Installing acrylic letters to drywall

[Dennis Schaub]

This should be pretty straight forward, but I am looking for the best/easiest/most secure way to mount 1/4" acrylic letters to painted drywall. In the past I have used VHB and/or foam tape with reasonable success, but have occasionally had a letter fall off. These are around a foot tall and have some weight to them. I hear everyone sing the praises of VHB tape, but I have had better luck with el cheapo foam tape. I have also used silicon in conjunction with foam tape in the past as well. I would love to hear what has been successful for other people though. Thank You!

 

[Graphic Destruction]

I stud mount whenever possible. A tiny bit of silicone in each hole and done, no worries. Repair when removed is no worse than foam tape. Patch holes with a little spackle, sand, repaint. No need for 5 studs per letter, 2 or 3 depending on the letter is more than enough.

 

[Moze]

There are over 30 different VHB tapes, so it may be you're using the wrong one.

Silicone is not an adhesive - it's a sealant. It can typically be peeled off acrylic pretty easily. If only using tape and silicone, replace your silicone with Lexel.

That being said, I prefer stud-mounting due to the zero- and low-voc paints typically used since tapes can have a difficult time adhering to it.

So short answer, stud-mount with silicone is typically fine since the studs carry most of the weight and the silicone works well enough that the letters don't come off the wall.

 

[Moze]

No need for 5 studs per letter, 2 or 3 depending on the letter is more than enough.

Agreed, unless using spacers. In which case each letter should have four, otherwise they tend to teeter-totter.

 

[Graphic Destruction]

Yep, I'm assuming this is flush mount though.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

I hear everyone sing the praises of VHB tape, but I have had better luck with el cheapo foam tape.

It's been the other way around for us. We did some testing in our own shop with a fairly hefty ACM sign mounted to the wall. We used Full Spectrum white foam tape first with a nearly immediate failure. Second, we tried Avery Dennison's version of VHB tape, which let go of the wall in places after about a week. Third, we tried 3M VHB tape. It's the same stuff that Gemini uses and it's black tape with a red backer. The sign has stayed in place ever since. It's been about 3 years or longer now. We have a laser cut logo on our shop wall about 18" x 18". It's 1/8" gemleaf black acrylic over 1/8" black acrylic. I'd say it has to weigh at least a couple of pounds. We used the VHB mounting method for this, and I'm convinced it's never coming off of our wall.

 

[eahicks]

Standard VHB grey tape is what we use. We have encountered maybe 2 times where it did not adhere properly. The paint was this new crap everyone is using with the additive to repel marks, dirt, etc. It's becoming more and more of an issue I hear, especially with wall murals gaining popularity, and we encounter more issues with vinyl and Phototex sticking well on these newer paints. We have found scrubbing the surface with Iso alocohol helps things stick, so that may help with VHB as well.