Parking and Safety Signs: Sizes, Rules and Materials

How Do You Separate Routine Signs From Required Signs?

Sort every sign on your list into routine or required before you design anything. A routine sign carries your own words and branding. A required sign carries wording, symbols, colors, sizes and mounting heights set by a code or a regulator, and you confirm those details first.

Towing signs deserve a special note. Many states and cities set the exact wording, phone numbers and size a sign must show before a vehicle can be towed from private property. Ask your property manager or city for the rule, then put that approved text on the proof.

Which Material Should Facility Signs Use?

Use .040 aluminum for nearly every outdoor facility sign. It will not rust, carries a 5+ year outdoor durability guarantee, and bolts to a U-channel post, a wall or a fence through drilled holes. Use 3 mm ACM for a larger sign that must stay perfectly flat, and anti-slip floor graphics for directions inside the building.

Our aluminum signs are UV printed. They are not made with reflective sheeting, so they are the right choice for private messages in a lit parking lot or on a building, and the wrong choice for any sign a rule says must reflect headlights.

How Do You Write a Parking Sign Message?

Write a parking sign in three lines: the instruction, who it applies to, and what happens otherwise. Reserved, Customer Parking Only, 30 Minute Limit. Use the largest letters for the instruction, because drivers read it from a moving car.

A useful rule for letter size is one inch of capital letter height for every 10 feet of reading distance. A 12 x 18 inch sign read from 30 feet needs capitals about 3 inches tall, which leaves room for two or three short lines. If you need more words, step up to the 18 x 24 inch size rather than shrinking the type.

Use high contrast: white on red, white on blue, black on white or white on green. Keep the property name and phone number at the bottom in smaller type, as on the red Summit Property Mgmt sign shown above.

How Do Indoor Signs Connect With the Parking Lot?

Carry the same names, colors and arrows from the parking lot into the building. If the lot sign says Deliveries Around Back, the dock door should say Receiving, and the hallway inside should point to Shipping with the same word. Matching words let visitors and drivers follow one trail.

Inside, anti-slip floor graphics mark lanes and arrows on smooth floors, and acrylic or ACM signs name rooms and suites. Our office and warehouse wayfinding guide maps a full route from the lot to the front desk.

What Should the Final Proof Review Include?

Check every word against the approved wording, every symbol against the code drawing, and every hole against the post or wall. The free digital proof is exactly what prints, and nothing prints until you approve it.

1. Wording matches the approved text for any required sign, word for word.
2. Phone numbers for towing companies and property managers, digit by digit.
3. Size and orientation match the post or wall space.
4. Holes sit clear of every letter and symbol.
5. Quantity covers every space, door and entrance on your list.

How Do You Keep Facility Signs Current?

Keep a simple sign schedule: one row per sign with its location, wording, size, material, hole pattern and the date it went up. When a phone number, a towing company or a parking rule changes, the schedule shows every sign that carries the old text, and a reorder matches the original size and holes exactly.

Walk the property a few times a year. Look for signs that were bent by a vehicle, covered by a tree, or left behind after a restripe moved the spaces. Check that every required sign is still where the code drawing says it should be. Replace a damaged sign with the same size and hole pattern so it bolts straight onto the existing post.

How Do You Order Facility Signs?

Make a list of every sign by location, sort it into routine and required, confirm the required wording with your local authority, then order. Open the aluminum sign page, choose the size, sides, corners and holes, send your file, and approve the free digital proof.

Aluminum and ACM signs are made in 3 business days after approval, floor graphics in 48 hours, and every product ships by tracked ground service for a flat $10 per product. For parking sign sizes, posts and reflectivity in more detail, read aluminum parking signs: sizes, reflectivity and posts.