Hills, Bridges And Bad Sightlines.
Pittsburgh is a city of neighborhoods with their own main streets, and every one of them — Lawrenceville, the Strip, East Liberty, Bloomfield, the South Side, Squirrel Hill — runs on small independent business. Those blocks are also hard on signage: narrow buildings, older facades, and hills that change every sightline. Our prepared DIY LED sign kits ship anywhere in Allegheny County with the lighting mounted inside the frame.
We weld the aluminum cabinet to the exact size you have been approved for and cut it into sections that travel by parcel. You bolt it together and hang it. Depending on the project, that keeps up to 60% of the cost inside your business instead of a sign company's.
The Lighted Sign Cabinet, And The Price Difference
Shipping To Pittsburgh And Every Town Around It
Kits ship to Mount Lebanon, Bethel Park, Monroeville, Ross Township, Wilkinsburg, Carnegie, McKees Rocks and Penn Hills — and everywhere in between. If FedEx delivers there, your sign kit can too.
Sign placement in Pittsburgh is a topography problem before it is anything else. A cabinet that reads perfectly on a flat street disappears from below a hill or hides behind a bridge abutment. Stand where your customers actually approach from — on foot, coming off the parkway, cresting the grade — and size the sign for that view before you order. Then take the number to the city, get it approved in writing, and we weld the cabinet 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 Pittsburgh 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 Pittsburgh 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 Pittsburgh 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 Pittsburgh
Ground shipping suits Pittsburgh for a reason anyone who has tried to get a truck up a South Side alley already understands. Roughly 95% of our kits go FedEx Ground rather than freight, so the boxes arrive on the parcel van that already navigates these streets daily instead of on a trailer that may not physically fit on your block.
What shows up. A standard cabinet is four long boxes. Bigger kits come as six, with splice joints built in so nothing exceeds ground shipping dimensions. The sections are welded to your size with the LEDs mounted inside them, and the power supply and mounting hardware travel in the same boxes as quoted. One delivery, no separate parts crate, nothing missing when you start work.
Delivery day. Older Pittsburgh commercial buildings rarely have a dock, and street parking on a Lawrenceville or Bloomfield block is not something you can hold open for a freight appointment. Ground delivery avoids the whole problem. No liftgate, no pallet, no appointment. One person can carry the boxes up the steps and inside without shutting the business down for an hour.
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 takes western Pennsylvania winters without any special treatment. The LEDs and the power supply should still be kept indoors until install day. Freeze-thaw here is relentless, so if you are mounting during the cold months, plan the install for a dry stretch and let the sections warm up inside before you fit them together.
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 Pittsburgh that means three phone calls before you order, not after.
1. Ask what you're allowed
Inside the city, sign permits and zoning review go through Pittsburgh's permits and inspections office, and some neighborhoods add historic review on top of that. Outside city limits you are dealing with your own municipality — Allegheny County contains a great many of them, and Mount Lebanon, Ross and Monroeville each write and enforce their own sign rules. 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
Pennsylvania's construction code is statewide, but how it gets enforced varies by municipality, so ask locally rather than assuming. A pole or freestanding sign commonly needs sealed drawings and a footing design from a Pennsylvania-licensed engineer, and hillside footings can complicate that further. An illuminated sign generally requires an electrical permit separate from the sign permit. 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 Pittsburgh 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 Pittsburgh 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 Pittsburgh
| 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 Pittsburgh Businesses
Can I mount a cabinet on an old brick facade?
Usually, but the fastening is the part to think through. Older Pittsburgh brick and the mortar behind it vary a lot in condition, and the right anchors depend on what is actually there. We supply mounting hardware with the kit as quoted; if the wall looks questionable, have somebody who works on these buildings take a look before you drill.
Is a double-sided cabinet worth it here?
Depends on the approach. On a one-way street, or a corner where traffic only comes from one direction, single-sided is fine and it costs less. Where people come at you from both ends of the block, double-sided doubles the number of people who ever see it. The same frame supports either, so tell us which when you request the quote.
What is involved in getting a sign permit in Pittsburgh?
Assume a permit, and assume it takes some time. Sign applications generally go through the city's permits and inspections office with zoning review attached, and a historic district address can add a design review step. Illuminated signs commonly need an electrical permit too. Get the approved dimensions in writing before you order, because the cabinet is welded to that size.
Who should do the electrical hookup?
A licensed electrician handles the connection. These kits are not UL listed, so that is not a corner worth cutting, and in Pennsylvania the work is inspected. You do the assembly and the mounting, which is the part that would have cost you the most in labor. Get an electrician's number lined up before the kit shows up rather than after.
How much does a lighted business sign cost in Pittsburgh?
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 Pittsburgh?
No — we are not a Pittsburgh 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 Pittsburgh?
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 Pittsburgh 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 Pittsburgh, PA
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.