Clean your Signs
Removing Grime & Sprinkler Deposits
It’s an incredibly simple task, but maintaining your signs by cleaning them periodically (approximately once or twice a year) can drastically increase the lifetime of your sign. Signs are made of various materials but most are aluminum, plastic or metal. For example, hard water spots caused by sprinklers can appear on flat, otherwise shiny surfaces. CLR works wonderfully to not only clean hard water deposits, but other blemishes caused by the elements that may occur on your sign face.
Painted Signs
Signs are painted with Automotive paint, so use automotive paint cleaners like “Meguiar’s Automotive Cleaning Products”. The “Meguiar’s Cleaner” can remove oxidation from the sun and make the sign shine like new.
We would also recommend using “Carnuba Automotive Paint Wax” to re-protect the painted sign from the damaging rays of the sun as the sign paint ages.
Doing this once a year will greatly benefit the lifespan of your sign, especially in the Southern States where the suns rays are stronger.
Plastic Signs
We would also recommend using “Meguiar’s PlastX” to make your old plastic signs look like new again. This formula also protects the plastic from future oxidation. Use the cleaner once a year on your plastic signs to keep them looking good.
Remove Critters
Animals like squirrels, birds, mice, spiders, lizards, and snails like warm places and electrical signs are a magnet for these critters. This is especially true in colder climates, or in the later months when the temperature drops. You can maintain your sign by going out and cleaning any nests or burrows that these guys have made inside your letters or sign cabinets.
Check your Sign at Night
We get plenty of calls from folks who say we have been loosing business for months and we just noticed our sign doesn’t light at night anymore. Unfortunately bulb’s, lamps & LED’s will eventually burn out, there’s nothing we can do about that. But it doesn’t have to be a catastrophe; once a week drive by your sign at night and just look to see if it is lighting. If not, give us a call and we can provide a timely service call to fix the issue.
Sprinklers – Toxic to Signs
Another key aspect of sign maintenance is keeping “Hard Water” away from your signs. Walk the sign locations and plot out the sprinkler head locations near the sign and make sure they are a recommended 1/2″ radius or minimum 1/4″ radius sprinkler heads that shoot AWAY from the sign and not on the sign. Just keeping sprinkler water away from a sign, with proper maintenance, will allow a sign to last up to 20 years. Adversely, sprinkler water can destroy a sign in 2 to 5 years if left unattended.
