Help Choosing a House Sign

Help Choosing a House Sign

It’s never an easy task choosing that perfect sign but here at Rustic Stone, we are dedicated to helping consumers make all the right decisions. House signs serve important purposes as well as aesthetic roles.

A concise and clear house plaque or nameplate might save a life or ensure a successful courier or post delivery. A correctly made, classy, fitted or placed street name and house numbers can enhance a home, just as a scruffy, poorly maintained or situated one with a wonky digit can detract. It’s worth noting that it is a legal requirement as a homeowner to have a clear house number or name sign, in the UK at least.

Personalised and Custom House Signs
Made Just the Way You Want It!

With regards to personalisation and should you buy a custom house sign? with or without numbers needn’t be mundane or look like memorial plaques. We tend to guide in the direction of clear and concise text and or numbers for practical reasons but style and individuality plays a huge part in making the right custom house sign for the right house. Images, monograms, logos and decoration around the text can add the accent that says that an individual lives here! Arty, funny, pretty, profound or even profane address signs can really reflect a strong personality and sense of style and flair. There are virtually no limits whether it’s a house sign for a modern home or a business sign.

House signs or house plaques can be made from many materials ranging from slate and stone to wood, metal or glass or man-made plastic (acrylic) – something for virtually every architectural style.

The Various Methods of Displaying Your Business Sign or House Sign

Many styles of signs and methods of displaying are available from prestige to contemporary. Some prefer a contemporary look that contrasts with a period properly while some will prefer art deco over simple painted wood or a large engraved natural stone on the lawn to contrast square windows or formal lawn. There are many options that only the homeowner can explore without trespassing into the mundane.

There are many ways to fix signage, house plaques can be drilled and screw fixed then mounted on fences or walls. They can be bonded with grab adhesive to exterior walls. These signs can hang from metal brackets or wooden brackets on hooks. They can be suspended from sign posts on your lawn or driveway.

Signs can be concreted into the ground or merely propped up by a sign post or leant against a planter. They can be directional signs or even double sided so that traffic from either direction can find you.

Text Engraved House Signs

There are many ways that clipart and text can be engraved onto a house sign, choosing which engraving method is best is subjective to some degree but we have narrowed it down for you, to the very most popular and widely used methods.

Lettering and engraving styles can range from:

• Sandblasting
  • Sandblasting engraved text whereby high velocity particles erode the surface via a precision cut template thus carving the letters or motif or leaving text proud (relief carving). Sandblasting is a cost effective way to make a life time lasting stone or slate house name sign or number.
• Laser
  • Laser engraved text is a less deep surface etching of the address text or address number. More detail can be achieved with laser but no real depth of engraving is attained, thereby lessening the sign’s effectiveness and life span.
• Carving by Hand
  • Hand carving text is a lovely way to letter a house sign although can be time consuming and very expensive.
• Vinyl
  • Vinyl numbers & lettering can be precision cut and applied to acrylic signs, glass signs, mailboxes, doors and just about anything that it will adhere to soundly, including wood. Reflective options are also available in with some vinyl house signs. Vinyl lettering has a life span of 3 to 5 years so worth bearing in mind if you prefer something with no maintenance or that would need replacing.
• Milling
  • Metal signs such as aluminium, powder-coated steel, stainless steel, brass and cast metals such as bronze can be engraved with specialist CNC milling machines. Lead signs usually have relief lettering (raised text with lower background) as they are usually made molten moulded. As long as it’s fairly resistant to rust or another tarnishing, it’s a good material.
• Illumination and Solar Powered
  • Solar powered house nameplates are useful; again, they would generally have vinyl lettering or numbers but offer illumination of the text and numbers which is a bonus if no other means of visibility. Detractions are that during winter months the battery may not receive a full charge and therefore not illuminate the sign all night.

The Different Types of House Sign Materials

Composite materials such as Corian and reclaimed or recycled stone, which is ground, powdered stone mixed with resin and reformed into flat slabs is also a cheaper option than some natural stone products. Polished concrete or plaster can also be used similarly.

Other metal signs such as weather vane signs are interesting but mainly only offer pictorial type decal signs though some text may be available using water jet cutting technology.

Having explored some of the different types of commercially available address signs for your house, you may be looking for something that you can DIY produce if you don’t want to pay craftsmen prices. There are many ideal and different house sign materials that can be used.

Deciding to Make Your Very Own House Sign, Your Way!

Can I make my own house sign? Yes, you certainly can, we suggest that if making your own sign that first you get some ideas! Places to get inspiration from range from magazines to google images. Pinterest too is amazing for inspiration (for anything in the home or garden actually – it’s far more than just shelving and blinds).

Once you have a clear direction your sign will take with regards to size, font, font colour if you want the text painted, information, arrows, images etc. are going to take you may want to make a design. You can design on paper or use an online signs design tool such as we have on this website or even employ a custom designer to put your ideas into a usable format.

The Various House Signs Sizes

A question that is often asked is: how large does my house sign need to be? and what are the different ways I can display that sign? this is a difficult question to answer as it’s dependent on how far it needs to be read from, the speed of traffic on the road your home is on and many other factors. We have online designing software that allows our customers to design their own personal house sign, however! We recommend that you first decide where your address sign or house plaque will be placed and then cut out some paper or cardboard to fit the space where you intend to install the letters or numbers sign and roughly draw out the address and/or numbers.

This will give you a very good idea of how large the custom made sign will need to be as well as the font size that it approximately needs to be.

House signs and house plaques, number signs or name plates, they have many different names and as many different materials, sizes and shapes. The choice is unlimited. All we know is that it’s the law and you should have one! Though if you don’t have one they may never knock on the correct door to take you to task for it.

How to Pick a Reputable Online House Sign Company

It’s no easy task when it comes to choosing a decent house sign online retailer. The team and management at Rustic Stone believe strongly in consumer choice and providing reliable information that will help customers make the right choice when shopping online.

We use transparent pricing, and Rustic Stone will never surprise you with an unexpected charge or fee.

This page and similar pages have been made to give our customers sound advice and information so that they can make an informed choice. Take a look at our guide about how to pick an online reputable house sign company.