I have signs up that I made forty years ago that with annual maintenance (all my clients know that an annual service trip is cheaper than a new sign) still look fine. I am still maintaining lighted signs my dad built in the 1950s and am moving commercial real estate signs around that are over fifteen to twenty years old. Issue is I DO NOT USE AN INK JET FOR ANYTHING. All my real estate signs from 18x24 to 4'x10' are still silk screened and I use premium MDO that gets primed then three coat of Ronan bulletin color top coats. Majority of my 18x24s are still printed on 0.040 aluminum using Nazdar ink that air dries in Lawson speed racks not run under a UV light. If UV dries it it will kill it. I use name brand Sign Foam or straight up aluminum for my routed signs. I am so sick of the jiffy sign shop model of "instant signs" it makes me almost embarrassed to say I own a sign shop now.
The sign buisiness used to be a trade that required craftsmanship. I still hand chisel and hand rout signs even with a CNC in the middle of my shop. The only digital output I do comes off Gerber Edge printers which I have two and will keep using them till I die. I do not use any Oracal vinyl, anyone that puts Oracal 651 on a sign is cheating their client. I use Avery A& for my bargain vinyl then Avery A( or Gerber 220 on everything else. the cost to use good materials and good techniques even if I have to pull out my lettering brushes and hand letter a sign I still will. Buying a $1,500 Chinese plotter, copy of Corel Draw then renting a 600 sq/ft retail space does not make someone a sign vendor. Need to apprentice in a quality shop a couple of years before you try to become a sign vendor. I remember when we had five letter heads walking easels all day long and all our vinyl was 3M Scotchcal we cut by hand using a Ulano knife by hand.
I bought the first Gerber 4b in Georgia, the first Gerber Scanner system, the first Super Sprint and still running Gerber plotters, printers and software. If someone does not know what goes into a good sign then they need to learn. I am about to retire early (age 61) but building a shop at my house and keeping my five or six best clients. None of them want "low bid" but top quality at a fair price. I have seen jiffy shops open and close every six months in the same shopping center for years than I can count and 73 years after opening I turn down more work than I take. If client wants a "bid" looking for low prices I just ignore them, if they want something I know will not hold up I do not do it. Had a truck fleet client that had serviced over twenty years and wanted all his road tractors lettered with the mirror chrome, told him now and gave him the option of Avery Ultra Metallic and he went around the corner to a Fast Signs. six months later he was in my lot with two new road tractors irate having forgot I refused to put the chrome vinyl on his trucks.
I had to remind him I refused to put it on and he had it done around the corner. He came back in about an hour even madder saying the people said they had changed owners and did not honor any work done by previous owner. He asked me how to fix it and I said take the trucks to the paint shop and have them stripped and painted as I could not get all that cracked up chrome off without scratching them up and after they were painted I would put the vinyl I recommenced on them. He left mad and never seen him again and he brought me six road tractors a year or more. One of my fleet clients sold recently and when owner saw my prices said he would ship his decals down from the "home office" and have the mechanics install them. They showed him trucks that were over twenty years old still in service that the graphics still looked new and trailers they had removed the axles and turned into storage that I lettered 37 years ago, the paint was gone showing bare aluminum but my vinyl still looked good and he had me strip and letter over 120 trailers and over 70 road tractors with no price quoted. told him I would have to do two dozen before I could quote a fair price.
Three years later and did job this week that had $3,000 profit for 2.5 days work by one man and I only work six hours per day. Now I am sending my decals to the home office because I educated my client about the difference in cast and extruded vinyl, acrylic and solvent based adhesives and by paying three to four times more on the materials end he would retire the trucks before he needed any graphics repairs. I still have two fleets who the original owner was used to my dads hand lettering and still have me hand letter all their trucks but I double coat everything so they pay to have them lettered twice but twenty years later they still look good and are happy. Any permanent sign even a parking sign should last over a decade and I warranty all my work for that long except political work but I have politicians that recover their signs after election and been reusing them for three to five terms.
