Professional Christmas light installation has grown quickly in Northwest Arkansas over the past few years.
And, naturally, we get a lot of questions.
All great questions.
The truth is, professional Christmas Light Installation is still a relatively new service to a lot of homeowners in Northwest Arkansas. Most people understand what a roofer, electrician, or landscaper does. But, unless you’ve hired a Christmas Light Installer before, you probably don’t know exactly how the process works, or what you should expect.
So, we put together five of the most common questions we hear from homeowners considering professional Christmas lights.
This is probably the biggest question we get.
You might have a neighbor who paid one amount for their Christmas lights, then get a quote for your house that is completely different.
And you’re thinking: “Our houses are basically the same size… what gives?”
Good question!
The short answer is that professional Christmas Light Installation isn’t usually priced based on the square footage of the house.
It’s based on the actual display.
Two 2,500-square-foot homes can require completely different amounts of lighting, material, labor, and installation time.
One house might have a simple, straight first-story roofline.
The house next door might have multiple peaks, dormers, ridgelines, a second-story garage, steep roof sections, and landscaping that makes ladder placement more difficult.
From the street, the homes may look pretty similar. From an installer’s perspective? Very different projects.
The design itself matters too.
A customer wanting just the front roofline is obviously going to have a different project than someone wanting:
You get the point.
At Knight’s Lights, our Custom Christmas Light projects have an $800 minimum, and many of our typical seasonal projects land around $1,400 - $1,800, depending on the home and the design.
These are simply helpful planning numbers so homeowners have some idea of what professional Full-service Christmas Lighting generally looks like before requesting an estimate.
And remember, the installation day is only one part of the service.
Our pricing includes the custom design, lights and decor, installation, maintenance throughout the season, takedown after Christmas, and storage until next year.
Yes! But, it depends on the gutter guard.
This is one of those details that seems small until you’re actually standing on a ladder trying to attach several hundred feet of perfectly straight Christmas lights to somebody’s house.
There are a lot of different styles of gutter guards.
Some allow us to use professional Christmas light clips almost exactly like we would on a normal gutter.
Others require a different style of clip or a different attachment method altogether.
And occasionally, a particular gutter guard, roofline, or exterior surface may change what we recommend installing.
That doesn’t automatically mean we can’t install Christmas lights on the home; it just means we need to know what we’re working with.
That’s why one of the questions we ask new customers is:
“Do you have gutter guards or screens over your gutters?”
Our goal is always to create a clean, professional display while using an attachment method that makes sense for that particular home.
We primarily use professional clips, and we don’t want to promise a specific installation method until we know what kind of surface we’re attaching to.
Earlier than most people think.
Here’s what happens every year:
We get it. Most homeowners naturally start shopping for Christmas Light Installation when the weather cools down and the Holiday season actually feels close.
But, that also means November is typically one of the busiest times of the season.
At Knight’s Lights, scheduling is first-come, first-serve based on when we receive your approved estimate and 50% deposit.
So, if there is a particular installation window you really want, the best thing you can do is start the estimate process early.
That doesn’t necessarily mean your lights have to go up early, it just means you have more available dates to choose from.
For new customers, we also offer a 5% discount when installation is completed during October.
Some people love getting their lights up early while others don’t want to see a Christmas light before November; and both are perfectly fine.
The important thing is not waiting until the week before Thanksgiving and assuming every installation date is still available.
(P.S. This is why our returning customers LOVE choosing Knight’s Lights year after year. We don’t force you to install in October if you don’t want to. We let you pick your installation date before the main Holiday rush starts.)
This one really depends on what you value.
Could you go to the hardware store, buy several boxes of lights, spend a Saturday on a ladder, troubleshoot a few bad strands, take everything down in January, and find somewhere in your attic to store it?
Absolutely. A lot of homeowners do exactly that.
Professional Christmas Light Installation is for the homeowner who says:
“I love Christmas lights. I just don’t want to deal with all of that.”
With a Full-service company like Knight’s Lights, you’re not simply paying someone to climb a ladder for a few hours, you’re paying for the entire process.
We:
If a bulb goes out? Call or text us.
If a strand comes loose? Call or text us.
Timer doing something weird? Call or text us.
We do our best to address normal service issues by the next business day.
So, is it worth it? If your only goal is to get lights onto the house for the lowest possible cost, probably not.
If you value a professional design, a clean installation, not getting on the roof, having someone handle repairs, and not having 12 tubs of Christmas lights living in your garage?
That’s where Full-service Christmas Lighting starts to make a lot of sense.
In most cases, yes. This one surprises people.
A homeowner calls us expecting that somebody needs to drive across Northwest Arkansas, walk around the house with a tape measure, and schedule a 45-minute appointment just to tell them what Christmas lights will cost.
A few years ago, that appointment may have been necessary, and might even further delay your Christmas light design planning and installation process.
Today, most of our Christmas Light estimates can be completed virtually using current property imagery, photos, and measurement tools.
We verify the property, measure the rooflines and other areas being considered, evaluate the height and architecture, look for things like gutter guards, and build the design from there.
Then, we create visual mockups showing exactly which portions of the home are included.
So, instead of receiving a quote that just says: “Christmas Lights - $1,800”
You can actually see what that $1,800 includes: Roofline, Ridgeline, Wreaths, Bushes, etc.
If the available imagery isn’t good enough, the architecture is unusually complicated, or there’s something about the property we need to evaluate in person, then we’ll schedule an onsite estimate.
But, for many Northwest Arkansas homes, there’s no reason the homeowner needs to take time out of their day (and further delay the process) just to receive a professional Christmas Light estimate.
We can usually handle the measuring and design work behind the scenes and send everything directly by text and email. It’s as simple as that!
The best thing you can do is start with a free and easy estimate.
You don’t need to know exactly what you want.
Some customers call us knowing the exact color combination and every part of the house they want decorated.
Others basically say: “Make it look good.”
We can work with both.
Simply fill out our quote form, tell us the areas you’re considering, and we can usually put together a custom design and estimate within 24 hours, without requiring an appointment.
Then you can decide what makes sense for your home, your budget, and your Christmas.
And, hopefully, spend a little less time worrying about ladders this year.
Get a free, custom Christmas light design within 24 hours HERE: https://knightslights.com/#christmas-quote