Distinctions by Hillman Floating Mount House Number 8 Nickel (5")

Was looking for something modern for an address sign I was making and my hardware store didn’t have anything I wanted. A blog I was following recommended these and they worked great!

Distinctions by Hillman 843216 5-Inch Floating Mount House Brushed Nickel, Number 6 1. First the good-The finish (Nickel) in this case is superb and added a flair of sophistication and distinction. A Plus +2. Carefully examine and unfold the cardboard card you'll see as part of the packaging. to reveal the drilling template so you can mount the standoffs. A Plus +3. The directions offer recommended drill sizes which would leave oversized holes in stucco for the standoffs. I sized an appropriate small diameter pilot drill bit then a slightly undersized one matched to the standoffs' threaded portion intended to penetrate the wall, after using a center punch to mark the center of each hole thru the template into stucco where the mount location was selected, in this case a vertical row. A Minus-TIP: Best Practice: layout the drill templates in the orientation you intended to install either horizontal or vertical. Then tape all the cards together observing the address is correct reading. Now you can center or square the entire full template up and level it. Drill all the pilot holes at once then the larger mount holes. You need to keep your drill straight and centered on the crosshairs or some misalignment may occur.Finally, assuming things didn't go poorly, you can add the adhesive to the anchor threads and gently place each number and or letter into the appropriate holes. A Minus - The standoffs are very delicate due to the material specification and will break without warning unless extreme care is practiced during the insertion process. If you break one you'll need a new replacement number and or letter which comes with new standoffs.The manufacture should consider a review of the drill recommendations and improve the material specification for the standoffs/anchors. Note: If you decided to use the drill size recommendations you'll want to support the letters in some manner (masking tape) to allow the silicone to set and the holes will not be obscured by the characters, but you'll have some wiggle room for adjustment. (Pointless without a quickset adhesive)My Result for the first effort: 3 out of 4, job required one replacement because of a snapped standoff anchor. Slight misalignment with the card template required some stucco repair. Everything looks nice. If someone takes a fancy to the shiny metal, these will part with the structure in moments.

Excellent quality, good planning required to get alignment correct. Templates that are provided help.

The font goes perfectly with my mid-century modern home. I bought 1 of the 4 numerals I needed before I ordered the rest just to check out the quality. These are definitely nice quality numerals, though probably not the highest quality. For the price, they are excellent. They are made of metal (some other reviewer said they were plastic; they're not). However, I believe these would serve best if viewed from a distance. Up close, you can make out either imperfections from the molding process, fine lines from the polishing/burr removal process, or both. From a distance it is not an issue, but if you wanted to use them, say, on an office reception area wall where people could get a close look, you may want to find higher quality numerals.I accidentally discovered an alternative to using the templates found folded in cardboard package backing (which I didn't know were there until afterwards). The plastic packaging front is "molded" to the exact shape as the numeral. I glued each plastic "mold" onto a piece of wood and arranged them exactly like I wanted the numerals lined up on my mounting surface. I then dropped the metal numerals loose into the "molds" and they were are lined up and nicely spaced and leveled as I wanted them. I wanted to float mount them on a metal I-Beam and did not (could not) drill holes onto the steel as directed to float mount them with the included hardware. I ended up hack sawing off the part of the float mounts that were supposed to sink into the mounting surface. This left a flat metal mount that I applied glue (J-B Weld) to mount them on the I-Beam. I just had to carefully position the piece of wood with the pre-aligned plastic "molds" and press the whole set of numerals directly on the I-Beam all at once. I secured the piece of wood so it put even pressure on the numerals and gave the glue time to dry. Once done, I just lifted off the "molds" and I had a perfectly aligned set of numbers.

Looks nice and works great.

I bought 5 individual numbers, all brushed nickel. I didn't have any problems with the finish matching, even though they came from two different suppliers.In reading the other reviews, I was very leery of the attachment screws and treated them as fragile. As such, I had no problems with breakage. Yes, the templates are off - at least the #2 template was for the top hole, so I had to do my own figuring. These look very nice for the money. They're coated in some kind of clearcoat, but I wouldn't bet on it lasting forever. As sleek and stylish as these are, they're thin/narrow and they aren't very readable from 15', so keep in mind you'll probably have to shine a light on them in the dark. I made a stained board to mount them on, but I could hardly see them, even with a light shining on them, so I ended up painting them white (which I could have ordered in the first place, but NBD). Pic is before I painted them white. Looks great in the daylight up close, but not at night.They lose a star for the bad templates and cheap hardwareYMMV.

Very nice styling and build quality topped off with excellent value and customer service👍🏼

Great quality product. Looks great!

I needed to upgrade some old numbers that we're looking pretty worn and also hard to see against the Cedar Shakes on our house.These did the trick and for the price point I was pretty happy. Install is a little bit tricky as you end up putting the posts into the number - drilling the holes in your location - and then utilizing silicone you insert the posts into the house. I didn't want to puncture my vapor barrier so I cut down the mounting posts so they were the same depth as one of the shakes and then mounted them directly to that w/o going into the wall itself. Secure and looks good, at least I think so. :)

I like the appearance of the numbers but the installation was definitely not easy and the numbers are not as visible as I would like.

Good product. Easy to install. Great finish and build. What an upgrade. Hope they last long and keep their finish. Fast shipping. Even if ordered separatly on the cart, they all came in one package