One Address, One Building Department.
Denver is its own county. The city and the county are one government, which is not how most of the country works, and it matters the day you go looking for a sign permit because there is no separate county office to chase down. Our prepared DIY LED sign kits ship into all of it, from Colfax storefronts to the industrial blocks off I-70, with the lighting already mounted inside the frame.
Denver rent has not gotten cheaper, and a full-service sign job stacked on top of it adds up fast. We weld the aluminum cabinet to the size you give us, mount the LEDs inside, and ship it in sections. You bolt it together, hang it, and keep up to 60% depending on your project.
The Kit, And The Price Difference
Shipping To Denver And Every Town Around It
Kits ship to Lakewood, Wheat Ridge, Arvada, Englewood, Glendale, Commerce City, Westminster and Thornton — and everywhere in between. If FedEx delivers there, your sign kit can too.
Most cities make you work out whether you are inside the limits or out in the county. Denver does not have that problem, because the city and the county are the same government — a Denver address means one set of rules and one counter. That does not make the sign code simple, and a lit cabinet on a Colfax frontage reads differently to a planner than one tucked onto a side street. Confirm your local sign code first and get the approved size in writing, because we weld the cabinet to that number.
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.
How Your Kit Gets To Denver
Denver sits where I-25 and I-70 cross, and most of what moves across the Rockies comes through here on a truck. That is exactly why we do not use freight. Roughly 95% of our kits ship FedEx Ground instead, so your boxes ride in on the same daily route that already serves a Baker storefront or a shop off Federal Boulevard. Nothing to schedule, nothing to arrange with a terminal.
What shows up. A standard cabinet goes out as four long boxes. Larger kits go to six, with splice joints placed on purpose so the package dimensions stay inside ground shipping limits. The welded sections arrive cut to your size with the LEDs already mounted in them, and the power supply and mounting hardware are packed in the same boxes — one delivery, not a frame now and a parts crate later.
Delivery day. Plenty of Denver's older commercial buildings never had a dock, and the ones along Broadway or Colfax have street parking out front and an alley behind. None of that matters here. No liftgate, no pallet to break down, no four-hour window to sit through. One person can carry the boxes inside between customers and get back to work.
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 does not care about a Denver January or a July afternoon at this elevation. The sun is a different story for cardboard and electronics — UV comes in harder a mile up than it does at sea level. Keep the boxes indoors until install day so the LEDs and the power supply sit out of the sun and out of the temperature swing.
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 Denver that means three phone calls before you order, not after.
1. Ask what you're allowed
Start with the City and County of Denver. One government handles zoning and building review for every Denver address, so there is no county office to call separately. Step over the line into Lakewood, Glendale, Englewood or Commerce City and you are in a different jurisdiction running its own sign code, so check which side of the boundary your building actually sits on. 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
Denver enforces its own amendments to the building code, and a freestanding or pole sign here generally needs drawings and a footing detail stamped by a Colorado-licensed engineer, with wind and snow load addressed. An illuminated cabinet commonly needs a separate electrical permit alongside the sign permit. Assume both apply until someone at the counter tells you otherwise. 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.
Straight Answers For Denver Businesses
Denver is a city and a county — does that change my paperwork?
It usually simplifies it. One government handles zoning and building for Denver addresses, so you are not bounced between a city counter and a county counter the way you would be in most metros. What it does not change is the review itself. Confirm the sign standards for your zone, get the approved size in writing, and order after that.
Do the faces and graphics come with the kit?
No. The standard kit is the welded aluminum cabinet, the LEDs mounted inside it, the power supply as quoted and the mounting hardware. Faces and printed graphics are a separate product on our DIY Graphics page. Plenty of people order the cabinet first and sort the artwork while it is being built — just budget for both from the start.
Do I need a permit for a lit sign in Denver?
Assume yes. Sign permits for Denver addresses generally go through the City and County of Denver, and an illuminated cabinet commonly needs a separate electrical permit alongside it. Historic districts and some overlay zones add another layer of review on top. Ask before you buy, because the cabinet is welded to one exact size and the approved dimensions are the ones you want us building to.
Who should do the electrical hookup?
A licensed electrician, every time. You can do the rest — square up the sections, bolt them, mount the cabinet, set the faces. The final connection is permitted and inspected work, and these kits are not UL listed, so an electrician belongs in the plan from the start rather than found on a Friday afternoon once everything else is done.
Ready to get your written quote?
Every kit is prepared to order. Tell us about your project and we'll answer with a straight, written quote.
Contact DIY Sign Guy