How do cedar painted historic house plaques compare to cast aluminum painted historic house plaques?  Consider the cast aluminum plaque seen here. What do you see? cast aluminum historic house plaque finish deteriorated

If a picture is worth a thousand words, consider the photo here of a cast aluminum historic house plaque manufactured by a metal plaque manufacturer selling online.  A larger version of this plaque appears below. In it you can count over 50 areas of the painted finish that have deteriorated, cracked, chipped or peeled away from the aluminum base.  Continue>>

They promote that their aluminum plaques are ideal for exterior wall mounted historic house plaques and “…will last forever…”. Well, the aluminum plaque may last forever. But the FINISH will NOT last forever. And this photo proves it. The machine-applied coating that is sprayed on the surface of the aluminum wears over time. Once the coating starts to peel in one area, it continues.

Notice also that the problem is worse close to the letters CIRCA and around the year 1850 — just where you need the coating of color the most, to differentiate between the words and the background. In a few more years, this aluminum plaque will become virtually unreadable.

Note the over 50 areas of the deteriorated finish in this cast aluminum historic house plaque.
Note the over 50 areas of the deteriorated finish in this cast aluminum historic house plaque.

Solid Cedar Hand Painted Historic House Plaques

Our painted cedar historic house plaques have several advantages over painted cast aluminum plaques.

  1. We hand sand the cedar plaque to soften the hard edges and we burnish the cut corners to round off the edge so that it reduces chances of chipping off the edge.
  2. We brush on the oil-based wood primers with brushes the old-fashioned and traditional way. Brushing on works the oil primer into the wood surface and cures the surface. Cast aluminum plaques cannot do this, their painted coating only sits on top of the aluminum material. This is why their painted coating peels away.
  3. We brush on several top coats of high quality paint.
  4. We uses brushes to hand letter the plaque text using high quality sign writing enamels, usually the traditional black enamel seen on most of our historic house plaques.
  5. We use brushes to brush on a UV-protecting and moisture barrier clear coat that protects the underlying finish from moisture and sun and pollution effects.
  6. We provide painted matching hardwood wood buttons that insert into the mounting screw holes to cover the opening and protect from moisture.

Contact us to discuss the benefits of our hand painted wood historic house plaques. Return to your Home Page.