A City That Drives Past You.
Cerritos sits at the crossing of the 91 and the 605, with the 5 a few minutes south and the Auto Square pulling shoppers in from three counties. It is a city built around people driving past on their way somewhere else. Our prepared DIY LED sign kits ship into that whole southeast corner of Los Angeles County with the lighting already mounted inside the welded frame.
Commercial rent in this part of LA County is not cheap, and a full-service sign company adds its own crew, its own truck and its own margin on top of it. We weld the aluminum cabinet to the size you give us. You bolt it together, hang it, and keep up to 60% depending on your project.
The Lighted Sign Cabinet, And The Price Difference
Shipping To Cerritos And Every Town Around It
Kits ship to Artesia, Lakewood, Norwalk, La Palma, Bellflower, La Mirada, Hawaiian Gardens and Buena Park — and everywhere in between. If FedEx delivers there, your sign kit can too.
Almost nobody walks up to a business in Cerritos. They see you at 45 through a windshield, on South Street or Del Amo or Studebaker, and they decide in about two seconds whether you are open. A lit cabinet answers that question after dark for the cost of the electricity. Cerritos runs its own sign standards and takes design review seriously, so pin down what the city will approve, get the size in writing, and then we weld to it.
Call it what you like — an illuminated cabinet sign, a light box sign, or an outdoor lighted sign box — it’s the same product: an aluminum LED sign cabinet, built in our shop and shipped to your door as a ready-to-assemble kit.
Every prepared kit includes: an aluminum frame cut to your size with welded corners, LEDs mounted inside, and a 12-volt power supply with wiring hardware as listed in your written quote. Sign faces and graphics are available separately through DIY Graphics.
Programmable LED Message Center Signs
A lot of Cerritos owners shopping for a lighted sign are really after the changeable kind — a programmable LED sign that shows something different tomorrow than it does today. That product goes by a pile of different names: an electronic message center (EMC), an LED message board, an outdoor LED display, a scrolling LED sign or a digital marquee sign. They all describe the same thing — a grid of LEDs you update yourself from a phone, tablet or computer.
The usual setup on a Cerritos storefront or roadside pole is both signs together: the lighted cabinet up top carrying your business name permanently, and the message center below it carrying today’s special, price, hours or announcement. One says who you are. The other says what is happening right now.
Check this before you order. Many towns around Cerritos regulate electronic message centers separately from static signs, and limits on brightness, hold time, dwell time and animation are common. Confirm the rules with your local township or zoning office first — the same as you would for any freestanding sign. Easy financing available; ask about it when you request your written quote.
How Your Kit Gets To Cerritos
Cerritos is one of the easier places we ship to, because nothing has to be arranged in advance. Roughly 95% of our kits go FedEx Ground rather than freight, and the driver who already brings packages to your suite on Artesia Boulevard or a Shoemaker Avenue industrial unit brings these too. No freight broker, no terminal, no waiting on a call from a dispatcher.
What shows up. A standard cabinet arrives as four long boxes. Longer frames come as six, with splice joints placed so the package dimensions stay inside ground shipping limits. The welded aluminum sections are cut to your size with the LEDs already mounted inside them, and the power supply and mounting hardware ride in the same boxes — one delivery, not a frame now and a parts crate later.
Delivery day. There is no dock to back into, no liftgate to pay for and no delivery window to sit around waiting on. That matters in a Cerritos strip center where your loading area is really just two parking stalls and a back door, and it matters more if you share that back door with the tenant next to you. One person can carry the boxes in between customers.
Open the boxes the day they land. Look the sections over even if the cartons look perfect, and do it before install day rather than the morning of. Photograph anything crushed, torn or bent and keep the packaging exactly as it arrived — that is what a carrier claim is built on. Finding a problem the day a box shows up is a phone call; finding it with a crew standing on a ladder is a lost day.
Where to put it. Aluminum does not rust, and it handles the LA basin fine — gray marine mornings, dry inland afternoons, the occasional Santa Ana pushing through in October. The LEDs and the power supply are a different story. They ship packed in with the frame sections, so bring the boxes inside the day they land and keep them indoors until you are ready to install.
Measure Twice. Order Once.
Your kit is cut to a size, welded, and pre-lit before it ships, so the size has to be right the first time. In Cerritos that means three phone calls before you order, not after.
1. Ask what you're allowed
Start with the City of Cerritos and ask for whoever handles sign permits and planning review — the city is fairly particular about what goes up on its commercial corridors. If your address turns out to sit in an unincorporated pocket, Los Angeles County handles it instead. Artesia, Lakewood and La Palma all run their own codes, so a neighbor's sign proves nothing about yours. Ask for the maximum sign area and height for your zoning district, whether your sign counts as wall-mounted or freestanding, and what setback applies. Sign area is usually tied to your building frontage, so the answer is specific to your address — not to the block or to the business next door.
2. Ask your landlord
If you're in a plaza or center, the landlord's sign criteria sit on top of the city code and are often stricter. Cabinet depth, face color, letter height and mounting method are all commonly spelled out. Get the criteria sheet in writing before you pick a size — it is cheaper than rebuilding a cabinet that the center won't approve.
