Tips on Removing Christmas Lights Safely
As the Christmas season comes to an end, one chore you'll likely be tackling soon is taking down your exterior Christmas lights. We've compiled a list of helpful tips so you can safely remove your lights without damaging your roof.
Be careful not to lift shingles and break the tar line
- The tar line under your shingles is how they stay sealed to one another. By lifting them up, you might break the seal, making it easy for the next winter storm to blow them off the roof entirely.
Never place a ladder on the shingles
- Safe ladder placement can be tricky, but you should never place your ladder directly against the shingles, as this could tear them off. Instead, opt for a safer ladder placement by using something called a ladder bracket to temporarily secure it to the side of the house or gutters.
When removing Christmas lights, never pull them down
- It might be tempting to just pull and see what happens, but don’t. Yanking down Christmas lights will not only damage the lights themselves, but could severely damage your roof as well.
Never install or remove Christmas lights without a spotter
- Even if you’ve climbed up on the roof a million and one times, accidents happen every single year with people falling off their roofs. After so many days of storms and ice, things might be slipperier than you bargained for. Having a spotter on the ground will ensure that your ladder stays securely in place while you’re up on the roof.