Time for Holiday Lights: Spreading Holiday Cheer With Columbus Roofing

If you’re anything like our team at Columbus Roofing Systems, you might be getting excited for the holiday season. And that means it’s time for holiday lights on every home in town! For some, it’s a magical time of year, but many see stringing lights and decorations across your home as a chore that often competes head-on with inclement weather conditions. To help you get in the holiday spirit, we’ve put together a few roofer’s tips for safely hanging those holiday lights this year.

Of course, it’s far safer to scale a ladder and hang lights when the weather agrees, so be sure to keep an eye out for a sunny or clear day where you’ll have a few hours to slowly work through the task and focus on what you’re doing. Take it from our experts: roofing is a dangerous job and there’s nothing like an environment with minimal distraction to make sure any job gets done safely and correctly. Luckily, many safety materials exist for these kinds of jobs. For example, you can buy ladders with extra safety features at your local home improvement store, as well as anchors to keep you up on the ladder or close to the roof and gutters. You can also invest in a hanging tool bucket or tool belt to climb hands-free up to where the lights will go. If you have someone around who can provide any assistance when you’re getting the job done, don’t be afraid to ask for help or attention when it’s time to string up the holiday lights for the season.

Here’s another idea; many homeowners put up their lights once and never take them down again. Now of course, this only works if the lights are not an eyesore for the remainder of the year outside of the holidays, but it’s a way to be sure the job gets done right once and make things easier moving forward. Once your lights are untangled, unpacked and laid out, be sure you have the correct number of hangers to hang up your strings of lights. There ideally would be a hanger every twelve inches. Test out each string of lights to identify any broken bulbs or strands before hanging the lights themselves.

From the ground, strategize how your lights will go up, where they’ll plug into each other and into extension cords that run to the ground level. Be sure to verify you have enough lights to cover the areas you want covered, and consider style before taking the time to actually hang each strand of lights. Old-school glass bulbs offer a retro holiday look, whereas other modern lights can flash, blink, give off a ‘chase’ effect, or even be set to music.

When the season is over, be sure to pack away your lights in a way that’ll make the job that much easier next season. There’s a certain technique that’s best for wrapping or coiling electrical cord called ‘over-under’. Each coil should be about twelve inches across, and hanging up each coil can keep the lights from tangling together in a box.

Contact Columbus Roofing Systems this holiday season for all your roofing needs!