Bought a new house and want to do my whole roof line (including hips and ridges).

How do people get Christmas lights that are the perfect length? I've heard you can buy long lengths and cut them to what you need, but I don't know where to start.

Is there a go to website for this?

Thanks for your help

lotsofhp said:

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Bought a new house and want to do my whole roof line (including hips and ridges).

How do people get Christmas lights that are the perfect length? I've heard you can buy long lengths and cut them to what you need, but I don't know where to start.

Is there a go to website for this?

Thanks for your help

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Post a pic of the house so we can get and idea.

Edit to add...

Assuming you are in a metro area and want to see products in person, Ewing Irrigation Supply carries all the parts and pieces (good quality) you will need and is typically priced comparable to anything you will find online. The basics of what you will need will be (i) empty socket line (ii) LED bulbs in whatever color you want (iii) vampire (commonly called "Gilbert") plugs (iv) lamp wire to make jumper cords and (v) clips to mount the lights on your various surfaces. Here are some product links.

https://www.ewingoutdoorsupply.com/29551120-c9-12in-1000ft-grn-w-socket?categoryId=891

https://www.ewingoutdoorsupply.com/2955012029550120?categoryId=891

https://www.ewingoutdoorsupply.com/2956907929569079?categoryId=703

https://www.ewingoutdoorsupply.com/29551200-250ft-wire-no-socket-green?categoryId=703

https://www.ewingoutdoorsupply.com/29509020-shingle-tabs-for-seasonal-lights?categoryId=703

https://www.ewingoutdoorsupply.com/29551920-10-amp-female-slide-on-polarized-plug-10-count?categoryId=703

https://www.ewingoutdoorsupply.com/29551910-slide-on-polarized-plug-male?categoryId=703

https://www.ewingoutdoorsupply.com/29552270-warm-white-c9-superbrite-led-bulb?categoryId=702



ALWAYS REMEMBER to (i) make sure the lamp cord is fully seated in the plug and (ii) only 1 male per section of stringer/bulbs. Here is a good overview video from Ewing. There are others out there as well.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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I've never used them... but I've seen these when buying other products from this site. I've also seen the wire with empty sockets for sale at the ACE Hardware near my office.

https://www.1000bulbs.com/fil/categories/christmas-light-stringers-and-spools

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The ACE stuff is way overpriced compared to what you can get at Ewing, SiteOne or from online vendors.

Also curious, have a fairly odd roofline with lots of different runs and don't want extension chords, loose lights, hanging everywhere....in Houston

Holy smokes, Marvin, thank you so much for taking the time to put that response together for me. Very informational, I'll be check all of that out. Thanks agai

htxag09 said:

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Also curious, have a fairly odd roofline with lots of different runs and don't want extension chords, loose lights, hanging everywhere....in Houston

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Given the height and pitch, that is one I would leave to a professional.

Here's the house. I'm a roofing contractor so I'm comfortable walking all over the roof

lotsofhp said:

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Here's the house. I'm a roofing contractor so I'm comfortable walking all over the roof

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Congrats on the house! That is pretty straight forward. Note....where you have the leaf-guard gutters, you will need to use shingle tabs, as no clip will work on those gutters.

Aside from that Ewing Video, there are plenty of others on YouTube that will show you the ropes.







If you are wanting to do the ridges, I have had success with these

https://www.amazon.com/Canny-Systems-Christmas-Light-Clips/dp/B01MAZF4R2/ref=asc_df_B01MAZF4R2/?tag=&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309717895401&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=701361567154235205&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9027630&hvtargid=pla-569268545910&ref=&adgrpid=62054482499&th=1

Jellyfish lighting is the way to go. Adds year round lights for any occasion and can be used as security accent lighting as well. Worth every penny that I spent on mine.

