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Mounting cut acrylic letters.. bars?
Morning all.
I’ve a job to do which involves fitting around 30 cut acrylic letters at aprox 8mtrs up the side of a building, scaffold etc. all ready to go but the landlord has said he doesn’t want too many holes in the brickwork and I need to go into mortar joints… yeah right, impossible!!
so, two choices I had, planning had been granted for cut letters only, I suggested using a couple of clear acrylic sheets and mounting the letters to that, however, the parish council are typically sticklers for how the town looks..
My other thought was a system we don’t see much these days, there the letters are fixed to two or three horizontal bars, and the bars fixed to the wall, thus less fixings to drill.
Does anyone know where the latter can be sourced and how it works – ie., how the letters fix to the rails/bars? I considered sign channel in black and sliding letters in but don’t know how I’d fix them. with the location being impossible to get to without staggered scaffold or a cherry picker, I don’t want to be going back because something isn’t right or a letter has dropped!!!!
thanks in advance,
Hugh -
10 Replies
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You could always go the H&S route explaining to the landlord that mortar joints are not an acceptable mounting point and for safety reasons you need to put the fasteners into the actual brickwork. That way you go and do what you had planned to do all along without being dictated to by amateurs who don’t know what they’re talking about.
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quote Phill Fenton:You could always go the H&S route explaining to the landlord that mortar joints are not an acceptable mounting point and for safety reasons you need to put the fasteners into the actual brickwork. That way you go and do what you had planned to do all along without being dictated to by amateurs who don’t know what they’re talking about.+1
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thanks guys!
Had a nice call from Ian Pearson this morning who came up with a very good idea for mounting in situations like this… essentially a clear acrylic letter, 5mm smaller than the letter on top, fixen the clear on first, using mortar if need be, and then bond the letters over the top.
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We’ve done made a frame work out of iron, painted to match the brickwork then attached the lettering to this (mounded letters)
Or length of pieces of clear Perspex lettering applied to them, seen this for claded industrial buildings.
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I have used clear acrylic rails in the past for jobs like this, if you scuff the acrylic rails up with a bit of sandpaper then you don’t really notice then if it is up at that sort of height even if the sun hits them, less holes in the brickwork as well 😆 😆
Penloc or tensol will bond acrylic to acrylic without problem 😆 😆I would be putting all the fastenings in the brickwork though, as Phill has said there is absolutely no strength in the mortar joints which may well lead to problems in the future.
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quote Hugh Potter:thanks guys!Had a nice call from Ian Pearson this morning who came up with a very good idea for mounting in situations like this… essentially a clear acrylic letter, 5mm smaller than the letter on top, fixen the clear on first, using mortar if need be, and then bond the letters over the top.
I don’t quite get that, or am I missing something :awkward: . Why the need for the clear letters if still going into the mortar,
Cant you you use fat head fixings on the actual letters and bond into the mortar if need be.I have to agree with Phill though, you have to laugh where the customer knows what they want but are telling you how to fix them up.
Ive had similar in the past, and if a letter should come down they’re straight on the phone. -
quote Martin Cole:quote Hugh Potter:thanks guys!Had a nice call from Ian Pearson this morning who came up with a very good idea for mounting in situations like this… essentially a clear acrylic letter, 5mm smaller than the letter on top, fixen the clear on first, using mortar if need be, and then bond the letters over the top.
I don’t quite get that, or am I missing something :awkward: . Why the need for the clear letters if still going into the mortar,
Cant you you use fat head fixings on the actual letters and bond into the mortar if need be.I have to agree with Phill though, you have to laugh where the customer knows what they want but are telling you how to fix them up.
Ive had similar in the past, and if a letter should come down they’re straight on the phone.When the client doesn’t want to see any visible fixings or “Rails” between lettering, we use this process and have yet to find fault with it. Clean lines, no visible fixings [emoji106]
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quote Iain Pearson:When the client doesn’t want to see any visible fixings or “Rails” between lettering, we use this process and have yet to find fault with it. Clean lines, no visible fixings [emoji106]
I can see the logic in what your saying Iain and a great method it is…
but it seems in Hugh’s case its the amount fixings the client is concerned about not so much the fixings to be hidden. And if using the clear letters first your drilling just as many holes as you would just using the actual letters.Unless your talking about using this method on rails.. in which case I’ve totally miss understood you 🙁 🙁
( I meant Big Head fixings earlier..not Fat Head :awkward: )
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Not sure I understand this either? Do you bond the clear acrylic to the brickwork using mortar – then attached the letters onto the clear acrylic after this has set? How do you keep the letters in place while the mortar is setting, and how do you ensure the correct alignment and spacing of the letter without a paper template?
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It was more to do with the aesthetics due to the council more than the anchor points.
The clear backers are drilled and fixed into place using a foamex template.
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