Raceway for Channel Letters, Painted to Match Your Wall

A raceway is a slim metal box that runs behind a row of channel letters. The letters mount on the raceway, and the raceway mounts on the wall. Inside it sit the power supply and all the wiring between the letters. We paint it to match your fascia, so from the street it reads as part of the building rather than as a box.

Why use one:

• Few holes in the building: the raceway's mounting points and one place where the power comes in, instead of studs and a wire hole behind every letter.
• Landlords and shopping centers often ask for it, because the facade stays intact and the sign comes off as one piece when a tenant leaves.
• No access needed behind the wall for wiring or a power supply.
• One electrical connection: the electrician brings power to the raceway, not to each letter.

You can order it two ways. With new letters, the letters arrive already mounted and wired on the raceway, spaced as on your drawing. On its own, it is built for letters you already have, and your installer moves the letters onto it.

The raceway is priced by length, usually about 1 ft longer than the row of letters so it does not show past the ends awkwardly. Long runs come in sections that join on the wall. The price estimator gives a figure per foot, and the raceway length helper works out the length from your letters.

A raceway suits front-lit letters and other styles lit from the front. Halo-lit letters need the wall itself behind them for the glow, so they mount flush instead.

Raceway or wireway? A wireway is a thinner channel that carries only the wires, with the power supply placed inside the wall or elsewhere. Our raceway holds the power supply as well, so it sits with the letters. Either way the letters stand further from the wall, so check any limit your city or landlord sets on how far a wall sign may stick out.

Installation and the electrician are not included. The drawing we email before production shows the raceway size, color and where the power feed enters, and nothing is built until you approve it.

Read your lease or the shopping center's sign criteria first: if they require a raceway, or limit holes in the facade, the choice is made for you.

For the length, measure the full width of the row of letters and add about 1 ft. The raceway length helper does this from your letter height and text. If the row is long, expect it in sections.

For the color, send the paint brand and color code of the fascia, or a clear daylight photo. Matching the wall makes the raceway disappear; a contrasting color makes it part of the design, which can work on plain walls.

Tell us where the power will come out of the wall so the drawing can place the feed and the power supply.