I'd like anyone's opinion from experience what kind of average life I should expect out of a 13 oz. boulevard banner. They are 6 feet tall and 30 inches wide, pole pockets top and bottom. They will be in an area that gets a fair amount of wind. My customer has been using Sunbrella screen printed banners for many years. They have them repaired when they get torn (almost always on the pocket) or when the stitching starts failing along the vertical seams. Sunbrella banners are quite expensive so I was wondering about vinyl banner material. I did 18 oz. banners for my own town years ago. They all lasted over 5 years, some of them 8 or more. But these were made by me using cut vinyl so I'm also wondering about life of direct printed banners. My favorite banner printer only uses 13 oz. Thanks
[ January 26, 2017, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: Dave Sherby ]
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
The banners will outlast the print!
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
Be careful... I've had banners made from old marquee vinyl, last forever, while modern PVC banner vinyl for digital printers fails and tears along sewed seams in about a year-and disintergrates...
Posted by Alicia B. Jennings (Member # 1272) on :
Ya know, it's been my experience that you can't give any type of guarentee on the life of a banner. A good wind will knock the chet out of it. I bet in really cold weather the banner material could freeze and crack. No quarentees!
Posted by Dave Sherby (Member # 698) on :
Thanks for the replies. In my mind I knew I wouldn't present 13 oz banners for this job. The 18 oz banners I did with cut vinyl lasted well beyond 5 years and we get cold into the 20 below zero range most winters and even 40 below in some. The graphics could easily be done in cut vinyl. I didn't really think printed vinyl could last more than 5 years.
Alicia, guarantees in the sign business? What's that? LOL
Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
Guarantees in the sign business...
Once, a customer asked me how long his sign was guaranteed. I told him it was guaranteed until I got his check to the bank. He replied that the check was also guaranteed until I got to the bank. I think he won that round!
A while back, a management company wanted me to guarantee a masonry sign for 25 years, at the same time as they were trying to whittle the price down. I gave them our normal 1 year warranty and told them I didn't plan to be out there fixing something on their sign when I was in my 80s.