Marvin_Zindler said:

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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I've never used them... but I've seen these when buying other products from this site. I've also seen the wire with empty sockets for sale at the ACE Hardware near my office.

https://www.1000bulbs.com/fil/categories/christmas-light-stringers-and-spools

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The ACE stuff is way overpriced compared to what you can get at Ewing, SiteOne or from online vendors.

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Yeah I figured as much. No way would I buy the quantities necessary for a big project from there. That was just the first place I'd ever seen the stuff to build your own. Then I saw it online from the retailer I was buying bulbs from.

So I will share my 2 cents. I priced out all my options and my
planned longevity.

I decided to use a commercial grade string SPT-2 vs SPT-1.

I found the best priced spool at Home Depot of all places, 500ft of SPT-2 for $99, but it's limited qty ever year from what I found:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-500-ft-18-Gauge-C9-Stringer-Light-Set-23LE21220/325218376

Edit to add: links to extension wire I used and male and female if you want to purchase at HD.

Links:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-25-Pack-Female-Slide-on-Connector-Plug-450010SHO/310456836

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-25-Pack-Male-Slide-on-Connector-Plug-450005SHO/310456812

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-500-ft-18-Gauge-Bulk-Wire-23LE21219/325218379

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-C9-Cool-White-LED-Shatterproof-Replacement-Bulbs-50-Pack-23LE21212/324818731 (didn't use these, instead used ones from picture attached)



For lights I opted to use LED lights as they were more durables and the plastic casings allowed for them to bang around without breaking.

Found the best deal to be at ACE for me plus would allow me to easily buy replacement bulbs. I waited until I got a 20% off coupon and bought all my lights.

Ended up paying essentially $38 with tax per 25 bulb box.

Since I bought the spool, I could make custom runs and needed the male and female ends, don't cheap out and just terminate with electrical tape. Depending on the spool you will need to buy the matching grade plugs. I bought off amazon for 100 male/female plugs total for like $25

Finally,

Clips, I purchased them from ACE, main reason was the coupon and easy for me to buy more or replace. I used a mix of shingle tabs and universal/gutter clips.

Overall spent $575 or so for the whole front and about 20ft
run on each side of house. I installed myself. Planned ahead with where I would tap into power.

Not to mention I have another ~ 200ft of spool left to add to house this year….

This picture is missing all the lights including windows and garage, but I included how I connected my lights too.

Oh, I bought mine last year through Amazon. I'll try to remember to post a link later to what I bought, but I think it was basically schools that you could cut the link and then you had your own female and male plug ins. It was very easy to do.

Edit to add pics:

88notchback said:

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I purchased everything from 1000bulbs.com and did them myself after I got pricing back from an installed. Really not hard, design it and have a jump wire from on ridge to next. Would recommend sketching out your roof and numbering the sections and tagging after removing or prior.

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I did mine with supplies from 1000bulbs.com as well. Found it super easy and it looks great.

PincheDriller said:

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So I will share my 2 cents. I priced out all my options and my
planned longevity.

I decided to use a commercial grade string SPT-2 vs SPT-1.

I found the best priced spool at Home Depot of all places, 500ft of SPT-2 for $99, but it's limited qty ever year from what I found:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-500-ft-18-Gauge-C9-Stringer-Light-Set-23LE21220/325218376

Edit to add: links to extension wire I used and male and female if you want to purchase at HD.

Links:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-25-Pack-Female-Slide-on-Connector-Plug-450010SHO/310456836

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-25-Pack-Male-Slide-on-Connector-Plug-450005SHO/310456812

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-500-ft-18-Gauge-Bulk-Wire-23LE21219/325218379

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-C9-Cool-White-LED-Shatterproof-Replacement-Bulbs-50-Pack-23LE21212/324818731 (didn't use these, instead used ones from picture attached)



For lights I opted to use LED lights as they were more durables and the plastic casings allowed for them to bang around without breaking.

Found the best deal to be at ACE for me plus would allow me to easily buy replacement bulbs. I waited until I got a 20% off coupon and bought all my lights.

