Who did it ?

[FS-Keith]

So what kind of silicone would all of you hotshots used?

probably a 72/28 mix of DAP and GE II with some blue food coloring and apply with a feather

 

[visual800]

who knows if it was s***ty work or bad bracing I wasnt there I didnt see it.

We had a billboard flipped over on the bypass a couple weeks ago, we could all say it was s***ty welding, cheap *** bolts but who knows. You cant compete with nature

 

[FS-Keith]

you can see from the pics posted the little 2x4 was saw cut and did not snap off of a larger piece(and about 14" long), you will also notice the 2x4 is still holding tight to the plywood and dryvit. Had the 2x4 bracing been properly put behind the studs you would see the extra length of allthread taken up by the distance of the stud width. But since it is still tight we can see these were put behind the plywood between studs.

 

[visual800]

sir if you wanted to get technical about this situation it is not the WOOD BLOCKS that failed. It was inside the sign where the heads were. Obviously they pulled through the back of the sign if all the wood blacoks would have been ripped thru the drivit than I would have blamed it on the blocks

Would you agree?

 

[FS-Keith]

good sir, I would not agree, simply because it appears all of the L clips are still on the back of the sign. In the close up of the pic phototec posted you can see one of the mounts doesnt have a piece of 2x4 on it. They probably just used washers like you described seeing earlier.

 

[visual800]

the L clips might be on the sign sir but the bolts are not
http://media.myfoxorlando.com/photo...-sign-falls/1/lg/best-buy-sign-falls_0005.htm

oh here we go! some verification we did not know about, I hate news. you can read 5 diff stories about same subject and get less or more info!
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/dec/28/wild-winds-strip-sign-off-n-chas-best-buy/

So now we know it was taken down and reinstalled I wonder why

 

[Alti-Plotter]

Most important : no one was injured.

 

[Billct2]

50 mile an hour gusts should not take down a wall sign like that. Can we agree that something was not done right?

 

[Sign Up Graphics]

Sign Up Graphics

 

[Gino]

I knew a guy years ago, that would go out and sabotage other shop's work. Usually nothing quite this large, but it's not 'always' poor workmanship..... but more than likely.... on this one, something was skipped, changed or not known at the time of the re-installation of this sign.

Based on the difference in color from behind the sign to the other area [fading], that sign has been there a long time. I think whoever took that sign down recently and put it back up is gonna have a lota questions to answer. I think someone is in a heap of big doo-doo.

 

[phototec]

WOW I dont know where to begin. Its kinda scary that you have this mentality.

When a piece of alum 2x2x1/4 alum angle is a few dollars a foot there is

Thats unfortunate


No you cannot stop high winds but you can make sure you leave a job of this magnitude knowing that anything short of a direct hit from a tornado that sign is not coming off the wall


The only thing I can imagine is the company did not install plates BEHIND the wall studs rather just between them. I would also have been much more cautious with using those L clips and rather flush mounted the sign to the building. i onlt Use L clips on concrete. Never want to use them on something hollow like dryvit as you only have the small 2"x2" footprint of the clip to pull tight as opposed to the entire cabinet


The manufacturer requires 19 throughbolts on a 12x24 price tag


yes because the plate was not BEHIND THE STUDS, and maybe it would have broken a 2x4 piece of wood, which is why us pro's use steel/alum and go BEHIND the studs and also screw the angle/plates into the backside of the stud to prevent it from moving at all

FS-Keith, you are 1000% correct, the other guy doesn't get it, as he says himself, that's how he does his installs, I guess he just hopes that there is NEVER any wind, haha.

Doing things the right way is how I do my work, I don't take short cuts, and you better believe if I was doing a job for a large national retailer like BestBuy, I would have used long METAL U-channel horizontal support BEHIND the vertical studs, and the sign most likely would still be there.

As mentioned, this was NOT a tornado, and the front of the building is still intact. You can see in the close-up photo I posted, that the blocking is cracked from the bolt to the top, 2x4 blocking is NOT enough to support such a heavy sign.

Oh yea, he uses treated 2x4's, he thinks when you treat a 2x4 for rot it makes it stronger, pine is pine and will never be as strong as aluminum or steel. The 2x4 blocking did NOT fail, you can see it with the plywood attached pulled through the face of the building. That's why I say, there should have been long horizontal metal supports behind the wall studs, that way the wind would have to take out the studs before the sign would fall off the building.

All in all it's just shotty work, that I see more of all the time these days, craftmanship is a lost art. I know a local sign guy with the motto, "get in and get out", he cares nothing about quality, only making a FAST BUCK.

 

[FS-Keith]

I don't want to start a ****storm just had to correct that way of thinking so someone else on here looking for advise doesn't think that kinda stuff is alright.

 

[phototec]

I don't want to start a ****storm just had to correct that way of thinking so someone else on here looking for advise doesn't think that kinda stuff is alright.

I agree, because someone does something poorly, and you have a massive failure like this, we need to inform others, there is a better way.

Like they say, "it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it". I have always heard that bridges are engineered to hold twice the load ratting posted on them, to allow for the unexpected.