Permanent Mounts for Exterior Holiday Lights
DCcontrarian
| Posted in General Questions on
Not really a green question, but there are so many knowledgeable people here I figured someone would know.
We’re thinking about putting up the holiday lights soon, and we want to put them on the gable end of the house. Which requires an extension ladder. So I’m thinking what I’d rather do is just go up the ladder once and install hooks on the rake board or drip edge, and then put the lights up and take them down with a hook on a pole and keeping my feet on the ground. I’m also thinking if I put up permanent hooks I can just use them every year.
Does anyone do this? I’m trying to figure out if there are special hooks or special lights for this. It seems like hooks that were easy to put up and take down with a pole wouldn’t hold the lights very securely.
Any tips are appreciated.
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Replies
DCC,
I've thought of permanent holiday light integral design before. I've never gotten around to trying it or implementing a good solution....yet.
I see your point of not having to ladder the house everytime. I imagine permanent hooks would work but certainly would be visible during the day or off season.
I've always wanted to do RGB LED clear strip lights, where they're permanently in place and not really visible from the ground during off season. In fact I've placed junction boxes on the roof with a separate circuit specifically for this purpose.
However, long length outdoor LED strips are expensive, and you'll have to go the commercial route to source them. But it could be a one and done scenario, if you have more money than ladder skills.
Also, since you're wanting to do lights on the gable end, there are Side emitting LED strips now that you could potentially affix between the gable fascia and cut shingles, I imagine that would be very well hidden and create a sleek light when lit.
I've also seen soffit lighting using injection molded rgb modules which look pretty fun, like this: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/aa/56/98aa562eb17f7304779dfcc6667d3f95.jpg
Also consider you want them on a controller that can ideally be on a sunrise/sunset schedule or otherwise programable.
Just some thoughts,
Jamie
We put up permanent LED strip lights under the eaves with a dedicated switch and circuit. It is very convenient.
After 3 years now, the lights work fine but the U-shaped plastic clips that we used to mount them are starting to fail :-(
If you have aluminum facia, a nice idea I saw is high strength magnets behind the facia with matching magnets/steel washer on the strings.
I have tried the built in channel with LED tape for holiday lights but it ended up looking like a spaceship or ethereal glow depending on the color. Ended up pulling it out and going back to standard string lights. Still need a ladder to hang them.
Depending on how overboard you want to go you can buy LED Pixels (WS2811 LEDs) and J-channel that you drill out for the pixels and then mount under your eaves. I'm planning on a similar project - getting square (instead of bullet) WS2811 LEDs and metal studs that will go under all my eaves, this will all get wired back to a central controller in my garage that will be running LED (you can buy a simpler controller that is just plug and play though). This gets you permanent lights that can also be configured depending on season or the holiday.
If the J channel or metal studs are too obtrusive for you, you can also get WS2811 light strips that you would mount in aluminum track that is secured under the eaves (or anywhere).