Hanging Christmas Lights

Hanging Christmas lights this season? Here's a few helpful hints on how to hang lights, protect your shingles, and stay safe! 

The best way to hang holiday lights is by stringing them through plastic clips attached to your shingles, gutters and eaves. Plastic clips designed for use with holiday lights are easy to install and remove, affordable and readily available at most home improvement or large retail stores.

Using plastic clips instead of traditional nails or staples will prevent you from puncturing your shingles or gutters; even the tiniest hole in a shingle can allow moisture to seep in and potentially damage the roof. Using nails or staples can also puncture the wires of your lights, or wear down their insulating coating, potentially causing electrical problems. 

For proper ladder safety be sure to put the base of the ladder on even ground or dig it in if needed. Your ladder should extend three feet higher than what you have it leaned against and secured at the gutter line. If you are using an A-frame ladder, do not stand on the top platform, instead get a ladder that is the appropriate height to prevent possible injury.

A good question to consider while implementing your holiday decoration plan is, “Would Clark Griswold do this?” Generally, if the answer is yes, do not proceed!

Merry Christmas and stay safe!