Illuminated sign electricians, so your sign is lit every night

If your sign has gone dark, the fault is usually the driver, the transformer or water in a joint, not the sign itself. That matters, because it turns a full sign replacement into a repair. We have done 680 illuminated signage jobs since 2020, mostly shopfronts, resort entries and pylon signs between Port Douglas and Mossman. Most of them came back on with new gear inside the existing housing.

Commercial customers get our Same Day Service Guarantee: ring by 2pm on a business day and we attend that day. A dark sign on Macrossan Street costs you trade every night it stays off, so we treat it as a priority job rather than something to book in for next fortnight.

What actually kills signage up here

External signage in Far North Queensland has a harder life than the same sign in Brisbane. Five things account for nearly everything we pull apart.

• Salt air. Anything within a few streets of the water corrodes at the fixings, the gland and the earth connection first. A sign can look fine from the footpath while the terminals behind it are green.
• Wet season humidity. Moisture gets into a housing through a tired seal, then condenses on the driver. That is the single most common reason a sign flickers before it dies.
• Ants and geckos. Not a joke. Green ants and geckos nest in outdoor enclosures and bridge terminals, and we find them in signage, bollards and light fittings constantly.
• Storm season. Wind flexes the sign, the flex chafes where it enters the housing, and the circuit trips weeks later.
• Cheap gear. Drivers with no IP rating, fitted by whoever was cheapest at the time, usually mounted where water can sit on them.

What the job involves

For a repair we isolate the sign, test it live to find the actual fault (locating faults is energised electrical work, so it is not a job for the shop manager), then replace the failed component and reseal the housing properly. Most repairs are one visit. If the housing is full of water or the internals have gone, we will tell you straight rather than replacing a driver that will fail again by March.

For a new sign we handle the supply from the switchboard, the circuit protection, the cabling and penetration through the facade, an accessible isolation switch, and the fit-off with your signwriter. Wiring is to AS/NZS 3000, the Wiring Rules, and you get a Certificate of Testing and Compliance for the installation work. Keep it. Insurers and landlords ask for it.

Who we look after signs for

Pubs, resorts, shopping centres and single shopfronts. The Court House Hotel and Central Plaza are both long standing, along with several more of the town's pubs and resorts. Our signage work sits inside 8,998 jobs of every kind in Port Douglas since 2020, across 1,028 separate customers. Signage is a slice of that, but it is the slice the whole street can see.

If you have more than one sign, get them checked before the wet rather than after. We can run a scheduled check on the drivers, seals and isolation while we are on site for your other work, which beats an emergency callout on a Saturday night in February.

Source: WorkSafe Queensland, Issuing certificates of compliance.