FAQ

Design

Q: Where did you get your design ideas?
A: Yankee posts are the culmination of time tested and classic American Traditional architecture. Design ideas came from travelling the old roads of New England and studying signs and lanterns on historic buildings, viewing the furniture exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Art and dissecting the strengths and weaknesses of other posts in the marketplace. We gathered the best features to create the ultimate mailbox, sign and lantern posts, using Roman Ogee shape for Post Cap trim and brace routing and Chippendale style bracing.

Q: Why are Yankee posts so beautiful?
A: For optimal balance and proportion, careful consideration was given to the size of each component and positioning of modular parts on the sign post. For our mailbox, we chose a traditional shape and full size. Unlike other posts on the market that have a skinny post with a bulbous looking mailbox, Yankee post size was driven to a hefty 6 1/4" for perfect proportion with the mailbox.

Q: Why are Yankee posts modular?
A: We use modular components to give our customers only the features they want. All components are easily installed using templated mounting holes making service, assembly and installation easy. Our design will never change so replacement modular components always fit and are readily available.

Q: How are your cedar components built?
A: Mailbox and sign braces are assembled with mortice and tenon, the strongest method for joining two beams. For added strength, mortice joints are waterproof glued and screwed with our exclusive screw rebar pattern. Even the brace mounting hole is encircled with screws to prevent stress cracking. Our mailbox newspaper brace is also glued and screwed at all joints. Through trial and error and several designs we feel our cap dimension is perfectly balanced with the post. For dimensional stability and a full visual profile we insisted on using more material than other cap makers using 1 3/4" block and 1 5/8" thick molding. For durability, caps are assembled with 16 Stainless fasteners and V nails with premium waterproof glue.

Q: What makes the Yankee Mailbox post the strongest mailbox post available?
A: Paramount was our goal to build the strongest and most durable mailbox post. The rigors of New England Winter with heavy snow, ice storms and snowplows driving piles of heavy snow against the side of the mailbox post provided the necessity for inventing our exclusive Stabilizer System, fastening our mailbox to both the vertical post and support brace. This way, the core of the mailbox post is greatly strengthened and strong enough to handle the weight of the snow from plows. Without the stabilizer system, the mailbox support brace can not withstand the force of the snow and breaks off the post, leaving the mailbox on the ground. We are amazed that all other mailbox post manufacturers have not employed this feature. Every design engineer knows a box is one of the strongest structures in the universe. It only makes sense to use the mailbox to provide core strength for the entire mailbox post assembly. For granite posts, our stabilizer system employes a heavy duty stainless steel wedge anchor driven deep into the granite with a nut and 4 stacked stainless steel 2 inch fender washers fastening the steel back plate of the mailbox to the post.

Q: Why do Yankee posts always maintain sturdy and plumb in ground?
A: For a mailbox post, a large footprint is essential for a post to remain plumb and upright. Skinny posts slice through the ground, especially in Spring when the ground is wet and mushy, ending up listing and looking sloppy. Skinny posts also get pushed over by the weight of snow from plows. Yankee Mailbox granite posts are 6 1/4" thick, good for remaining solid and plumb in ground and a perfect proportion for our full size mailbox. To prevent listing, our 7 and 8 feet long mailbox posts are installed 2 1/2 to 3 feet in ground to ensure the post remains solid and plumb.

Q: How is the American Flag secured to the Yankee mailbox post?
A: Separating the mailbox from the post and preventing abrasion is our 4 inch stabilizer block. An added bonus is the slot we cut into the stabilizer block to contain the American Flag. All Yankee Mailbox customers receive a complementary American Flag when purchasing our mailbox with a mailbox post. As "The First Impression of Your Home", your mailbox is a good place to display Old Glory and show your support for our Constitutional Republic and our GOD given individual liberty.

Q: What makes Yankee signposts unique?
A: Yankee signposts are versatile, accommodating mailboxes, side and topmount lanterns and signs including Arch, Doves, Oval and Quarterboard. Signs have template holes top and bottom for stacking Quarterboard signs. Mailboxes and Signs are personalized with premium vinyl in high readability serif and block font in a variety of vinyl colors including white, off-white, black and reflective white. For added style and effectiveness, our sign program allows for emphasis of individual lines varying font, letter size and case.

Q: Why are Yankee signposts so durable?
A: The sign brace is fastened to granite with heavy duty stainless steel wedge anchors. For our cedar signpost, the sign brace is fastened with heavy 6 inch galvanized lag bolts. To relieve stress from heavy wind, Signs hang from the sign brace using stainless steel S hooks and heavy duty stainless steel eye bolts.

