Is this a one-person removal?

[netsol]

i was just gonna say one of those "test pens" is a great idea
with my luck, i would do the job just at the time the timer for the lighting kicks in.
we had an electrician friend years ago who got zapped in the basement of a fish market in newark
he survived but the helper said he twitched and thrashed like the frog with the battery probe in science class
that ledge won't be nearly thick enough if you start twitching

 

[Gino]

Okay, the story is getting better. If you're not insured for this kinda work and never did it, I'm afraid you're gonna hafta pass altogether. Just because you think this or that...... insurance trumps all attempts, not to mention codes.

 

[tulsagraphics]

Okay, the story is getting better. If you're not insured for this kinda work and never did it, I'm afraid you're gonna hafta pass altogether. Just because you think this or that...... insurance trumps all attempts, not to mention codes.

licensed / bonded / insured, yes. (they underwrite my bond with the City so I can pull permits and do installs). The agent never asked about electrical, so I'm not sure if my policy covers that or not (terminations, in particular because any time I've done something like... converting a cabinet over to LEDs... I always have an electrician inspect and make the final connection -- or tell the store owner they need to have their electrician do it). Will have to ask on Monday because if it doesn't, I'll decline it for sure.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Tulsa has at least three shops that I use who does large installs.

Dont think about doing that off ladders or scaffolding... especially for your first time. Use the towable boom and charge them $1500. Those two raceways will be easy to start on. I'd pull them off and set it on the basket rails but if you do one that's large or heavy or you just want to be more careful.. run a strap though the raceway cross members or the whole thing and tie it to the basket. You can also fasten some steel square tube (or 2x4s) to the bottom of basket to rest it on.

The wireless electric tester things are garbage. False positives are just as stupid. Assume it's always hot and deal with it according. Cut the wires so the shielding goes all the way to the end and wire nut and tape it. Seal the penetrations.

 

[tulsagraphics]

Tulsa has at least three shops that I use who does large installs.

Dont think about doing that off ladders or scaffolding... especially for your first time. Use the towable boom and charge them $1500. Those two raceways will be easy to start on. I'd pull them off and set it on the basket rails but if you do one that's large or heavy or you just want to be more careful.. run a strap though the raceway cross members or the whole thing and tie it to the basket.

The wireless electric tester things are garbage. False positives are just as stupid. Assume it's always hot and deal with it according. Cut the wires so the shielding goes all the way to the end and wire nut and tape it. Seal the penetrations.

Noted! Thanks!

While my username has "Tulsa" in it, I'm actually about 70 miles away. Tulsagraphics was just an old handle from 30 years ago when I lived there. Many folks still know me by that, so I never changed it.

I actually have a NiftyLift SD50 rented for this weekend -- 9 job sites. (4 installs + 5 site surveys). Some rain coming in this weekend, so I don't know if I'll have time (or should even attempt this ^ other job). Granted, it's too late for me to submit the proper paperwork for the City at this point. I just wanted to get folks opinions on how a job like this "should" be executed before I learn the hard way -- what questions I didn't know to ask -- or just turn it down and move on.

I'm sooo getting thrown into the deep end of the pool since my sign installer passed away (he was in the industry a long time, VERY nice equipment - new Elliot crane / lift, etc). I made his sign faces and did most of his printing -- I never even had to worry about installs. Now it's either up to "me" to figure out "some" of these things (within my capacity), or just keep turning down work / referring jobs away.

To give you a quick idea (in terms of lift-required installs), in the past week(ish) I've had requests for the above-mentioned removal job, as well as:
- 24ft x 5ft Alumalite panel install (actually, I already finished this job tonight with some help -- this company had their own bucket trucks / staff. Score!)
- large metal (dimensional) logos/lettering that wrap around a large radius brick corner -- curved fab work -- not just spaced lettering (I'm gonna have to start a thread for this one)
- (2) different customers - flex face replacements
- (1) trim cap sign face replacement
- (2) custom channel letter jobs
- (5) sign face replacements including several pan faces w/ LED conversions (easy work, of course -- just giving you an idea of how much install work has been coming my way)

I make all the flat faces in-house, but I have never done (or even had to order signs) for any of these other installations before. To be clear, I'm not interested in trying to fabricate -- plenty of trade suppliers out there -- I just want to figure out which signs "I" am capable of handling the installs for. It's frustrating to turn down so much work. I've been in the industry for 25 years, and I've "seen" a lot, but 95% of my experience has been at ground level.

I tell ya... things change a lot when you get in the air. lol

By the way, which model NiftyLift did you get?

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Haulotte 3522a. Fits in my garage. It's all electric so unlike the Nifty it can be operated by one hand. Has more operations than a nifty and doesn't have the damn boom under it which is perfect for awnings. When I would rent them the nifties always had something wrong with them or broke while I was using them. Another place I rented from only had a lot and nothing was ever wrong with them and they look beat to hell. I've had mine 5 years now and there is some minor maintenance and I had an issue with the pump that was covered under warranty but mostly it's been reliable. I'd post a picture of it but this website doesn't accept normal size photos. We must be on the cheap plan and have to restrict it to 1990s cell phone picture quality

 

[tulsagraphics]

Haulotte 3522a. Fits in my garage. It's all electric so unlike the Nifty it can be operated by one hand. Has more operations than a nifty and doesn't have the damn boom under it which is perfect for awnings. When I would rent them the nifties always had something wrong with them or broke while I was using them. Another place I rented from only had a lot and nothing was ever wrong with them and they look beat to hell. I've had mine 5 years now and there is some minor maintenance and I had an issue with the pump that was covered under warranty but mostly it's been reliable. I'd post a picture of it but this website doesn't accept normal size photos. We must be on the cheap plan and have to restrict it to 1990s cell phone picture quality

Nice. I'll look into one of those. Thanks!

