Durable Plan Sets for Architectural Designs and Other Construction Printing Jobs
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Architects, construction managers, contractors, engineers, and other tradesmen in the building industry need durable, weather-resistant paper for plans and posters at the job site. That means they have to rely on materials that can stand up to the harsh on-site environment, against elements such as dirt, mud, humidity, liquids, dust, and heavy handling by users.
Plans or posters need to remain readable and in usable condition — sometimes for month after month —so the material used must be extremely durable.
Fortunately, the team at Kelley Connect has sourced a series of durable paper that will revolutionize your plan printing process and produce functional and good-looking plan sets and posters — perfect for client presentations or on-site work.
Durables —Virtually Unknown Products with Big Benefits for Your Next Construction Printing Job
If you’re used to working with wet or humid weather or other adverse conditions on the job site, you understand the constraints of traditional paper plans. They shred, smear, and can’t stand up to long-term use unless laminated.
However, once they’re laminated, the pages aren’t foldable, and the entire plan set becomes unwieldy and hard to use by on site personnel.
Some professionals have turned to a polypropylene vinyl material to solve this problem – an excellent choice for when you need the most durable material that can withstand everything the elements can throw at it. However, to achieve that level of robustness, polypropylene vinyl prints sacrifice foldability due to its thickness and stiffness. They fold well and are so durable you can actually back a truck over the plans, and they’ll clean up with water — just like new.
Our printing professionals at Kelley have chosen to use Tyvek or a Tyvek-like material called Paper Tyger for these kinds of construction printing jobs because they are extremely durable but remain flexible enough to fold. These revolutionary materials feed easily into a regular (8.5” x 11”) or wide-format printer (up to 40” wide) to give you complete flexibility for plan sets. Paper Tyger is less expensive than Tyvek, but it provides a similar level of durability, even through multiple uses and the abuse of a busy environment. It’s wear, tear, and water-resistant to give you the ultimate level of endurance, no matter how harsh conditions are at your job site.
In fact, with its special aqueous coating, it resists rain, humidity, snow, sun, wind, and temperature extremes!
Other advantages to using Durables like Tyvek and Paper Tyger over traditional print-and-laminate include:
- One-step versus three-step printing process (print only versus print/laminate/cut)
- More cost effective?
- Faster turnaround
- Foldable
- Durable
No matter which Durable paper you choose for your next plan set or job-site poster, you’ll be pleased with the dependability, permanence, and endurance.
How to Best Use Our Durables for Your Next Project
All of our durable printing materials are available direct to you if you want to print them using printers available at your office, a satellite office, or even at your worksite. All you need is a printer that prints the width you need — regular (8.5” x 11”) or wide-format (up to 40” wide) — and a digital version of your plan set.
If you don’t have time to wrangle prints at a busy job site, you can send a file of your plan set or construction drawings to any Kelley Connect site and we can print it for you. These materials print nicely on our in-house HP inkjet plotters for crisp, clear graphics.
Kelley Connect — Your Reprographics Experts
Whether you’re an architect, construction manager, or engineer, you know that having a readable, durable set of plans is critical for a successful project.
A usable set of plans that withstands handling, folding, and wear-and-tear also help you look good in front of clients and team partners, assisting in marketing your brand. Plus, using durable papers can help save money since you won’t have to repeatedly reprint plan sets as they wear out or get ruined on site.
With a variety of sizes and the ability to print in-house or outsource the job to Kelley, leveraging the power of durables for your next project just makes sense.
Talk to a Kelley Connect consultant today to about our construction printing options, from purchasing paper from our line of Durables or printing your next set of plans or job site posters at one of our Kelley Connect locations near you.