Q: Will my lantern be secure on the Yankee lantern post?
A: For maximum support to carry heavy lantern fixtures, lantern caps are screwed through our rust free aluminum universal coupler and deep into granite posts with 4 inch wood screws and expansion anchors.

Materials

Q: What was Yankee's decision process for choosing the right materials?
A: Designing a mailbox post to handle extreme weather in New England, with soaking wet Spring, searing hot Summer and frigid Winter with heavy snow, ice storms and snowplows, we needed to be uncompromising and choose the right materials. For the post, we decided to use 2 of the best materials that Nature could offer, Granite and Clear Vertical Grain Western Red Cedar. Both granite with unyielding mass and Cedar with fiber strength and decay resistance make excellent mailbox posts.

Q: What kind of granite do you use?
A: We buy our gray granite by the truckload from Swenson Granite Works located in Barry, Vermont, USA. Swenson, established in 1886, is the largest and oldest granite quarrying operation in our country. Swenson has provided granite for prestigious projects including the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Library of Congress, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Pentagon. Swenson granite is noted for it's fine texture and lack of imperfections. Swenson custom quarries each granite post to our specifications, split on 2 sides, flat on 2 sides and sawn flat on top. The flat sides provide an excellent surface for brace mounting and are flame treated to eliminate saw marks. The split sides are uneven and flank each post for a natural stone look. The flat sawn top ensures a level post cap mount.

Q: Why does Yankee use red cedar for caps and braces?
A: Yankee sign braces and Post Caps are made with Clear Western Red Cedar, excellent for accepting finishes and possessing outstanding dimensional stability and legendary durability. Clear Cedar does not contain knots, making it ideal for fine joinery, smooth planing and consistent routing . Western Red Cedar also contains natural oils to resist moisture, decay-causing fungi and insects preserving the wood for longevity.

Finish

Q: What makes the Yankee finish so good?
A: For a most durable and beautiful finish, all cedar components pass through our extensive 6 step process. We start with a fast drying thin oil base/shellac primer. Shellac penetrates the cedar and seeps into all joints to lock in the natural oil preventing tannin bleed and creating a hard shell surface, perfect for sanding smooth. The primed surface is helpful for seeing any imperfections. All imperfections in the surface of the cedar are filled with premium Elmer's wood filler and 30 year premium caulk and sanded for a smooth surface. Next the component is enrobed with a second coat of heavy oil base primer and back brushed for a classic fine brush texture. This second coat of thick oil primer is an extra measure to lock in the natural oil in the cedar that make cedar last and lock out environmental elements. It also provides excellent adhesion for two hand brushed coats of acrylic latex stain. When backbrushing each coat of paint, our painters are trained to use a consistent method we call "The Yankee Waltz", to ensure consistent quality finish.
Yankee painters also are trained to visually inspect each component before they hang the component to dry. This ensures a smooth and clean surface for the next coat. Finally, when the component is completely dry, the product is visually inspected one more time and after passing inspection, placed in a protective plastic bag on the shelf, ready for shipping and installation.

Service

Q: What services does Yankee provide?
A: Yankee provides an array of services to our customers including, installation, packing and shipping, graphic design, mailbox and sign lettering, mailbox assembly and tuning of our mailbox. Yankee installers are trained professionals with a penchant for quality, courtesy, and utmost respect for your property, leaving a beautiful product and a clean jobsite...Guaranteed! Customers are served within 4 weeks of the order. We provide installation and year round service within a 70 mile road route from of our facility located at 777 Madison Street, Wrentham, MA. Customers outside our service area are considered and will need to remit an additional charge.

Q: Who calls Dig Safe?
A: Before installation, Yankee Mailbox Sign & Lantern will contact DIG SAFE to ensure safe digging and compliance with state law. Most customers have their new post installed in the same location as their old post. If you would like your new post installed in a different location, please mark the location with a stake. To let DIG SAFE know the location of the digging, affix a "Post Location" tag to your old post or marker stake.

Q: How are Yankee posts installed?
A: Our installers extract and dispose your old signpost and install your new Yankee post, solid and plumb, 2 feet in ground for a post without mailbox and 2 1/2 to 3 three feet in ground for posts with a mailbox. Installers mix 50 lbs of gravel with the fill from the digging and use a 20 lb tamping rod, packing the ground to ensure a solid and reliable post installation.

Q: What makes Yankee mailbox and sign graphics so good?
A: Yankee provides graphic design to personalize your mailbox and or sign and uses the finest and most durable 3M vinyl to create your sign decal. Both our serif and block Yankee letter font provide exceptionally good readability and tasteful style. For sign decals, to maximize effectiveness and provide emphasis to individual lines, character size ranges from 1.5" to 9". Our computer driven machine cuts your mailbox address lettering and sign decal with exacting precision and when applying your mailbox address lettering and sign decal, to maintain consistent good quality, Yankee Mailbox uses a jig and template system to ensure decals are installed neat, level, and centered.

