Hanging Holiday Lights

Now is the perfect time to take advantage of the mild weather and hang lights on your home for the holidays. We have a few tips for you to hang those lights without harming yourself, or your roof.

1. Always make safety a priority. Set your ladder on level ground and secure it to your home and ground to prevent it from shifting. If the idea of balancing on a ladder makes you queasy, hire professional help (there are companies that hang Christmas lights on your home so you don’t have to!).
2. Test your lights. Before you go to all the work of hanging the lights on your home, test the lights. It would be a shame for you to hang the lights on your home only to plug them in and find that the middle strand is out. Even worse, you want to make sure that there are no electrical shorts that could be a potential fire hazard.
3. Use clips. Use clips to hang your lights, ideally on the gutters or eaves. Do NOT nail or staple lights to the roof. Hooks and clips are inexpensive and reserve the integrity of your roof.
4. Keep lights away from inflatable decorations. Oftentimes, these inflatable decorations (such as the inflatable snowmen you see on lawns) are made of flammable materials, so surrounding them with lights can be hazardous. Inflatable decorations should also be kept off the roof, as attaching them to your roof can cause damage to the shingles. Keep inflatables on the lawn and away from lights if you decorate with them.
5. Limit the time you spend on your roof. Try not to walk on your roof when hanging lights. Ideally you should be able to manage the task from you ladder. If you do have to walk on your roof, walk gently and wear a soft shoe with a strong grip. Moreover, if getting on your roof is necessary, try to do it early in the day before the shingles have soaked up too much sunlight and become warm and more malleable.
6. Plug it in! And cross your fingers that they turn on! If you throw a breaker each time that you turn the lights on, you may be attempting to plug too many into one outlet. Redistribute your plugs to different outlets or consider using fewer lights.