Top Hooks
Helpful Household Hardware
Top hooks are a category of hardware used to hang signs, such as portrait or landscape-style house numbers, from a wall bracket. Top hooks have a crook at the top and a partially threaded shaft similar to a standard screw. This is to enable the owner or manufacturer of the house numbers sign to drive the top hooks into the top of the sign and hang them from eye bolts installed on a wall bracket. They may be small, for lightweight house numbers, or heavy-duty industrial strength top hooks, for hanging heavier and thicker signs.
Top hooks are also used when a sign needs to be suspended indoors, such as from the rafters, from a fascia board, or a horizontal railing, such as the entryway to a business. Depending on the distance between your house numbers sign and the surface, you might wish to use chain to hang them.
Types of House Numbers Using Top Hooks
House number signs constructed from wood, without frames, are best suited to the use of top hooks. Especially large or heavy wooden house numbers and signs look impressive hanged from rafters or suspended beneath the eaves of a home. Top hooks allow for more freedom of movement than eye bolts on the house numbers themselves. Eye bolts give a rigid appearance, and when suspended from chains, the resistance they offer to the movement of the chains actually makes more noise than the free movement allowed by top hooks.
Usually, landscape-style house numbers are ideally suited to the use of top hooks. Top hooks ensure the hanging surface is even. Having a length of chain you can customize for each side of the house numbers can transform an uneven hanging surface into one that keeps the house numbers level and legible.
If you ordered house numbers but were surprised by their size or weight, rather than attempting to mount the house numbers on your exterior wall as planned, why not use top hooks to distribute their weight evenly and reduce the risk of damage to the house numbers, guests, or your home? You can easily suspend a large rectangular sign above your front door or in another entryway.
Other Places for House Numbers
If you have a garage, the peak of the eaves might be an excellent centering point for new house numbers. If you've ordered large house numbers on a wooden sign, positioning them just above your garage door will definitely look impressive.
Hanging house number plaques at the entrance to your porch or sunroom leaves a definite impression, as they're likely to be moved by an occasional breeze and sunlit throughout the day. A bay window or French doors looking out on the front yard would be an excellent place to hang your house numbers, either indoors or outside.
If you've recently ordered house numbers, or are planning to do so, call the manufacturer and ask them about installation. Be sure to have all necessary hardware and tools on hand as soon as the home sign arrives. This often makes the difference between a beautiful sign that gets mounted for the neighbors to see, or a beautiful sign that gathers dust in the garage!