Textured wall vinyl, exterior

[GP]

We have a client that needs to "wrap" a band on their exterior brick wall until the purchase of the building goes through and we can go back and paint an install actual signage. (6 months to year out)

What sort of life span are you seeing on PRINTED textured surface vinyl + laminates? We are in a non-freeze zone of South Carolina.

Manufacturer estimates are all over the map.

Do you have a preferred manufacturer based on experience?

We are printing on an Hp Latex.

Thanks.

 

[BigfishDM]

I know 3M has their crazy wall graphic films and 6 month durability shouldnt be a problem but what materials have you looked at so far? I would say adhesive fabric but I have seen some bad things happen with that stuff in latex printers.

 

[GP]

Thank you Josh - I just started looking and went right to 3m. If I can get the 6 mos out of it, that should be fine. But it's a high end client so I am trying to cover my assets.

I am going to email your yahoo address again re: the paper you sold me that can't be loaded in the latex.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

We've Tried MacTac's product and 3M's and 3M's has held up considerably longer. The first project we did was on some stucco/Dryvit columns about 2.5 years ago, with 3M, and they are still holding up well. The customer asked us to change two of these to a new graphic and we tried MacTac the second time and they were peeling within 6 months. We also have an interior wall here inside our shop done with MacTac (painted concrete block) and it's peeling and lifting a good bit in the mortar joints.

On the stucco job, they're supporting a large canopy, so they are not as exposed to the elements as an exterior building wall would be, but they still get a lot of exposure despite being partially shaded. So I'd say 2.5 years for the 3M product is probably a little optimistic, but it still has held up much better than MacTac.

Everything else we've done has always been short-term projects that were not expected to last more than 6-12 months so we've never had any issues there.

I'd say go with the 3M.

Just be aware if you've never used this stuff, it's incredibly time consuming to install. 3M makes a nice (albeit overpriced) install kit with a good heat gun and various rollers, it's very helpful to have for sure.

 

[BigfishDM]

Thank you Josh - I just started looking and went right to 3m. If I can get the 6 mos out of it, that should be fine. But it's a high end client so I am trying to cover my assets.

I am going to email your yahoo address again re: the paper you sold me that can't be loaded in the latex.

Yes I got it and responded, sorry I forgot the last one you sent me the other day.

The 3M product should be fine and its a good high end product so you should be fine.

 

[GP]

Just be aware if you've never used this stuff, it's incredibly time consuming to install. 3M makes a nice (albeit overpriced) install kit with a good heat gun and various rollers, it's very helpful to have for sure.

Thank you for all of your helpful insight.

We will try our best not to lose our shirt on installation - as a rule, everything generally takes 2.33 times longer than we figure.

How is it coming off the brick? Just as taxing?

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Removal is a piece of cake with the 3M, it pulls right off with no residue (that I've seen).

When I say it's time consuming, I'm not kidding. And the more extreme the texture the longer it takes. It's not like I've installed a million square feet of the stuff so I'm sure the more you do the quicker you'll get at it. But to give you an idea, we have a 4'x30' print on a painted block wall in our shop. It's got a good bit of texture but not as bad as rough raw brick. That took about 6-7 man hours to install (maybe more actually).

So bid accordingly.