ImageFirst News

Be a Pro When It Comes To Faux

There are a lot of options when it comes to bases and dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments for mon­u­ment signs. 

Pour­ing a con­crete form or lay­ing a brick base is not for every­one and may be cost pro­hib­i­tive, a logis­tics chal­lenge, or just not make sense. 

Here are 5 options to achieve some nat­ur­al looks with faux materials.

1. Con­crete: This look is achieved with a Spray Fin­ish. Gives you the look of con­crete using a durable exte­ri­or grade DryVit prod­uct with a sand peb­ble type addi­tive to pro­vide the texture.

2. Stucco/​EIFS: This look is achieved using a Tex­tured Fin­ish. The look of stuc­co (or EIFS, exte­ri­or insu­lat­ed fin­ish sys­tem) uses a sim­i­lar prod­uct as the con­crete only the fin­ish is hand trow­eled giv­ing a more pronounced/​rough finish.

3. Brick: This look is achieved using a com­bi­na­tion of Spray + Tex­ture Fin­ish. To achieve a brick look the entire base is giv­en a spray fin­ish which will rep­re­sent the grout lines. Then a ​“brick” tem­plate is laid over top and anoth­er lay­er, (the brick lay­er) is hand trow­eled to give the rough look of a brick. 

4. Rust­ed steel: This is achieved by cre­at­ing a chem­i­cal reac­tion on alu­minum with steel flakes and a chem­i­cal agent, then clear coat­ed to stop the process and cure the sub­strate. Read more on this tech­nique here.

5. *Wood: This can be achieved a cou­ple ways. Shown in the images above are both pow­der coat­ed alu­minum pan­els and paint­ed MDF board.

*These fin­ish­es are not cre­at­ed in our man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ty but we do assemble/​build with these mate­ri­als in-house.

Ben­e­fits: 

These prod­ucts are all exte­ri­or rat­ed and require lit­tle to min­i­mal main­te­nance.  Total project sav­ings can range between 35-50% ver­sus a real mason­ry depend­ing on the size of your base.
All prod­uct options, exclud­ing foam pan­els, are cre­at­ed in our man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ty in Grin­nell, IA.
The entire sign is more flex­i­ble. If you ever need­ed to re-locate a sign to a new loca­tion it can be done very simply. 

Draw­backs: 

The cost of a faux fin­ish over a paint­ed fin­ish is about 10-15%. 
Using a faux fin­ish does add 1-2 days to the pro­duc­tion time of the sign due to lay­ers and draw­ing of the finishes.

Dis­clo­sure:

With all fin­ish­es, wash (just use water and dish soap) sig­nage 1-2 times per year for opti­mal fin­ish lifespan.
Always avoid direct expo­sure to irri­ga­tion systems.

Image­First™ pro­duces about 25 signs per year that con­tain faux fin­ish­es. While this is a small por­tion of busi­ness it is nice to have these options. 

If you have any ques­tions email us here info@​imagefirstsigns.​com or reach out to your favorite IF rep­re­sen­ta­tive today.