Ever think about the challenge of extreme weather?

I think it is fair to say the weather is probably the biggest challenge most of face on a regular basis, especially over the last few months when the weather around the world has been extreme and unseasonable.

Our sign cousins in the other hemisphere have had record low temperatures, and we’ve experienced record high temperatures.

Shane Drew has been involved in the sign industry since 1992. Before that he had a very successful career in sales, winning several Sales Awards before deciding on a career change in his early 30’s. Shane has been writing freelance articles since 2002 and is a sign industry mentor for sign shops both in Australia and Europe, is a regular contributor to Europe’s biggest sign industry forum, and is well known in local circles for his passion about the Australian Sign Industry. Shane is Managing Director of Drews Sign It Pty Ltd, a family business who are supporters of several major charities and not-for-profit organisations. A recent highlight is his appointment as a Green Guardian for his support of Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, on Queensland’s Southern Gold Coast.

Melbourne, often considered more temperate in weather patterns, has experienced huge temperature swings, not to mention the massive storms that came along with them.

Jill, an American colleague and owner of Jills Custom Signs in Butler PA, has been experiencing some very cold days, with lots of snow in the coldest months. I asked her how she coped with working as a traditional sign writer in such poor weather.

She responded “I store my paint in a metal cabinet out in the garage, it’s all enamel based so even if it freezes (I don’t think it does) it’s still good. I have to store all my vinyls in the original boxes in my office, which is heated with a small electric heater.”

She says “I have a lovely overhead gas heater in my workshop, I can make my work area as warm and toasty as my house. But it adds about $400/month to my heating bill., so I have not used it in 4 years. In the colder months I assemble signs and banners on my dining room table in the warm house.”

When we were discussing this, Jill was working on a 1200 x 2400 alumalite panel which was to be double-sided and have painted accents. “It just plain takes the paint too long to dry in cold weather, even if I did turn the garage heater back on.” she said.  “ As for fitting vehicles in winter, I try to arrange to do it at the customer’s place, although I have rented out a heated garage or two for a nominal fee.”

Martin, another colleague based in the UK related his experience during the recent snow storms that embraced Great Britain.

He says “I couldn’t even get near my unit with the car for most of the week. The unit is on a small road that leads up to a set of farm gates, so it’s not a road that gets a lot of traffic or the Council grit.”

Martin added “ The cost of heating makes a huge difference to someone like me who just works on their own, especially at this time of the year when it has to be on for most of the day to allow you to work.

What I have found is that if I am just working in the office it isn’t that bad as I have a small oil filled electric radiator in there and as the office is very small it heats up quickly and doesn’t cost a fortune to keep warm. If I have any other sort of work to do then I have to heat the rest of the workshop, I have an area for vehicles, work benches, substrate storage, tools and other machinery but it isn’t divided up at all so I need to try and heat the whole place. I’ve tried microwave heaters and they are Ok for heating up something like the side of a van but I didn’t find them that good when trying to heat an area you were working in and space heaters kick out a lot of dust so I use a gas heater that has a head on it like a household gas heater so it’s just giving off radiant heat not circulating it as such.”

Phill, a friend and colleague from Scotland has a similar story. “When the snow first hit, our biggest problem was getting vans into the unit. We had to put off a few vehicles  and scheduled these to be done a few days later. Come the Tuesday morning another heavy batch of snow meant we had to spend an hour or so with shovels digging a track into the unit to get the vans in. Then once inside – as the snow melted the floor became waterlogged.

Exterior wise – we had a number of signs that were supposed to have been fitted prior to the snow storm, and they had to be postponed too.”

John, another friend and colleague from the UK, and owner of a sign company that specialises in branding and re branding vehicles for some of Europe’s biggest fleets, relates “We have heat in our fitting bay, a row of infra-reds down both sides to heat up the sides of vans. That’s usually enough, but we’ve also had to get a 17kW gas blower going as well some times.

It does slow things down a lot, and it’s came just as we started two weeks intensive van re-branding for a new customer.

Plus, there are high running costs associated with keeping a large fitting bay warm!”

Rob, a friend and colleague from Scotland, and owner of a very large sign business, makes the point that “we need to make sure everything is taped up with application tape…BUT… because it’s so cold the vinyl is shattering and breaking into bits on contact with the vans/sign surface.”

He added “It hasn’t stopped us fitting work completely, but has quartered the amount that can be done comfortably. The work we can get done has slowed down a lot also due to the cold and making things a nightmare for the fitters. Signage is getting done but slowly, vehicles are almost a no-go unless fitted in our own place.”

On the other side of the world, here in Australia, I spoke with Jason from Mediapoint in Melbourne, who was experiencing a series of 43 degrees days at the time.

He tells me “fitting vinyl prints outdoors, everything has to be app taped so nothing stretches and distorts.

I have fitted in similar extremely hot conditions without the app tape and it nearly turned into an utter mess.”

Smaller sign shops probably do it tougher than the bigger shops, when it comes to extreme weather conditions. I know from my own experience, my own fitting bay takes a lot to keep cool in the summer, and a lot more to keep warm in the winter.

End of the day, the cost of running the heating or cooling of a work area can get very expensive. You realise very quickly that extreme weather will often have a bearing on an extreme power bill.

Its important to take that into account when you quote. It is a real expense that is often overlooked when you take into account the cost associated with installations and production costs.

With electricity costs going up, its not going to get any cheaper either.

Shane Drew
www.dsi.net.au