What You Need to Know About Wall-Mounting Exterior Vertical Banners

Increasingly, our outdoor street light banner bracket sales folks receive questions regarding wall mounting vertical banners on exterior walls. Because there is much to know before you install this type of banner, KBW/Consort does have dependable and creative solutions to accomplish this.

The challenges in selecting the proper mounting methods include several factors such as the width and length of the banners, how high off the ground the mounting will be, what construction the wall surface material is and what surrounding environmental conditions exist that would either increase or reduce potential wind load on the banner.

What most new-comers to the wall-mounted banner world don't realize is that wind force is a formidable and relentless force with which to be reckoned and typically the higher off the ground the more intense the wind force. The wind seems to want to remove what man puts up. And, the constant breezes and resulting vibrations on banners tend to slowly eat away at the wall at the edges of the Main Casting with banner installations that are not properly planned and executed. For this reason, we almost always recommend the use of an intermediate steel or aluminum mounting plate between the Main Casting of the Banner Bracket and the wall. This plate spreads the wind force vibrations onto a much wider surface area. And, subsequently will keep the banner bracket's Main Casting from wearing away at the wall surface material. Even if the wall is concrete a plate is recommended to disperse the force and to provide extra fastening points. With our plates, we provide four (4) mounting holes as shown on the photo. Note that our plates are provided with two threaded studs welded onto the front to secure the Main Casting. Also, custom powdercoat colors and ornamental shapes are available.

With weaker wall materials, we will often suggest that through-bolts be used, if possible, where the bolts would go all the way through the wall to a second plate or large washers on the interior of the wall. As for whether to use lag bolts, anchor bolts, screws or through-bolts - if you have questions about which to use - we suggest you contact a local architect, engineer or contractor to assist with those decisions. That person can inspect the site if necessary and determine what sort of fastening is appropriate for the construction and materials involved. In some cases the location of an intended exterior wall banner may be significantly protected from excessive wind force due to neighboring buildings or trees or, the opposite effect is possible, where certain conditions will intensify wind force in a sort of wind tunnel effect. A professional can assist with that determination. They will need to know the size and height of the banner to determine wind load.

This particular blog is meant as a primer for this topic and may raise more questions than it answers. But, they are very important questions and we encourage all of this be taken very seriously. For more complete information, please see these links: our BannerFlex Banner Bracket Wall-Mount website and our Wind Force Calculator as well as the KBW BannerFlex Banner Bracket options including the new more flexible Airow bracket.

Questions? Email or call us today!  info@consort.com and 800.525.6424, ext 0
Roger Lepley