Q: Does Yankee provide electrical hook up?
A: For Yankee posts with a lantern or sign lights, installation does not include electrical fixture connection. Fixture electrical connection must be done by a licensed electrician or homeowner. Where the electrical line is long enough to pass through our 8 foot signpost, installers will leave enough ground contact Romex electrical line so a licensed electrician or homeowner can easily connect the fixture. Often times, your old lantern post is short and your existing electrical line is too short to pass completely through our 8 foot wire ready post. In this case, our installers run 14-2 ground contact Romex wire through the new lantern post and run both the new line and your existing line through a 3/4" PVC pipe into a PVC junction box a few inches above ground level along the backside of the lantern post. This way, a licensed electrician or the homeowner can install a GFI duplex outlet, perfect for two of our yard stake Sign Lights in case you want to illuminate both sides of your Yankee sign.

Q: Can Yankee install granite lantern posts anywhere on my property?
A: Because of the massive weight of our 400 pound granite lantern post, our installers must employ the work truck crane to lower the post into the ground hole. For granite, your location for installation must be accessible with our work truck.

Q: How are Yankee mailbox posts installed?
A: Yankee posts with a mailbox brace and mailbox are professionally installed to U.S Postal standards. Using our digging template, Signposts with a mailbox are installed far enough from the road edge providing enough clearance from the snow plow and close enough to provide adequate reach for the mail carrier. Our installers will extract and dispose your existing mailbox post and install your new Yankee Signpost with mailbox. Your new signpost will be installed solid, 2 1/2 to 3 feet in ground, level, and perpendicular to the road. Installers mix 50 lbs of gravel with the fill from the digging and use a 20 lb tamping rod, packing the ground to ensure a solid and reliable post installation.

Q: What does Yankee ship?
A: Customers outside our service area can acquire our parts including simple installation instructions, carefully packed and shipped UPS Ground. We do not ship granite posts.

Q: How are modular components shipped?
A: All components including mailboxes, signs, lanterns, braces and caps are placed in a plastic bag and shipped using two cardboard cartons, with the outer box large enough to provide air space preventing blunt impact damage.

Compare

Q: What makes Yankee posts better than the rest?
A: We have replaced thousands of junky posts. So many failed designs have fooled consumers with a glossy photograph. We learned from the design mistakes of other manufacturers first hand and saw how different materials and post designs succumbed to the rigors of post duty. We have seen so called "maintenance free" extruded PVC, the way the sun discolors plastic, dries it up and makes it brittle enough to shatter from the weight of the first snow plow deposit of the winter season. Expensive oil based PVC is extruded like a hollow tube to save cost and create the illusion of full size, fooling the consumer into a hollow product too weak to handle post duty. They say cellular PVC is maintenance free and you don't need to paint as long as you don't mind all the mold and filth that collects in the open cell cross cuts. You can paint cellular PVC, and it looks as good as painted cedar but never has the fiber strength of cedar. With cellular PVC you have a hollow and structurally weak post unable to handle impact of snow from plows. Cellular PVC and extruded PVC usually calls for a cheap and skinny 4 x 4 pressure treated post for backbone and ground installation. A 4" x 4" footprint always makes a wobbly and sloppy installation and eventually the post will list from the weight of the overhanging sign or mailbox conveying the worst impression of weakness, imbalance and listlessness. Aluminum posts are skinny, inflexible, shatter easily and the paint doesn't stick. Steel square stock looks crude and industrial and always turns into a rusted hulk.

Q: What makes Yankee mailboxes better than the rest?
A: Yankee Mailboxes have features that most mailboxes do not have including , premium powder coat finish with UV protection, heavy gauge flag with vinyl bushings for smooth travel, piano hinge door for strength and reliability, weather sealed door, ergonomic handles, door bumper rests, and an internal mail tray. Most important, Yankee Mailboxes are the only mailboxes that mount to both the support brace and the vertical post with our exclusive stabilizer system to make the strongest mailbox post available.

Q: What makes Yankee signs so good?
A: Our signs are substantially thick, have stainless steel hardware, are hand painted, and most important, effective because the fonts we use are readable and our graphic program allows you artistic flare to emphasize individual lines with choice of size, font and case resulting in a most beautiful work of sign art.

Q: What makes Yankee lanterns so good?
A: Classic design, lifetime warranty, brass and bevelled glass construction with a most durable finish, easy assembly and bulb replacement and over 20 years of offering this design without a single customer complaint.