My first shopfront design please help

[Jaybee]

Hi there,

As a relative newby, I’m not too qualified to reply, but I’ll have a stab.

Fascia materials come in 8′ x 4′ lengths, so calculate how many of them you’ll need for your sign. As for the join between the panels, it’ll never be INVISIBLE, but the idea is to make it as innocuous as possible. Hanging strips (whatever they are?) are used for this purpose.

You’ll probably need a panatrim frame for a sign of that size, by the way.

Hope it helps,

JayBee.

[Johnny S]

Hi
First off whats there budget?
I’ve just done a 4700 lightbox. It came in two halfs but the join has a clip on the back to hold the panels together. Once up you could hardly see the join. I get my frames ‘n stuff from SMP in Norfolk. If you use foam and overlay it be careful that the side of the sign ie the 5mm bit don’t show the white where the join is.

You could also use Ali Di-bond and fix directly onto the old facia.
Please don’t screw foam direct onto the facia as it will bow and look crap in a few months!

Hope it helps a bit

Cheers

Johnny

P.S If you get a frame be sure you can get access to slide the panel in.
You can get frames which open at the front so the panel drops in easy.

[Texcat]

Paddy, Congrats on your first fascia.

Couple of things, i never use 5mm foams for fascia`s unless its in a frame and even then dont like doing it because of possible blowouts (even though it should be called a suckout). Only probably a personal thing but we only use 10mm. Stops it bowing as much. On the issue of sheet sizes (Jaybee) materials come in 3m x 2 m lengths as well(can we all work in metric please) but you could use the 2440 x 1220mm sheet (8ft x 4 ft for you older peeps ha ha)

If you use dibond (depending on clients budget) i recommend making a pan out of it. One it looks smart and two it gives alot of strength to the fascia panel. Make a timber subframe, attach this to the building, pop the panels on and screw through top and bottom and cover with nice screw caps.
A tip when doing this or any other pan is to make the subframe on one panel longer than the other. This stops any alignment problems. If that makes sense.(ie left hand side panel say 1000 mm make subframe 1250mm) Finish with butt straps to keep panels flat on the joints.

Jaybee, Hanging straps are used to let a panel hang inside a frame, not held all round in the frame. Because of expansion rates etc. the panel is allowed to expand but because its “hanging” from the top it just expands downways and sideways without bowing as nothing is there to make it bow.

Hope this helps a bit

Andy (Texcat)

[coolinshot]

When having to use more than one panel it’s better to rebate the join using a router (or rebate plane). If you make the rebate approx 13mm wide (top overlapping bottom and visa versa) and exactly half the depth of the panel (2.5mm) you should get a good join. The panels should be held together with panel clips which are readily available (I sometimes make my own on our flat bed router). The hanging strip (13mm) must be positioned correctly and the top trim set in an absolute straight line (use a chalk line or long spirit level). There are clips which fit along the top edge of the panel (where the hanging strip is) but these don’t stop the panels separating in the centre.
If you are not using a trim, but still using foamex – you can still rebate but fix the overlapping panel at the join ONLY (having 2 screws side by side at the join looks very messy). Make sure the foamex is drilled with a larger than normal clearance hole and don’t quite screw up tight – this will give the panel room to expand (slightly) and not look quite so bad. NEVER force the screw through the un-piloted foamex and into the wall / fascia board – 2 days later you will have something resembling a roller coaster.
I hope this is of help to you
Col

[J. Hulme]

You couldn’t post some pictures of this Col could you please?
clips, trims, rebates,subframes, etc.
I’m sorta getting lost!

cheers