How do you guys attach minilights to roofline?

[jhartley]

Roy,

I can't take credit for this method, but my neighbor used it this year and it worked like a charm. He attached "broom clips" to his the fascia or soffit at about a 8' interval. The clips he used were white so were not visible from the street. The clips will stay there year round. He then zipped his lights to 10' sections of PVC. To install his lights he clipped the PVC into the broom clips and the lights went up 10' at a time.

The broom clips are similar to these:

http://www.amazon.com/Lehigh-13201-6...8195159&sr=8-1

Jon

[rogelio]

The brooom clips are an interesting idea... along the lines of what I would like to do. Putting up long sections sounds much more appealing that scraping knuckles trying to slide a clip under a shingle tab. But still, how would those clips attach to the roofline? Mastic adhesive? Weld a tab to it? Im still searching for a good solution. i am going to try a sample of the 'clipstrip' and see how I can attach it.

Roy

[jhartley]

Roy,

The clips have a hole drilled in the center for mounting to a wall. I believe he applied some caulk to the back, and screwed them into the wooden fascia, or under the eaves. Here is a more detailed image of what they look like...

http://www.gibsongoodtools.com/

Jon

[jnealand]

For my ridge line I have ridge vent strips under the whole top ridge. It is very easy to slip a zip tie thru the holes and the edge and that holds my lights. I do the same on the back side and run my extension cords down that side.

[jpb]

To attach lights to my ridge I use clip I make from a wire coat hanger cut into 4" lengths and bent so that they have a loop in the middle and the two legs bent so they straddle the ridge with the loop sticking up. I "glue" the clips to the ridge with silicon and then cable tie the lights through the loop.

Jon

[eroberts]

Complete overkill, but I welded three 20' rebar lengths into a V cap. The crossmembers were about 6-8" long. Welded a thin 3" strip of steel plate on the top at an angle, painted everything black. I put electrical tape at strategic places on the bottom side because on one section I do have to slide the cap in place. Then used regular minilight/C9 clips to put the lights on at ground level. Carefully carried the assembly up the roof and set it down, plugged in power and climbed down the ladder. I now have pre-made caps that I store in the shed.

I worried about destroying the shingles, but I have far less grit in the gutter using this method than by trying to shimmy along the roofline the old way.

[rogelio]

Im getting some good ideas. This is the kind of stuff I was looking for. I have an idea for using some 1/4" tubing and those little clips used on wire frames. The tubing could stay up year round. Still waiting on the sample of clipstrip.
Thanks for all the replies.
Roy

We should add pics of each method and make a "how to attach thread"

[frankv]

For anyone with a corrugated iron roof asking the same question... There is a metal 'flashing' at the ridge lines. This overlaps the corrugated iron by an inch or two. I drilled a 1/8" hole near the edge of the flashing, over a hollow in the corrugated iron. First year, I used wire through these holes to attach the strings of lights to, later years just cable-ties to the wire loops. The wire loops stay in place all year.

To contribute to the original question.... Maybe he could drive tacks into the shingles, or even glue (probably hot-glue would melt in the summer, so use epoxy or maybe superglue) nails or loops of wire or clips or whatever to the shingles. Beware that UV light breaks down many plastics quite quickly (less than 2 months here in NZ for cheap gutter clips I bought), so I wouldn't try to use anything plastic as a permanent mount.

[ctmal]

Ok, here are some pictures as promised...I redid all of our lights this year so I just used a piece from our previous setup. I have changed to using 1" pvc. It's more rigid and much easier to handle. Also, I use all 50 count strings so each pvc peice is about 9' long and easy to handle.
LightMounting 001.jpg
In this picture you'll see that the lights are put in wire mesh and tie wrapped to the pvc.

LightMounting 003.jpg
In this picture you'll see(in the red circles) that there are holes drilled in the bottom of the pvc. The wood piece of just get placed on the roof apex and the pvc slips right onto the bolts sticking up from the wood. The wood piece I showed also has some metal runners attached. I place a small freezer bag of sand on those runners to keep it from moving. In the display I typically have 2 or 3 of these wood pieces per 9" pvc run. The majority of wood pieces don't have runners attached, I just use a couple of these to weigh it down.
Also, on parts of the roof that are edges I just use a clamp to attach the wood piece to the roof.

As I've said, this year I changed to 9' sections of 1" pvc. Where 2 sections meet I slip that white piece of pvc in to connect them together. It acts as a pressure connector of sorts.

If you check out my web site I have some pictures on the main page and in the pictures section on how they look on the house.

[LightUpMA]

I am redoing the ridge line this year to use 1" pvc with 'legs' on each side that can be filled with sand or if need be, you could use metal for the weight. The pvc sections will be connected using a T to allow for a leg. I intend to run guy wire or paracord down the center and tie off at each end for added security. We live near the beach in the northeast, so we get our fair share of nor'easter storms that could dislodge the setup.

I'll post pics when completed.