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Any comments or advice on my doing a lettering job on new "Sunbrella" awnings? They are already up on building so vinyl would be much easier to do, for me. Comments, Brands??
-------------------- Gerald Barlow Artworx Turlock, CA
95380 artworx@bigvalley.net Posts: 243 | From: Turlock, CA 95380, USA | Registered: Dec 2002
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If it's the fabric form of Sunbrella, you can't make it stick. I learned an expensive lesson trying to do so. However, the guy I paid to come out and paint it taught me how to paint Sunbrella awnings and I've painted thousands since, so I'm way ahead on the deal.
I made some instructions which I posted here some years ago. I'll look up my instructions and email them to you tomorrow.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5125 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Painted Sunbrella awnings have been a major part of our business for about 17 years.
We often use Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint and A-100 because we have a SW paint store two blocks away, although any high quality 100% acrylic latex will work. Although flat paint matches the sheen of the awning fabric better than gloss or semi gloss, I now use the satin or semi gloss. It seems to be a bit tougher. Sherwin-Williams will sell sample quarts for under ten dollars but they don’t have UV inhibitors. They will work well for the primer coats since those will be covered by the finish coat.
Home Depot will custom match and sell a sample of paint for only a few dollars. The sample sizes are about 8 oz. and will handle just about any awning. Behr Premium Plus has a recoat window of 2 hours. Their Ultra has a recoat window of 4 hours. Use Premium Plus. It will last the life of the awning and then some and your production will be much quicker. It’s important to wait the entire recoat time. If not, the paint will still be a bit soft and may peel when you remove your masking.
We use high performance cast vinyl for the mask since the adhesive is much more aggressive than paint mask and the vinyl is more conformable. I don’t like to use translucent vinyl, even the cast versions, because it’s not as flexible. Cast film use for wraps works well. Before removing the premask after the vinyl is stuck down, I’ve found using an iron set on high temperature helps to adhere the mask better. Let it cool a few minutes and carefully remove the premask. If some of the mask has a tendency to wrinkle or tunnel, a hair dryer can heat those sections enough to push them back down before you paint.
To keep the finish colors from bleeding under the mask because of the textured finish on the material, the first two (primer) coats are paint mixed to match the awning. The primer coats are the same paint that would be used as a finish color, it’s just being used to seal the edges. If you have a sample of Sunbrella, the Home Depot computer matching does an adequate job. You can also mix some paint to match right on a stripped out portion you’re going to letter. The 100% acrylic paints generally dry darker. I tried using clear for the primer coats but found it sometimes dries to a ghosted edge and doesn’t look as clean as if I’d used a color matched to the Sunbrella. If I’m lettering on a striped canvas, I use the clear.
I go over the edges of the vinyl with a hair dryer and press or roll them down before painting my first coat of primer. If there is a seam in the awning, heating up that spot and pressing the vinyl down around the seam works very well. If you get some paint bleeding under the mask, don’t panic and don’t try to squish the mask down, it will just make for more cleanup. If some of the masking is tunneling a bit after it's painted but doesn't have more than a small bit of paint bleeding under, you can push it down and use a hair dryer to dry the paint to hold it in place. Another bit of paint over the spot you're trying to get to stick down, along with force drying that bit of paint can help get that area to stay down.
After that dries, we paint the finish color (usually three coats) and then strip the mask. After the first finish coating, I lightly sand with mesh sandpaper that’s used for drywall finishing. This takes off some of the roughness raised on the fabric by the paint. Sanding is not necessary but just makes for a slightly nicer job. After the third coat, strip the mask away from the painted areas, not toward them to minimize pulling up paint. The masking can be stripped away after the third coat dries well to the touch. You don’t have to wait the full recoat window time.
If you have some bleed under areas, you can scrape them off with an Xacto blade. The #16 scoring blade works very well for this. To true up a straight edge that has some bleed, align a metal straight edge on the painted portion so that only the bleed under is visible, hold the edge down securely and scrape with the Xacto blade.
If you’ve pulled up some paint, you can use a single edge razor as a straight masking edge, pushing it firmly against the Sunbrella and paint right up on it. Dipping the #16 Xacto blade in paint and dabbing it onto small repairs works well.
