All across the world house numbering is the successful system in which we use to identify a particular building. The first house numbering scheme started in 1512 in Paris. In the 18th century the system of adding numbers to each house soon spread across Europe and helped with the mail service in each country.
House numbering varies in every country with their own uniques systems. Here in the UK, we started to install fanlights on our front doors in the 1720s and this showed a unique way to display our house numbers.
Our team at Rustic Stone make approved, highly visible and quality house numbers using the best available stone in the UK.
Why Have a Visible House Number?
Nowadays we don’t seem to display our house numbers as much as we used to when growing up and this may be due to technology changing, allowing us to find properties easier. However there are important aspects to consider when it comes to displaying our numbers for people to see clearly and below we have written reasons as to why this is important.
Reason 1: Legal Requirements
It is a legal requirement that all streets and houses must have a clear house number sign or house name, this is enforced by local councils. If you are thinking of removing your house number and replacing it with a name, you will need to talk with your local council.
Reason 2: Emergency Services
It’s a scary thought that in an emergency, if they cannot find you, that is vital time you are losing. Emergency services do struggle with finding numbers from a street view and it is highly difficult to see at night.
Reason 3: Postman
This makes our mail man’s job a little easier. Our mail will come right to our door and not left at our neighbours or redirected anywhere else.
Reason 4: Mail Deliveries
Deliveries – Just as above with the mail service, it gives our delivery drivers a bit of help finding us whether it’s a parcel, food shop or take out. Our deliveries will be on time (most of the time).
Reason 5: Family & Friends
Whether you have just moved or having guests down at christmas, it is just as important for them to find your house easy to. Especially if they arrive at night.
Reason 6: Home Services
Nowadays we can arrange for different services to come to our homes to clean the car, deliver beauty/hair treatments, clean our homes and more. Some service companies may charge if they fail to locate your home.
Reason 7: Potential Buyers
More and more of us choose to sell items online and the buyers will usually collect the items from our home address. The exchange would go so much easier if they found your home straight away.
Best Ways to Display a House Number
- Your house number should be displayed on the house, on the mailbox (if you have one) and around two feet from the driveway to be seen on the street.
- The colour of the number is important, you will need it to be visible. Placing a lightly colored number on a dark coloured background. You will need to check if the sunlight does not make the number fade out of sight.
- Small LED lights will help brighten up the number in the evenings, making it visible for people to see.
- Instead of using stickers, try to use numbers made of brass, acrylic, metal, glass and other materials that will give it a more visible but elegant look.
- Remember to think about size too, bigger is always better. You could display a large sized number on the outside of your house but a small and unique number onto the house itself.
