Sign licences

[fmg]

Just curious.
Does your town you operate out of require that you have a certified license to install signs.
Do you have to obtain a permit to hang any type of commercial sign to a building.
Do you abide by these rules or do you break em?
Would you be in favor of a national sign license requirement if it came to that.
Thanks

 

[CentralSigns]

Licencing is communism. It's a licence to steal from those blessed and a if the authority so desires it they have absolute control over who and how many have the blessed licence. It takes away from our freedom to operate.

Look at marketing boards in Canada, if you aren't a member you can't sell your products and the number of members is heavily restricted. Pricing is fixed by the boards. I know a dairy farmer in the Fraser Valley that was shut down because of these boards. He was selling milk to an American cheese factory Stateside. He was not a marketing board member and was shut down, it didn't matter he had found a market outside of the marketing boards area or influence. They seized his farm, his cattle and everything for that matter and I don't think it's worked out yet. This whole fiasco was all because a milk producer in Quebec had the marketing board area where he was located. It was better in the boards eye to have a producer from across the country produce milk for the area.

I know this was kind of long winded but marketing boards licencing or anything else is just pure evil as far as I'm concerned. It takes away our rights to compete in a fair market.

 

[davidcarr87]

in my local hometown they do not require you to have any license, installer...not even electrician..they do have permits which are cheap..like $30 and all their for around here is to say"yes you can update your sign" or "no, we think its fine the way it is..look at your neighbor's"

 

[blueben]

Here you are required to have a license to install a new commercial sign. you can reface the sign without a license as long as it costs under $1000. No matter what, if it requires a permit to do, it requires a license.

Permits are required on any and all new signs. If you had an aluminum sign attached to the building and have it taken down to be refaced, it must be back up with in 30 days or another permit will be needed.

5 years ago pretty much everyone around here was bending the rules. Anymore, if you dont, you will be fined. They have really buckled down on this.

I think the most of the other guys around here like the rules. It prevents the fly by night guys that undercut everyone from doing the higher paying jobs.

 

[SAS]

Here if a sign is 32 sq. ft. you should get a $50 permit but I learned a long time ago if you don't bother them they won't bother you unless it a new lighted pole sign then they will come out and look at the hole and say yep it's deep your good to go. I don't even call them back to check the sign after it's installed.

 

[letterman7]

We need both permits and to be a licensed contractor in our area. Permits are needed no matter how small the sign that will be permanently mounted or refaced.

 

[davidcarr87]

i had a issue with permits awhile back, the state was saying i needed them, and everyone i talked to said the same thing, when i went to the courthouse..they said" wow, im surprised you came in..we havent issued a permit in over 4 months..most people dont even get a permit to build a new house"

no joke...

 

[CentralSigns]

Here you need a business licence to construct a sign, even to sell a sign to someone in town. You need a permit to construct a new sign. To replace an old sign you just need to talk to them at town hall. Something new is you can't erect a new lit sign anywhere in town. Something in the new bylaws, a mountain ski town thing. To do a job for the town you need insurance and must have WCB, even if WCB doesn't require you to have their coverage. Just got screwed out of a $40,000 job on that one. All the others I have including Chamber of Commerce memberships. Electrical has to be permitted and a licenced electrician perform work. We actually don't even need a permitt to build a house except for electrical.

 

[visual800]

Here you need permits for anything, new signs, refacing, temp signs...it matters not. Thats why I put my signs up on the weekend. The way our city is pi$$ing away money and then raising our business licenses and THEN hyundai some in here TAX FREE as an incentive?...this town can KMA before I give them 1 dime more than I have to.

Permits are BS fees, you go to city hall tell them what your gonna do and pay. Im not wasting my time. My channel letter installer doesnt pull permits either if it's on an older complex

 

[fmg]

I try to stick by the rules so that it won't open a can of worms down the line once a sign has been installed.
I had a customer who recently had a channel letter sign installed from another company who never applied for the permit.
The town came down hard on her and made her take it down. She was not allowed to put it back up and lost 8k on this.
The building she occupied had a uniformed sign style and she never followed this.
I had to install the correct sign for her.
Just shows how tough the towns can be.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

Here to me it is bring money, your a sign contractor.

We also have occupational permit makes sense to so you can be in building

Then of course permit for hanging but for little risk like a 4x8 alum or banner on building is over done when a engineer stamp is required costing more then the signs full price at prime dollar

If it was a test for sign contractor be alot less sign company"s and better signage. I feel

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

I have been involved in the writing of many city's sign codes. I constantly am encouraging sign ppl to get involved with your local government...the alternative is that changes will be made to your local codes and requirements by ppl who know very little or nothing at all about our industry...and then they want to change it after the fact. In my experience it is much easier to keep those silly changes from happening than to go through the processes necessary after the fact & get changes made. And I have seen some flat out stupid sign codes...it is beyond obvious when sign professionals have helped and when a committee of know nothings have concocted their monstrousity of creative writing that becomes a municipality's code that we all then need to find a way to work within.

unfortunately the majority of the time I am contacyed after the code has been written & the sign community wants to change it (over the years we have found a few lawyers that are very effective at pointingout their sillyness and in many instances illegal and unconstitutional codes and restrictions) but that is the hard way..get involved..get involved before there is a problem.

