Personalised Metal House Signs: Lettering, Sizes and Fixing
Personalised metal house signs are steel plates or cut-out characters with your house name, number or address cut through them, made to order from the text you supply. A plasma-cut steel sign reads clearly from the pavement, suits brick, stone, render and timber, and lasts far longer than a printed or vinyl sign. This guide explains the lettering rules, character limits, sizes and finishes, so the sign you order is the sign you want.
Which type of house sign?
Number plate: the Personalised House Number Plate has your number cut through a flat plate, up to 4 characters such as 27, 104 or 6A. It comes in 220 × 160 mm or a larger 320 × 220 mm that's easier to see from a busy road.
Name sign: the Personalised House Name Sign takes a house name of up to 18 characters, in 600 × 150 mm or 800 × 190 mm, with an optional motif at one end.
Address plaque: the Personalised Address Plaque with Motif is an arched plaque with your number or name (up to 6 characters), street name (up to 16 characters) and a small motif.
Individual numerals: Cut-Out Metal House Numbers are separate 4 mm steel characters in 150, 200 or 250 mm heights. Order one item per character, so 27 is two items.
Gate plate: the Personalised Gate Name Plate is 450 × 120 mm with a house or gate name of up to 16 characters.
Why stencil lettering?
When letters are cut right through steel, any enclosed shape, such as the centre of an O, A, B, D, P, R, 4, 6, 8, 9 or 0, would drop out. Stencil lettering solves this by leaving small bridges of steel that hold the centres in place. It's a practical detail that has become a look of its own, with a confident, industrial feel that suits both old and new houses.
We offer two stencil styles on every personalised sign:
Stencil Sans: clean and modern, good for new-builds, contemporary doors and anthracite grey finishes.
Stencil Serif: a little more traditional, suited to cottages, terraces and period homes.
Why there's a character limit
Our lettering is never smaller than 25 mm tall. Below that, the fine details of each letter don't cut cleanly in steel. So rather than shrinking long names to fit, each sign has a maximum number of characters, and spaces count. If your house name is longer than the limit, try:
dropping "The" from the start, if you're happy without it;
using a larger size, where one is offered;
asking us about a custom sign through our custom metalwork form.
Text is cut in capitals. Letters, numbers, ampersands and apostrophes all work.
Check your text carefully
We cut exactly what you enter, so please double-check spelling and spacing before you order. Watch out for:
double spaces between words;
apostrophes, such as SMITH'S versus SMITHS;
letter O versus number 0, and letter I versus number 1;
house names with unusual spellings. Copy them exactly as they appear on your post.
Personalised signs are made to order and can't be returned for a change of mind. Faulty items are covered by your statutory rights. See our returns page.
What size reads from the street?
Think about where people will read the sign from. A number beside the front door, seen from a short path, can be modest. A number on a gatepost read from a moving car or delivery van needs to be bigger and bolder. As a rough guide, choose the larger plate or taller numerals if your house is set back from the road, and keep the design simple. A short name on its own reads better than a long one with a motif squeezed alongside.
Choosing a finish for walls
This matters more on signs than almost anything else, because they're fixed directly onto your house.
Satin black and anthracite grey are powder coated for a durable coloured finish, with no rust run-off while the coating is intact. They're the right choice on render, pale brick, painted walls and front doors. Black suits most homes, while anthracite grey pairs with modern grey windows and doors.
Raw steel will rust outdoors to an orange-brown patina. It looks lovely on old stone, a farm gate or a timber post, but rain will carry rust down the wall below it, which can leave streaks on render or pale brick.
More detail is in our guide to raw steel vs powder coat outdoors.
Fixing your sign
Plates, name signs and plaques have Ø6 mm fixing holes. Cut-out numerals have two Ø5 mm countersink-ready holes each.
Use stainless steel screws so the screw heads don't rust and streak the wall.
Use masonry plugs in brick or block, and check for cables and pipes before drilling.
For separate numerals, make a paper template of the full number first, tape it to the wall, check it's level and evenly spaced, then drill through it.
See our assembly and fixing guides for more.
A gift for a new home
A house sign makes a thoughtful housewarming or wedding present. Just make sure you have the exact spelling of the house name and number. Every sign is made to order in our Knowsley workshop, and we'll confirm your dispatch date by email, so order in good time if it's for a particular date. Browse all our signs in the Metalwork shop.