Drywall Truck Decals: Door Lettering and Logo Ideas for Finishers

Drywall truck decals have a problem most trades never face: nearly everything around the job is white. Joint compound and sanding dust can end up on a van parked by an open garage, and a pale decal turns into a pale patch. Pick dark, high-contrast lettering, keep the name and phone number short, and treat a logo as a bonus rather than the point. Here is what to print, how to lay it out and what the Smoothwall logo looks like.

Dust is the contrast problem

Anything light loses contrast under a film of white powder. Navy, black or deep blue letters on a light truck still read through it. White or pale yellow letters on a mid-tone truck go first.

If your van is dark, pick a decal with its own contrasting background, such as black lettering on yellow or white lettering on black, so the contrast comes from the decal rather than the paint. If the van is white, black lettering reads clearly. The fonts and colors guide shows more pairs.

Pick the second line

The line under your name can say which steps you do. Print only what is true:

• Hang, Tape and Finish
• Patch and Texture Repair
• New Construction and Remodels
• Basements, Garages and Additions

Keep it to one line, because a long second line forces every line smaller.

The trowel and orange panel logo

The Trowel and Wall Drywall Logo places a navy trowel-style tool, with a handle on top, across a solid orange square. Below it, the company name runs on one line in navy capitals. It is a calm, flat design: two colors and a shape that suggests a finished wall.

It is $120 per door. Your name is fitted into the layout, and a proof comes to you before printing. Because the name is on a single line, a short name fills the width nicely while a long one shrinks, so read the proof with your real name in front of you.

Door layouts to copy

All names and numbers are made up.

• Cargo van, name and phone: CLEARFIELD DRYWALL / Hang, Tape and Finish / (555) 555-0126
• Pickup, four lines: TRUEFRAME DRYWALL & TEXTURE / Repairs and New Work / Anytown and nearby / (555) 555-0145

Put the same text on both doors. Give the phone number as much size as the layout allows. Ask your state licensing board whether it wants a license number shown on a vehicle, and add it only if it does.

Vans, pickups and heavier trucks

Most drywall crews work from a cargo van or a pickup with a rack, sometimes with a covered trailer for stilts, buckets and a mud mixer. A company that moves large orders of board may use a heavier truck. Whether a heavier truck needs a USDOT number depends on weight and use, so see who needs a USDOT number before you order marking for it. If you work beside painters on the same jobs, painting truck decals is a useful comparison.

If the van is leased or rented, read your agreement first. A decal can be taken off later, as how to remove truck decals explains.

Simple or custom

If name, one service line and phone are enough, the Business Name + Phone Number decal is $30.99 per decal. A pair for both doors is $61.98. For a longer layout, the Make-Your-Own 5-Line decal is $51, or you can try wording and colors in the door builder with a preview on a truck door.

The contour cut costs an extra $10 per door on logo designs and trims the decal to the shape of the logo instead of leaving a rectangle. This logo is mostly a solid square over a line of text, so the outline is simple. Prefer it on a white or light van. We sell decals, not wraps, and you put them on yourself using the instruction sheet and video link in the package; the install guide walks through it.