Safely Removing Christmas Lights From The Roof

Happy New Year to you all! Now that the holidays are over you’re most likely going to use this coming weekend to take down all those Christmas lights you worked so hard to up just a few weeks ago.

We noticed this season that a lot of homes really went all out with their lights. Really beautiful displays. However, we also noticed that many homeowners included their roofs in the lighting display. Done properly this shouldn’t be an issue, other than if you have a shingle roof, it’s always best to avoid walking on it.

When we say done properly, we mean avoiding the use of staples and nails in the securing the lights to the roof. If you did, we’re going to give you a couple of tips to help you reduce the risk of damage to your roof when pulling it all down.

Before you even start your removal project, you’ll want to head to your local hardware store and pick yourself up a caulk gun and a tube of silicone roof caulk. You’ll need this to fill in any holes you find in your shingles or flashing.

Once you’re up on the roof, you’re going to want to step in the center of the shingles, and not where they overlap. Shingles are susceptible to damage from pressure.

Puncturing shingles with even the smallest holes will reduce the integrity of the shingles, making your roof susceptible to leaks. Keeping this in mind as you pull the staples or nails from the roof, you’re going to use your new caulk gun to fill in the all the holes. Going slowly so you don’t lose track of where the staples/nails.

This may seem like overkill, I mean it’s rained a lot and you haven’t noticed any leaks, right? Keep this in mind, all those little holes were filled by the staples/nails. Once you pull them out they are just bare holes in your roof. Just waiting for a little water and freezing weather to make them bigger and bigger.

Plugging the holes now will save you money and headaches in the future. All it takes is one hole to ruin your roof and force you into what might be an early replacement.

All of us at DYMI Construction wish you and yours a great and happy 2019. And as always, we are always here to answer any questions you might have. Just give us a call or drop us a line.