I like A or D b/c most visible. But don’t most people put number in mailbox?

Is visibility at night a priority? If so, how will any of these be illuminated?

No, visibility at night is not a priority. That said, options "C" and "D" would be illuminated by one of the following semi-flush lighting fixture under the portico:

Hmmm...emergencies not allowed to happen after dark, eh?

I'd go with D, it just looks like more door hardware.

And as for emergencies - with GPS, fewer folks rely on house numbers.

And if there's an emergency at my house after dark, I'll have every freaking light on, flashing, doors open, and you'll be able to land a plane in my driveway. I won't be easy to miss.

@Virgil - we have a street light near our home which gives off some ambient light.

I would highly recommend going out on a dark rainy night and pretend to be an ambulance driver who is a rookie and unfamiliar with the street numbers. I used to work at UPS and when I got to a house that I had to figure out by counting up or down from neighbors who had lit visible numbers for me to see, I would tell them that it took me a few extra seconds/minutes to find you which is terribly annoying, but I would tell them its life and death when the ambulance struggles to find you.

Option A in reflective is the winner.

D Visibility is of vital importance at night for emergency at all times. Seconds makes a difference between life and death in a cardiac arrest, severe injury, or a child not breathing. I have had GPS take me to the correct street but the wrong house. Also what happens if you are alone and are unable to turn on all the lights in the house. We have the house number on the house and at the end of the driveway. We rarely have our outside lights on at night unless we are expecting someone. We are one of 4 houses on a private road and it is very dark at night. The numbers at the end of the driveway can be seen by car light. A lot of people put them on their mailboxes in front of their houses also, but that isn't good for me. Our mailboxes are on the main road.

Is there a mailbox by the street, or some other marker for address?

"A" is my choice.

@bpathome - No, there is no mailbox or other marker by the street.

Check with your local municipality. In my area, house/address numbers MUST be visible from the street OR as a reflective or illuminated sign at the drive entrance if a long drive or a wooded area (house not readily visible from the street). This is not a "looks" or decor issue but one that is governed primarily for safety reasons and the ease with which emergency vehicles can find you.

Provided any rules or restrictions are also met, stand at the base of your drive at night with your porch light on and see from that viewpoint - where any emergency vehicles would be looking - where to place the numbers. And the numbers should always be on the front door or porch/entry, not off to the side or on the garage.

I like A and D.

I think B is the worst.

I find C odd.

I agree that the number should be on both sides of the mailbox PLUS the door.

I agree that the number should be illuminated.

So, where is your mailbox? A group box down the block? Is your house visible from the street? Seems like such a little thing, but it all matters! I still like A the best, but will it be visible from the street, and and night?

A with B as a distant second.

I think C and D would be hard to see/spot, in spite of any special lighting, because they are so low.

A.

Where are the numbers on the neighboring houses? When I'm trying to find a house from an address I find it tremendously helpful if the house numbers are in a similar spot on every house, so rather than hunting for the number on each house I know generally where to look.

I think that A looks the best and would be the easiest to spot. The numbers on the door look odd to me personally.

Since none of us are there in person to view the numbers from the street at night, I fail to see how our opinions on placement have any merit at all!! YOU need to decide where to place them for maximum visibility based on the conditions I outlined previously. This is NOT an aesthetic issue except very tangentially.

Ooops! For a minute there I thought the title of this thread was "Where To Install Our House Numbers"...:-)

2 final thoughts - my alarm system will call 911 for me, flash a strobe outside AND set off a siren (can be programed for any / all) just by pressing a simple "emergency" sequence / button on the keypad.. Additionally, unless you want to the EMS and fire department busting down your front door - someone will have to unlock it - they probably need lights on along the way.

Our county assigns house numbers based on very accurate GPS coordinates - that's why you see a street start with the number 5000 or 2000, etc.

As a note, some towns are so small they don't have mail delivery. People pick up mail at a centralized location. So, mail boxes may not exist.

In those cases, you can often get signage from your town with your house number, geared towards 911 accessibility. It won't be pretty, but it will be functional. It will be afixed by the driveway entrance, not on the house.

