How to mount lights

[dkoehler42]

Good Morning fellow LOR'ers.  I recently had my siding, soffit, and fascia replaced and capped, so my old cup hooks are gone.  I was looking for helpful suggestions on how to mount lights on the house.  I do have gutter guards which do prevent putting clips in there, and I didn't get a solid feel when I tried the roof tile method.

My brother used the 3M style clips around his garage door, but I don't know that they'd work in this orientation.  Any thoughts?

[Al Saunders]

Hi Dkoehler42,

I recently installed gutter guards so my previous way of hanging lights with normal plastic clips won't work any more. I found some 'S' hooks at Lowe's. I'm sorry I don't remember the size and I've thrown away all the bags. They came in bags of 2 pieces and the color on the bags was purple if that helps. The gutter guards I used were the metal Amerimax ones. The S hooks are just small enough to fit in the openings of the gutter guards. I took pliers and channel locks and opened the S hooks a bit.  A little more for the gutter end and closer on the light string side so the strings wouldn't blow out easily.  Hopefully you have a similar guard and not the tight mesh kind. I hope this helps as it worked for me. 

Al

[Wayne K]

I am not sure what your long term lighting is. We resided our house several years ago and I looked and looked for ways to hang things. I made the decision that I was going to decorate the house for a lot of years. So I ended up buying small stainless hooks and used them in my window corners and they worked good. I don't remember the size, they were either a # 4 or #6. But my thought was that if I ever quit, I would pull the hooks out and run a #4 or #6 pan head stainless screw into the hole. I have used a ton of the siding clips for like my corner moldings. I cut about 1/8" of of the end that would go into the siding joint and then I push the clip over the corner lip and push it in far enough to hold the wire on the outside of the molding. These work pretty well. I also have a few things I have hung up high under the eves. So my sofit has for lack of better descripition groves in it that run toward / away from the house. I was able to get 1/4" long lag screws to go into the slots and I actually have 1 of my singing trees hung / supported this way. The other thing I done was went to the box store and bought 1" x 1/16" aluminum angle and then tried different cut offs on one side until I had a nice fit up between 2 of the siding panels just like the siding clips. I then drilled a few holes and anchored my singing tree to this angle and then tightend the turn buckles on the 1/4" lag screws to pull up on the brackets and keep them in the siding joint, This has worked very well so far.

Wayne

[dkoehler42]

On 11/18/2020 at 8:03 PM, Al Saunders said:

Hi Dkoehler42,

I recently installed gutter guards so my previous way of hanging lights with normal plastic clips won't work any more. I found some 'S' hooks at Lowe's. I'm sorry I don't remember the size and I've thrown away all the bags. They came in bags of 2 pieces and the color on the bags was purple if that helps. The gutter guards I used were the metal Amerimax ones. The S hooks are just small enough to fit in the openings of the gutter guards. I took pliers and channel locks and opened the S hooks a bit.  A little more for the gutter end and closer on the light string side so the strings wouldn't blow out easily.  Hopefully you have a similar guard and not the tight mesh kind. I hope this helps as it worked for me. 

Al

I'm not sure how you connected S hooks. I have plastic gutter guards that "hinge" away from the house and appear to tuck under the first layer of roof tiles to hold them secure.  There's no way to clip anything on that front edge.  I have wood under the new aluminum, but I was liking the clean look without the hooks. I called Command, and their rep did not have a good solution for the heavier icicle lights.  I tried to add a picture for clarity, but it was too large.

[metallus2000]

I have gutter guards as well. On our house, the previous owner put l brackets under the gutter, and put an eye hook on them, so you could hang plants. I put a steel pipe(1/2 inch) through the hooks, and hung the dripping icicle lights on it. It is a bit lower than the gutter, but you could do something to get them even. Maybe a piece that attaches temporarily to get them to gutter height. I am still experimenting, but will perfect it after this season for RGB icicles next year, closer to the gutter. So, temporarily hung wife's dripping icicles for this season. You could do a metal pipe under the gutter, remove at the end of the season, and re-purpose for plants during the summer.

[rossg]

On 11/28/2020 at 9:39 AM, metallus2000 said:

I have gutter guards as well. On our house, the previous owner put l brackets under the gutter, and put an eye hook on them, so you could hang plants. I put a steel pipe(1/2 inch) through the hooks, and hung the dripping icicle lights on it. It is a bit lower than the gutter, but you could do something to get them even. Maybe a piece that attaches temporarily to get them to gutter height. I am still experimenting, but will perfect it after this season for RGB icicles next year, closer to the gutter. So, temporarily hung wife's dripping icicles for this season. You could do a metal pipe under the gutter, remove at the end of the season, and re-purpose for plants during the summer.

Holy crap.... your picture just gave me an idea.... my gutters are set up similar. I wonder if I can make some kind of bracket like in your picture but have apiece going up to bring it even with the gutter top. Then I don’t have attach anything to gutter or drill anywhere water coils get to. 

[dkoehler42]

I appreciate the input, but I ended up installing Ook's vinyl coated cup hooks into the aluminum. I figure this will hold for years to come, gutter guards or not.

[metallus2000]

On 11/30/2020 at 10:21 AM, rossg said:

Holy crap.... your picture just gave me an idea.... my gutters are set up similar. I wonder if I can make some kind of bracket like in your picture but have apiece going up to bring it even with the gutter top. Then I don’t have attach anything to gutter or drill anywhere water coils get to. 

Standard L bracket from Home Depot or Lowes. Eye bolts and a steel pipe are all you need to complete the set-up.

[rossg]

I am going out tomorrow to try that.  If it works and go up quick..... my wife may divorce me, but that is a story for another day.

Thanks!

[metallus2000]

9 minutes ago, rossg said:

I am going out tomorrow to try that.  If it works and go up quick..... my wife may divorce me, but that is a story for another day.

Thanks!

Tell her your making plant hangers...

[Little_b]

I used "F" and "J" channel to permanently mount my pixel strips to.  On the back I added small hooks where I hang my Icicle lights.  i use the same hooks in the corners of my windows.  Check it out at around the 7:08 mark.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5i2F72IyBY