If you’re like many home or business owners, you look forward to installing holiday lights every year. There’s nothing like a bold, colorful display to create a festive atmosphere and enhance your property’s curb appeal.
Perfect Power Wash offers these helpful tips for hanging Christmas lights to ensure the process goes smoothly and safely.
Planning Your Installation
A successful and safe lighting installation requires careful planning and thorough preparation.
1. Choosing the Right Lights
One of the most important decisions is selecting the most appropriate lighting type for your needs. If you’re a traditionalist, incandescent bulbs provide a classic holiday presentation. However, technologically advanced LED lights last longer — up to 10 years or more in many situations — and are more energy-efficient and less expensive to operate.
2. Designing Your Display
You have many options when selecting a lighting display. Consider implementing a theme, such as whimsical, traditional or your favorite holiday movie. You should also identify the focal points that will highlight your presentation, like the roof, front door, windows or prominent trees and landscaping features.
3. Gathering Tools and Materials
Your planning steps should also entail identifying and acquiring essential tools, including a sturdy ladder, extension cords and clips to secure the cords and reduce the tripping hazard. You’ll also need work gloves, nonslip shoes, goggles and other appropriate safety gear.
4. Measuring and Preparing
Measure the height and width of any areas or objects you intend to decorate to determine how many lights you will need. If you need to untangle cords or wires, locate the plug and gently work it in and out while unwinding the strands to prevent any damage. Inserting a pen or pencil can loosen any knots you encounter.
Installation Techniques
The method you employ when installing holiday lights will depend on where you place them. For instance, a rooftop installation requires the use of roof clips to secure the wires — avoid using nails, which can create holes or damage the wiring. If you’re decorating trees and shrubs, the best practice is to wrap the lighting around them.
Safety Precautions
Safety is paramount for any holiday light installation. Inspect each cord to ensure it isn’t frayed or damaged. Avoid overloading the electrical circuits to minimize the fire risk, and consider installing a ground fault circuit interrupter that will shut off the power supply when detecting a current leakage.
If you’re using a ladder, follow accepted safety practices, including setting it up correctly, maintaining three points of contact and always facing it.
Testing
Turning on the lights enables you to locate malfunctioning bulbs and other potential issues. Christmas light testers and multimeters are also available to check the effective and safe function of Christmas lights after installation. The device you need depends on the type of light strand.
Perfect Power Wash Knows How to Install Christmas Lights
If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, we invite you to share your Christmas lights installation tips with us.
If you’d prefer to avoid all the hassles and issues when setting up lights, Perfect Power Wash can take care of the task for you with our professional residential or commercial installation services. Contact us for more information today — it’s as easy as giving us a call at 866-289-8224.
