North Pole Lighting runs big round bulbs, the classic look, along the rooflines of homes in Longmeadow, Wilbraham, and Hampden.
A lighting contractor working out of Southwick, across Hampden County, with one phone number that gets answered.
The builder already drew the lines. A gable, a hip, a dormer face, a porch return. Roofline Christmas lights work when they trace what is already there. A run that ignores the roof reads as a strip of light stuck to a house. We hang them that way in Longmeadow, Wilbraham, and Agawam.
From the street a roofline run is one line of light. Up close it is a bulb, a spacing, a wire, and a clip. Those four choices separate a run that looks built from a run that looks bought.
One more rule governs where a ladder goes. Keep yourself and your equipment at least ten feet from any power line. That is the standing power line clearance guidance for outdoor decorating.
Big round bulbs stand about two inches tall. That is why the line still reads from a car going past. Small bulbs disappear at that distance.
A string off a store shelf is a sealed unit. Fixed length, bulbs built into the wire, and when it fails you throw the whole run away. Ours is cut to fit your roof, with bulbs that screw in one at a time.
Clips sit on the gutter lip or slide under the shingle edge. Nothing gets drilled, screwed, stapled or nailed. That matters in January, when the whole run comes off and the trim goes back to looking like trim.
Some strings are only made for indoors. Ours are built to sit outside all winter. The wire carries a thicker coat. That is what keeps it from going brittle in the cold or chalky in the sun.
Which lines get lit is settled first, on a plan designed to your peaks and dormers.
A lit roofline reads better with something under it, so the eye does not stop at the gutter. That is usually shrubs and foundation plantings.
Walk the roof from the ground.
We measure each line, count the corners, and find the power.
Build the run off site.
Bulbs go into the strands before the truck leaves, which saves about an hour at your house.
Hang the line.
Our crew clips each run to the gutter or shingle edge and holds the spacing throughout.
Test before we go.
The whole run gets powered up and checked while the ladders are still out.
With clips. They sit on the gutter lip or under the shingle edge. Nothing is stapled, nailed or drilled into your house.
The big round ones. They stand about two inches tall and sit evenly down the line. That is why the run still reads from the road.
No. Clips hold by tension and come off in January with the rest of the run. No fastener goes into the trim.
Usually, and it gets checked on the walk-around. A metal roof has no shingle edge to clip to, so the run follows another line on the house.
Most displays follow the gutter and the angled edges, because that is the shape people see from the street. Anything along the very top gets looked at on the walk-around.
Those are permanent track systems. We do not install them. We hang seasonal lights and take them down after the holidays.
No. The run is planned around the outlets the house already has, and that gets checked before install day.
October or November. The freeze arrives here in the middle of October. Lighting a roofline in Longmeadow gets harder once the roof ices over.
We run out of Southwick, so most of these addresses sit a short drive apart. The route covers Hampden County and this corner of Western Massachusetts.
Longmeadow, East Longmeadow, Hampden, Wilbraham, Agawam, Feeding Hills, Southwick, Westfield, and Hampden County, Massachusetts. Suffield, West Suffield, and Granby, Connecticut, in Hartford County.
The season runs about sixty days, and only so many houses fit inside it. October and November are when the roof is still safe to work.
Don't Be a Grinch
Book a free quote for roofline Christmas lights in Longmeadow before the calendar fills.
