Monument signs are enjoying resurgent demands, both as the construction market revitalizes and with municipal officials becoming more amenable to incorporating electronic messageboards onto such signs. However, not all shops possess the personnel, equipment or capacity to manufacture such signs. So, as with channel-letter fabrication and large-format printing, wholesale, monument-sign producers exist to help shops offer such services.
Peachtree City Foamcraft (Tyrone, GA), in business since 1991, builds foam-core monument signs that comprise 1 to 4-lb.-density, expanded-polystyrene foam, which it coats with its proprietary Poly-Armor hardcoat. According to Katie Schwartz, the company’s marketing director, it’s been independently tested to withstand wind loads up to 175 mph. She said the signs don’t require a concrete foundation or bracing for support. Instead, they’re designed to be ground-supported, and contact embedded-PVC poles inside the structure.
She said that customers commonly submit project schematics as .EPS files. She said the lower-density materials offer ample impact resistance for outdoor installations, but noted that working with higher-density media allows a signface to have a finer, textured finish.
“Drilling into the foamcore signfaces is limited once the Poly-Armor coating has been applied,” Schwartz said. “We ask our customers to inform us of their intentions for embellishing the monument sign once it’s been delivered. This way, we can include fasteners and other necessary hardware inside the structure prior to applying the hardcoat. After the coating’s application, the monuments can be painted with latex paint at any time.”