Reade Blog

Extra height site hoarding is a great way to help your new development stand out on a busy street.  Each standard site hoarding panel is 1220mm x 2440mm. However, adding height at high footfall points and corners is a great way of achieving additional stand-out, especially alongside flagpoles and gantry signs. Using materials like Foamex to extend the canvas of the hoarding up to double height really helps to highlight messages above daily traffic and is very cost-effective. Make sure you consider factors such as health and safety, wind loading and structural calculations. If you’d like to find out more about extra height building site hoarding and any considerations that need to be taken into account, please call us for a chat on 01252 336 000.

When it comes to marketing a new development, it’s important that signage needs are considered as early as possible to really help improve stand-out, get noticed and deliver the wow factor. A complete signage service starts with an initial idea and ends with a safe and timely installation that sends the right message through design, quality and functionality. We want to make sure you have the most impactful signage to help promote your new housing development. Here we outline our tried and tested eight-stage process from idea to installation:  1. Initial briefing The first stage of the process is crucial for ensuring a successful project. Our team visits the site to find out exactly what’s required, understand the surrounding environment and the target audience. The visit covers signage locations, substrates and ground conditions for posts and footings and accurate measurements to confirm signage dimensions. The type of sites we work on are very diverse, so we also consider elements like anti-graffiti finishes in a city centre or wind-loading calculations on an exposed rural site. Sometimes we’re sent a client’s sketches or designs, but a site visit gives us a real feel for the project, potential limitations or opportunities and sparks ideas about which materials and formats to use. 2. Developing the concept Once we have the brief, we can recommend processes and technology to complement the project and engage the target audience. Our in-house studio works with clients directly and we also regularly collaborate with designers to bring their design to live, throughout the whole project lifecycle. A preview of the concept is created, entirely to scale, so that proximity, heights, colour schemes and all necessary details can be viewed. Next, is the fun part of selecting the right materials for the project based on suitability, within the limits of the budget. The technical knowledge of our team means we can often propose more cost-effective or innovative materials that offer the same durability and appearance as the client’s suggested option. Structural integrity is also very important; stronger materials are needed for large external signs to ensure only suitable materials are used for any job. At this point a quote is generated, itemising every detail of size and material used to enable informed decisions that achieve the right overall effect at the right price. 3. Site or technical survey Once the design and quote have been accepted, for large-scale signage projects, a full survey of the location is conducted to ensure the final design fits the characteristics of the landscape and the purpose. At this point, adaptations can be made in the designs to take the terrain into account; if hoarding has to be installed on a slope, for example, the design will have to be tiered. Simple projects don’t require surveys, but if signs are being fitted at height, or access equipment such as a cherry-picker is needed, then a technical survey will highlight any issues that may not have arisen during the site visit. Issues can include: accessibility, power supply, terrain, vehicle access and the structural integrity of the building supporting the sign. Measurements can also be checked for high level signage. At this point, site health and safety requirements such as inductions, parking or special permits for the installation team are also confirmed. 4. Design and prototype We create a 2D colour visual of the design for the client to approve layout, colours and materials for the signage. For more complex, technical projects we also use high quality graphic visualisation software to produce 3D visuals and engineering drawings. These are also suitable for planning permission applications and can be used to address health and safety concerns. We can even make planning applications on clients’ behalf if needed. It’s important that marketing communications for a new development or branding within a sales and marketing suite are aligned to the client’s brand and messaging. So, a 3D virtual representation brings ideas to life and gives all parties involved in the final project a sense of the bigger picture so that they can work together towards an agreed result. 5. The proof A PDF proof for client approval is always sent before the manufacturing process begins. These are drawings that contain all dimensions, materials and sometimes an annotated image of the installation location. Once approved, a project manager will issue the job to our factory to start making the signage. 6. Manufacture Signage can be manufactured from a huge range of materials, depending on their qualities and what the client needs it to do. Whether it’s timber, metal, plastic, Dibond or aluminium composite material (ACM), vinyl or laminate, our team will consider the most appropriate materials to suit the conditions at a specific location and bring architectural designs to life. Metal is a versatile material, combining strength and longevity with flexibility, creating a multitude of shapes and sizes. Available finishes also offer a variety of visual effects; polishing, painting, spraying or powder coating. Timber has traditionally been used as a signage component to convey a rustic look, but we also use faux timber to achieve the same heritage look, at a lower price and with better longevity. Aluminium, brass, plastics, laminates, wood and even polystyrene can be incorporated into a design to give it the right look and feel. Our skilled in-house staff use cutting-edge machinery and technology to construct signs that match client requirements. Designs are applied using powerful LED technology to meet the growing demand for higher quality and quick turnaround, better resolution and multilayer printing. In-house machinery is used for all cutting, no matter the material. We can even create a 3D effect to help a sign really stand out. Printed hoardings and interiors allow flexibility for changing colours and designs quickly and easily, to match seasons or to advertise special promotions. All hoardings are made using weather-proof materials and coated with anti-graffiti seals to make them last longer. 7. Installation Reade Signs manages the entire installation process using our own team, who have the experience to ensure signs