Ended up paying essentially $38 with tax per 25 bulb box.

Since I bought the spool, I could make custom runs and needed the male and female ends, don't cheap out and just terminate with electrical tape. Depending on the spool you will need to buy the matching grade plugs. I bought off amazon for 100 male/female plugs total for like $25

Finally,

Clips, I purchased them from ACE, main reason was the coupon and easy for me to buy more or replace. I used a mix of shingle tabs and universal/gutter clips.

Overall spent $575 or so for the whole front and about 20ft
run on each side of house. I installed myself. Planned ahead with where I would tap into power.

Not to mention I have another ~ 200ft of spool left to add to house this year….

This picture is missing all the lights including windows and garage, but I included how I connected my lights too.

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The larger Home Depots have been stocking commercial Christmas light parts and pieces over the last 5-10 years. I've used their SPT 2 stringers, plugs, and bulbs and all have been excellent.

Looks like I'm going to get strings, wire, male and female plugs at Hone Depot and bulbs elsewhere.

Just curious, what are some of the quotes you guys have gotten for professional installation? Letting the wife know how much we're saving ha

I got a quote in 2021. $1500 for initial install/purchase and then $750 each year after to put up and take down.

lotsofhp said:

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Looks like I'm going to get strings, wire, male and female plugs at Hone Depot and bulbs elsewhere.

Just curious, what are some of the quotes you guys have gotten for professional installation? Letting the wife know how much we're saving ha

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In a metro area, for first year rental or sale, you will be looking at $6 to $9 per foot installed.

htxag09 said:

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Also curious, have a fairly odd roofline with lots of different runs and don't want extension chords, loose lights, hanging everywhere....in Houston

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I have a similar roof. Curious if you have made an progress on "how to do this".

We actually used our neighbor's lights guys last year and they will likely do it again this year; however, we did not do our roofline. This year we want to.

I prefer to provide the materials and curious if i will need several smaller strands w/ connecting cords between or just go with a couple really long light strands and then remove bulbs where I do not want lighting?

We have not. My wife and I were actually mapping out what we want to do over the weekend and if we want to just hire it out or do it ourselves. But, looking at some of the links posted in this thread it appears we can make a Y basically anywhere in the strand to branch out to different rooflines vs. having to run a whole lot of extension chords.

We would just bite the bullet now and go with permanent lights, but we think it'd look significantly better if we do the roofline, particularly above the garage.

Permanent = Jellyfish?

We have good up-lights so I don't think we would get a ton of "value" from Jellyfish so I think we want to just do "temporary" lights every year. Something like this for roof + the arch...



I might be short-selling the guys who did our lights and maybe just need to talk to their manager but they seem to be more of a "whatever is easiest" vs "whatever is best"...for the price it doesnt bother me but I may need to be there and have a plan and all the resources when they show up....

The blue circled areas are "transitions" where we would not want lights....

Would someone mind what wire to use as the jumper wire?

HLO Lighting Green SPT-1 Commercial Grade Bulk Blank Wire, 7 Amps, 250 ft https://a.co/d/2w326dc

The following link has really good info on how to make custom string or "extension" cords with wire spool. I made custom lengths with some give.


https://www.christmaslightsetc.com/pages/How-to-Splice-Wires-for-Custom-Christmas-Lights.htm


https://www.christmaslightsetc.com/sw/decorating/outdoor-christmas-decorating-beginner-guide

https://www.christmaslightsetc.com/pages/DIY-Christmas-Lights-Planning.htm

Which shade of white do you prefer for outside Christmas lighting? I like pure white (4K-5K) for all around lighting, but the lower Kelvin warm white bulbs seem to have a more traditional Christmas feel.

I like your chimney. Fits that house really well

We try and keep all our lights the same....inside and out....we keep everything 3000K.

Not sure how many people do that or if others have thoughts but thats just our house....