Over the years SignWorks has produced a variety of evacuation maps for clients in Oakland, San Francisco, and Palo Alto. The majority of evacuation maps have been produced for building owners and contractors in Oakland and weâve handled site surveys, design layout, fabrication, installation and the overall project management for the maps when required.
At present we have three in-house evacuation map projects, one of which is partially complete for our client, The Buddhist Temple in downtown Oakland. The church and school building maps were complete about a month ago and now weâre waiting on the Fire Marshall to approve the 10 unit apartment building maps.
The other two evacuation map projects are for two other multi-unit properties in Oakland. In one instance we are managing the fire department approval process for the building owner, while in the other instance the property owner, working with full two scale copies and one smaller set that we supplied, will manage the process themselves. The visit to the fire department generally takes about an hour plus travel time, but can take much longer depending on the time of day. We generally try to be there at 9:00 AM before the counter gets too busy!
Each of these projects required a detailed site survey to confirm the building layout and exit routes as well as the placement of such things as the alarms, pull stations, exit locations, elevators, and stairs, etc. Building renovations will usually result in the fire department inspector calling for new evacuation maps to reflect changes to the building layout.
SignWorks, Inc, Hayward, CA has designed, produced and installed so many evacuation maps over the years that customers can confidently check this task off their list! In Oakland, due to the guidelines calling for a specific map are size, the finished maps wind up being 14â x 14â. In San Francisco the typical size becomes 15â x 24â because the guidelines call for specific sizes for the text and symbols that go onto the maps. Non glare acrylic lens are a must to ensure that the map is readable even in the smoky conditions associated with a fire. In a dark building when fire personnel shine their lights on the map it must be readable without any glare.
SignWorks can provide the expertise you need for your evacuation map project whether itâs just design and printing or something more.  Please give us a call at (510) 357-2000 or you can visit our website to peruse some of our project photos and learn more about our work.