What’s it cost to produce this freestanding sign?

This historic building went through an extensive remodel before the new owners contacted us about a sign. The building was originally a single-family home that at some point was converted to apartments. Then it spent a good bit of time vacant and was in serious disrepair when the current owners bought it. They did a complete remodel, restoring it back into a single-use building.

Since it was important to the owners that the sign tie in architecturally with their building, I used the leaf detail that you can see in the door trim—and the rose leaf trim detail above each upstairs windows—in the design of the sign.

We fabricated most of the sign’s components in the shop. The posts, roof structure and the painted elements of the PVC sign face (including the logo panel and CNC router-cut letters) were all complete before we left the shop.

I had hand-lettered the secondary copy and painted the border, then mounted the sign face to the posts, using U-channel brackets. At that point, the posts and the sign panel were structurally strong enough to handle.

I’ve used this same basic roof system on other signs, and it makes a stout little structure. We built the roof system in the shop. The joists are 2-by-4s, gang nailed at the peak. We used 1-by-4s as purlins on the joists to screw the tin to. The center pair of rafters are spaced to allow the roof structure to slide onto the 6-by-6-in. posts. Lag screws hold it in place, and it’s finished with faux copper hammer finish spray paint.

What’s really cool about this one, though, is that the customer wanted a copper roof, but it wasn’t in their budget. So I used a hammered copper spray paint from Rustoleum. I bought four or five cans, and sprayed the tin, drip edge and ridge cap. It worked out to be a great solution to give them the look of a copper roof.

Once on site, all we had to do was place the posts in the ground, attach the roof, then mount the dimensional letters and logo panel. Installation went smoothly, and it’s great when a little bit of planning can make that happen.

 Chris Lovelady’s shop, Vital Signs, is in Thomasville, Georgia.

 This appeared in the January/February 2013 issue of SignCraft. While the prices have been adjusted for inflation, they may not accurately reflect current pricing for such signage.

Here’s my sales drawing.

Fabricating the posts: 2.5 hours The posts are 6-by-6-in. treated posts with trim added. The four hand-carved leaf patterns were a little detail that tied in with the building’s trim. They’re carved in HDU. The fluted trim at the top of the posts are half-round routed panels that I added with finish nails.

Painting the faces: 45 minutes I hand-lettered the secondary copy and painted the border. I used stencil mask to paint the corner detail.

Routing and painting the letters: 3 hours The PVC letters were cut on a CNC router, then painted by hand. Double-sided 3M Moulding Tape would be used to hold them to the face later.

Fabricating the logo panel: 1.5 hours The logo panel is a piece of PVC material with a beveled edge. All of the graphics were done using a paint mask stencil. To speed production, I used a paint mask on this wherever possible.

Building the roof structure: 3.5 hours The roof system was built in the shop and painted, but not attached to the sign structure.

Assemble and install the structure: 3 hours We dug our post holes, stood up the sign structure, then bolted the roof in place.

Install letters and logo panel: 1 hour We used automotive double-stick tape to attach the letters to the sign face. This tape is different from regular exterior foam tape—it’s designed to attach emblems to vehicle bodies. It has an extremely strong adhesive, even on a painted surface. To place the letters properly, we applied a pounce pattern just before applying the letters. The logo panel was attached using clear adhesive caulk and finish nails.

Here’s the completed double-faced sign.

Chris Lovelady