I hav sat in more long boring workshops with various sign associations discussing a national sign code and industry requirements...personally I think it would better our trade, newsflash as a whole we are not viewed as the most professional of industries...but that makes it very easy for those who are to differentiate themselves from all of the yahooos. But long story short I doubt we will see a national standard imposed but it would clear up SO many problems. As a side note there actually is a 'standardized sign code as well as suggested trade requirements' that many municipalities have and have either picked and chose the pieces that they want and then discard the rest...but most of the time they butcher it so badly..omit complementary parts etc that they would have been better off without it...heck here s an idea get involved with your local community and help construct a code that makes sense and protects your trade

 

[fmg]

read below post

 

[fmg]

.heck here s an idea get involved with your local community and help construct a code that makes sense and protects your trade

I actually threw that to the zoning dept of my local town and suggested that they implement this as a way of filtering out the hacks from damaging an already hurting industry.
Waiting for a response.

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

in my experience every community thsy I have ever been asked to help with this issue has been accomodating. One community invited EVERY licensed sign shop to come in have a chance to sit down get their ideas out...400+ shops were invited...guess how many showed up?






ZERO...

 

[bob]

I actually threw that to the zoning dept of my local town and suggested that they implement this as a way of filtering out the hacks from damaging an already hurting industry.
Waiting for a response.

Twaddle. What business is of any municipality to filter out anything? The free market does a yeoman job doing just that.

How do you distinguish a 'hack' from anyone else, especially yourself? What rule or set of rules would you put in place such that they exclude all that you determine to be a 'hack' and include all that you determine are not?

 

[fmg]

How do you distinguish a 'hack' from anyone else, especially yourself? What rule or set of rules would you put in place such that they exclude all that you determine to be a 'hack' and include all that you determine are not?

Oh come on we both know what were talking about here...
Zoning set codes for building structures, Electrical installations, deck installations to exteriors of houses, staircase installation etc etc so why not set a rule of codes for sign installs.It kind of makes sense don't it whenever a safety aspect comes into the equation especially where the general public are. I am all for a set of rules to filter out people who don't know the first thing about a sign install.

 

[bob]

Oh come on we both know what were talking about here...
Zoning set codes for building structures, Electrical installations, deck installations to exteriors of houses, staircase installation etc etc so why not set a rule of codes for sign installs.It kind of makes sense don't it whenever a safety aspect comes into the equation especially where the general public are. I am all for a set of rules to filter out people who don't know the first thing about a sign install.

If I knew what you were prattling on about I wouldn't have asked you to define your terms.

One can then assume from your latest communique that in your lexicon being a 'hack' has to do with installing signs rather than making or designing them. That was not at all clear from your initial communique and is not what most people mean when they use the term 'hack'.

Aside from common sense public safety issues, most sign codes spend the bulk of their capital dealing with the apparatus' concept of aesthetics, in an albeit underhanded attempt to dictate size, material, and location. They cannot launch a straightforward assault on style and content, that would run aground on the first amendment, so they content themselves with things they have rationalized not to be aesthetic.

If you for a moment think that they have any concern for your welfare, disabuse your mind, the apparatus would be experiencing the equivalent of a governmental orgasm if they could but find a way to dictate what you can say and how you can say it.

My local village is no different. A forty odd page sign code that has precious little language, if any, dealing with construction and installation standards, other than a few, very few words, about blocking various lines of sight. The remainder of this monument to obfuscation deals with size, material, location, and longevity.

They vehemently deny any interest in aesthetics but then in their very own sign code they have a lengthy section on what they call 'Artistic Signs'. These being signs of such aesthetic purity, as determined by them, that various provisions of their sign code can be waived. Any being who fails to see the hypocrisy inherent in that that provision is dumber than a two dollar dog.

The government that governs least governs best. Including that vast bulk of most sign codes.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

Oh I forgot to mention here it's unrealistic sign codes
1st off inspectors pick and choose who to jump on.
then it's 2 1/2 sq ft per 1 foot frontage and only 25% on window.
Also don't park your truck or trailer out front with ads on it, not even if you use it all the time.
lets not forget if your 1 inch to tall rule down it goes.
oh so you want a banner lol only 1 month twice a year of course your only allowed if it fits within your sq ft amount
Yes permits for anything and everything do you have a engineer stamp to hang that $450 for small sign
this is just the beginning

Oh I mainly do window splash advertising ...not allowed but do it anyway till they say no more

 

[petrosgraphics]

on cape cod, each town requires a permit... some towns have sign review boards, others have historical boards... towns have also set up historical districts which require a review
of the sign, location, color, and size.... these are meetings that have to be attended or
they will not issue a permit.. it can sometimes be a lot of time spent... but it a process
that has to be done......no permit, no sign... it is that simple......