The last 5% carries most of the risk
Installation is a small share of the budget. A panel 40mm low, a letter off its baseline or a fixing that finds a mortar joint will still undo months of design in the one place the client looks at it.
07Fitted without the fuss.
Installation
Our own fitting teams, who understand complex construction programmes. Correct heights, correct locations, clean finish.
In short
Our own installation teams survey, set out, fix and snag every sign to the schedule: correct height, correct location, clean finish. They work to the construction programme, in live hospitals, schools and offices as well as new builds, and hand over an as-installed schedule with a photograph of every sign, ready for certification.
Our own installation teams work to the construction programme, not against it, handling complex sites and tight handovers without drama.
Correct heights, correct locations, clean finish. No comebacks.
01Why it matters
The problem this solves
The wall decides the fixing
The drawing says blockwork and the corridor turns out to be dry-lined with nothing solid behind the top fixing. Our surveys find that before anything is made, so the fixing method arrives with the sign.
Compliance is decided by whoever holds the drill
A tactile sign at 1,900mm, on the hinge side, or fixed over an exit sign is a failure no drawing can rescue. Our fitters work to the standards as well as the schedule, because heights and positions are part of what we certify.
Fewer hand-offs, fewer surprises
When the people who surveyed the wall and drew the sign also fit it, nothing is lost between a designer, a fabricator and a fitting contractor. That's a large part of why one supplier, design to install, typically comes in around 20% below split procurement.
02How we do it
Step by step
The same sequence on every project, run by our own teams, so nothing falls between packages.
- 01
Survey, more than once
A scoping visit to price what is really there, a setting-out survey once finishes are in, and a short walk before installation. We record clear wall, finished floor level, door handing, substrate, services, headroom and access at every location.
- 02
Fixings matched to the substrate
Pattressing agreed at first fix for anything heavy on plasterboard, resin anchors and a cover meter in concrete, pinned fixings in stone, bonded fixings on fire doors and glass. Never a hole in a curtain-wall mullion.
- 03
Programme, permits and paperwork
Inductions, RAMS, permits to work and escorted access arranged in advance, with the work planned around the building's day: evenings and weekends in hospitals, summer works in schools, guests and staff in hotels and offices.
- 04
Setting out from a datum
Every elevation is marked from one datum, never from the sign next door, so errors don't accumulate down a corridor. Cut lettering goes up from full-size templates, levelled by laser and adjusted by eye where round letters need to break the baseline.
- 05
Fix, protect, clean
Signs are installed in schedule order, protective film comes off the moment a face is up, and finished floors are treated as the client's, because they are.
- 06
Snag against the schedule
Every sign is checked for right sign, right location, right height, level, plumb and clean. A long snag list means the survey wasn't done properly, so we aim to keep ours short.
- 07
Handover on record
You receive the as-installed schedule matched to photographs of every sign, the fixing and adhesive record, spares for the panels most likely to change and the signed certificates.
03What you receive
Deliverables
What lands on your desk, ready to price, approve and build from.
- Site survey record for every sign location: wall, substrate, services and access
- Fixing method specified per substrate, agreed with the main contractor and facade contractor where needed
- Installation programme, RAMS and permits coordinated with the construction programme
- Installation by our own teams in schedule order, with removal of old signage where it is in scope
- Snag list closed against the schedule
- As-installed schedule with a photograph of every sign in place
- Fixing and adhesive record, spares and signed compliance certificates for the building file
- A 10-year warranty on what we supply and install
04Standards
Compliant by default
The standards and regulations this work is designed to. Compliance is the baseline, not an upsell.
- Technical Guidance Document M and BS 8300
- Tactile and braille signs within the band of roughly 1,400 to 1,700mm identified in BS 8300, on the latch side and clear of the door swing, with clear headroom under suspended and projecting signs.
- Technical Guidance Document B
- Escape and fire signage positions come from the building's fire strategy. Wayfinding signage is coordinated around them and never placed over them.
- ISO 7010
- The prescribed safety sign graphics, installed in the positions the fire strategy sets.
- Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022
- For residential buildings over 11 metres, floor identification and flat-number signage in stairwells, legible in low light.
Who carries out the installation?
Our own installation teams. The people fitting your signs work with the people who surveyed the walls and hold the production file, so a question on site gets answered in a phone call rather than through a third party.
Can you install in a live building?
Yes, and most of our work goes into occupied buildings. In hospitals that means infection control, permits and narrow windows between clinics; in schools it usually means July and August; in hotels and offices it means working around guests and staff and leaving the floor clean hour by hour.
What height do you mount tactile and braille signs at?
Within the band of roughly 1,400 to 1,700mm that BS 8300 identifies for signs read by touch, and we work to 1.4 to 1.6 metres on the latch side of the door, clear of the swing, so a reading hand finds every sign in the same place.
What if the wall isn't what the drawing shows?
We expect that, which is why we survey before manufacture. Dry-lining, services and devices already on the wall are recorded at survey, and the fixing method is chosen before the sign is made rather than improvised on the day.
Can you fix signs to glass and fire doors?
Yes, without drilling either. Glass takes bonded standoffs, clamps or detailing agreed with the facade contractor, and fire door signage is adhesive-fixed so the door's certification isn't compromised.
Do you remove existing signage?
Yes, where it is in scope, and on rebrands it is often half the job. Who makes good the shadow of the old sign is agreed at survey, when it costs nothing, rather than discovered at handover.
What do we receive at handover?
An as-installed schedule with a photograph of every sign, the fixing and adhesive record, spares for the panels most likely to change, the signed compliance certificates and a 10-year warranty.
07Insights
Further reading
From Drawing to Wall · 6 min read
Signage installation: why the last 5% is the hardest
Months of design are realised or ruined in a fortnight on site. What good installation actually takes: fixings, setting out, live buildings, snagging.
From Drawing to Wall · 5 min read
The signage site survey: measure twice, install once
Almost every problem that surfaces on installation day was standing in plain sight months earlier. The survey is the cheap hour that finds it.
From Drawing to Wall · 7 min read
Sign manufacturing, step by step: from artwork to factory floor
Follow one sign from the production file to the wall: print, cut, fabricate, check, pack, fit. Most of what goes wrong with signage goes wrong here.
Accessible by Design · 6 min read
Accessible signage certification: what it means, and why we do it by default
Certification is evidence, not assurance. Contrast, tactile relief and mounting position: measured, recorded, and handed over with the building.
Compliance & the Law · 7 min read
The statutory signage checklist for building handover
The signs a building must carry by law, room by room: fire and escape, Part M, plant rooms, capacity, and the paperwork that proves it at handover.
Compliance & the Law · 7 min read
The post-Grenfell wayfinding signage regulations: floor and flat identification above 11 metres
The UK's wayfinding signage regulations turn on two numbers: 11 and 18 metres. What they require, from sizes to heights to wording, and where they get missed.
Installation
Talk to a specialist about your project.
Approvals cut from months to days, typically around 20% off the wayfinding package, and one supplier from design to installation.