Attaching standoffs to cladding

[Robert Lambie]

I honestly hate seeing Flat-cut letters fixed by rails mate… i know the reasons behind it and a great many do it, but i think it looks terrible.

there are various ways around it, but personally. for something that high up and the cladding to be open spaced like that. ide simply fix through the face of flat cut composite board letters.
racing the letters on locator’s isn’t going to give a great deal of effect anyway… the letters will appear raised due to bridging the narrow vertical raised sections of cladding.

when creating your template on paper, ide open the kerning a bit to try and compensate for the high ground sections of the cladding. by that i mean, so you catch a fixing point.
needless to say, not all letters will sit comfortable and leave you with a floating fixing. this being the case i would measure the depth of the cladding and have some packers that can be put behind the letter to prop it out and allow for a firm fixing. try being discreet though. nothing worse than looking up at and angle and seeing a packer. sometimes you might be in luck with packers as cladding tends to be about the depth of a female/bucket nylon locator. simple slide the locator behind the letter and put your fixing thru both and into the cladding.

the screws should be able to self tap into the cladding, if not you may need to drill a small pilot hole, then screw fixing. the screw will easily counter sink itself flush into the composite so a circle of vinyl over the top should hide it.

hope this help a bit…

[Fred McLean]

If they are going a reasonable height up,composite letters and small rivets is the way to go.We’ve done this a few times with no probs 😀

[Ruairi O'Boyle]

I would go composite as plastic doesnt perform great in direct sunlight. Also at that height 2mm extra letter depth wont make much of a difference.

If you do use locators put plenty on, then if you do hit an angled area you can afford to leave a locator off. I would also cut small lengths of tubing (small diameter than your locator) to the the depth of the recess less the height of the locator, then this way you can very easily and neatly pack out the letters.

However, the way I normally do it is measure the risers and draw them on my template that way you can easily pick your fixing points before you apply the locators. A wee bit more time needed at the planning stage but much simpler when you go to fit.

I used top and bottom rails once (clear acrylic in the hope they would not be noticeable) but after a few weeks they warped and just ended up a dirt trap, never again!

Hopefully this helps

[Bob Clarkson]

As Robert said, rails always look nasty.

I’ve done signs on this finish before and have opted to put an entire backing board up, then fix the letters to that. (although obviously not in that order) This is of course far more practical if you’re not fitting just a few massive letters.

[Gwaredd Steele]

I’d go for a backing board too, especially there, as that cladding looks cack. It will give the letters a better chance to do their stand off thing better as well.

It might me worth specifying the brass screw on locators too, as in 6/7 years time when the cups go brittle & a letter falls off (which it will!) you won’t get a nasty phone call from the fan with a massive letter ‘H’ sticking out of his noggin! :lol1:

[Peter Normington]

that cladding looks more like corrugated sheet to me, so only a small "peak" to attach to. so I think a backing board is the way to go

Peter

[Ian Johnston]

I thought it was a Cow Shed with a feeding barrier, not a football stand 😮

[Robert Lambie]

Backing board is the easy road to take. if the customer is willing to pay the extra for it, then yes of course its the way to go.

* Backing board
* Flat cut raised letters.

however, that type of cladding is often inaccurate and will cause waves in your backing panel over the length. so what next, add a frame to slide into?

* Backing board
* Flat cut raised letters.
* Panatrim type frame

at the end of the day, i think its down to the type of sign, look, finish the customer is after. of course costs will come into play regardless.

at that height and purpose. then why not just give a backing board with vinyl cut letters. cheaper and faster all round.

if the customer has specified individual letters then its back to original situation.

.

[Ruairi O'Boyle]

quote Ian Johnston:

I thought it was a Cow Shed with a feeding barrier, not a football stand 😮

that was my first impression too Ian.

I think if you look closely at the roof it is box profile sheeting as there is large spaces between each height whereas corrugated is "a continuous wave".

[Martin Gray]

Thanks for all the replay’s folks

I understand that the rail wouldn’t look great. but i was going to paint it the same colour as the cladding. and being up so high that you wouldn’t maybe see it? as i said in my first post its SUPPLY ONLY the top part of the cladding isn’t even finished i photoshopped some of the cladding from the side onto the top part so the customer could see what it could maybe look like. There getting scaffolding in to put the rest up and will apply the letters themselves. Ive e-mailed the customer with the choice of a board on first and maybe just vinyl. and will get a reply from him tomorrow.

Thanks for all the help i feel at least abit wiser 🙂

Martin