About Fixing Stone House Signs

This is a general information article about the various techniques for fixing stone granite and marble etc house signs.

PLEASE NOTE: You can see tutorial video’s on fixing your house signs here: HOW TO FIX YOUR HOUSE SIGN, VIDEO.

“SCREW FIXING” A HOUSE SIGN:

This is the most common method of fixing a house sign or house number and it is probably the simplest, but there are one or two things you will need to take into account.
Choice of screw is vital, use either solid brass or preferably stainless steel.
Ordinary steel screws will rust very quickly, brass coated screws will eventually corrode and even galvanised screws will rust if the galvanised coating is scratched, as it surely will be!
The risk from rusting or corroding screws is not just the sign crashing to the ground, but that many house sign materials are susceptable to staining. Slate and stone will stain from rust, and marble will positively love to absorb rust or corrosion stains. Even grantites may stain somewhat, though not quite as badly as other materials, but why take the risk?

We always supplied stainless steel dome head screws with our house signs and drilled plaques. As you can see neat and tidy!

“BUILDING IN” YOUR HOUSE SIGN:

Many house signs are built into stone or brick walls, in this case you must specify that you do not want your house sign drilled!

There are few problems to worry about with this method, however if your house sign is made from Yorkstone or Marble be sure to use a clean washed sand as the minerals in some sands may stain and discolour your house sign, avoid dark red sands and look for red mineral patches in the sand. Likewise watch out for your friendly bricklayer throwing his fag ends into the cement, nicotine stains are deadly! Slate and Granite house signs are largely immune to this problem as water does not easily pass through the material.

Hidden pin fixing.

First of all, hidden fixings are only available on house signs of 20mm or thicker, if you want a hidden fixing, please ask whether your house sign is suitable.
This method of fixing a house sign seems to frighten some people but it is in fact very easy!
Our hiiden fixing house signs are hung on one or two stainless steel pins fixed into the back of the house sign at a downward angle. ]

The single pin fixing , used on the smaller house signs are simpicity itself to fix. Simply drill a hole in the wall at a downward angle and hang the sign into the hole. This is suprisingly secure, the hole does not even need to be drilled very accurately (as long as the house sign is centred!) as the drill hole can be much bigger than the pin. For a more secure fixing simply glue the sign into place. Fixing a larger house sign needing two pins is just a bit trickier, as levelling the house sign can take a few minutes more, but this is not difficult, and a bit of packing under one of the pins will usually do the trick.

GLUEING YOUR HOUSE SIGN TO THE WALL:

Sticking or glueing a house sign or house number in place will avoid the neccessity of drilling either the houe sign or the wall and avoid screw heads spoiling the appearance of the sign.
Just sticking your house sign to the wall seems on the face of it a bit of a chancy idea. However it is becoming a common practice and so far we have not had any reports of stone house signs crashing to the ground!

The fixing process itself is very simple and as long as you can keep the house sign in place, and level until the adhesive holds, it should be no problem. If the stone sign is heavy, try holding the house sign in place with small pins or hold it up on a timber prop. Once the adhesive has cured, (check the instructions for curing times) give your sign a good tugging! If it does come away try another method such as screwing or pinning. Modern adhesives are fantastic and you could use any of the gunned gripfix or silicon types to fix your house sign, however there are a new breed of adhesives commonly available in good hardware stores that claim to stick anything to anything even in the wet! Choose a good brand and just be sure that it is suitable for exterior use.
One tip, wash the back of your house sign and the wall to remove dust, and allow it to dry before trying to fix it.
If you need any further guidance on fixing your house sign or house number, contaact your house sign maker or stonemason as they will have the necessary knowledge about the material used. If you have an unusual fixing problem please do not hesitate to contact us. When in doubt use stainless steel to fix your house sign!