Production and installation
A drawing is worth as much as the sign that comes out of it. We produce shop drawings, select…
Guides
What drives the price of signage
Price is not made of square metres of panel. Four things make it: the number of sign types, the material, the installation conditions and how much documentation is required.
The biggest driver is not the size of the building but the number of different sign types. A hundred identical plates cost less than twenty different ones, because the cost sits in preparation, tooling and samples, not in material. So the first thing we do on a quote is reduce the system to the smallest number of types that still resolves every situation in the building.
The second item is installation conditions. The same sign fitted in an empty building and in a working one are not the same job: night work, notices to management, fencing the zone, platforms or rope access, and phasing instead of one pass — all of it enters the price and all of it is planned in advance. Third are materials, where the gap between aluminium and stainless can be several-fold, but is paid only where exposure demands it.
Fourth is documentation: the standards manual, shop drawings, permit submissions. On buildings that fill up in phases this is not a cost but a saving, because later additions are ordered against a specification. A serious quote therefore comes after the site visit and after the type schedule — everything before that is an estimate, and we call it that.
What this covers
Number of sign types
The single strongest driver; reduced by simplifying the system, not by cutting signs.
Material and finish
Chosen against exposure and maintenance, not from a catalogue.
Installation conditions
Height, working in an occupied building, night slots and phasing.
Documentation
Standards manual, shop drawings and permit submissions.
Permits
Procedure and timing depend on the municipality and the location.
Maintenance after handover
Tenant changes and call-outs are cheaper agreed in advance than ordered ad hoc.
Frequently asked questions
For a single sign, yes, from a photograph and dimensions. For a signage system, no — without a type schedule and installation conditions it would be a figure that changes later, which serves nobody.
On external carriers, the foundation and structure; on interior work, preparation and samples. Both are routinely underpriced in cheap quotes and paid for later in repairs.
It can, and often is. The standards manual and the mandatory part — safety and escape marking — come first, with the rest ordered as the building fills up.
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