13oz vs 18oz vs Mesh Banner Vinyl and Which Weight Holds Up Outside

Banner vinyl is graded by how much a square yard of it weighs. Thirteen ounces per square yard is the everyday outdoor grade, eighteen is the heavy grade, and the number climbs because two things inside the sheet get bigger at once.

Every solid banner is a sandwich. In the middle sits a woven polyester grid called scrim, and on either side of it sits PVC. The scrim does the structural work, holding the sheet together when a corner takes load. The PVC does the visible work, accepting ink and shrugging off rain and UV. Going from 13oz to 18oz means a denser scrim weave and thicker PVC skins, which is why the heavy grade resists a tear that has already started and holds a grommet that has begun to work loose. Our scrim vinyl guide takes that construction apart layer by layer.

Mesh breaks the pattern. It is lighter, at 8oz per square yard, not because the material is flimsy but because a large part of the face is missing on purpose. The sheet is perforated with tiny holes across its whole area, so there is simply less material to weigh. Comparing 8oz mesh against 13oz solid as if they sit on one scale leads to the wrong order.

One number is worth knowing before you shop. Vinyl banners start at $79 for a 2 by 4 foot banner and run to a 240 by 180 inch custom span, and the 13oz and 15oz BlackOut materials are a choice inside the same configurator rather than two separate products.

The second reason to step up from 13oz has nothing to do with strength. It is light. Standard outdoor vinyl passes enough light that anything printed on the back reads as a ghost through the front, and a dark block behind pale type will wreck it.

Blockout material solves that with an opaque core buried between the two printed skins. Light stops at the core, so each face prints and reads independently. That is the whole reason our pole banners run on 18oz blackout: a banner held off a street light pole by a bracket gets read from both directions of traffic, and it hangs in open air where nothing shelters it. They start at $97.76 for an 18 by 24 inch banner, come in 13 portrait sizes up to 30 by 72 inches, and offer from 1 to 10 wind slits for exposed streets.

When the double sided piece is a rectangle over a sidewalk or down an exhibition aisle instead of a pole banner, the middle grade does the job. 2 Sided Blockout Banners run on 15oz BlackOut vinyl from $108.75 for one, in sizes from 2 by 3 feet up to 4 by 10 feet. And if you only ever needed one face, do not pay for the core: order the 13oz material and put the money into a bigger banner or hems on all four sides instead.

The finishing differs between the grades as well. On 13oz vinyl you pick hems (none, top and bottom, or all four sides), grommets at the corners or every 2 feet, and 2 or 4 inch pole pockets. The 18oz pole banner comes set up for its bracket, with 2 inch pole pockets top and bottom, grommets at the 4 corners and a single or double bracket.

One warning. Blockout is not the same as blackout paint on the back of a cheap banner, and it is not the same as printing white behind your artwork. Neither trick stops show-through. The core has to be in the material, which is why it is a material choice at the configurator and not a finishing option. If you want the full spec ladder side by side, the vinyl banners printing category lists each grade with its live pricing.

Work through it in this order and you will not order the wrong banner twice.

• Is it going on a fence, a scaffold or an open building face? Mesh, every time. Solid vinyl on a fence is a sail with nothing behind it.
• Does it need to read from both sides? Blockout. 18oz blackout for a pole bracket, 15oz for a rectangle hung in the open.
• Is it flat against a wall, or indoors? 13oz. The wall shelters the back and you save the money for size or finishing.
• Is it going up and down repeatedly? Consider a stand instead of a hang. Retractable banner stands from $139 for one kit keep the graphic rolled and protected between uses.
• Is it indoors and photographed a lot? Fabric banners from $57.20 for one 24 x 72 inch banner kill the glare that solid vinyl throws under event lighting.

On price, the grades sit close together. Mesh starts at $75 for 24 by 72 inches and vinyl at $79 for 2 by 4 feet, which means the wind decision costs you almost nothing, and the real jumps come from size and from double sided printing rather than from the material grade. Compare the full range on the banners printing collection, and if the banner is already ordered, the hanging guide covers the ties, bungees and tension that decide how long it survives.