Our vinyl-wrapped aluminum storefront sign looks awful- we have 2 options to replace it. What do we need to know?
Hello! I need advice on our store sign.
I work with a flooring store and our logo is a very dark background with pale yellow letters. The roof its on faces south, the shingles are a red-brown asphalt shingle, and is at maybe a 70-75 degree angle; we got a new vinyl-wrapped aluminum sign 4 years ago and it looked great… for maybe a month. Then it warped; the company that made the sign bolted it down in a few more places and that was that.
Since then its faded, crackled, peeled, and honestly looks like it survived a fire. We reached out to the company that made it, and they said we probably should have contacted them sooner (I agree but the higher ups told me not to worry about it) and that they could give us a discount on a new one (warranty is only for 2 years apparently). They suggested this time to flip the colors so its medium toned text on a white or off-white background, and said this would probably help delay the damage wrought by the sun. (“That is by no means a guarantee however.”) They did offer to upgrade the material used at no cost, so it would be a brand new sign all around.
Meanwhile, the boss’s go-getter son went to a local painter who has made and modified many signs around town to see what he would do. He says he’d peel the vinyl off, sandblast the aluminum, and paint it by hand. He also suggested a lighter color, but says he thinks the paint will likely last a bit better than the vinyl. He said he’s almost certain we could get 3-5 years out of it easy after its painted and treated.
Both options cost about the same in material and labor.
Obviously we need to fix our sign. It looks awful. But what route would you go? What questions should we be asking?
Edit to add:
This is the info we received from the sign company:
I'd assume that if the sign is a light background rather than a dark one, it would absorb less heat and thus could last longer. That is by no means a guarantee of course. Due to the color of your roof or other factors it did get "crispy" quicker than we would expect. We have hundreds of signs of this nature up all around our area, and we don't see this kind of degradation happen nearly as quickly as it took this one to degrade. I can swap to a lighter color background, and use the best sign material we have on hand to combat the heat element the sign must face.