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Maintaining Neon Signs Only a handful of commercial neon signs in Vancouver were sold outright. Instead, the sign companies preferred to sign up customers for a lease and a maintenance contract. For the business owner, this meant peace of mind. Your sign was regularly maintained and painted and, of course, if that freak hailstorm hit, you were covered. For the sign company, leasing meant that the company assured itself a steady income, provided the hail storms were few and far between. And it was easier to convince your customers to upgrade to the latest trends. Elsewhere on the continent, signs were usually sold outright. This meant that sign maintenance depended on the well-being of the owner's business. As North American city cores were abandoned in the flight to the suburbs, the slowly decaying neon signs left behind helped to contribute to neon's bad reputation. In Vancouver when a business closed, the sign was usually quickly removed. That has made preservation of older signs in their original locations difficult. But it does mean that even in the poorest commercial areas of Vancouver, neon signs are kept in reasonably good repair. These books record the ongoing maintenance requirements of Neon Products' signs throughout the city of Vancouver. The books are organized by job number and street address. Neon workers joked that little boys with sling shots assured them of continual employment. They made an annual round re-tubing and re-painting leased signs. Leaving sheet metal out in the rain means only one thing, rust. A neon sign needs constant maintenance to prevent deterioration. Not only is there rain to worry about, but hail, rapid temperature changes and even roosting birds can all cause problems. These letters were attached to a building on Hastings Street. After 20 years exposed to the elements they have begun to suffer.
Before it was taken down in 1997, the sign had pieces of sheet metal flapping in the wind because of severe rust. You could see through the sign in many spots and a variety of birds had taken to nesting inside. If it had been maintained it could have provided an interesting piece of commercial art for a rapidly changing neighbourhood.
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