Catch The Glance Off US-23.
Whitmore Lake is not a city and has never pretended to be one. It is a community around a lake in Northfield Township, sitting on US-23 between Ann Arbor and Brighton, with a short commercial strip, a good number of trades working out of pole barns, and a steady stream of traffic that is on its way somewhere else. Our prepared DIY LED sign kits ship straight to it.
Being a small place does not make a full-service sign quote small. You are still paying a crew's drive time out from Ann Arbor before anyone touches a tool. We weld the aluminum cabinet to your size and ship it in sections you can handle without help, which is where the up to 60% comes from depending on your project.
The Kit, And The Price Difference
Shipping To Whitmore Lake And Every Town Around It
Kits ship to Ann Arbor, Brighton, Dexter, South Lyon, Hamburg Township, Northville and Howell — and everywhere in between. If FedEx delivers there, your sign kit can too.
Traffic through here is moving between two other places and it is moving fast. That gives you about one glance to work with, and after dark you get none at all unless the sign is lit. A cabinet sized for highway distance rather than storefront distance is the whole game out here, and summer lake traffic only makes it more true. Because this is unincorporated territory, confirm with your township what is actually allowed at your address and get that size in writing before we build.
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 Whitmore Lake
Being unincorporated changes nothing about delivery. Roughly 95% of our kits ship FedEx Ground rather than freight, and ground goes wherever the mail goes — a rural route address off Barker Road is no harder than a downtown Ann Arbor storefront. No freight terminal, no missed appointment, no wondering whether a carrier will run a truck out this far.
What shows up. A standard cabinet comes as four long boxes, and six when splice joints keep a longer frame inside ground shipping limits. The welded sections are cut to your size with the LEDs mounted in them already, and the power supply and mounting hardware are packed right in with the frame as quoted. Everything shows up together, which matters more out here where a second delivery is a second wasted day.
Delivery day. Nobody around Whitmore Lake has a loading dock and nobody needs one. There is no pallet, no liftgate and no window to sit at home waiting on. One person can carry the boxes into a shop, a barn or a garage. If you are working out of a pole barn on a gravel drive, that is a perfectly normal delivery for this kit.
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. Pole barns and detached garages are the default storage around here, and an unheated one is fine for the aluminum sections — aluminum does not rust and does not mind a Michigan January. The LEDs and the power supply are the part that should not spend the winter out there. Pull those boxes into the house or a heated shop and leave them until install day.
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 Whitmore Lake that means three phone calls before you order, not after.
1. Ask what you're allowed
There is no city hall in Whitmore Lake, so the first question is which township you are actually in. Most addresses fall under Northfield Township in Washtenaw County, but the north side runs toward Green Oak Township and Livingston County. Start with your township office, ask whether the county handles any part of the review, and do not assume an answer from Ann Arbor applies out here. 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
Michigan's statewide building code is enforced locally, and in township territory the building official may sit at the county rather than in the township office — worth asking on the first call. A freestanding sign commonly needs a footing detail below frost depth and structural drawings, and an illuminated cabinet generally needs a separate electrical permit. Ask who issues each one. 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 Whitmore Lake Businesses
Can you actually deliver out here, or do I have to pick it up in town?
We ship to your address. Roughly 95% of kits go FedEx Ground, and ground service reaches rural and unincorporated addresses on the same routes it uses everywhere else. There is no terminal pickup, no freight depot in Ann Arbor to drive to and no appointment. The boxes come to the door you told us to send them to.
Single-sided or double-sided for a sign near the highway?
The same frame supports either, and the decision is about approach direction. If drivers only see you coming from one way, single-sided is honest value. If traffic reaches you from both directions, double-sided doubles the useful frontage without doubling the footing. Tell us which when you request your written quote. Either way the faces themselves are ordered separately from our DIY Graphics page.
Who issues a sign permit if there is no city?
Your township, in all likelihood, and that is exactly why you should confirm which one you are in before anything else. Northfield Township covers most of the Whitmore Lake area on the Washtenaw side, while addresses further north can fall under Green Oak Township in Livingston County. Ask whether the county reviews any part of it, and whether a lighted cabinet needs its own electrical permit. Get the approved size in writing.
Who should do the electrical hookup?
That goes to a licensed electrician every time. A DIY kit cannot be UL listed and ours is not, so the final power connection is licensed, inspected work under Michigan rules. You handle the frame, the mounting and the faces and stop when you reach the wire. Out here it is worth booking someone early, because rural service calls fill up further ahead.
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