A 510gsm PVC banner with hemmed edges and brass eyelets can come back out for three, four or even five seasons if you store it properly. Folded into a drawer for six months in a damp loft, the same banner is finished after one summer. Storage is the difference between £42 spent once and £42 spent every year.
This guide covers the practical rules for storing banners that need to come back next Christmas, next Easter or next summer sale. Examples come from how customers in Putney, Wimbledon and Chelsea look after the banners we have printed for them at our Putney Heath studio.
Roll banners print-side out around a cardboard tube. Do not fold. Store dry, out of direct sun, between 5C and 25C. Lofts are usually fine, garages with damp problems are not. Avoid plastic bags that trap condensation.
Roll, Do Not Fold
Folding a PVC banner creates permanent crease lines. The print cracks along the crease and the material weakens. Even after a year stored folded, the lines will show when the banner is hung back up, and they catch wind and tear more easily.
Always roll. Use a cardboard postal tube or any sturdy tube around 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Roll with the print side facing out, which keeps the ink in tension rather than compression and reduces the chance of crackling.
Dry Storage Is Critical
PVC is waterproof but damp air does a lot of damage during long storage. Moisture trapped against the print can lift inks, particularly on lighter background colours, and condensation inside a rolled banner takes weeks to dry out.
A loft with reasonable ventilation is usually fine. A spare cupboard inside the shop is better. A damp garage or basement is the worst place you can put a banner, especially over winter. If you have nowhere indoors, wrap the rolled banner in a clean cotton sheet rather than a plastic bag.
Avoid Plastic Bin Bags
Plastic traps condensation. The temperature swings inside a loft or garage cause warm air to hit the cold plastic and water collects on the inside of the bag against the banner. Cotton or paper wrapping breathes and avoids this.
Roll the banner print-side out around a cardboard tube and store somewhere dry. That is 90 percent of the job.
Temperature and Sun
Direct sunlight fades PVC banner inks even when the banner is not being used. A banner left on a sunny windowsill in storage will lose 20 to 30 percent of its colour intensity over a single summer. Keep stored banners in shade or in a closed cupboard.
Extreme cold below freezing makes PVC stiff and slightly brittle. If your loft drops below freezing in winter, bring the banner inside for the coldest weeks if practical. Heat above 35C softens the material and can let the ink layer flow slightly, so avoid putting banners next to boilers or in airing cupboards.
Banner Storage Do and Do Not
| Do | Do Not |
|---|---|
| Roll around cardboard tube | Fold or crease |
| Store dry, indoors if possible | Leave in damp garage or basement |
| Wrap in cotton sheet if needed | Seal in plastic bin bag |
| Keep out of direct sunlight | Store on sunny windowsill |
| Label with design and date | Mix banners in unmarked pile |
Labelling and Tracking
If you have several banners, label each tube with the design, size and last use date. Masking tape and a marker pen is fine. After three or four uses, check the colour against your file, faded banners look worse year on year and at some point a reprint is cheaper than continuing to hang a tired one.
A plastic bin bag is the fastest way to ruin a banner in storage. Wrap in cotton if you have to wrap at all.
When to Reprint
Reprint when colours look noticeably faded, when eyelets pull through or rip, when the hem starts to unstitch, or when the message changes. From our Putney studio a same-day reprint of a 5ft x 3ft 510gsm PVC banner is around £42 on artwork in by 11am. Many customers keep the same artwork file and reprint every three years rather than store a fading banner forever.
Keep the original artwork file backed up in two places. Cloud storage and a local hard drive is enough. Losing the file means we have to recreate the design from a photo of the existing banner, which usually means a small redraw fee and a longer turnaround.
If you store seasonal banners for several uses, consider a simple tracking sheet listing the design, last use date and condition. After three or four uses, comparing the current condition to the file lets you decide whether one more season is realistic or whether a fresh print is the better call.
Ready to Get Your Banner Printed?
Banner storage is dull but it is the difference between buying once and buying every year. Roll, dry, label, check before reuse. A 510gsm PVC banner looked after this way will return for several seasons.
When the time comes for a reprint, send the original artwork to our Putney Heath studio before 11am for same-day collection. Call 020 3669 9854 or WhatsApp +447376464869.
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