If you get droplets of paint on areas you did not wish to, wait until it dries completely and then pick it off.
For marking on the Sunbrella, soapstone is best. I buy a package of rods that can be sharpened in a pencil sharpener for a few bucks at a welding supply. They may also be available at Home Depot, Lowe’s, or Harbor Freight. The soapstone makes a white line that comes off easily with water.
There is a masking designed for Sunbrella called Fabtac, which has an extremely aggressive tack. I don’t use it in the shop since the high performance cast vinyl does fine. I have used it when I had to letter an awning on site since it is easier to get sufficient bonding out on the jobsite with it. (NOTE: The last time I used Fabtac on the jobsite, it left the adhesive on the awning, necessitating much extra clean up. I finished the job with high performance cast vinyl for mask. Evidently, the Fabtac doesn’t have a very long shelf life. I won’t be using it again.)
When working on the jobsite, I take a small piece of MDO or Dibond with me (a couple square feet) to hold behind the awning to give a solid surface as I try to bond the masking.
Usually, it is easier to just bring the whole thing back to the shop to letter. If the awning is manageable, you can take the clips off the wall and bring the stretched awning and frame back to the shop, or you can pay an awning company to take it down and reinstall it.
If you are stuck with doing the work on the jobsite, it can be done as one long day with a break for lunch, or two trips to the jobsite on consecutive days. You can mask it and paint the background primer color, let that dry enough to recoat with that color, break for lunch and then come back to paint the three coats of finish color. You need to figure in the travel time and time wasted waiting for things to dry. On the jobsite should cost at least 50% more than doing in house, likely enough to justify having it taken down and done in the shop.
As far as pricing is concerned, I currently charge the awning companies $3.00 per upright inch per letter. I also add about $60 to $100 set up fee, depending on the quality of the art I get. I'd charge a retail customer about $5.00 an upright inch, plus the set up fee.
For logos, I break them down into components. If it has two 4" portions, a 6" portion, and a 12" section, I'll price it as (2) 4" letters, (1) 6" letter, and (1) 12" letter.
If things are on an arc or the cover is pre sewn as a bubble, I adjust my prices up 25% to 50% for the extra hassle of dealing with the curves. Bubbles are agonizing and you often have to cut the lettering apart and install the masking a letter or two at a time to account for the curves.
Just keep in mind that they have few options on who to get this from. You're likely to be bidding only against yourself. If you have any other questions, you can contact me.
[ March 04, 2021, 06:10 PM: Message edited by: David Harding ]
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5125 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Wow, Dave! Great info (or seminar). I will have to do this job on site as the upholstery folks installed them before calling me. I was going to try straight vinyl but I can see from the surface that paint will be better. I was going to use Matt acrylic medium for thee edge sealer. I did this once before and it worked well. Three coats? Wow. I was hoping to not make this job a career but you da man. Awnings are green and lettering is white. Pretty white bread, (can I still say that). Thanx for all the help! Jer/Artworx
-------------------- Gerald Barlow Artworx Turlock, CA
95380 artworx@bigvalley.net Posts: 243 | From: Turlock, CA 95380, USA | Registered: Dec 2002
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You may well get by with two finish coats. The 100% acrylic whites cover quite well. I use three because I'm usually doing them in the shop and it's easy to dash out there and put on an insurance coat. If you make sure you've got good coverage, two will suffice.
I do two primer coats to make sure I have good edge sealing because sometimes a spot didn't stick down too well or I just didn't get enough paint in that place.
One nice thing about doing the job onsite is the mask generally doesn't tunnel. It's easy to stretch out and there are no folds in the fabric. Most of the tunneling I run up against is at places where the awning was folded up before it was delivered to me. A brayer roller is useful for pushing down the edges.
Another trick I do to help set the edges down is wear a jersey glove on one hand while holding a hair dryer in the other. The glove helps keep my fingers from getting too hot as I try to stick the vinyl masking down. If you see some of the woven pattern through the vinyl, you know you've got really good stick.
[ March 05, 2021, 03:25 PM: Message edited by: David Harding ]
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5125 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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