What’s it cost to produce this monument sign?

The great football coach Vince Lombardi once said, “We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.” That seemed like a fitting quote here, because many of us in the sign industry go about our days doing what we know and steering clear of the impossible. But with a little help and knowledge, we can all do bigger, better and more challenging projects—even some that might seem impossible.

For the longest time I avoided custom architectural signs and stuck with what I knew. That all changed a few years ago when I discovered the prefabricated architectural foam signs. With many companies specializing in manufacturing them specifically for sign companies, they are a great way to add profit to our bottom line while offering a great value for our customers. They’re even easy to install.

When Dave Brown of Columbia Commercial Properties came to me and requested a new and improved sign for an industrial site he manages, I knew it would be a perfect opportunity to maximize the prefabricated architectural sign value. Dave is a long-time, repeat customer who has been a dream to work with. This project was no different as he gave us a budget and turned us loose. I’ll walk you through his project and show you how we do a prefabricated architectural sign.

As with any sign, of course, there’s always more than one way to accomplish the same results. This works for us. I used a prefabricated architectural monument from Peachtree City Foamcraft, which is a wholesale-only partner for the sign industry. They will help with everything from providing the vector art graphics for their 40 standard models to an installation instruction video and everything in between.

For this project, I chose to complete the sign face and lettering in-house. You can also have the manufacturer complete the sign with raised or recessed letters, or whatever the job requires.

When you order a prefabricated architectural foam sign, make sure to let the manufacturer know if you plan on mounting a sign face using screws so they can embed wood strips inside the monument. Also, be sure they use strips of solid wood (like, 1-by-4s) rather than plywood. Plywood can warp over time.

It took only a little over a week to receive the prefabricated sign structure. Meanwhile, we were producing the sign face. I used 30-lb. HDU Precision Board for this. I’ve tried 15-lb. and 18-lb. HDU in the past, and always had to prime more than once to completely fill in the open cells. It’s also more fragile than 30-lb. HDU. The 30-lb. HDU board costs more, but for me, the time it saves more than covers the additional expense and the extra value of having a stronger substrate.

I designed the background of the sign panel to utilize a 3D texture technique I learned from Dan Sawatzky while attending a Sign Magic workshop at the famous Imagination Corporation in Yarrow, BC, Canada. The file Dan calls “splotches” gives the sign panel another level of dimension without adding any cost to the final project. The sign face was routed on our MultiCam router.

If projects like this interest you, get in touch with one of the many manufacturers of prefabricated foam architectural signs. Get a sample sign, design disk and catalog, then sell one. Good luck—and remember that you will accomplish many more things if you don’t look at them as impossible.

Cody Reich’s shop, Columbia Signs, is in Vancouver, Washington. 

This appeared in the January/February 2012 issue of SignCraft. While the prices have been adjusted for inflation, they may not accurately reflect current pricing for such signage.

Design: 1.5 hours  Templates provided by the manufacturer, Peachtree City Foamcraft, helped make this step go faster.

The monument arrived in about a week. These signs are lightweight enough that a couple of guys can unload them by hand.

Create the router file: 1 hour  This sign face incorporates some of the techniques I learned at Dan Sawatzky’s Sign Magic workshop.

Rout the face: 7 hours  The MultiCam router makes short work of the 30-lb. Precision Board HDU panel.

Finish the back: 30 minutes  Using high-quality acrylic exterior paint, we painted the back of the panel to prevent warping.

Finish the front: 1.5 hours  Notice that Tim is painting the sign panel with the finish color—no primer.  The 30-lb. HDU paint doesn’t require primer.

Apply mask and paint copy: 3 hours  For the secondary copy, we applied a vinyl mask and painted over it. When dry, carefully remove the mask.

Mount the face: 2 hours  Using an electronic stud finder, we located the wood strips embedded in the sign. We put a bead of silicone on the back of the sign around the edge, then screwed the face to the monument.

Installation: 6 hours  Using spray foam from the hardware store, we secured the schedule 40 steel pipe in the preset PVC tubes in the sign, and let it harden.

Once the holes were dug and the sign was in place, we filled the holes with concrete. A few wood blocks kept the sign in position.

Once the blocks were removed, we did the final leveling.