shelf life of precut and masked vinyl

[gabagoo]

Customer wants to know the shelf life of pre cut and masked vinyl. Generally I would think a year is safe, but lately I have been noticing with premask that it can get pretty gummy when I use it to hold rolls shut and it has been there for some time. Should I have any concerns about this and is a year a safe guess?

 

[tintguy31794]

I notice mine are generally harder to install after just a couple of weeks (lots of humidity around here)... we cut to order so we don't have to worry about it too much... we also use the dirt cheapest application tape we can get our hands on.

 

[R08]

I've sold RTA decals to customers who have kept them for around 3 years and they were fine. They actually had one left over to show me and it was good to go. (it was ND's inhouse transfer tape I'm pretty sure)

That being said I think where and how they are stored makes a difference so I wouldn't guarantee them.

When doing large orders I make a large envelope out of cardboard so the decals stay flat (not rolled) and give them to the customer.

I tell them to keep them in a cool dry place (like and office or something)

 

[J Hill Designs]

yeah I think if they see sun for a while the mask starts to meld to the vinyl, but I have had decals that were stored as above (cool, dry in cardboard envelope) for 5 years that applied great.

 

[Bigdawg]

I have some decals I did when we first started cutting vinyl in 2005... they are fine... the worse thing about them is a tiny bit of curl on the edges, but my husband slapped one down on the window the other day and we didn't have any issues at all with it.