Installing Banners with Zip Ties
Due to their strength and affordability, zip ties are the preferred method for installing your banner. In addition, zip ties are the easiest way to securely attach your outdoor vinyl banner to a chain-link fence or metal posts. Printastic can add grommets around all four sides of your banner, preferably every two feet if you have a larger sign. When you receive the banner, simply loop zip ties through the holes, then wrap the ends of the zip ties around the fence and secure. Tighten your zip ties completely to ensure moderate winds will not disrupt your display.
If possible, choose a calm weather day to install your banner. If it is windy or rainy, we humans tend to rush the job and we either affix the banner too loosely or the opposite – over tightening zip ties and pulling too hard on the weakest part of the banner, the grommets. Both options will shorten the banner's life.
If the banner is put up loosely or sloppily, then Mother Nature will attack with blowing wind – making the banner flap and rub against the fence. Not only will this add stress to the grommets, but the rubbing will wear out the banner material. If the banner is wrenched too hard to the side, it may pull away from the pinched seal of the grommet and tear.
Always start by connecting the banner on an upper corner and follow with the coinciding bottom corner – then continue attaching along the length of the banner by fastening the next nearest top grommet following with the bottom grommet – slowly working your way along the length of the banner. All too often banners are hung by the top corners first and then moving along to the rest. This method can end with a frustrated but well-meaning installer wrestling with sagging areas and taking more time to get a banner hung well than would otherwise be necessary.
When first connecting a banner with a zip tie, only tighten enough to hold the banner in place while you move on to the next grommet. Once all the zip ties are in place, go back to each zip tie and tighten so that there is a solid, uniform fit throughout the span of the banner. The key is to distribute the stress across multiple points, limiting the whipping action that can happen when the wind starts blowing.
- Lay banner out on the ground.
- Place posts approximately 6 – 8 inches away from each side of the banner. Best to use a fence post driver to make easy work of getting posts into the ground. If not using posts, use a chain link fence or other existing structure.
- Use 4 long zip ties (banner) and 4 short zip ties (post).
- Attach one short zip tie around the top of each post in between the top 2 ridges/notches.
- Thread a long zip tie through the top right and left grommets of the banner.
- Then thread the zip ties through the zip ties in #4. Do one side and then the other. Note: do not tighten banner zip ties until all 4 are attached and in place.
- Pull zip ties tight so the banner is displayed without wrinkles.
Your banner should remain tight and stable this way for a long time. If it loosens, just further tighten up the zip ties.