where to start..
Budget / Design / Lease or buy?
Budget is key.
There are many levels of holiday lighting, and many skill sets.
To get a starting point for what you’re costs are going to be you should take the square footage of your home, divide that by 2 and that number will likely be the minimum you can expect to pay per year for holiday lighting.
Before the pandemic pricing for roof lines was around $5-$6 per foot.
Today those number have gone to $7- $9 per foot with the cost of one time installation being as high as $12-$14 per foot..
Most companies price their lights by the linear footage you need.
Don’t be supprised if the estimator doesn’t come to your home to measure. With a good photo and modern software an experienced estimator can be accurate to within just a few percentage points. Don’t be surprised if different companies come up with different amounts, most experienced companies won’t actually share this information. This is not the company being rude, it’s actually to help you weed out the amatures from the pros.
Design Plays a part..
The design of the display can play a big part in your budget. If you have a modern home with a roof that has character you might be able to save yourself a few bucks.
The more classic style homes like the ones you see in the chart tend to need to do what the pros call a roof wrap, 3D effect, or a gingerbread roof. This just means binging the light up the sides of the home and across the ridge. If you stay to just the front roof lines it can sometimes be quite underwhelming and the last thing you want is to spend a bunch of money to be underwhelmed on your display.
A professional designer will help you understand where you need the light and where you can save.
Why do budgets get so out of hand?
There are two main reasons budgets skyrocket.
- You need more than you thought.. Every home is different and has different requirements. You can curb the amount by sticking to the original architects vision. Highlight the the highlights.. you don’t need to light everything, just the important stuff. Your lighting professional should be able to guide you through this.
- Landscaping. Landscaping can be extensive. quite often it’s more eye-catching than the home itself. When this is the case we are inclined to light it up and show it off. When this happens it becomes a balancing act between the home, the landscaping and the budget.
What else Do You need To Consider?
Should I lease the lights or buy them from our lighting company.
The answer is simple: Choose the leasing program. Here’s why..
- Just like leasing a car, should anything go wrong, it’s the the car companies problem. Their car their problem. Same in the lighting world. Their lights, their problem.
- When something breaks it’s sometimes quite challenging to get a matching replacement. If you’re leasing that company is buying all the same lights for their customers and not getting them from a big box store that changes its product line every year. with a leasing program, it’s not your problem. If you buy the lights, and there are no replacement products available or replacements that match, you are now stuck with with unmatching lights or missing lights.
- When a company says they will sell you the lights and then come and install them, buyer beware. It’s a great way for a company to make money off you the first year and then disappear on you when they decide you’re not as profitable as the next guy.
- With leasing companies you are more profitable to them on the second, third, or fourth install. They want to come back to you every year.
- When you buy the lights and your installer disappears (and they will). No one else will install those lights. It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s that they can’t. Either the lights that were sold to you are from a bigbox store and cannot be repaired or matched or they were higher grade lights and custom cut for your home. If there is no installation diagram there is no way for the new company to know how to put them on your home. If they happen figure it out there is no guarantee the the previous company cut them correctly and that they will look right, ie. same number of bulbs on either side of a peak). It’s also a liability issue.. They are putting electrical items on your home and in your bushes without knowing the history of the lights they would be putting you and your home a great risk. Any company with an insurance policy will tell you now way.
