Foamex Outdoor Usage – How Long Lasting

[Chris Wilson]

We do a lot of 5mm foamex site boards, nothing to big, maybe 600 x 600mm max and I’ve seen some in circulation from 2 years ago still. Most of these go on fences or a wee wooden post.

Biggest issue is them
Being mounted against the wall as they will warp on the sun.

Hoarding board might Better, about half the price of a skybond sheet. Can still warp, but a few extra screws will help with that.

[Wayne Maxwell]

6mm Corex. We use this all the time. No problems

[Martyn Heath]

Yes correx is the one to use. Cheaper, doesnt warp as much, lasts just as long

[David Stevenson]

If go for the 6mm correx as well. We do pile of site boards on it without any problems.

[Denise Goodfellow]

We don’t use foams at all, cheap signs we make from hoarding panel

[Robert Lambie]

quote Mike Thornley:

We have a client wanting some temporary signs to go onto their development site.
We have already done the main signs on dibond.
They are tight on budget for this next one, if we digitally print, laminate and mount to 5mm foamex, which is then going to be mounted against a flat surface. How long would you expect these to last.
They have also mentioned if they get dirty they may have to be washed down.

When you make your signs you will do the following.

* Design
* Print
* Laminate
* Trim / Finish
* Mount to sheet

For easy counting…
Lets say your 8x4ft sheet of composite is £50 = £1.56 sq ft
and lets say your sheet of foamex is £25 = 0.78 sq ft

Now lets say your customers signs are something like the following sizes.

2ft x 2ft
Total saving in Foamex over Composite = £3.12

4ft x 4ft
Total saving in Foamex over composite = 12.48

All too often we let customers screw us down on price and still expect the world in return, and these savings really are not savings when your concern is "the life of the sign" and there is no large volume of order.
Also, you mention you are printing and laminating… and then mounting to the sheet material… Foamex or Correx, your laminated prints will out live the board. So why laminate when further savings could be had on media and mounting/finishing labour.
Customers cannot have it both ways… "laminate it, as i want to make the prints last. but of the board warps due to you trying to save me a couple of pounds, its your fault!!" :shake:

Try to understand your sign product elements better and sell based on Quality and life of the product.
If you customer wants cheap, then cheap means cheap… they cannot have best of both worlds.

keep in mind the following steps all have to happen regardless of the pennies you might pinch on a material…

* Design
* Print
* Laminate
* Trim / Finish
* Mount to sheet

"Just my opinion" and meant constructively, but whether it is a sign, a vehicle wrap or whatever… if you have to start cutting corners on the materials to do the job, it is most likely your pricing is too cheap in the first place… IF… it is not a high volume order.

[Phill Fenton]

I absolutely agree with Rob. Your customer is paying for a service not a product. i.e your time – not the cost of the materials. The materials cost is just a minor part of the sign (or should be) particularly when it’s low volume as in this case.

The only thing that’s worse is when some character turns up with an old sign to be "re-lettered" in the hope that by providing the base material he will somehow reduce the cost by some massive percentage. In reality, your time is more precious than the cost saving of spending an hour or so removing old lettering and glue from an old sign. Leave it to the busy fools – there are plenty of them out there…

[David Hammond]

I’m with Rob too.

Regardless of the substrate, it takes the same amount of time to design, print, mount, trim.

We had a prime example of a customer who wanted a sticker for their van, we quoted on cut vinyl, they ended up going else where, and ended up with a huge printed sticker, larger than the panel full of creases, and the one on their trailer held on with duck tape.

We can make it look easy because of our experience, we can do things in "only 5 mins" on the computer because we know how, again a wealth of experience.

That is what the customer is paying for.