Salt Air Eats Cheap Metal.
Mobile is a port city and it behaves like one. The bay, the tunnel, the Bayway and I-10 shape how everything moves, and the business districts sit strung along Airport Boulevard, Government Street and the highways heading south and west. Our prepared DIY LED sign kits ship into all of it with the lighting already mounted inside the welded aluminum sections.
A working port town has enough expensive line items on the books already, and a full-service sign quote does not need to be one of them. We weld the cabinet to your size and ship it in pieces so the assembly is yours to do on your own schedule. Bolt it together, hang it, and keep up to 60% depending on your project.
The Lighted Sign Cabinet, And The Price Difference
Shipping To Mobile And Every Town Around It
Kits ship to Saraland, Semmes, Theodore, Tillmans Corner, Prichard, Spanish Fort and Daphne — and everywhere in between. If FedEx delivers there, your sign kit can too.
Anyone who has kept a boat or a truck near the bay knows what the air down here does to the wrong material over a few seasons. Aluminum does not rust, which is the practical reason it is what we weld cabinets from. It will not stop the weather from being the weather, and we make no rating claims about any of it, but the frame itself is not the part you will be worrying about. Confirm your local sign requirements and get the approved size in writing before we cut anything.
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 Mobile 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 Mobile 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 Mobile 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 Mobile
For a city that lives around a port, most of what we send here never touches a freight terminal. Roughly 95% of our kits ship FedEx Ground, so the boxes arrive at your address the ordinary way instead of coming off a trailer somewhere and waiting on you. A shop on Government Street or a unit out toward Tillmans Corner gets them on the standard route.
What shows up. Four long boxes carry a standard cabinet and six carry a longer one, with splice joints designed in so no package exceeds ground shipping limits. The welded sections are cut to your dimensions with the LEDs already mounted inside, and the 12-volt power supply and the mounting hardware travel in the same boxes as quoted. There is nothing left to arrive separately.
Delivery day. No pallet, no liftgate, no dock and no delivery window to sit through. One person can move the boxes. If your business runs on a schedule tied to the port, a shift change or a lunch rush, not having to give up an afternoon to receive a shipment is worth more than it sounds like on paper.
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. Between the humidity, the rain and the salt in the air, Mobile is hard on stored materials. The aluminum does not rust and can wait outside if it has to. The LEDs and the power supply cannot, so pull those boxes indoors as soon as they land and keep them dry and out of the salt air until the day the cabinet goes up.
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 Mobile that means three phone calls before you order, not after.
1. Ask what you're allowed
Start with the City of Mobile's building or zoning department if you are inside city limits, and with Mobile County for unincorporated addresses. Saraland, Semmes and Prichard are their own cities with their own sign rules, and anything across the bay is a different county entirely. Sort out which office reviews your parcel before you order. 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
Coastal Alabama construction requirements are stricter than they are inland, and a freestanding or pole sign in Mobile County commonly needs drawings and a foundation design sealed by an Alabama licensed engineer with wind loading addressed for this part of the state. We do not rate or certify the cabinet for any wind condition. Expect a separate electrical permit for an illuminated sign, and ask the reviewing office what applies. 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 Mobile 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 Mobile 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 Mobile
| 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 Mobile Businesses
Will an aluminum cabinet hold up near the bay?
Aluminum does not rust, which is why we weld cabinets from it rather than steel. That is a material fact, not a weather rating — we do not claim the sign is weatherproof or rated for any storm condition, and you should not tell your reviewing office that it is. What we will say is that the frame material is the right choice for a coastal address.
Do I want one face or two?
The same frame does both, so pick based on how traffic sees you. A cabinet set perpendicular to a busy road usually earns its keep with two faces; one mounted flat on a building wall only needs one. Decide before you request the quote, because it is built into the cabinet rather than added afterward.
What does Mobile require before I can put up a lit sign?
Assume a sign permit and treat wind loading as a live question. Freestanding signs in coastal Alabama commonly need engineered drawings and a sealed foundation design, and the reviewing office — the City of Mobile inside city limits, Mobile County outside them — will tell you what your address needs. An illuminated sign generally requires an electrical permit too. Get the approved size in writing first.
Can my handyman make the power connection?
Not this part. The kits are not UL listed and the connection to building power has to be made by a licensed electrician and inspected. Everything mechanical is fair game for you or your handyman: assembling the sections, squaring the cabinet, mounting it, fitting faces. Just leave the last few feet of wire to someone licensed to touch it.
How much does a lighted business sign cost in Mobile?
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 Mobile?
No — we are not a Mobile 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 Mobile?
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 Mobile 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 Mobile, AL
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.