LED light Strip on shingles

[asl9622]

Hey ladies and gentlemen,

Last year I attached my LED light strips to my room using Gorilla Duct Tape. For the most part if held up but failed in some spots. Does anyone have any other methods they use to keep the light ribbons attached to their roof? My roof has traditional shingles. I am trying to avoid using staples/u shaped nails. I was thinking of wrapping part of the strand with duct tape to protect the strand and then using hot glue to attach to the shingle. On a side note, how early do you put your lights up? I usually start in early November but would love to do a little earlier but I do not want to put too much wear on the ribbons.

[Orville]

I don't have those type lights, but I wouldn't recommend using hot glue on the roof.  if it gets really hot, it'll just melt and make a mess.   I would possibly recommend liquid Flex Seal, you could use a thin coating under the ribbon and let it dry to the roof.  Not sure how easy it would be to remove a ribbon bonded down like that as this stuff does seal well and makes a waterproof seal as well.   It dries to a flexible rubber.

Just a suggestion, again, not sure how good or bad this would work for your situation.   Just know this stuff worked very well to seal a roof leak as well as around some of my porch light fixtures on my house.  Seems to hold up very well to the heat.   Again, just not sure how feasible it'd be in your case.

 

[George Simmons]

Boscoyo Studios has a strip for mounting pixels - available in either white or black.  Those strips, while designed for bullet pixels, work great for holding ribbons also.  The strip is easy to mount just about anywhere, and puts virtually zero stress on the ribbon. 

[ClarkGriswold69]

No, No, No, No!  Duct tape is not the answer.  I have been hanging my LED lights on the end of my shingles for years and I've used all kinds of clips.  The best clips I have found that work best for me are the Adams Deck and Eves clips from ACE Hardware.  I use LED minis and they work great.  They are fairly inexpensive and you can get 100 under $12.  Also check Lowe's, Menard's and Home Depot with their Christmas light displays.  The key to hanging lights on the shingles is not to get a clip too flimsy yet fits the size of the light you have.  Also, don't get anything more than 2" under your shingle.  All that does it damage your shingle in the long run by allowing the elements to get underneath.  I've done the nails, wires, etc.  Nothing works better than the clips I told you about.  I have nearly a thousand of them and I replace them every two years.  Also, the clips are very easy to install and hang the lights on.  There are various types of shingle clips to get and you need to figure out what works best for your roof .  If you are going use the ends of the shingles then use something with a thin and narrow "dagger" to get under the shingle.  Sort of like a really thin emery board (that gadget used to trim finger nails).  It has a half-circle clip that has enough tork to hold your lights in place.  Anyways, get away from the duct tape. I've included a link to a Ace website just to give you an idea on what they look like.  This company has many different clip designs and I regard them as the best I've ever used, hands down! http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3261308&KPID=5182945&cid=CAPLA:G:Shopping_-_Holiday_Products_-_New&pla=pla_5182945&k_clickid=33952685-66dd-4e05-b12b-d2628adcdd3b

[ClarkGriswold69]

I just finished putting up our lights this past week.  I do it early for two reasons:  First, it takes more than a month to install them because we have tens of thousands to put up.  Second, it's harder to do when the weather is cold and the cords are freezing.  Nobody likes to be out in the cold hanging up lights when the clips and cords are too frozen to mess with.  I start checking lights in late summer.  This gives me plenty of time to replace bulbs, remove weathered light strings and organize what I plan to use. I start hanging in September and programming in October and early November.  This allows me to get the show up and running by Thanksgiving evening.  I pick out the music in early spring.  Load it all into the computer by early summer and begin a rough layout of the show around July and August.  Once the lights are up it's time to crank it up a notch.  With that said, I live in Illinois and our weather is very unpredictable.  We can have very cold and bitter winters with a lot of snow, or very mild winters with no precip.  Thus, I approach every winter as it's the worst on record.  This way I get it all done by the same time every year.  Long story short, know your weather, know your schedule and plan accordingly.

 

[DisneyMatt10]

15 hours ago, asl9622 said:

On a side note, how early do you put your lights up? I usually start in early November but would love to do a little earlier but I do not want to put too much wear on the ribbons.

I started putting our lights up this past weekend. Mainly because there are so many lights to get up, and I want to make sure everything is up and I have time to test it all before December gets here. Also, incase it gets cold I won't have to be out crawling around the roof in cold weather. (I don't like the cold!)

~Matt

 

[tomsusie]

I have my ribbons attached to 1/2" pvc pipe with zip ties.  On my roof I have a wood (treated for weather) lattice with plastic clips mounted on them that the pipe simply snaps into.  HOlds them very tightly yet easy enough to pop out if you need to take them down.  I have the lattice laying on the roof with cord attached that runs over the peak to boards on the back side.  The boards are held in place with big bags of pebbles.  I have had no problems with wind lifting them off.  They have been up for almost a year now -- I use them for other holidays as well.  I have ten ribbons in a matrix so I can do a variety of displays.  I plan to expand it to at least 12 ribbons when I can afford it.

