• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Metal Gemini letters on siding - peaks or valleys?

jtiii

I paid good money for you to read this!
I'm not sure which is the lesser of too weevils -
I'm installing 14" stainless fabricated letters w/ closed backs 1" deep plus 2" spacing. Putting the studs in the valleys seems like it makes more sense, but will it make the drill template much harder to use? Drilling on the peaks I just need to keep the drill square. I might be overthinking this :D

ScreenShot.png
 

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
You have more area to play with on the peaks and less stud exposure. You putting a washer and nut on the back side of the plywood?
 

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Assuming the is pbr panel and the plywood is sheathing, your picture is showing it installed upside down.
 

2B

Active Member
are you putting a jam nut behind the plywood?
If so, let the studs fall where

if not, you are better off using a rail system
get some 1" U channel, Aluminum, paint the color of the sheet metal,
bolt the letters to the channels, 2 horizontal raceways, and self-tapping screws (again same color as the R Panel) through the channels into the ribs (high points) on the R panel, try to use the existing holes where the lap screws are to minimize the number of holes
1669910612555.png
 

petepaz

New Member
the only thing i would be concerned about is your studs are long enough on the peaks to get enough stud in to the plywood so it holds properly
 

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
I banged my head against this sentence until I realized you meant 'backwards' more than upside down. I'm going to start calling it pbr panel though, I'm sure I'll get plenty of dumb looks, it's always referred to as R panel around these parts...
I slept through English class. The panels are nearly the same but PBR has a purlin bearing rib which makes it stronger
pbr 2.jpg

PBR.png
 

jtiii

I paid good money for you to read this!
You putting a washer and nut on the back side of the plywood?

That is ideal if you can get to the other side.
I cannot get to the other side.
It's new construction but nobody thought about the lettering until the nth hour so there's drywall up inside.
Do I need to tell them they either need to open the drywall up or we need to use rails?
I've done plenty of acrylic or plastic lettering with just a stud/pad or two top and bottom for weight holdin' and pads/adhesive for wall-stickin' but these are my first metal letters. Gemini told me they don't offer pads with metal letters, just spacer sleeves, but I don't get why pads aren't an option.
IMPORTANT ADDENDUM: I neglected to label the diagrams - those are side views! It's horizontal paneling
 

Billct2

Active Member
Do they send stainless steel studs with ss letters? If not I would get them and nuts. I'd thread the nut on the stud then run it down to hit the siding when its leveled. That with silicone in the hole should hold if the holes are tight. Seeing it's horizontal siding I would try to line up with the high part.
 

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
I cannot get to the other side.
It's new construction but nobody thought about the lettering until the nth hour so there's drywall up inside.
Do I need to tell them they either need to open the drywall up or we need to use rails?
I've done plenty of acrylic or plastic lettering with just a stud/pad or two top and bottom for weight holdin' and pads/adhesive for wall-stickin' but these are my first metal letters. Gemini told me they don't offer pads with metal letters, just spacer sleeves, but I don't get why pads aren't an option.
IMPORTANT ADDENDUM: I neglected to label the diagrams - those are side views! It's horizontal paneling

I don't know.. I guess it depends on how heavy the letters are and how well you feel like they grab.
 

jtiii

I paid good money for you to read this!
Do they send stainless steel studs with ss letters? If not I would get them and nuts. I'd thread the nut on the stud then run it down to hit the siding when its leveled. That with silicone in the hole should hold if the holes are tight. Seeing it's horizontal siding I would try to line up with the high part.
Bill are you saying you feel that silicone on the stud in the 5/8" decking would be sufficient to hold these?
You'd also need to pair them with hanger bolts/furniture bolts (standard all thread on one end, lag threads on the other) and either run them into the decking
I'm thinking that if I used these, since these are only 14" letters, I'd probably just need one of these on the top and another on the bottom, and the rest of the studs could just have spacers and go through the metal and not into the decking. What do you think?

I am of course getting pushback about how much penetration I need to be doing into their building.
The architect is asking if I really need to penetrate the plywood or if I can just attach to the siding. I've never seen an expansion anchor that can operate in only 3/4" space, does anyone know if there's such a product?
 

Billct2

Active Member
"Bill are you saying you feel that silicone on the stud in the 5/8" decking would be sufficient to hold these?"
First, I like JBurton's set up, never used that.
Second, it definitely depends on how heavy these letters actually are. But it's not like it's one stud holding the whole letter, I would guess you have 4, 5 or more studs per letter.
With a nut against the steel and a good blob in the holes and on the wall there is silicone in the plywood, and on both sides of the steel. And if the holes aren't oversize they create a lot of
holding power too. I have done jobs where we had to pull a letter back out of the holes and it isn't easy, the threaded stud grab the edges of the hole pretty good.
 
Last edited:
Top