Monument Sign Repair and Refurbishment
A lot of the monument signs around Greensboro were built well and then left alone for a decade or two. The brick is fine. The letters are chalky, the face is yellowed, one pier leans, and the lights went out three winters ago. Tearing all of it down is often the wrong answer.
We repair and refurbish existing monument signs: business signs, subdivision entrances, church boards and office park directories. Most HOAs that call us need a refresh, not a rebuild. We look at the sign, tell you what is sound and what is not, and price the fix.
New faces, letters and paint
Sun is hard on signs. Acrylic faces yellow and crack, vinyl lettering fades and peels, and painted aluminum chalks. Humid summers make it worse, since moisture gets behind loose vinyl and under paint and lifts it.
A new face in a cabinet is one of the quickest fixes we do. Cast and routed letters can be stripped, primed and repainted, or replaced if pieces are missing. Painted metal panels get sanded, primed with a metal primer and refinished with a coating made for outdoor signs. On masonry entrances, we can also clean the brick and stone and reseal the cap so it sheds water again.
Cracked brick, loose stone and leaning bases
Masonry damage on a sign almost always starts below ground. Piedmont red clay holds water and heaves, and a footing that was too shallow or poorly drained lets the base move. You see it as cracked mortar joints, a cap that has shifted, stone veneer pulling away, or the whole sign leaning.
Small cracks and loose stones can be repointed and reset. A leaning sign is a bigger question. If the footing is sound and the lean is small, we can sometimes reset or underpin it. If the footing has failed, the honest fix is a new footing with proper drainage, and we can often reuse the face, letters and even some brick. If the whole entrance needs to start over, that is the job covered under building a new entrance wall.
Lighting that quit
A dark sign at night is usually one of four things: a dead power supply, a failed photocell or timer, bad connections from moisture, or old fluorescent tubes at the end of their life. The Triad's summer thunderstorms add a fifth, which is surge damage after a lightning strike nearby.
We test the circuit, find the failed part and fix it. If the cabinet still has fluorescent tubes, we usually recommend swapping the cabinet to LED modules instead of buying new tubes. It uses less power, lasts far longer and pairs well with new surge protection. Ground floodlights at entrances get new fixtures, new lamps and a fresh photocell.
Rebranding an existing sign
A new owner, a new name or a new logo does not always mean a new sign. If the base and cabinet are in good shape, we can change the face, swap the letters, repaint the frame to match the new colors, and leave the footing where it is. On an office park or medical center sign, swapping one tenant panel is a small job.
Keeping the existing structure can also make permits simpler, since you are changing the face rather than building a new freestanding sign. We check what the city or county needs for the change and handle it.
A rebrand is also a good time to fix what has been bothering you about the old sign. Letters that were always too small to read from the road can come up a size. A face that never had lighting can get an LED cabinet. A plain aluminum panel can get a short brick base and cap so it finally matches the building. We draw the updated sign over a photo of the current one, so you can see the change before anything comes apart.
Car strikes and storm damage
Monument signs sit near the road, and every so often a car finds one. Storms do the rest: a fallen limb on a cabinet, wind that tears a face, hail on the acrylic, an ice storm that cracks a cap. Those jobs usually come with an insurance claim and a property manager who wants it fixed fast.
We document the damage with photos and a written repair price you can send to the insurer. Then we make the sign safe, salvage what can be reused and rebuild the rest to match. Out in the county, near our Pleasant Garden customers, a lot of entrance damage is from limbs coming down in storms.
Repair or replace: how we call it
We look at three things. Is the footing sound? Is the structure (masonry, posts or cabinet) sound? And does the sign still say what you need it to say? If the first two are good, repair almost always wins. If the footing has failed and the structure is cracked through, a rebuild is usually cheaper in the long run than patching every year.
You get our honest call along with the price. Every sign is quoted by size, materials and lighting, with a drawing and the price in writing before any digging starts, and a repair job gets the same written scope so you know exactly what is being fixed. If both options make sense, we price both.
Send a photo for a repair price
A couple of clear photos tell us most of what we need: one of the whole sign from the road, one close up of the damage. Text them to 336-579-0766 or email them to jedsigns101@gmail.com, put the address and a short note on what is wrong in the form, and we reply with a rough idea or a time to come look. The shop is open Monday through Thursday from 8 AM to 5 PM and Friday from 8 AM to noon, closed on weekends, and for a dark sign we can stop by in the evening to check the lights.
Mon–Thu 8 AM–5 PM · Fri 8 AM–12 PM · Sat–Sun closed