When it comes to advertising hoarding, simple messaging and bold design is the key to attracting attention and generating enquiries. We’ve put together our top ten site hoarding design tips to help you maximise awareness of your new development and boost visits to your marketing suite: 1. Establish a budget – this will help to guide your creative team from the outset and means your designers can tailor the hoarding design to make the most of your budget. It’s also important to consider which cladding you’ll use to reflect your development. Dibond cladding is ideal for most developments and vinyl wrapped ply is excellent if you want to achieve a more polished look. 2. Site survey – to make sure the hoarding fits in well with the surroundings, we recommend you have a site survey. This will consider gradients and permanent elements, using exact measurements that can be built into the design: you don’t want a web address obscured by a post box, and any horizontal designs might look messy on a hill. Make sure your survey also incorporates factors such as health and safety, wind loading and structural calculations. 3. Consider the target market – awareness of the target audience for your development will guide any imagery and graphics you select to represent your brand and help them visualise themselves in their potential new home. 4. Less is more – your key messages should pop out of the hoarding from a distance, so it’s important not to clutter hoarding and leave some space. Great images will support your brand and make sure you include key contact information and a call to action. You will need to convey messages in seconds, especially if people are driving past. 5. Brand consistency – keep hoarding design consistent with other channels and marketing, such as site signage, flags, gantry signs, your marketing suite, website or advertising. 6. Keep it fresh – refresh hoarding periodically with bold colour changes to emphasise development phases, such as plots reserved, or sales achieved. Make sure it’s kept well maintained and repaired if it suffers any damage. 7. 24/7 advertising – consider day and night-time passing traffic – both on foot or in vehicles – and make sure your hoarding design works hard at all hours and drives people to your website and marketing suite. Header and kicker LEDs can help this, as can lightboxes that showcase the décor. 8. Spotlight your logo – whether you’re a national developer or specialise in high-end bespoke builds, you need to make sure your logo is at the right scale to aid recall. As part of the design, you may consider having your logo in illuminated letters or a light box, both of which are very striking. 9. Sell the location – being sympathetic to the local area and considering the surrounding buildings when designing your hoarding is also important. Complimenting the neighborhood through your creative – whether the development is in an urban location or set within a historical market town – can help to sell what’s unique and attractive about the area. 10. Reach for the sky – standard site hoarding panels are 1220mm x 2440mm. But within your design it’s worth considering adding height at high footfall points and corners – a great way of achieving additional stand-out, especially alongside flagpoles and gantry signs. If you’d like to find out more, we have a dedicated page about building site hoarding. Please call us for a chat if you’d like to discuss a project on 01252 336 000. 

Clever use of hoarding lighting is a superb way of making the most of the best vantage points, highlighting messages and maximising the impact of your site hoarding. With one in eight people working night shifts, and darker winter months, great lighting means you can make the most of your marketing 24/7 for all passing traffic. Lighting elements include lightboxes, strip lighting and halo-illuminated lettering. LEDs are available in many variations and can be used with timers in sensitive residential areas, also making it more cost-effective. LED header and footer hoarding illumination is low cost, great as a design feature and provides a subtle wash of light rather than illuminating the entire hoarding. Halo-illuminated lettering is great for highlighting your new development name or brand. Lightboxes used within hoarding can be very effective. The use of shallow lightbox extrusion and printed flex-face panels mean the hoarding can take extra weight without compromising the structure. We always recommend getting the structure of the hoarding checked by a qualified engineer before adding any additional weight to it, such as light boxes, flagpoles or extended height sections as these all add extra wind loading to the hoarding. All these elements help draw attention to your advertising hoarding messages all year round and, if correctly designed, are very cost-effective. If you’d like to find out more about how lighting can enhance your building site hoarding, please call us for a chat or if you’d like to discuss a project on 01252 336 000.

Commissioning advertising hoarding panels often gets left until the last minute, but you can get the most value and impact by considering your hoarding cladding design and materials as early as possible to make the most of the pre-launch window. Allowing for different milestones such as ‘site acquired’, ‘under construction’ or ‘plots reserved’ throughout the life-cycle of the build can engage the community and build interest from the outset. Advertising hoarding panels are a superb way of generating valuable word-of-mouth advertising in the local area, selling the future vision of the development and driving marketing suite visitors. Turnaround time for site hoarding will very much depend on the size of the hoarding project, but from final artwork, our average lead-time to manufacture, print and install 20 metres of hoarding panels in a single location is just three days. Before you get to final artwork stage, we take the initial briefing and come up with recommendations for potential materials, styling and lighting options. We conduct a professional site survey and then agree the final design – either with our in-house team or with the client’s designers. It’s important to look at creative solutions for your budget, make clever use of manufacturing techniques and position key messages at high footfall points to maximise stand out. Leaving enough time means you can take these elements into consideration and create hoarding that stands-out. Find out more about building site hoarding on this dedicated page. If you’d like to discuss a project, please call us on 01252 336 000.

