Signage Companies

Let’s talk about insurance. One of those boring but necessary topics.

There is no great concern regarding insurance for the signage company that manufactures your signage. But, when it comes to installation, your signage company needs to be properly covered.

If your signage company does not have the proper liability coverage and there is an incident on your property, it becomes your liability!

The common coverage is at least $1M general liability and preferably $2M.  They also need to have workers comp coverage.

Let me give you a few first hand examples of why you need this coverage. I have to say that I’ve never seen a sign just fall over for no reason. However, I’ve seen many signs fail in a hurricane. I’ve seen a pylon sign foundation uprooted and the sign land on a car.  You know that property owner is responsible but do you think the person who designed the foundation or the signage company that installed the foundation has any liability? You bet!

I once saw a 10’x10’ sign head ripped off a column by the hurricane winds shearing off the mounting bolts.  The column was fine but the sign was nowhere to be seen. I found the sign an hour later about a block away from the restaurant sitting in someone’s front yard. In this case, the sign missed any people, cars, houses, etc. But what if it had landed on someone?

I’ve seen hundreds of signs with faces blown out by high winds. Do you realize the damage a large sheet of plastic can cause when slicing through the air at high speed?

One last story… a sign crew was remodeling a gas station and they were spray painting the canopy over the pumps. There was a light wind and the paint overspray landed on a Mercedes parked about 20 or 30 feet away. It ruined the paint job but that was not all. It was a convertible and the top was down. The overspray not only landed on the paint job but also on the interior. Would you believe me if I told you that the owner was a little upset?

Bottom line – verify that your signage company has the appropriate insurance coverage before any work begins on your site. Request a copy of their liability insurance and have you listed as an “additional insured”. This is common and most insurance companies will provide a certificate the same day that they receive the request.

When choosing a company to manufacturer your signage, it’s important to consider the scale. If you are a large company that will hire a large national signage company to make your signs, don’t worry. They have all the equipment that they need.

However, if you are having a local company make a few signs for you, it’s important to understand their capabilities. Everyone that makes signs will have a shear to cut sheets of aluminum and a brake to bend the sheets of aluminum. However, if there is anything special about your signs, there might be some issues to discuss with your signage company. I’ll address some of these special situations.

First, if you have a very large sign, the equipment at a small shop may not be large enough to do the job properly. Let’s say that your sign is 10 feet wide but the signage company has equipment that can only handle a 9 foot wide sheet of aluminum. They can build the sign, but you will have a seam where 2 sheets of metal join because of the equipment limitation. This is not necessarily a problem – just know what you are getting.

Or, if you want a neon sign, does your signage company have a neon shop? If not, they will make the metal parts but sub-contract the neon work to someone else. Again, that’s not necessarily bad. But, neon does not ship well and if it’s coming from out of town, you might experience some delays due to breakage in transit.

If you are having channel letters built locally, does your signage company have an automated bending machine (an Accubend) or do they form the letters by hand? There is nothing substantially wrong with hand-formed letters. However, an automated bending machine is more consistent and lowers the manufacturing cost.

If your signage needs a curved piece of aluminum extrusion, a roll-former is required. Also, a die is required for the roll-former and this gets expensive for just one or two signs. Only a large shop will have a roll former but this type of work can be outsourced. If you are having trouble picturing what I’m describing, think of the tombstone shape of a Taco Bell sign. That curve at the top is what I’m describing.

Finally, if you want dimensional plastic letters, they can be cut with a saw. But, it’s much better to cut them with a laser or a water-jet. These are expensive pieces of equipment that can only be found in larger shops.

The thing to remember is that a basic sign is not much of a challenge to build. However, it is worth a discussion with your signage company to see if they will need to outsource any parts of your sign. Especially if there is anything unusual in your signage design.

When choosing a signage company to install your signs, it’s important to know what type of equipment they have available. The bigger the job, the more important the equipment.

On the smallest scale, a signage company needs nothing more than a pickup truck to install something small like a directional sign. But, anything above 6’ tall or above the reach of a ladder requires specialized equipment.

A bucket truck can reach between 40 to 70 feet high depending on the model. Signage companies use bucket trucks to make electrical repairs, install pylon sign faces, install building signs, paint columns, and to assist a crane truck when installing large signs.

As I mentioned, a crane truck is what signage companies use to lift heavy signs into place. Usually, the crane lifts the sign into place and an additional bucket truck is used to get a person into place to bolt the sign to the column. Most cranes can reach 70 feet to 80 feet high. Don’t be surprised if your signage company needs two pieces of equipment to install a large sign.

For really large signs that are extremely heavy or extremely high, a hydro-crane can be rented. Think of a high-rise sign that is near a highway. They can be 15 feet tall and installed over 120 feet high. Only the largest signage companies will own their own hydro-crane. It’s not uncommon at all for an installer to rent this type of equipment.

Finally, if your signage company is installing a foundation, they will need either a backhoe or an auger.  An auger is used to drill a round hole instead of a rectangular foundation. Many signage companies own their own backhoes and/or augers but it’s also common to rent them.

Regarding the cost for each type of equipment, it varies from one part of the country to another. It should be no surprise that big cities are more expensive as are both the East coast and West coast areas.

However, in very general terms, a bucket truck is priced around $125/hr, a crane truck is about $150/hr, and a backhoe is about $80/hr with a 4 hour minimum. When you get into the hydro-cranes, it gets expensive and unpredictable. Expect at least $250/hr with either a half-day or possible a full-day minimum.

Here’s the bottom line – if your job is small, any installer with normal equipment can do the job. If the job is larger, be sure your installer either owns or has access to the equipment needed. And, when pricing a job, knowing the going rate for each piece of equipment can help you when it’s time to talk to your signage company.

If you want to know the rates in your area, get a quote from a local signage company. If you want double check to verify that your getting a fair deal, call a local company that rents equipment to signage companies. Get their price, add about $50/hr for a 2-man crew, and you should be close to the price being quoted by the local signage companies.

Let’s begin this discussion by distinguishing the different types of signage companies.
Of course there are large and small companies and the large companies may have some advantages. But what about the scope of work that you expect from your signage company?

Who will build your sign versus who will install your sign?

If you are a small business with only one or possibly a few locations, I recommend talking to your local signage companies. You want someone who has a good sized shop and has years of experience manufacturing signs. Avoid a small local company that only does installation work and is trying to break into sign manufacturing. It only makes sense to have the sign company who builds your signs also install your signs.

For a larger business with locations spread across a large area, you have to ask this question. Do I want to look at signage companies that have their own cranes, bucket trucks, and installation crews? Or, do I want to look at signage companies that will sub-contract the installation work?

If all of your locations are within a 2 hour drive, you can have a larger local sign company do everything for you including both manufacture and installation. But, at some point, the travel becomes an issue.

This is the point where and signage company will need to subcontract the installation work. Don’t worry, this is extremely common.

At this level, you will want to begin looking at the larger national signage companies. They are experienced at permitting and installing signs on a large scale. They have project management staffs that can provide a turn-key signage package. They build the signage, ship it to the sub-contract installer, and manage the installation.

There is also the option of contracting with a signage related project management company. They only have office staff and can have your signage built by a wholesale signage company. They can then manage the installation just like a signage company who actually does the installation. This is becoming more common over the past 10 years.

If you would like to discuss these option for your business, please feel free to contact me. You can find my contact info under the Contact tab above.

This is a new site with sole purpose of helping you find the right signage company for either manufacturing or installation.

Our main focus is not on giving recommendations for specific companies but rather to help you know how to tell a good signage company from those that you should avoid.