If you’ve ever had to do business with construction scaffolding in front of your office or retail location, you know the frustration. An obscured view of your storefront — including your window display, entrance, exit, and even your valuable commercial signage — may hinder shoppers from coming through your doors. New customers will have trouble finding your address and window shoppers may overlook your space. Even regular customers may not be able to tell at a glance if you’re open for business or not.
The solution to all this may be a simple as a sign. No, not a handwritten one like they had in the movie Clerks. The point here is to look professional. A custom barricade or scaffolding banner may be the right signage solution — one that can help to turn this potential disaster into an opportunity. With a banner you can use the scaffolding out front as a blank canvas to advertise your business and showcase your store to everyone passing by.
How a Scaffolding Banner Helps to both Maintain and Generate Business?
Anytime someone walks near a construction site, their natural instinct is to look for a sign that will offer directions or tell them what is going on. Installing a custom vinyl banner on your scaffolding will make your signage instantly recognizable as something important to read. Not only will the banner help people find your address but will also be branded in your business’s trademark colors and typeface — so that those familiar with your store will instantly know they’re in the right place. This works equally well for new business.
Let’s say someone is looking for specific good or service. They want to buy a lotto ticket, see a dentist, or shop for a loved one’s birthday. Having a sign with your business’s name and contact info — possibly along with a brief description of what product or service you provide — will help direct them to their destination, bringing new business right through your door.
Another benefit of scaffolding signage is that it sticks out over the sidewalk, so that even if you haven’t invested in a blade sign, the result of placing a banner on overhanging scaffolding will be similar to having one. Pedestrians can now identify your business without having to turn their heads, because your sign is now standing right in front of their eyes.
Scaffolding Banners and Legally-Compliant Sizing
Generally speaking, a commercial business sign installed directly onto scaffolding cannot exceed six square feet without needing an additional permit. Through February 2020, New York City will be waiving 75% of the filing fees for sign permits for business owners who have previously received a sign violation for signs that do not exceed 150 square feet or 1,200 pounds in weight and do not present a danger to the public.
In this blog, we’re also including oversized banners that are meant to be placed over the building, barricade or construction fence itself, rather than on the scaffolding in front of a store. Keep in mind that many of these modes of installation are exempt from the typical accessory sign regulations. If you’re still unsure what constitutes scaffolding or accessory signage, you can always contact Signs NYC for more details.
Different Types of Scaffolding Banners:
1. Vinyl Banners
A banner printed on matte, gloss or biodegradable white vinyl will help to showcase a beautiful graphic image along with your message. A standard vinyl banner is ideal for small to medium sized outdoor banners or large banners installed either against a flat surface or in low wind conditions. It can be adhered to a surface, or hung with the help of grommet holes or pole pockets in order to reduce sagging and help to balance its weight.
2. Fabric Banners
A fabric or canvas banner is great way to advertise when the viewer is close up due to its accurate reproduction of images. Whether it’s installed on scaffolding, or deployed with the help of a banner stand that can be displayed during business hours and then put away at night after you close, fabric is a versatile material that is both durable and stores compactly. Fabric banners can also work well with extra-large applications due to their ability to stretch slightly for a wrinkle-free look. They can additionally be spanned between exposed beams and other structural elements in order to keep an area that’s under construction from looking “naked”.
3. Mesh Banners
Mesh banners are ideal for use on see-through fencing — such as a chain link construction fence — and in bad weather, due to its unique features that allow high winds to harmlessly pass right through it. Mesh is also great for use as a large format building-sized scaffolding banner due to its ability to allow air and light to permeate it, keeping the entire work site safely ventilated and well lit. These oversized banners can contain information about the building contractor, financing bank, and can even be used in conjunction with job site compliant information signage.
Compliment Informational and Construction Signage with Banners
In New York City and many other places it is now required to include signage detailing information about the building project, known as an information panel, as well as a sidewalk shed or construction fencing that allows pedestrians a glimpse of what’s going on.
Posting a banner on a nearby construction barricade or scaffolding helps to maintain a more orderly and uniform look while this work is taking place. A scaffolding banner for your store can also help complement an existing information panel.
In this case, someone stopping to read about the ongoing construction or to catch a glimpse of the work underway may also notice your banner, letting them know you are open for business.
Other Types of Scaffolding Signage
Some businesses prefer a tougher and more durable type of sign to use on scaffolding. In that case, we suggest an aluminum metal sign or other types of rigid signs such as plastic or hard PVC. By speaking to one of the signage solution experts on our team, we can help to guide you in the right direction, based on your own unique needs and specifications.
At Signs NYC, we understand that there is no one-size-fits-all graphic when it comes to promoting your livelihood. That’s why our design department will collaborate with you on the right signage solution that not only does the job but looks great.
Don’t Waste Time, Get Your Scaffolding Sign Today
Time is a precious commodity. And there’s no telling how long that scaffolding will remain out there. There’s a saying in the construction business that a project should be estimated as taking twice as long as it would under optimal conditions.
Problems with permits, changes in building plans, material and equipment shortages, financing issues or other problems can extend the amount of time that scaffolding spends outside your place of business by weeks — or even months.
Everyone in NYC and beyond has seen scaffolding sit idly in front of an empty job site with no work being done. That’s why you should make sure your scaffolding banner is ready and in place on day one.
For more information on how Signs NYC can help you to advertise your business, property or organization while construction work is underway, please contact us to Get a Free Quote.
