I never get tired of the amazing sights of Christmas lights on the roofs when driving within the neighborhood. Although it looks like a simple Christmas decoration, hanging Christmas lights on your roof ridge or peak is not easy. It involves the planning phase, getting your tools ready, inspecting the lights, attaching the light clips, and hanging the light strings.
There are numerous options for Christmas lights and styles from which you can make your selection. Your range of options also extends to gutter shingle light clip options. Also, there are ways to safely hang Christmas lights on your roof. First, you need to have the right tools.
Tools You Need
There are several tools you’ll need for your hanging Christmas lights. We recommend having all these tools on hand before lighting your roof. You don’t want to make multiple trips to the local hardware store or settle for the wrong tools for hanging Christmas lights on your roof’s ridge.
Below are the tools you need to hang Christmas lights on your roof correctly:
Plastic Light Clips
These will come in handy when you want to hang lights on your roof without damaging your roof. Commonly used plastic clips for the entire string include gutter and shingle clips. You can also get these all-purpose holiday light clips.
Ladder
This is optional, as you can also use options such as a bucket lift or a hanging pole. However, the ladder is ideal for reaching your roof peak.
Light Tester
You’ll need this tool to inspect all the lights you want to hang, including new lights as well to ensure they are in working condition.
Lights
There are several types of lights you can use as Christmas lights on your roof. The common ones include LED lights, simple white lights, icicle lights, and c-9 lights. Whatever type you choose to settle for, ensure you have enough working lights to execute this task.
Outdoor Extension Cord
This is necessary because you’ll need it to connect an electrical outlet indoors to the Christmas light string on your roof.
Hanging Pole
This is an alternative to the ladder and is ideal for homeowners who fear heights. They can use this tool to carry out their Christmas decorations from solid ground.
Measuring Tape
To measure the spacing between Christmas light clips
Needle-nose Pliers
To remove bulbs, we recommend using short light strands when you want to purchase light stands for your roof. This is because they are easier to handle than long light strings. You can also easily replace bulbs when they become faulty during the holiday season. Moreover, replacing short light strings is more affordable and even quicker than replacing the more lengthy ones.
The Guide to Hang Lights on Your Roof
Step 1: The Planning Phase
Every Christmas decoration project should have a plan for perfect execution. So before you climb that ladder or pick up that hanging pole to hang Christmas lights on your roof peak, consider where you want everything to be. Also, take the necessary measurements to confirm if your plan is feasible or requires adjustment.
However, first, you need to determine the outdoor plugin, which is the starting point of your project on the roof. Measure the roof’s length because this will help you know if you have enough lights on the ground and if there’s any need to buy more to cover that length.
You can make the planning more exciting or engaging by doing this with a friend, partner, or family member.
Step 2: Getting the Tools Ready
You should have your tools before this step. As we mentioned earlier, using the ladder to hang Christmas lights is optional, but we recommend it if you’re not scared of heights. Line up all your supplies and ensure they are in one place and within easy reach. This saves you time and makes the work on your roof ridge smooth.
Also, ensure the entire string you need for the work on your roof’s ridge is intact and you have all the plastic clips you need to attach lights on your entire roof’s ridges.
Step 3: Inspect the Lights Before you Hang Them
We’ll always advise homeowners to test their LED bulbs or whatever type of light makes up their light strings. They should test these lights before they ascend their ladders to their roof’s ridges. Finding out your lights aren’t working properly when you have already climbed the ladder, set up the clips, and hung the Christmas lights can be very annoying.
You shouldn’t just check for defective lights but also missing light bulbs. If you notice that your light strings have exposed live wires, discard the entire string to prevent an electric fire incident.
If you spot defective light bulbs, use your needle-nose pliers to remove them. Pull them out from the light string if you’re using small bulbs. If you’re using large bulbs, unscrew them by moving them counterclockwise.
If entire light strings fail to work, it’s likely because of a blown fuse. Replace the fuse and discard the entire light string if that blows up too.
Step 4: Attaching the Light Clips
With a plan in place, you already know what the layout of your light strings will be like. This layout will make it easier to determine where you place the light clips. Position your ladder correctly on the ground and ensure it’s well extended above the eaves.
Ensure the angle of your extension ladder is good before carefully climbing it to attach lights. While putting the light clips, ensure they’re installed in the same direction and not far apart. The recommended spacing is 12 inches between each clip. Placing these light clips too close to each other can result in saggy Christmas lights on your roof peak.
Step 5: Hanging the Lights
After attaching all your light clips to your roof ridge, go back to the starting point and begin to hang your first string of light bulbs. You can either choose to attach lights to your roof gutters or the roof shingles. Just be strategic about your light placement.
Just as you did with the light clips, ensure that these lights are facing the same direction. Attach the lights along your roof line while ensuring the line is neither saggy nor too taut.
Step 6: Set an Outdoor Timer
As lovely as your Christmas lights will look at night and reflect the holiday spirit, we don’t recommend keeping your lights on all through the night. Aside from the spectacle possibly keeping your neighbors up, it can hike your electric bill. Plug in your lights to an outdoor timer. This will help you ensure you’ll always be notified when it’s time to switch off your Christmas lights.
Some timers are equipped with light sensors, which enables them to automatically power on your lights when it’s dusk. With timers like this, it doesn’t matter if you’re home or not; your home will be lit up.
Step 7: Flipping the Switch
This is the final step, where you inspect your overall project to ensure nothing goes wrong. Though the visual effect of the lights on the roof will be much better at night, we advise that you flip the switch immediately after hanging your lights.
If there’s anything to correct, it will be much easier to do it during the day. You wouldn’t want to be flipping the switch at night to discover that you either have something to repair or modify.
