Looking for Pricing help on 4' x 6' Plywood sign

[Guest manwayvan]

Hello everyone. I made a sign for a local consignment shop out of 1 sheet of regular plywood painted and vinyl installed earlier in the year and they have came back wanting a bigger sign and I'm not sure on what to price..The specs are..2 signs front only. 4'x6' bc grade plywood painted with industrial or tractor paint with vinyl lettering installed. They will be installing the sign and mounting it i just have to have it completed and bring it to them..They also wanted me to price out the vinyl and Im not sure which would be best for this pricing. Per letter or per square foot? Any takers? Thanks

[mars 45]

I ran a quote - I don't use plywood, so guessed at a price for plywood 1/2" 4x8 sheet @ $25.00 - Adjust the price if you pay more or less for plywood than this.

I came up with $150 - with 2 coats of paint and about 65% vinyl coverage on the sign.  I added in $12.50 for waste material on the extra 2 ft of each sheet not needed for the sign.  So I would be at $312.50.

-Mike

[Guest manwayvan]

Thanks mars..I was thinking around $150 each but just wasn't sure as I have not done any signs of this size yet and hate to over price things. I can get the BC grade plywood for 17.95 a sheet 1/4" thick from lowes, but I am thinking 3/4" would better due to stability.

[ff-extreme 6]

you can get the vinyl to stick to plywood? Always thought it was to ruff to work.

[Guest manwayvan]

Not the easiest to work with but the sign I done earlier in the year has been outside the whole time with no issues. I put it on when it was like 90 too and you could see the vinyl lifting off but I just had to keep rubbing it down..Also thats another reason I want to try BC Grade as it is finished and sanded on 1 side so it may alleviate this issue next time.

[mars 45]

What is your material of choice on exterior signs? - I'm asking everybody who is reading this topic. 

What has been your experience with signabond - I just found out about this material and plan to use it on the next job like this I get.

Like to hear if there are any gotchas to watch for.  Are you using the utility grade or the thicker grade - my supplier just calls it out as signabond or signabond utility grade.  How does the material perform compared to mdo or plywood for stiffness in 4x8 or 4x10 sign applications.

A while back I got a price of $60 for the heavier material in 4x10 colors - just haven't needed to do a job like this so I have no hands on experience with the material in a real application.

-Mike

[mikerob2334 2]

aluminum- get it for $50/sheet. the only drawback is i have to order in qty of 10 sheets to get that price

[flyinsignmonkey 0]

I use mdo board which is like plywood but it has a skin across one or both sides. when its on only one side its called "good one side" you get it from pretty much all local sign supply companies. ranges in price and size, you can get it in 4x10 or 4x8 painted or unpainted starting in the 30's

im in colorado and denco delivers it to me.

next up in price if the customer wants to pay for it is aluminum materials with a polypropelyne core, various trade names like alumacor but it is a very thin layer of aluminum on both sides of a thicker plastic core. it runs around 90 to 110 per sheet or more depending on thickness, but it lasts forever.

I come in at around 450 for an mdo 4x8 2 colors. installed I come in around 600

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

allumacorr but The substrate price is higher - did one for a church 4x6 for 350.00

[neron15210 10]

Omega bond  (two side aluminum with plastic core) , I'm using "one good side" 95% of the time.

$57.00 a sheet.

4x8 signs I quote $380.00 and up.

Great substrate to work with.

[Guest manwayvan]

Hey everyone Thanks for the tips on substrates..Unfortunately I am limited to the subs I can use because we have no local sign supplies stores and freight charges on aluminum,choroplast, and signabond are extremely expensive. I can get sheet aluminum 4x10 for 70 bucks but the local sign shops sell this size of signs for 504.00 and I am trying to get my name out there and want to offer what ever peoples budget can afford without low balling my prices to get it. So I was thinking marlite or plywood would allow me to offer a sign at atleast half the cost around here for aluminum. I was thinking around 250.00 installed. I am getting materials for: BC grade plywood 18.00 + Pint of Industrial Paint 6.99 + Vinyl 10 foot rolls 38.90 plus some 2x4's and a bag or 2 of quickcrete shouls put materials at around 100.00 so I was thinking 100 to 200 should be a good profit if I can do it quick enough

[bayshorecreations 30]

I personally wouldn't even attempt to use plywood. Better off just telling the customer that plywood will not work and make them go with something that is easier to work with and will last longer. If they decide to go with someone else who will do it on plywood just consider youself lucky that you didn't have to deal with the headache and a few years down the road when their sign is rotting with paint peeling off of it they will probably give you a call to do it the right way with a better material.

I know its an old post but manwayvan do you have any trucking supply companies near you? Thats where I purchase my sheet metal from. It's painted on one side and a 4x8 sheet is only $50.

[mwdesigncreate 0]

I priced it at $235.

Anything in the $200-$300 range would be fair market price.

[mabscotthandyman 1,410]

MDO great to work with or sign board already ready painted , mdo is very smooth just sand a little ,prime then paint let dry and apply your vinyl.  I use a lot of alumacore works great and the difference in material between plywood and alumacore would be more than eat up n labor and paint to prep for lettering.

I would be 360.00 up depending on complexity of design and the amount of colors, layered etc.

Dan