3. Ask about engineering and wiring
California's building and energy rules, Title 24 among them, apply statewide, and seismic anchoring is taken seriously here — a freestanding or pole sign generally needs a footing and attachment detail from a California-licensed engineer before anyone will sign off. An illuminated cabinet commonly needs a separate electrical permit alongside the sign permit. Confirm both before you order. Plan on a licensed electrician for the final hookup and inspection either way. We build the cabinet; the permit, the footing, the disconnect and the sign-off are local work done by local people.
DIY Kit vs. Hiring A Cerritos Sign Company
The short answer: a full-service sign company sells a finished project — survey, fabrication, installation — and prices it that way. We are not a Cerritos sign installation company. We build the lighted sign cabinet itself, ship it to your door, and coach you while you or your contractor handle the install. That one difference is where the savings come from.
| What happens | Full-Service Sign Company | DIY Sign Guy Kit |
|---|---|---|
| Who builds the cabinet | They do | We do — cut to your size, LEDs mounted inside |
| Who installs it | Their crew | You, or a local contractor you hire |
| 4′ × 8′ lighted sign example* | $3,112 | $984 kit + your installation |
| Permits & inspections | Usually handled for you | You check with your township — we help plan a cabinet that fits the rules |
| Best fit | Complex installs, no time to coordinate | Owners and contractors comfortable with bolts, a level, and an electrician for hookup |
* Example comparison based on the specifications shown on our pricing page. Savings are potential, not guaranteed; prices subject to change.
Lighted business sign kit pricing shipped to Cerritos
| Frame depth | Price per foot of frame length | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 4-inch — most popular | $41 per foot | Wall-mounted storefront signs |
| 7-inch | $47 per foot | Wall installs and double-pole signs |
| 10-inch | $67 per foot | Pylon and single-pole roadside signs |
Every kit is pre-lit with a 12-volt power supply included as quoted. Sign faces and graphics are separate. Prices subject to change without notice — get your written quote.
Straight Answers For Cerritos Businesses
Can you build a cabinet that fits an existing Cerritos storefront band?
Usually, yes. Measure the usable height and width of the fascia band and give us those numbers. We weld the aluminum cabinet to exactly what you send, so a kit can be sized to sit inside an existing raceway line or match the other tenants in the center. Get the dimension confirmed before you order, because the frame is cut to it.
Do the faces and lettering come with the kit?
No. The standard kit is the welded frame, the LEDs mounted inside, the power supply as quoted and the mounting hardware. Faces and graphics are a separate product on our DIY Graphics page. Plenty of customers order the kit first, get the permit sorted, and handle the face artwork on its own timeline.
Do I need a permit for a lighted sign in Cerritos?
Assume yes, and assume the review is real. Sign permits in Cerritos generally start with the city's planning and building side, and Los Angeles County handles any unincorporated address. An illuminated sign commonly needs a separate electrical permit too. Because the cabinet is welded to the size you give us, get the approved dimensions in writing before you order anything.
Who should do the electrical hookup?
A licensed electrician, without exception. You can do everything up to the wire — sections bolted square, cabinet mounted, faces set once you have them. The final connection is licensed and inspected work, and these kits are not UL listed, so budget the electrician in from the start rather than discovering the cost the week you want to turn it on.
How much does a lighted business sign cost in Cerritos?
Less than most owners expect — because you skip the full-service labor. Our aluminum LED sign cabinet kits run $41 per foot of frame length in the 4-inch depth, $47 for 7-inch and $67 for 10-inch, pre-lit with the power supply included as quoted. As an example comparison, a 4' x 8' lighted sign quoted at $3,112 by a full-service company runs about $984 as a kit — savings are potential, not guaranteed. Sign faces and graphics are separate, prices are subject to change, and every kit is quoted in writing to your exact size.
Do you install signs in Cerritos?
No — we are not a Cerritos sign installation company, and that is exactly why the price works. We build and ship the lighted cabinet; you or a local contractor handle the mounting, with a qualified electrician for the electrical hookup. Real guidance from the builder comes with every kit, and your local township sets the permit and inspection rules.
Do you sell programmable LED message center signs in Cerritos?
Yes. An LED message center — also called an electronic message center, an EMC, a programmable LED sign, an LED message board or a digital marquee — is an outdoor display built into a sign that you change yourself from a phone, tablet or computer. It ships to Cerritos the same way our lighted cabinets do, and it is quoted in writing to your size. Many towns regulate message centers separately from static signs, so confirm brightness, hold time and animation rules with your local township before ordering. Easy financing available — ask when you request your quote.
What is the difference between a lighted cabinet sign and an LED message center?
A lighted cabinet sign shows one fixed printed face and lights it from behind — it carries your business name permanently. An LED message center shows changeable messages you update whenever you want. Most businesses run both on the same structure: the cabinet on top for the name and logo, the message center below it for today's special, price or hours.
What is an illuminated cabinet sign?
An illuminated cabinet sign — also called a light box sign — is an aluminum box with lighting inside and translucent faces: the classic lighted sign above a storefront. Ours ships as a prepared kit with the frame cut to your exact size, LEDs already mounted inside, and a 12-volt power supply included as quoted.
Answers by Dean, the DIY Sign Guy — building signs since 2004.
Get A Written Price For Cerritos, CA
Tell me what you need and I’ll send you a straight, written quote — from the guy who actually builds it. No showroom visit, no pressure.