5 Christmas Decorating Tips to Not Damage Your Roof

5 Decorating Tips Without Damaging Your Roof

The holidays are almost here! Before you know it, it will be time to decorate. Many people decorate the outside of their homes and use their roof as a base to hang lights and other decorations but decorations can damage your roof if they are not used the right way.

These 5 decorating tips can help you get the most out of your holiday decorations without causing damage to your roof.

Don’t Nail It

One of the biggest mistakes overzealous decorators make is to hammer in nails into their roof to hang decorations from. This is a really big no-no. Do not nail anything to the roof or you risk ruining the shingles and leaving holes behind that water can seep into. Use special clips that are made for the specific purpose of decorating with lights on your roof.

Don’t Overweight the Gutters

They sell clips that can clip on to your gutters to hang lights from. Only use these clips as directed because if you add too much weight to the clips you may wind up damaging your gutters. Take your time and read the directions.

Watch Your Chimney

There are a lot of elaborate lightweight blow up type decorations out there that people secure to their roofs. Be very careful around your chimney or flue. You never know with windy conditions if your new blow up is going to wind up going up in flames if it comes in contact with the chimney or flue. Be sure to mount blow ups and other decorations far enough from the chimney so that there is no chance of them coming in contact with eachother.

Don’t Rip it Down

When the holidays are over it can seem like a good idea to just rip those lights that took you hours to clip on off. Don’t do it. Take your time to dismantle everything or you will risk damage to the roof. It can be very tempting to just give a few tugs but don’t do it!

Beware of Satellite Dishes, Antennas and Power Lines

Be careful not to come in contact with anything that is mounted on your roof. Besides injuring yourself you can also wind up ripping down whatever is mounted up there. Be sure that you steer clear of any vents as well. Roofs are very sensitive systems that you really need to pay attention too or risk causing serious damage.