Sign Companies Qualifing for a Licsense

[dlaw]

In Oklahoma all you need for a sign contractor's license is a few bucks, insured, and bonded, The City of Tulsa is the only place you have to pass any qualifications. Installers and Service techs anywhere but Tulsa don't need any kind of license.

The majority of the owners in the sign association are against any strict requirements for obtaining a contractors or journymans license, which I somewhat understand, However I see alot of junk work I can only assume is performed by some part time sign companies,

or some hack sign companies rent-a-drunks.

My question is, in the areas of the country where there are more strict requirements, does this raise the quality of the work, or is it the same every where. I would think that it could get rid of some of the fly by night companies.

[Brian]

In Oklahoma all you need for a sign contractor's license is a few bucks, insured, and bonded, The City of Tulsa is the only place you have to pass any qualifications. Installers and Service techs anywhere but Tulsa don't need any kind of license.

The majority of the owners in the sign association are against any strict requirements for obtaining a contractors or journymans license, which I somewhat understand, However I see alot of junk work I can only assume is performed by some part time sign companies,

or some hack sign companies rent-a-drunks.

My question is, in the areas of the country where there are more strict requirements, does this raise the quality of the work, or is it the same every where. I would think that it could get rid of some of the fly by night companies.

I also see terrible work in cities around here that do require a license. I all just depends on if the inspectors actually look at the jobs.

[Erik Sine]

I'd like to think it raises the bar of junk and also makes structural installations safer, but I've never lived in a state or county that doesn't require a contractors license.

Junk is on the sole individual, one of my suppliers gets calls from their clients asking for LED's cheaper than $100 for a 100' roll. This means they are ordering online from China.

I'm in California, one of the strictest states there is when it comes to getting anything. You need minimum 8 years or experience here, 4 as a apprentice, 4 as a journeymen.

We're all experiencing bad economic times where it's all about the bottomline, quality is on the back burner it appears. I've been beaten by some bids and when I happen to drive by the new sign I lost in the bidding, it's total crap. Junk LED's with uneven and variable color lighting. Every shop here has JT or JS LED's, you won't see any other brand unless specified. I'm sticking to my guns on pricing and won't degrade to lesser products. I win and lose some, I always invite potential customers to "call my clients by day, and see my jobs at night", and advise the same to my competition. My signs speak for themselves, I don't have to try and sell them too hard afterward. People who want to be cheap about it will always be cheap.

All states need come regulating, just not to be heavy about it. Some states have gone overboard with it, take CA for example. For instance the Census just came out, first time in a longtime where the population has not grown but depleted to other states. BIG wonder why????

[dlaw]

The inspectors in most cities here don't look at signs, my boss was informed by the Stillwater city inspector that there is nothing they can do about it if people don't pull permits, even though the message center portion of the code is pretty restrictive. The signtronix salesmen filled up this town with them and we couldn't get them permitted so they had someone else do it.

I do know what you mean about people being cheap when I was in sales I didn't sell low quality just to make it cheap and it did cost me some sales. I didn't sell anything I wasn't proud of still made pretty good money. I would like Oklahoma to start requiring a Journeyman license and apprenticeship program and inspecting my signs would be ok with me.

[saneon]

I had these pictures emailed to me today by an electrical maintenance company that needed help trouble shooting the neon issues on this Sonny's Barbeque restaurant. It's unbelievable, where do you begin ? . My advice was to walk away.

Unfortunately I see quite a bit of this kind a s?#$ down here in Florida too. The semi-pro, phantom sign hacks that do this type of work seem to thrive in a bad economy. I think a good amount of the blame has to fall on store owners(end users) who are to cheap to pay a legit,licensed sign company to do their work.

[megavolt512]

I had these pictures emailed to me today by an electrical maintenance company that needed help trouble shooting the neon issues on this Sonny's Barbeque restaurant. It's unbelievable, where do you begin ? . My advice was to walk away.

Unfortunately I see quite a bit of this kind a s?#$ down here in Florida too. The semi-pro, phantom sign hacks that do this type of work seem to thrive in a bad economy. I think a good amount of the blame has to fall on store owners(end users) who are to cheap to pay a legit,licensed sign company to do their work.

Good Lord.

This is pretty bad - among the worst I've seen (and I've been in the biz 20 years). I don't even want to know what that penetration into the wood building is. Absolutely terrible neon glass work too.

[Brian]

Boy the glass sure matches the painted lettering nicely!

[Brian]

We need a gallery of pics called "The Shitty Sign Work Hall of Fame"

[dlaw]

We need a gallery of pics called "The Shitty Sign Work Hall of Fame"

That's a great idea

[Brian]

We need a gallery of pics called "The Shitty Sign Work Hall of Fame"

That's a great idea

I guess it should be hall of "SHAME"

[Erik Sine]

It is done. Visit the gallery or

http://www.thesignsyndicate.com/forums/index.php?/gallery/

[imanut]

Let's look at this from a different perspective - whoever did the neon work - the original work isn't the culprit. If you look at the actual letters - the person could bend. Probably - some service guy took down broken glass, without a pattern, told the neon person "how" it was supposed to fit, and then reported back that it fit fine. I also doubt that the original bender installed it - just doesn't fit into the quality of the letters - and I'm NOT speaking of how it doesn't fit the letters anymore. This was service hacks, installer hacks - pure and simple.

As for those asking about licenses - dont' really think it helps at all. The hacks will still be here. Phoenix all my life, now in Chicago. Phoenix was a bit tougher because they actually inspected the signs - ladder and all. They would red tag the sign, fine the store owner, and put the burden on him to get it fixed and pay for a reinspection before they could turn their sign back on. If they wanted to deal with an illegal hack the first time - they paid a second time cause the first guy couldn't get the permit to fix it and pay to reinspect. Forced ALL the city inspectors to play with the same rule book uniformly across all the sign companies. Didn't matter if they were big or little. Phoenix inspector at the time, Mike Johnston was the force behind those changes. For the most part, in Chicago - they really don't give a shit as long as they get their permit and inspection fees. Most of the inspectors haven't a clue as to what is legal, or why it isn't.

gn