Holiday decorations make your house look welcoming and festive. However, they can also damage your roof if you fail to take certain precautions. Consider using these helpful tips to hang holiday lights safely without damaging your home’s shingles.
Prepare Your Roof
Before you hang your holiday lights, you should inspect the shingles to ensure they are securely in place. If you find any that have come loose, you should have them repaired or replaced. A roofing company can inspect and repair your roof to prepare it for holiday decorating.
Plan Ahead
You should also plan how and where you will hang the lights. By laying out a strategy for decorating, you can determine how many strands of lights to use. You can also identify what parts of the roof are durable enough to handle your decorations and what parts you should avoid.
Avoid Using Staples and Nails
You can also keep your shingles intact by avoiding nails or staples to secure your lights. They puncture your shingles and can result in larger damage, like cracks and chips, after you take the lights down. They can also let moisture in under your shingles.
Use Plastic Clips
Instead of nails and staples, use plastic clips to secure your holiday lights. By using plastic clips, you can avoid puncturing your shingles and causing bigger damage. They also don’t cost a lot of money to buy, they hold up well in inclement weather and they blend in with your holiday decorations.
Use Adhesive Hooks
You can also use adhesive hooks to hang your lighting. Adhesive hooks attach securely to your home’s roof. They hold the lights in place effectively. Plus, you can remove them quickly and easily. They won’t peel or pull your shingles, leaving the shingles free from damage.
Use Gutter Clips
Gutter clips provide you with another option for hanging lights without harming your roof. As their name implies, these clips attach to your gutters rather than the shingles. They keep your lights in place without the risk of the gutters falling off from the weight of the lights. They also spare you from having to attach the lights to the roof shingles.
Use Flat Roof Clips
If you have a flat tile roof, you can use flat roof clips to hang your lights. Most hardware stores sell these clips year-round. Flat roof clips are affordable and durable. They additionally hold up well in inclement weather and avoid ruining your shingles.
Use Zip Ties
You also have the option of using zip ties to attach the lights to your roof. They are durable enough to hold strands of lights in place. You can easily cut them down and remove them without the risk of puncturing or pulling off your shingles, too.
Use Lightweight Strands
You can also avoid damaging your shingles by using lightweight strands. Lightweight decorations won’t put stress and strain on your shingles. They also have less risk of causing damage like punctures, cracks and chips.
Distribute Weight Evenly
While deciding how to decorate your roof, you should distribute the weight of the lights evenly. As much as you may want to create a unique display, you also need to think about how excessive weight can damage your shingles. Even weight distribution poses less of a risk to your shingles.
Don’t Overload the Circuits
Overloading the circuits can increase the risk of a fire on your roof. As you hang the lights, use several extension cords rather than plugging the lights into a single cord or outlet. This tip also minimizes the risk of the lights leaving burn marks on the roof.
Avoid Walking on the Roof
You can protect the shingles by not walking on them while you hang lights. Foot traffic can cause damage like scuffs and scratches. You can also weaken shingles and make them less resistant to weight. As you decorate, you should use a ladder instead of climbing on the roof to hang the lights.
Use Timers
Timers help you protect the appearance and integrity of the roof shingles. Create a schedule for the lights to turn on and off, preventing the risk of the lights overheating. Overheating can lead to burn marks and increase the risk of a roof fire.
Use LED Lights
You can also avoid a roof fire, as well as overheating, with LED lights. LED lights don’t burn as hot as regular lightbulbs. You can keep your lights on without increasing the risk of the lights scorching the shingles or catching on fire as quickly as other types of lighting.
Use Solar-powered Lights
Solar power lights are a safer option for holiday decorating. Like LED lights, they don’t burn as hot as regular lightbulbs. You also don’t have to plug them into an outlet. They pose less of a burn risk to your roof and provide energy-efficient holiday decorating.
Tape Down Loose Wires
Loose wires can fly around in the wind, scraping against and damaging your shingles. To avoid damaging the shingles, you should cover and tape down any loose wires. A weather-resistant tape, like duct tape or mastic tape, can keep loose wires securely in place.
Secure the Light Cords
Loose light cords can also slide around on and scrape against the shingles. Depending on how many strands of lights you hang, the cords can put weight on and loosen the corners of the shingles, too. You can protect your roof by bundling and taping down the cords.
Inspect the Lights Regularly
During the time you have lights hung on or from your roof, you should inspect them regularly to ensure they remain tightly in place and have not damaged your roof. Routine inspections let you adjust any lights that may damage your shingles.
Hire a Professional Light Installer
You also have the option of hiring a professional holiday light installer. Professional installers save you the time and stress of hanging lights during the busy holiday season. They also use durable and safe materials to hang the lights without harming your roof.
Remove Your Lights With Care
After the holidays end, you should take care when removing the lights. Avoid hurriedly yanking them down to avoid pulling off shingles or inflicting damage, like cracks and chips. Once all of the lights are down, inspect your roof and hire a roofing service to repair or replace any damaged or missing shingles.
Benefit from Our Professional Roofing Services
At Red Bird Roofing, we put our customers first with our professional roofing services. We not only install and repair roofs in the Carmel, IN area, but we also maintain them to ensure customers enjoy value and service from their homes’ roofing. Our experienced team of roofers can help you avoid shingle damage during the holidays. We can also help with insurance claims. Contact us to find out more about our roofing services.
