, this is not the solution. But if you need to ready a couple 4x4s quickly for a cheap real estate sign, I think it'll work fine.
It's not necessarily slow to put on, but it's a little tedious, I wouldn't want to have to do a stack of 20 or 30 posts, I think I'd lose my mind. Once we got going it took about 8-10 minutes to do an 8' 4x4. That's not too bad, I think we could paint them in significantly less time, but paint requires usually a couple coats to look decent, and takes a couple days to dry fully for handling, so overall, this would be a tremendous time saver if in 15-20 minutes you can have a set of posts coated and ready to install with no drying time.
The biggest downside I saw to it is it's not very opaque, or at least the white wasn't. On a raw pressure-treated post the white took on more of a dull off-white/grayish tint because the color of the underlying wood showed through a little. It's not terrible, and again, for quick and dirty realty signs it's perfectly passable, but it's not a brilliant white for sure.
We recycle a lot of 4x4s for one of our real estate customers, when we remove a sign from a property, we store the posts and reuse them. At any time we can have 20 or more old 4x4s sitting out back. They're all painted white, but usually after being installed and removed a couple times the paint can be pretty beat up so usually we need to repaint them here and there. This will be a great solution for that, the posts are already white so putting the PostCoat on it just freshens it up, no messy cleaning and repainting needed, just coat them before they leave the shop for reinstallation.
Anyway, for the money, it's a good product, we'll use it for sure.
Ordered a roll of the PostCoats, came in a few days later, we just haven't had an opportunity to test it until now.
Works more or less as advertised. If you're looking to make a high-end "nice" post for a high-dollar sign, this is not the solution. But if you need to ready a couple 4x4s quickly for a cheap real estate sign, I think it'll work fine.
It's not necessarily slow to put on, but it's a little tedious, I wouldn't want to have to do a stack of 20 or 30 posts, I think I'd lose my mind. Once we got going it took about 8-10 minutes to do an 8' 4x4. That's not too bad, I think we could paint them in significantly less time, but paint requires usually a couple coats to look decent, and takes a couple days to dry fully for handling, so overall, this would be a tremendous time saver if in 15-20 minutes you can have a set of posts coated and ready to install with no drying time.
The biggest downside I saw to it is it's not very opaque, or at least the white wasn't. On a raw pressure-treated post the white took on more of a dull off-white/grayish tint because the color of the underlying wood showed through a little. It's not terrible, and again, for quick and dirty realty signs it's perfectly passable, but it's not a brilliant white for sure.
We recycle a lot of 4x4s for one of our real estate customers, when we remove a sign from a property, we store the posts and reuse them. At any time we can have 20 or more old 4x4s sitting out back. They're all painted white, but usually after being installed and removed a couple times the paint can be pretty beat up so usually we need to repaint them here and there. This will be a great solution for that, the posts are already white so putting the PostCoat on it just freshens it up, no messy cleaning and repainting needed, just coat them before they leave the shop for reinstallation.
Anyway, for the money, it's a good product, we'll use it for sure.
letterman7
New Member
I use the ones jfiscus uses. Quick, easy and can be painted with the right prep. No more worrying about splits or knots in the wood.
AnotherSignManiac
New Member
haha they are minutes away from my shop, might have to take a look into them.
J Hill Designs
New Member
my guess would be not at all
Letterbox Mike
New Member
Yeah, doubtfully too well, but honestly, a quick coat of white paint on a post doesn't hold up to it too well either...
Mosh
New Member
just use these guys http://www.auesignframes.com/ they ROCK and are merchant members here on the 101.
Gino
Premium Subscriber
I hear ya about the coat of paint not lasting, but we have a few standards, which helps ease this pain.
First of all.... all of our posts are painted. It's by far the most economical way... and proven to last up to 10 or 12 years at least.
For temporary signs, we give the customer a choice. We either put a small 5" or 6" PVC sleeve around it at ground level... or not. It costs an extra $10 per post.
Most temporary posts are white, so we generally use pressure treated posts and maybe get 20 or 30 at a time. Usually 10'ers. We paint them with solid color stain and one coat usually will do it. Now we have our posts ready and don't have to worry about getting the horses out, opening a can of paint and so on down the line pre each sign order. We'll have 20-some posts painted in about 2 hours or so and that includes clean-up.
For better grade posts, we generally get untreated posts or build them. These generally are not planted in grassy areas or spots which require trimming. Flower beds, stoned areas and such are where well-place signs go and uasually don't need sleeves.
First of all.... all of our posts are painted. It's by far the most economical way... and proven to last up to 10 or 12 years at least.
For temporary signs, we give the customer a choice. We either put a small 5" or 6" PVC sleeve around it at ground level... or not. It costs an extra $10 per post.
Most temporary posts are white, so we generally use pressure treated posts and maybe get 20 or 30 at a time. Usually 10'ers. We paint them with solid color stain and one coat usually will do it. Now we have our posts ready and don't have to worry about getting the horses out, opening a can of paint and so on down the line pre each sign order. We'll have 20-some posts painted in about 2 hours or so and that includes clean-up.
For better grade posts, we generally get untreated posts or build them. These generally are not planted in grassy areas or spots which require trimming. Flower beds, stoned areas and such are where well-place signs go and uasually don't need sleeves.
