No Trespassing, For Sale, Safety Signs and Sign Letters

A sign only works if the right person sees it and understands it in a glance. That comes down to the right message, put where people actually look, made to hold up where it hangs. WBC carries the everyday signs for land, sales and safety, plus letters and numbers for making your own.

Posting your land

For keeping people off property, WBC has several messages, and they say different things:

• No Trespassing, including a black-and-yellow version that stands out against brush and fence, and a “legal” no trespassing sign.
• Private Property, No Trespassing, in a few styles, which says whose rules apply.
• Private Property, Keep Out and Keep Out, for a gate, a shop or an outbuilding.
• Protected by Video Surveillance, which works best next to a no trespassing sign, not instead of it.

In Montana, posting land to give legal notice has its own rules, set out in the state’s trespass law (Montana Code 45-6-201). If you’re posting a ranch boundary or keeping hunters off, read what that law requires for where and how notice has to be given before you put signs up, so your signs do the job.

Put signs where people enter: gates, the end of a driveway, two-tracks, and along a boundary where someone would naturally walk in. A sign hidden by brush in July does nothing, so pick spots that stay clear, and check them every spring.

Selling something

• For Sale signs, including a 15 x 19-inch sign and several other styles.
• For Sale By Owner for a house or lot.
• Auto For Sale signs for a truck, car or trailer.

On a vehicle, put the sign in a side window facing the road, and write the price and phone number big enough to read from a passing car. Check it from the street before you walk away.

Safety and building signs

• Exit sign, for a door that leads out.
• Fire Extinguisher sign, mounted above the extinguisher so people know where it is before they ever need it, and can spot it fast when they do.
• Danger sign, for a real hazard that can seriously hurt someone. Keep “danger” for actual dangers; on every door it stops meaning anything.
• Reserved Parking, 12 x 18 inches.
• Clean Up After Your Pet, for a lawn, a rental or a shared yard.

Keep exit and extinguisher signs clear of shelving, decorations and stacked stock, and replace them when they’re faded or damaged. Whether a business needs lighted exit signs is a building and fire code question, not something a stick-on sign settles.

Letters and numbers

The Hy-Ko MM-21 number and letter set gives you 3/4-inch black vinyl characters on a silver background for close-range labels: a mailbox, a shop door, a toolbox, a storage bin. They are too small to read from the road, so a house address that has to be seen from the street needs bigger numbers. Clean the surface first and press each one down firmly.

Making signs last

• Mount them solidly. Screw or bolt signs through the holes to a post or wall; signs held by one nail spin and flap in the wind.
• Face them where people come from. A sign at a gate reads from the road side, not the yard side.
• Replace faded ones. Sun fades signs, and a faded sign looks like nobody’s watching.

The Pick

For land, the black-and-yellow No Trespassing or a Private Property sign at every gate. For a sale, the For Sale By Owner or Auto For Sale sign. For a shop or business, Exit and Fire Extinguisher signs, and the Hy-Ko letter set for mailboxes, doors and labels.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where should I put no trespassing signs?

At gates, driveways, two-tracks and other places people would enter. In Montana, the trespass law (45-6-201) sets out how posting gives notice, so check it before posting land.

What’s the difference between a danger sign and a caution sign?

Danger is for a hazard that can kill or seriously injure someone. Caution is for a lesser hazard. Use danger only where it fits, so it keeps its meaning.

Where does a fire extinguisher sign go?

Above the extinguisher, high enough to see over furniture and stock, so people can find it fast.

How do I make stick-on letters stay on?

Clean and dry the surface, apply them when it’s not freezing, and press each letter down firmly, especially the edges.