Every new residential or commercial development is different and requires tailored marketing to attract different audiences. But what are your options with advertising hoarding if your budgets have been squeezed, but you still want to make a big impact? Here are a few solutions we recommend… I love the look of built up letters but don’t have the budget for stainless steel: Instead of fabricated built-up stainless-steel letters, we suggest 20mm thick painted Foamex letters to highlight the development name. Brass letters would set off my high-end development, but the costs are prohibitive: Instead of using expensive metal materials – we can create metallic text in bronze or gold-cut vinyl to achieve a high-end effect. The designer’s hoarding concept uses a spot-UV effect we love, but we can’t justify the additional cost: Using a combination of matt and gloss laminate creates a superb spot-UV effect. There are a huge number of competitors in the local area, and I want to stand out above the traffic: Extra height sections of hoarding manufactured in Foamex are a great, low cost way to maximise impact at key footfall points and above the height of the traffic. I want people to look twice: Using different depths of hoarding can create an effective look – by building out parts of the hoarding or creating recesses, you can add interest. I’m looking for a cost-effective industrial look and feel: Vinyl applied on sterling board with Foamex built-up letters gives an original, contemporary industrial effect. There are so many options and our team are great at coming up with creative solutions to suit any budget. Find out more about building site hoarding on this dedicated page. If you’d like to discuss a project, please call and speak to one of our hoarding experts on 01252 336 000.

Hoarding is a temporary structure installed around the perimeter of a construction site for the safety and security of the site, construction workers and members of the public. It’s also a highly cost-effective advertising space to showcase a housing or commercial development, communicate the brand and attract sales. For advertising hoarding, we recommend cladding the base ply hoarding panels with either digitally printed Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) or a direct vinyl wrap to the ply*. Both options will carry your message and images in high resolution full colour digital print and images can even be illuminated. We recommend headers and kickers be added to give a neat finish and again these will allow for lighting to be fitted beneath the header, which will provide a wash of light to illuminate the entire hoarding at night. They suit both short and long-term use and are easy to install, strong and secure. Which material is best for my hoarding project? ACM sheets – also commonly known by the brand Dibond, ACM is secured onto plywood. It’s made from two thin coil-coated aluminium sheets bonded to a non-aluminium core (polyethylene or foam). Printed ACM can be applied straight onto hoardings. It’s a superb material for hoarding because it flexes and is very durable, offers sound reduction and is fireproof. The overall affect is a streamlined, professional look and feel. Individual panels can also be easily updated and replaced and is less expensive than vinyl wrapped ply. Vinyl wrapped ply hoarding panels – comes with different effects and can be laminated or wrap sealed. Vinyl wrapped hoarding is popular with luxury, high-end building developments. This type of hoarding gives a very high quality of finish. Site hoarding lasts for about three years, although it can be updated and refreshed at any point during the build. For extra longevity, hoarding can be coated with anti-graffiti laminate. Our team takes a consultative approach and can provide advice on the best option for your development, based on the brand, location, site life-cycle and expected frequency of message changes. Find out more about building site hoarding. If you’d like to discuss a project, please give us a call on 01252 336 000. *Vinyl wrap to ply requires a specific grade of ply, please ask for further details.

Building site hoarding is essential to keep both construction site workers and members of the public safe. It’s also one of the most cost-effective advertising spaces for your new housing development and vital to drive marketing suite visits, enquiries and build a database of interest pre-launch. If you are responsible for marketing, you’ll no doubt be looking across multiple channels at the most cost-effective ways to raise awareness of your new development. Advertising hoarding panels are a superb communications channel since they are exceptionally good value. A 48-sheet advertising billboard is likely to cost over £1,000 for a month’s advertising spot. Whereas, the equivalent hoarding in square metres will cost around half that price. When you consider that hoarding could be in place for 12 months or more, the comparable savings are easily more than £10,000! Additionally, you can also refresh your hoarding panels in that time and adapt messaging based on interest and sales, or even advertise other developments and still make significant savings. Making the most of your hoarding space One of the key elements to get right is a professional site survey as this ensures messages work across numerous panels, which may have to be professionally installed at a gradient or around street furniture. To maximise advertising hoarding and build awareness, make sure your design keeps to the development’s brand and incorporates bold colours, striking graphics and photography. Keep your hoarding design simple; you can say so much with a visual. Consider the best places for your messaging, taking into account the sizing of text for pedestrians and passing traffic. As a rule-of-thumb, one great image, a short headline of five to seven words, a call to action and your logo is ideal. Find out more about building site hoarding on this dedicated page. If you’d like to discuss a project, please give us a call on 01252 336 000.