Hello, I am planning to create a large, 8' X 8', map, with a 1:4,320 scale, of water utilities, to be printed on a decal and used as a wall mural. Has anyone here done this before? Any lessons learned or advice to share?
We've created wall mural maps a few times here but only at 59" x 59" and 66" x 66". I'm not sure about printing on a decal or why that would be useful, but we just generated the PDF at the desired size at around 300 dpi, then sent it off to the reprographics place. We chose to print on photo satin paper and then have it mounted on 1/2" black gator board with an attached wood hanging block mounted to the back. I think we ordered around 20 units and they all just ended up as wall art scattered across City Hall.
For our particular job and printing on photo satin media, the max size available was 60" wide and anything above that size required stitching the prints together as two separate jobs and then after mounting there was a visible seam running down the middle of the mural. I'm sure there's equipment out there that prints at 8' x 8', but maybe the limitations are the available printing media that you can choose from? I would think a decal would be difficult to attach to a wall without air bubbles, but maybe this is something people do all the time. Good luck!
Hey Trevor! Long time no talk. It's Ramon Gallegos. I looked at your map attachments and thought, "Hey, that's Santa Ana!" Then I saw your name. Hope all is well and thanks for your input, your maps look great! It's helpful and we may go that route, but I am hoping to do something more like the attached image, for our office.
Hey Ramon- Yes, it has been a while! That's a pretty neat idea for a wall mural. I have a contact at ARC Document Solutions and I bet he would have a pretty good idea as to what's possible on the equipment they have. If you have my contact information, just shoot me an e-mail and I'll send it your way.
Thanks for the advice! Yeah, looking forward to getting this map done. We are getting a new building so i plan to have this ready for the lobby... Luckily I have a year to knock it out.