[tomsusie]

Here's a link to a few photos on my Flickr page that show how I put the ribbons on my roof.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/amayzing/albums/72157660450363814

 

 

[asl9622]

Thank you everyone for your replies! I live in Georgia so it does not get really cold. I would love to hang now if I can but like I said I am nervous about the durability of the LED ribbon being exposed to sun and elements for an extra month. I bought the Smart LED Ribbons from holidaycoro and they seem well constructed and sealed. Once again thank you for the replies!

[DisneyMatt10]

I'd hold off on hanging the pixel strips till the beginning of November. 

~Matt

[asl9622]

22 hours ago, DisneyMatt10 said:

I'd hold off on hanging the pixel strips till the beginning of November. 

~Matt

Thanks for the reply! I put four up yesterday on the outline of my house so I could do a test run of the pixel editor effects. I will take them off this weekend.

[k6ccc]

For what it's worth, I have both dumb strips and smart strips installed year round as part of my landscape lighting. Some has now been installed for about four years with very little trouble.

Sent from my Droid Turbo via Tapatalk, so blame any typos or spelling errors on Android

[Dcroc]

I left my smart and dumb strips on the house all year.  Every one of the dumb strips has dead red pixels randomly through out the strip.  Holidaycoro has suggested it is from zip ties, or moisture. However, I have some strips that were not zip tied, and they suffered the same as the ones that were. I find it very hard to believe moisture only effected some of the red pixels in each dumb strip, yet the smart strips still work like new. I will not be leaving the new strips out all year this time.

 

[George Simmons]

7 hours ago, Dcroc said:

I left my smart and dumb strips on the house all year.  Every one of the dumb strips has dead red pixels randomly through out the strip.  Holidaycoro has suggested it is from zip ties, or moisture. However, I have some strips that were not zip tied, and they suffered the same as the ones that were. I find it very hard to believe moisture only effected some of the red pixels in each dumb strip, yet the smart strips still work like new. I will not be leaving the new strips out all year this time.

Sounds to me like it's most probably a product quality issue.

I've had 2 LOR CCRs outside (sun, wind, weather) continuously since 2010 and one still works fine while the other has pixel #50 dark.  I've had another LOR ribbon outside fully exposed since 2011, and 2 more since 2012 and all still work fine.  The silicone jacket is slightly opaque on one of the oldest ones, but all the others are perfectly okay.  None of them has ever had a moisture issue of any kind.   

[sax]

3 LOR CCRs on the front of my house for 4 years now held up by glazing tape.  No issues.  Much safer leaving them up than damage that could occur putting them up and taking them down. 

I put China pixel strips on my gutters.  I tie wrap those to 1/2" emt and hang them to the gutters with s hooks.  Had one go out last year...jut the first 2 pixels. It pretty much rains non stop in late fall and all winter here.  Water had seeped in.  In just a few days of water seepage I could really see the corrosion. But at $15 it doesn't hurt too much.  Took the strip down, replaced with new one, cut out the bad pixels and now a smaller spare. 

Be sure to reinforce your water protection on those China strips....and yes holiday coro uses those same cheap China strips.  

LOR CCRs I have not had an issue.  Ever.

[Dcroc]

I contacted Holdiaycoro. I have 10 bad strips, all with the same problem of random dead red pixels. They sent me ONE strip to cut apart and repair them.  Not only is one strip not enough to repair all the bad pixels, I'm not about to put that amount of my time into repairing all those pixels. I finally just ordered all new strips.  Because of cost, I went with HC again, but the more I look at all those bad strips sitting in my garage, and still on the house waiting to be replaced, the more upset I get about it. I think I am done with them. That's a couple hundred dollars I'm out, and their answer was to cut all them apart and piece in new pixels? It's not like it's one pixel per strip, or even groups of pixels. They are all random through out the strips, with some of them having more than 10 bad ones in different parts of the strip....ALL red. It can't be anything but a quality issue. I can't think of anything else that would explain it.

[Mr. P]

I have strips on my eaves year round for the fourth year and they all work fine. The only issue is they are yellowing but other then that they are working great.

[sax]

Dcroc- China strips are $15 each for 12vdc pixels.  If I ever had that happen Ray would replace them on my next order.  Order some connectors or cables...those are always needed and new strips would be coming.  And shipping is not as bad as you think. Must message him and you get fedex.  It takes 5-10 days to process order and about 2 days for DHL to deliver to me.  Depending on how much you get shipping has been $14-$150 for dhl or fedex for me.  The larger amount was for my 50+ 25' 4 pin extension cables, 50 10' cables.....etc.. Basically my heavy stuff. 

Anyway, consider him for your strips if you want cheap disposable strips.  

Lor CCRs are best warranty and seem to last longer but cost....and now pixel strips coming from LOR might be an option.  But for me I will stick with the $15 ones for now.  Just too cheap and if you hit them with silicone on the ends when you get them they seem to last.  Mine are going into season 3 and have had 2 go bad due to water seepage (just a couple end pixels each).  I have total of 6 on the house.