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How to Install Large Banners on Buildings

A new revenue source for sign-installation companies

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Is your community ready to join the large-banner revolution? If so, follow these steps to new installation profits. While covering the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics, I discovered possibly the world’s largest, single banner project: the design, printing, fabrication, installation, lighting and removal of 12 banners on 12 buildings (see ST, November 2001, p. 70, and January 2002, p. 76). This project uniquely attaches banners up to 338 x 158 ft. — equivalent to 80 billboards — to high-rise buildings without leaving any markings. The prospect seemed daunting, at best, given the following requirements: Attach banners without compromising the building’s structural integrity, and, when they’re removed, no visible marks mar the building, except in several cases where hardware will remain for future banner installations; Build remaining building hardware from stainless steel and other impervious material to withstand many years of weathering without leaving stains on the building; Fashion permanent and removable hardware from impervious materials or protect it with surfactants to allow future use without staining the building; Meet or exceed the requirements of the Uniform Building Code and Salt Lake City Building Codes for mechanical attachment and 70 mph winds. Wet-stamped prints, certified by a registered professional structural engineer, must also be provided; Meet or exceed the building owner and/or management requirements; and Provide an attachment scheme that maintains the graphical integrity of the banner (no distortion from sagging and stretching) Brian Baker, vice president and general manager of Impact Signs (Salt Lake City), said that, despite having fabricated intricate structures and installed Olympic electronic signage for Daktronics Inc. in Utah’s Soldier Hollow, Snowbasin and the Olympic Park, Impact had no experience installing such mammoth-sized banners. Thus, they looked at the bid package, examined their backlog and decided to decline.Daktronics Inc. Similarly, Randy Lambert, president and CEO of Legacy Sign (Salt Lake City), looked at the bid with project manager Joe Kelley, determined some final numbers and also declined. Lambert said, "We were tied up with the Gateway Project." Although he wasn’t sure how much subsequent giant banner work might surface in Salt Lake City, he felt the novel attachments could be achieved. YESCO finally accepted the challenge of what would become a three-month project. Jeff Young, YESCO’s Salt Lake division manager, said the project would require "more than 12,000 man-hours to install, remove and remediate the buildings." Two dozen people from various YESCO offices were involved in the largest, single, building-wrap package in the world. Every building required a specific attachment method, and each bears a structural engineer’s stamp. More than 500,000 watts of lighting were designed by YESCO’s Ted Maestas. Lag-adhesive systems, wedge bolts with cables and tensioning belts, scaffold frames and unique cleat brackets with belts were among the attachment methods used. Meeting the challenges Ensuring the project’s success fell on the shoulders of YESCO’s Lynn A. Adair. For their first task, Adair and his crew installed a banner with stainless-steel wedge bolts, cables and tension belts onto the Social Science Building at the University of Utah. In addition, two Olympic banners and the Xerox banner (featuring approximately 17,000 Xerox employees) were hung on the Hilton Hotel with 5/16-in. sleeve anchors. The banner had been originally outfitted incorrectly with grommets that wouldn’t fit the 3/8-in. wedgebolts originally planned. Upon project completion, Adair noted, "Working through the many challenges associated with a [banner] project of this magnitude has been the most demanding job I’ve been involved with." While some attachment schemes were developed specifically for the project, others are simply schemes attached to scaffolding in front of the building wall, as is the case with the historic Hotel Utah building, which is currently the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. One attachment, developed by YESCO, comprises two, unique, cleat assemblies tensioned with a ratcheting, tie-down belt to secure a 170 x 78-ft. Winter Olympic banner to the granite-faced Gateway West building. A similar attachment scheme secured a 338 x 158-ft. banner (the size of 80 billboards and weighing two tons) to the fascia of the headquarters building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints headquarters building. It will require 256 such assemblies to accommodate the 3/8-in., aircraft-type cable attachment and withstand the 70-mph wind requirements of the city ordinance. Moreover, 576 holes were required for a 141 x 97-ft. banner on the Key Bank building. The holes were drilled through 5/8-in. fascia material with a 3/4-in. DeWALT® carbide masonry drill bit. A nifty Epcon anchoring system employs umbrella-adhesive anchor inserts that are easily pushed through a hole until the bright-orange expansion arms seat behind the fascia material.

While the Epcon A7 epoxy fills the anchor, it’s mixed in the nozzle. The temperature-variant epoxy sets in approximately 35 minutes at 60°F. While the epoxy keeps the anchor arms expanded and attaches the anchor to the fascia’s back, pieces of 3/8-in., stainless-steel "all-thread," cut in 41/2-in. lengths, seat the anchor’s length.

Grommets fabricated in the banner match threaded studs placed every 3 ft., while one washer and two 3/8-in. nuts hold the banners firmly in place. Double-nutting prevents wind stress and vibration from loosening the nuts, plus it allows easy disassembly and reassembly of the next banner. ProGrafix International (Layton, UT) used portable, hand, industrial sewing machines to stitch reinforcing hems for the lighting-fixture cutouts in the field.

The Key Bank banner, and most others, were installed from an electric, roof-extension-mounted Sky Climber® stage.

ProGrafix President Wayne C. Boydstun concluded, "Our goal was to produce, install and remove these graphics, and, after removal, not worry about unsightly hardware that will never be used again. Working together with YESCO, we have come up with some ingenious methods. We’ve made building owners very happy by not damaging the structures while making them part of Olympic history."

Although there might be limited opportunity for smaller communities and signshops to participate in such large banner projects, a substantial market exists for companies that can install banners without damaging building surfaces. The attachment schemes featured in this article can be used by any shop interested in this type of installation.
 

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