The Value of Sign Engineering

YOU JUST INSTALLED a pylon sign 20 ft. to the top with a 50-sq.-ft. double-face internally illuminated cabinet. You did the math and got your numbers for the section modulus and concrete base. To save some money you used an old steel pole cut down on a past project. It’s close to the diameter you need and the wall thickness is maybe not what is needed, but you throw some gussets on it and call it good. You skimped on the hole size to fit between a sidewalk and a gas line — you called MISS DIG right? The job finishes without much trouble, you get paid and the profit margin makes you happy.

The next day you install a much larger sign, a multi-tenant double-face internally illuminated cabinet, 40 ft. to the top of the sign and 150 sq. ft. The city required a stamped-engineered set of drawings for the permit. You prepped your customer with all the big words and calculations the engineer provided you with. You had to move the sign because the base wouldn’t fit between the sidewalk and the gas line. You had to get a variance but you made everyone happy. It was inspected by the local code enforcement people and passed. You got paid, though the margin was not as much as you hoped for.

Later that week a windstorm kicks up in that city. You are probably confident in the sign you had the engineering provided for. The correct steel is in place along with the correct amount of concrete, rebar and shape of the base. It cost a bit more and cut into your profit margin a touch, but overall, you feel good.

The small sign you did on your own, however, doesn’t make it through the storm. It falls onto a new car and crushes it. The sign’s business owner is mad, the car owner is mad, the car is sad and the birds that just took up residence in the sign are homeless. How much is this going to cost you? Probably a lot more than the peace of mind you have with the other signs you have installed with someone looking over the numbers.

Here’s what I do when designing a project: I design a structure that I think is going to work using my numbers and the handy Engineering Sign Structures book by Benjamin Jones (available on Amazon). Every shop that builds and installs large projects should have this on a pedestal — the go-to book for estimators, designers, fabricators and installers.

After checking all the sign codes for the city where the project is to be installed I sketch it all out within the square footage, setback and height required. I then use the book to run numbers and get my support structure set up. After that I fill in all the crazy designs I do that drive the fabrication department nuts.

Then the project is estimated, which includes costs for engineering whether required by the local jurisdiction or not. When the customer gets the design along with the quote, your price probably will be higher than your competition’s. But use the engineering as a sales tool, an add-on you won’t do the job without. Or tell the customer, “If you want me to do the project without engineering, you are going to have to sign a waiver.”

This gives your customer confidence in you and your company. They feel your product is of better quality than your competition’s. Besides, when the wind kicks up, you can sleep at night knowing that your sign will stay in place and not cost you any out of pocket money to replace it or the poor car, or make a family of birds homeless.