How a project runs
Five stages. The only one that regularly moves is permitting, and it moves because it depends on a municipal review calendar rather than on us. Everything below assumes a single-site project of ordinary complexity; multi-site programmes are sequenced differently.
1. Survey and existing conditions
We visit the site, measure, photograph, and record what is actually there rather than what the drawings show. On exterior work we establish the property line, setbacks, and where the sign can legally sit. On interior work we count doors and check them against the door schedule, because the schedule is usually a few per cent out.
We also pull the zoning district and its sign regulations at this stage, and ask for any landlord or campus design guidelines. Finding a private design guideline late is one of the more expensive ways to lose a month.
Five to ten working days, mostly waiting on site access.
2. Design and shop drawings
Concepts first if the design is open, or straight to shop drawings if you already have a standard or a brand package. Either way the deliverable is a dimensioned drawing set showing elevations, sections, materials, finishes, illumination and mounting, at a level of detail sufficient for permit submittal and for our own shop to build from.
Colour is approved against a physical sample, not a printed proof or a screen. We will paint a sample chip and, on large exterior work, bring it to the site to be looked at in the light the sign will live in.
Ten to fifteen working days, plus your review time.
3. Permitting
We prepare and submit the permit package, and where structural calculations are required we have them sealed by a licensed engineer. Landlord design-review submittals are prepared in parallel, since those boards often meet monthly and the calendars rarely align.
Three to eight weeks, and this is the stage that moves. Some jurisdictions turn a straightforward sign permit in ten days; others require a hearing that meets monthly and a variance application that adds two months. We tell you which one you are dealing with as soon as we know the address, because it determines everything downstream.
4. Fabrication
Build starts on permit approval, not before. We do not pre-fabricate against an expected approval, because a condition of approval that changes a dimension turns finished work into scrap.
Metal, paint, acrylic, print and electrical all happen in Marren. Every illuminated assembly is wired, closed up and run on the bench for at least twenty-four hours. We photograph completed work before it ships, which on multi-phase programmes has repeatedly settled questions about what was delivered when.
Four to six weeks for most work; longer for large masonry monuments or unusually large runs.
5. Installation
Our own crews, our own equipment. We coordinate access, lane or walkway closures, and any building-specific requirements — infection control in healthcare, background checks and summer-only access in schools, after-hours work in occupied retail.
Electrical connection is by a licensed electrician: ours, or your contractor's if that suits the project better. Final inspection is scheduled with the jurisdiction where required, and we attend it.
Installation closes with a walkthrough. Anything on the punch list is ours to fix, and we do not invoice the final retention until that list is clear.
One to five days on site for a typical project.
What we need from you
- Site access for the survey, and a contact who can authorise it
- Any landlord, campus or brand design guidelines that apply
- A soil report if one exists, for foundation design
- One named person who can approve drawings and copy
- Realistic notice of a fixed opening date, at the beginning rather than at fabrication
The last two matter most. Approval routed through a committee adds weeks nobody scheduled, and a fixed date disclosed late usually cannot be recovered because permitting will not compress.