PS, even though I am in New England, GPS is sometimes spotty here. A backup is nice.

Visible during the day? Visible during the night? Visible during rain, fog and mist? Just how important is it, after all?

Do you also have your house numbers painted on the curb right by your driveway? In my city, this is the norm (usually in reflective paint).

As someone whose daughter went into anaphylaxis earlier this year, I encourage you to seriously consider that emergencies DO happen. We never expected to go through what we did, and the entire situation was complicated by the fact that we live in a gated community (which slowed down the ambulance, which when your child can't breathe is a feeling that I cannot even describe). Seconds do matter.

Choose the most visible option from the street, not what is most attractive. No one but you will ever really notice how your numbers look, and after you've been living there for three months, you won't notice them either.

jeminabean I agree I never seen a house and thought "wow what nice house numbers". The boy scouts use to paint your house number on the curb for raising funds, but haven't seen them do that in a long time. I always thought it was a good idea.

I went through this thought process recently. I didn't want to drill into my new front door (don't even have it yet) but it was important to me that the numbers be visible at night. I decided to go with the equivalent of your spot A and use backlit numbers. While the portico ceiling is still open, the electrician will install the transformer for the LED numbers (waiting for that to be delivered.)

In case you're interested, here is a link to the numbers (they come in 5" and 8" sizes and a few finishes; mine are 5" black with white backlight.) I bought the spacers so the numbers will 'float.' Here's a link to the transformer (bought the one for wet locations.)

A, but also on the curb and mailbox.

Edit: thank you so much, Chicagoans, for the link! I will be able to use that at the curb (curb area—we have no actual curb ahahahahahaaaa) with my new low voltage landscape lighting.

Another vote for A and making sure it's lit somehow for evening, or reflective, or both.

And I would make sure it's visible - GPS can be wrong, GPS can be confused about where the vehicle is, GPS can fail. Just make it easy for someone to find your house in an emergency and don't rely on technology to always work exactly right. (A few years back we had a very bad blizzard and the fire trucks and ambulances couldn't make it all the way around the city due to road conditions, so the first responders had to park as close as they could get and walk - they didn't seem to have handheld GPS systems, they seemed to be using house numbers to identify the proper house.)

Listen to Virgil. This is not something worth regretting. Get a large, bold sign at the fence, and make sure plants don't obscure it.

Put yourself in the shoes of a visiting friend who is coming to your house for the first time ... on a rainy night.

Where would they be most likely to see the numbers?

Put them there.

"and don't rely on technology to always work exactly right." - precisely why it is not required to have your house numbers illuminated by electricity. Frankly, an emergency responder that does not have the proper emergency gear, such as spotlights on the vehicle, and flashlights on their belt, might as well stay home in a blizzard where the power is likely to go out. Would you trust an EMT that didn't come prepared?? If an emergency responder is not able to immediately narrow down the possible houses for a given address to no more than 3 houses on the correct side of the street in the correct block, even when there are no house numbers anywhere, then they need more training. (House numbers are not random)

.

"Put yourself in the shoes of a visiting friend who is coming to your house for the first time" - If they are coming over unannounced, then there is a 99% chance that they want something for nothing, and they can just keep driving. If they are invited, I will make it obvious for them to find even without numbers.

Address numbers? We doan need no steekin' address numbers...

House numbers can get pretty weird, though. Especially in places where new houses are shoehorned in between existing properties and there weren't numbers left to assign. Or worse, places where they assume more houses will be built so skip numbers, but that development never happens so numbers jump around.

Given that in emergencies every second counts, why would you want to delay help getting to you because they had to look around for a hard to find or hard to read house number? There are plenty of attractive ways to make them easy to read.

(Interestingly, we did once have EMTs come to our house instead of the house next door due to address confusion of some type. That was in England, also, where they really do like their house numbering system and take it very seriously. So they should have known exactly and there was still a mix up. It happens. First responders are human. Highly trained humans, but still human. And often overworked and tired, especially during natural disasters.)