Request a Quote | What to Include

There is no form on this page deliberately. Signage pricing depends on things a set of dropdowns cannot capture, and a form that collects the wrong details produces a number that has to be revised. Email or call, include what you can from the list below, and we will ask about whatever is missing.

Estimating: estimates@excelsignsystems.com · (330) 555-0148

What we need

Always

The site address. This determines the zoning district and therefore what is permitted and how long approval takes. It is the single most useful thing you can send.
What the sign needs to do. Identify a building, direct traffic, mark rooms, brand a storefront. Function first; we will get to type.
Who you are in the project. Owner, tenant, architect, general contractor or facilities. It changes who approves what.

Where it applies

Any design guidelines that bind you. Landlord criteria, campus standards, historic district rules, brand packages. Finding one of these late is the most common cause of rework.
Photographs of the existing condition. Phone photographs are fine. A wide shot showing the whole elevation is more useful than a close-up.
Drawings, if they exist. Elevations, floor plans, door schedules, a site plan. For interior programmes a door schedule alone lets us produce a genuinely accurate count.
A fixed date, if you have one. An opening, a term start, a ribbon cutting. Tell us at the beginning — permitting will not compress, so a date disclosed late often cannot be met.
A budget range, if you have one. Not to price up to it. Signage spans an enormous range for the same apparent brief, and knowing the range means we propose something buildable rather than something you have to reject.
A soil report, for a monument or pylon, if one exists for the site.

How long an estimate takes

For a straightforward single sign where you have sent the address and photographs, two to four working days. For an interior programme or a multi-site project, one to two weeks, because the count has to be established before anything can be priced and the count is the whole number.

If a site survey is needed before we can price at all, we will say so. Survey visits for estimating purposes are not charged within our normal service area.

How the pricing is structured

Quotes are broken into design, permitting, fabrication and installation as separate lines, so you can see where the money is and make informed trades. Clients are sometimes surprised that permitting is a real line item; on a difficult jurisdiction it can exceed the cost of a small sign, and hiding that inside a single figure serves nobody.

Prices hold for sixty days. Aluminium and electrical component costs have moved sharply enough in recent years that we cannot honestly hold longer than that, and we would rather requote than build in a contingency you pay for whether or not it is needed.

What we will tell you honestly

If the design cannot be built to last in the material specified, before you buy it rather than after.
If your jurisdiction is one of the slow ones, as soon as we have the address.
If the schedule cannot be met without subcontracting fabrication, in which case we will decline rather than broker it.
If a local fabricator would serve you better because of distance.
If what you are describing is a repair rather than a replacement, which is frequently the case and is always cheaper.