Signs should last a long time if you do them right, I have CNC cut signs done on 1/2" T7 aluminum then powder coated twice and gold leafed twice before they get clear coat that after vandalized I can clean up and decades later still reflect the high end of the development or client that bought them. learn to give good quality, avoid cheap materials and with time your reputation will pay you back in spades. I am not a good web developer but may want to check out www.CrowderSigns.com on a full size monitor and realize almost every sign you see is still in service. Signs should last minimum of a decade and nice signs should last thirty to fifty years if properly maintained.
The sign buisiness used to be a trade that required craftsmanship. I still hand chisel and hand rout signs even with a CNC in the middle of my shop. The only digital output I do comes off Gerber Edge printers which I have two and will keep using them till I die. I do not use any Oracal vinyl, anyone that puts Oracal 651 on a sign is cheating their client. I use Avery A& for my bargain vinyl then Avery A( or Gerber 220 on everything else. the cost to use good materials and good techniques even if I have to pull out my lettering brushes and hand letter a sign I still will. Buying a $1,500 Chinese plotter, copy of Corel Draw then renting a 600 sq/ft retail space does not make someone a sign vendor. Need to apprentice in a quality shop a couple of years before you try to become a sign vendor. I remember when we had five letter heads walking easels all day long and all our vinyl was 3M Scotchcal we cut by hand using a Ulano knife by hand.
I bought the first Gerber 4b in Georgia, the first Gerber Scanner system, the first Super Sprint and still running Gerber plotters, printers and software. If someone does not know what goes into a good sign then they need to learn. I am about to retire early (age 61) but building a shop at my house and keeping my five or six best clients. None of them want "low bid" but top quality at a fair price. I have seen jiffy shops open and close every six months in the same shopping center for years than I can count and 73 years after opening I turn down more work than I take. If client wants a "bid" looking for low prices I just ignore them, if they want something I know will not hold up I do not do it. Had a truck fleet client that had serviced over twenty years and wanted all his road tractors lettered with the mirror chrome, told him now and gave him the option of Avery Ultra Metallic and he went around the corner to a Fast Signs. six months later he was in my lot with two new road tractors irate having forgot I refused to put the chrome vinyl on his trucks.
I had to remind him I refused to put it on and he had it done around the corner. He came back in about an hour even madder saying the people said they had changed owners and did not honor any work done by previous owner. He asked me how to fix it and I said take the trucks to the paint shop and have them stripped and painted as I could not get all that cracked up chrome off without scratching them up and after they were painted I would put the vinyl I recommenced on them. He left mad and never seen him again and he brought me six road tractors a year or more. One of my fleet clients sold recently and when owner saw my prices said he would ship his decals down from the "home office" and have the mechanics install them. They showed him trucks that were over twenty years old still in service that the graphics still looked new and trailers they had removed the axles and turned into storage that I lettered 37 years ago, the paint was gone showing bare aluminum but my vinyl still looked good and he had me strip and letter over 120 trailers and over 70 road tractors with no price quoted. told him I would have to do two dozen before I could quote a fair price.
Three years later and did job this week that had $3,000 profit for 2.5 days work by one man and I only work six hours per day. Now I am sending my decals to the home office because I educated my client about the difference in cast and extruded vinyl, acrylic and solvent based adhesives and by paying three to four times more on the materials end he would retire the trucks before he needed any graphics repairs. I still have two fleets who the original owner was used to my dads hand lettering and still have me hand letter all their trucks but I double coat everything so they pay to have them lettered twice but twenty years later they still look good and are happy. Any permanent sign even a parking sign should last over a decade and I warranty all my work for that long except political work but I have politicians that recover their signs after election and been reusing them for three to five terms.
Signs should last a long time if you do them right, I have CNC cut signs done on 1/2" T7 aluminum then powder coated twice and gold leafed twice before they get clear coat that after vandalized I can clean up and decades later still reflect the high end of the development or client that bought them. learn to give good quality, avoid cheap materials and with time your reputation will pay you back in spades. I am not a good web developer but may want to check out www.CrowderSigns.com on a full size monitor and realize almost every sign you see is still in service. Signs should last minimum of a decade and nice signs should last thirty to fifty years if properly maintained.