 

[d fleming]

To be honest, I'd need to know how far out the awning goes, before answering. With a bucket, no sweat. Just don't see how a ladder with a pertruding awning will work. Even with your rental cost, you'd still be below an outtatowner.

Beat me to it. If other option is a shop with a 1500$ trip fee than your -400$ lift rental is not a problem. A lull with 2 man bucket could do it for overkill.

 

[truckgraphics]

Charge $2000. Rent a lift for $350. Get a local landscaper/handyman/home renovation guy/gal who doesn't mind climbing and dismantling to take down the sign for $500 Spend your day making signs for customers with trucks/windows .... whatever is your specialty. Collect $1,150 and stay in your warm shop working on profitable jobs all day.

 

[tulsagraphics]

Charge $2000. Rent a lift for $350. Get a local landscaper/handyman/home renovation guy/gal who doesn't mind climbing and dismantling to take down the sign for $500 Spend your day making signs for customers with trucks/windows .... whatever is your specialty. Collect $1,150 and stay in your warm shop working on profitable jobs all day.

Sounds good until they damage the property, drop a sign on someone or burn down the building. That liability would go against "my" insurance and surety bond. No thanks. lol

 

[tulsagraphics]

Beat me to it. If other option is a shop with a 1500$ trip fee than your -400$ lift rental is not a problem. A lull with 2 man bucket could do it for overkill.

Sure. It seems like a no brainer on paper -- especially for those of you who do this type of work on a regular basis -- but I'm just a one man wide format print shop with very limited aerial experience. Watching seasoned installers from the ground doesn't translate to real world experience for me. Big difference between watching and doing. It doesn't "appear" hard to do in my opinion, but there's always a devil in the details. That's why I'm here asking about the "not so obvious" issues I might encounter.

I spent the last 25 years teaching myself everything I know about this industry. It really sucks learning the hard way that you bit off more than you can chew. As you know, sign-related mistakes get real costly, real fast.

Believe me, if there were any other shops / installers in my town, I would have already called / referred to them (or hired someone)... but they've all since retired / moved / passed away. (this is a pretty small city). So I'm willing to take on new types of work, within my capacity -- purely out of necessity. I need to learn more about elevated sign work -- more than anything -- because people aren't going to buy signs from me if I'm unable to install them. I expect that a removal will be much easier than an install. Know what I mean? Gotta start somewhere.

 

[McDonald Signs]

If you have no competition in your area (all larger sign shops have retired or moved out) why not buy yourself a nifty lift instead of renting one. I'm in the same boat. Small town next closets sign shop is 45min away. Charge the customer what you would rent one for (or higher) and it will pay for itself in time instead of throwing money away on renting a lift. And it will be there ready when you need it on short notice. I had a used Genie TZ34 towable lift for 14years then sold it and got about 60% back of what I paid originally for it. Then I bought a used low hours larger TZ50 almost new Genie towable lift a few years ago to replace it. You can do alot by yourself with a towable lift. It will lift one person and a small amount of weight as long as you don't overload it. I did the same thing renting lifts for a few years then bought my own and never looked back. Did the same way with scaffolding. Was renting scaffolding a year or two and finally bought 5 sets of scaffolding in almost new condition from the place I was renting them from 25yrs ago. Still have the scaffolding paid for, keep them in the dry and they're setting there ready to go whenever I need it.

 

[tulsagraphics]

If you have no competition in your area (all larger sign shops have retired or moved out) why not buy yourself a nifty lift instead of renting one. I'm in the same boat. Small town next closets sign shop is 45min away. Charge the customer what you would rent one for (or higher) and it will pay for itself in time instead of throwing money away on renting a lift. And it will be there ready when you need it on short notice. I had a used Genie TZ34 towable lift for 14years then sold it and got about 60% back of what I paid originally for it. Then I bought a used low hours larger TZ50 almost new Genie towable lift a few years ago to replace it. You can do alot by yourself with a towable lift. It will lift one person and a small amount of weight as long as you don't overload it. I did the same thing renting lifts for a few years then bought my own and never looked back. Did the same way with scaffolding. Was renting scaffolding a year or two and finally bought 5 sets of scaffolding in almost new condition from the place I was renting them from 25yrs ago. Still have the scaffolding paid for, keep them in the dry and they're setting there ready to go whenever I need it.

Yep! I think that's what I'll have to do. As much as I wanted to save up for my next piece of in-house production equipment -- the lift is more important. I've already requested quotes from several dealers.

 

[spectrum maine]

looks lie they are 2 seperate pieces easy peasy. rachet strap it to the bucket for a safe ride down