Purchase Residential Mailboxes – 4 Essential Steps

People purchase residential mailboxes for new homes, to match the decor of older homes, or sometimes just to upgrade or replace old, dated, and worn out home mailboxes.

While snow, rain, or other natural elements may not keep your postal carrier from delivering your mail, there’s no need to keep using a dilapidated mailbox.

This article is about what you need to know to purchase residential mailboxes. We’ll explore a number of options when shopping for a unique home mailbox for residential use.

There are four essential steps every resident should take when you purchase residential mailboxes:

1. How will your mailbox will be mounted?
2. What mailbox style do you need?
3. Do you need a security mailbox or not?
4. Where will you purchase your residential mailbox from?

Mounting Options for Residential Mailboxes

The first step in buying residential mailboxes is foundational; you must choose from the four different mounting types:

• Post mount
• Wall mount
• Column mount
• Multi-mount

Multi-mount mailboxes are simply dual mount, tri-mount or quad mount residential mailboxes grouped together on a common post.

Other types of residential mailboxes do exist but they are not typically purchased by homeowners but rather the developers or homeowner’s associations (HOAs) within your community.  If your community or addition utilizes a cluster of mailboxes mounted on a single or dual post (CBU mailboxes) or if you retrieve your mail from a bank of mailboxes along a wall (4C mailboxes), these mailboxes are commercial in nature and are not typically replaced by a single homeowner in a community.

To discern the proper mailbox mounting type for your home, look to see which of these residential mailboxes is already in use.  It’s highly likely you will wish to purchase the same type of mounting system as you currently utilize.  Should you decide on a different type of mounting system when you purchase residential mailboxes, it is important to first check with your local postal service postmaster to gain their approval.

Once you have decided which mounting type you need for your residential mailboxes, the next three steps are non-sequential: mailbox style, mailbox security, and where to buy your residential mailbox.

Residential Mailbox Styles

There are also many styles availabe when you purchase residential mailboxes. First consider the architectural style of your residence. In most cases, your choice of residential mailbox should complement your home’s architecture.

For example, if your home features traditional architecture such as a Victorian design, consider a style with heavy ornamentation and sharp angles that are common to Victorian design.  Consider colors such a bronze, black, or white that evoke that era of architecture.

On the other hand, if your home is more contemporary or modern such as Floridian or California stucco, consider modern residential mailboxes with styles that feature simple adornments (or none at all) with more sleek bodies and curves.

And for color, one can choose to punctuate your contemporary residential mailbox with colors that contrast with your modern home design. You’ll find eye-catching red or you can compliment your home with modern design such as stainless steel, copper, or nickel.

And remember, while there is no requirement to consult with one’s local postmaster over a mailbox style choice, when you purchase residential mailboxes you may still need to receive permission from your homeowners association if your choice is governed by CC&R’s (covenants).

Mailbox Security

Another important consideration when you purchase residential mailboxes is mail security.  With the sharp upswing in identity theft and mail theft, locking residential mailboxes are almost a necessity. You can find a locking residential mailbox available in all mounting types. Security is simply standard among commercial mailboxes.

All locking security mailboxes sold by The MailboxWorks allow the mail carrier to deliver the mail without requiring them to have their own key. The purchase of locking residential mailboxes does not require your local postmaster’s approval.

Where to Purchase Residential Mailboxes

One of the most important choices in purchasing residential mailboxes is the store that stands behind the purchase.

In today’s culture, many Internet mailbox stores are simply mom and pop operations that have no product knowledge. Like with any important purchase, you should give serious thought to whether or not the retailer will allow returns or even still be in business should a return be necessary.

Some unscrupulous mailbox retailers simply drop ship whatever they can sell online and never even see an actual mailbox.  Their loyalty is not to the customer but to whether they can make a quick buck on selling yet another item they don’t understand.

The nation’s largest retailer of residential mailboxes, The MailboxWorks, are mailbox experts who know all there is to know about residential mailboxes.

About The MailboxWorks

Serving North American homeowners and contractors since 1989, The MailboxWorks one of the best online retailers where you can purchase residential mailboxes. We also provide the peace of mind that only comes when you know a company will stand behind every item they sell.

If you still have questions on how to purchase residential mailboxes, please call us toll free at 1-866-717-4943.

Visit this USPS page on How to Install A Mailbox.

Categorized in: Residential Mailboxes