The easier first responders can find your home, the quicker emergency services can be started. Finding your home at night or in bad weather can be especially challenging if:
- Your address numbers are unreadable.
- The numbers are too small to be clearly read from the street.
- The signage is hidden from plain view.
- The numbers are unlit.
- A number happens to be missing or is too faded.
Checking Your House Number Visibility
Use this test to determine whether or not an emergency responder can quickly identify your home:
- Try to identify your house number from the street. Are your numbers at least four inches high, in plain block style—no fancy font which is harder to read—and in either contrasting colors or reflective?
- Next, drive past your home and see if you can easily see the house number.
- Repeat these same tests at night. Emergencies don’t happen only in daylight hours.
How long did it take for you to find your house number?
First responders are scanning numbers in seconds as they arrive closer to the dispatched address. If it takes them minutes to locate a house number, those are precious minutes taken away from rending aid—time that could possibly save a life.
If your existing house number signage didn’t do well on this visibility test you should consider replacing the number.