Your Zoning Decides Your Size.
Raleigh runs from the state government blocks downtown out through the Beltline to Capital Boulevard, Glenwood, and the newer commercial corridors pushing toward 540. The businesses in between are everything from a Five Points storefront to a service shop in an industrial park off New Bern Avenue. Our prepared DIY LED sign kits ship to all of them with the LEDs already mounted inside the frame.
A capital city with Research Triangle money in it has sign prices to match. We weld the aluminum cabinet to your dimensions and ship it in sections, so the labor is yours and the savings stay yours — up to 60% depending on your project.
The Kit, And The Price Difference
Shipping To Raleigh And Every Town Around It
Kits ship to Cary, Garner, Apex, Wake Forest, Knightdale, Morrisville, Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina — and everywhere in between. If FedEx delivers there, your sign kit can too.
Raleigh runs its development rules through a Unified Development Ordinance, and signs are in it. What that means in practice is that your allowed sign area, height and type are tied to the zoning district your parcel sits in, not to whatever the business next door happens to have hanging. Two shops on the same road can get different answers. So the order of operations matters here more than most places — find out what your zoning allows, get the approved size in writing, then we weld the cabinet to it.
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 Raleigh
Roughly 95% of our kits ship FedEx Ground rather than by freight, and the Triangle is thick with daily ground routes. Whether the address is a Capital Boulevard storefront, a suite in a Six Forks office building or a bay in an industrial park off 440, the truck that brings your other packages brings the sign. No terminal, no freight quote, no bill of lading to sign.
What shows up. The cabinet arrives as four long boxes, or six when splice joints are needed to keep a longer frame inside ground shipping limits. Sections are welded to your size with the LEDs already mounted inside them. The power supply and the mounting hardware are packed in with the frame rather than shipped behind it. One delivery covers the whole kit — nothing is left waiting on a second truck.
Delivery day. Downtown Raleigh and the older corridors were not built for freight deliveries, and neither are most suites in a business park. The good news is that there is nothing to arrange. No dock, no liftgate, no pallet, no four-hour window somebody has to stay late for. One person moves the boxes off the truck and inside, and the install happens whenever you are ready for it.
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. Wake County summers are hot and sticky, and the winters mostly behave apart from the ice storm that turns up every few years. Aluminum handles both without rusting. The electronics do not get the same pass. The LEDs and the power supply are packed in with the frame sections, so keep the boxes in a dry indoor space until the day the sign actually 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 Raleigh that means three phone calls before you order, not after.
1. Ask what you're allowed
The City of Raleigh handles sign permits and zoning review for addresses inside the city. Wake County covers unincorporated land, and Cary, Garner, Apex, Wake Forest and Knightdale each administer their own ordinances — a Raleigh mailing address does not always mean Raleigh jurisdiction. Check which one your parcel actually falls in before you spend a morning at the wrong counter. 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
North Carolina administers a statewide building code locally, so the technical standard does not change from town to town even though the review does. A freestanding or pole sign in Wake County generally requires a footing design and often drawings sealed by a licensed engineer. An illuminated sign commonly needs an electrical permit separate from the sign permit itself. 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 Raleigh Businesses
Does the kit come with the faces already printed?
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 graphics are a separate product on our DIY Graphics side. Most people order both at once so the cabinet is not hanging blank on the building while the artwork is still being worked out.
Why is the frame shipped in pieces instead of assembled?
Because an assembled cabinet would have to travel freight, and freight means a dock, a liftgate, an appointment and a much bigger bill. Cutting it into four sections — six with splices on the long ones — keeps every box inside ground shipping limits. You spend an hour bolting it square and you skip all of that.
How does Raleigh's zoning affect what sign I can put up?
It sets the ground rules district by district, which is why the answer is address-specific rather than general. Expect the allowed sign type, area and height to depend on how your parcel is zoned, and assume an illuminated sign needs a permit and likely a separate electrical permit. Confirm the specifics with the City of Raleigh, then send us the approved dimensions in writing so the welded cabinet matches what was approved.
Who wires the sign once it is hung?
That job goes to a licensed electrician. The kits are not UL listed, and connecting a lighted sign is permitted, inspected work in North Carolina. Your side of the line is mechanical — assembling the sections, mounting the cabinet, setting the faces, placing the power supply. Get an electrician quoted at the same time you pull the permit so the timing works out.
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