I just can't see putting a condom on a post and hoping for the best. I mean.... how cheap can you really get with this stuff. We're basically all sign shops here and there are still some industry standards left in the field, but dressing a post in vinyl and cutting corners to save something as necessary as a good coat of paint, just sounds.... well, cheap and copping out of doing it correctly. I'm all for making mioney, but if you are not equipped to do something and keep the integrity of your product...... why offer it at all ?? 
Letterbox Mike
New Member
I just can't see putting a condom on a post and hoping for the best. I mean.... how cheap can you really get with this stuff. We're basically all sign shops here and there are still some industry standards left in the field, but dressing a post in vinyl and cutting corners to save something as necessary as a good coat of paint, just sounds.... well, cheap and copping out of doing it correctly. I'm all for making mioney, but if you are not equipped to do something and keep the integrity of your product...... why offer it at all ??
Gino, regardless of what this product is marketed for, I think it's real benefit is in being able to have a "quick and dirty" post ready to install in minutes. I'll keep using the example of realtors. I'm all for giving people quality, it's what we do, but realtors don't care if their white post is going to last 10 years, they need it to last the duration of their listing (6 months tops), and they often times want or need a sign RIGHT NOW. It's the nature of their business and it's our job to accommodate them however we can.
We do the same thing as you, buy in bulk posts and pre-paint them white so we have a stockpile of posts ready to go at a moments notice, but I see these post sleeves as an inexpensive (albeit temporary) way to ready a post if you really need to have one right this minute and you don't have any pre-painted ones ready to go.
If I told one of my commercial real estate customers "hey, sorry, I can't meet your deadline because I need to wait for paint to dry because I think it's important that the post last 10 years, regardless of what you're real expectations are", they'd find someone else who will do it. You may think that makes me a "whore" but I say it means I know my client base and I sell them what they need and want. They need and want a sign company that can respond instantly to their needs and wants, not someone who's only willing to sell them what they think is best. The real estate market doesn't want the biggest, best highest end sign, they want a cheap temporary sign and they want it now. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and I'm happy to sell them that. As far as I'm concerned, this product is just a tool to help meet deadlines when you're in a pinch.
The actual act of painting a post is quick, you can paint a 4x4 in a few minutes at most, but you still have to let it dry at least 24 hours before it can be handled and transported and installed, otherwise you risk scuffing or scraping the fresh paint. This is just a way to meet a deadline for a customer who's top priority is speed and long-term durability isn't critical. Would I use this on a $10k carved sign? Hell no. For a customer who is expecting a post to last a few years? Absolutely not. For a temporary sign that needs to go up now and is only expected to last a few months, especially if I don't have any prepainted posts in stock? Yup.
Gino
Premium Subscriber
I understand the logistics of taking care of one's customers. We have many last minute thinkers in our customer base, but I don't think we've ever had someone come in and expect a sign to be installed the same day or the next day without some preparation on our end.
Real Estate companies make up a large portion of our customers and even back when we hand painted each and every word and made maps by hand... they realized these things take time. After getting computers and more employees, they still understand we have other customers in front of them and we will get to their job and push it to the front of the line if necessary, but I still don't remember having to drop everything to put a sign up as quickly as what you're describing.
Perhaps, we've trained our customers differently or we just don't have the competition you have, but other than 24 hours... no one ever expects these things installed the same day. We've many times have turned signs around in a matter of hours, but not installations.
Besides, like right now, we have 6 white posts ready to use. When we use the next two, we'll probably bite the bullet and pick up 20 or so more and have them ready within a day, so we still probably don't need a PP..... post prophylactic.
Real Estate companies make up a large portion of our customers and even back when we hand painted each and every word and made maps by hand... they realized these things take time. After getting computers and more employees, they still understand we have other customers in front of them and we will get to their job and push it to the front of the line if necessary, but I still don't remember having to drop everything to put a sign up as quickly as what you're describing.
Perhaps, we've trained our customers differently or we just don't have the competition you have, but other than 24 hours... no one ever expects these things installed the same day. We've many times have turned signs around in a matter of hours, but not installations.
Besides, like right now, we have 6 white posts ready to use. When we use the next two, we'll probably bite the bullet and pick up 20 or so more and have them ready within a day, so we still probably don't need a PP..... post prophylactic.
Pat Whatley
New Member
Am I the only person who paints real estate posts white AFTER they are installed?
Letterbox Mike
New Member
Over here it's a fairly competitive market and there have been more than a few cases where getting a sign out in a day or two (or a shorter timeframe than waiting for paint to dry in the shop) made our customer and us smell like roses. It's not every sign or the majority of them, but they do pop up. Most of the time we promise installation within 3 business days which is realistic. And we do try to keep a healthy stack of prepainted posts in stock, right now we have about 30 back there, but sometimes you run out or need them in a pinch, or need a different length than what you have and this is where I think this product has value: it inexpensively gives you the ability to turn a post white in relatively no time.
And Pat, we do sometimes paint them in the field after they're up, but here in Ohio it's not warm enough year around to do that unfortunately, otherwise that's what we'd probably do all the time.
W
www.esigns.com
Guest
LOL laughing in seriousness not AT YOU PW, everyone could take a lesson on post installation from this man. I've put up more than a couple sign posts in my career and NEVER seen anyone install as well as his..yeah yeah I know it's just installing posts but I've seen SO many bad jobs it is amazing to see something that is SO far superior than everything I've ever seen. If PW is talking about sign posts I'm listening