What to ask before you hire anyone.

What should you ask a Christmas light installer before hiring them?

Ask which roof planes are included, whether ridges and hips are in the base price, who provides and stores the lights, what happens when a bulb fails mid-season, whether takedown is included, and how the lights are attached to the roof. Those six answers explain almost every price difference between quotes.

The three questions that explain a cheap quote

Start here. If you ask nothing else, ask these.

1. Exactly which roof planes are included?

This is the big one. “The roofline” is not a specification. Eaves and rakes are the normal base run — but ridges and hips are usually an add-on, not part of a base roofline scope, and they are the single most common thing quietly left out of a cheaper comparison quote.

We say so on our own package cards for exactly that reason. A quote lighting fewer planes is not a better price; it is a smaller job.

2. Is takedown included, and when?

Takedown is real labour, on the same roof, in January. A quote that excludes it is not comparable to one that includes it. Ours includes January takedown in every package at every scope.

3. What is attached to my roof, and how?

The answer you want is clips chosen to suit the surface. The answer you do not want is anything involving staples, nails or screws. A puncture in a shingle is a path for water, and the leak shows up months later when nobody connects it to the lights.

Questions about the company

4. Are you insured, and can I see it?

This is ladder work at height on your property. Ask to see the certificate. If someone is injured on an uninsured job, it becomes your problem.

5. Are you on roofs the rest of the year?

Most light installers are seasonal. We are roofers — we replace roofs across Houston through the year, which is why two-storey and steep-slope work is routine rather than the hardest thing we do all season.

6. Will you tell me if my roof is in bad shape?

A good answer is yes, without a charge attached. Somebody is going to be standing on your roof for an hour. They should be able to tell you what they saw.

Questions about the lights themselves

7. Do I own them or lease them?

Both are legitimate, and the difference matters for cost and for storage. With us you can lease — we store them between seasons — or buy them outright and store them yourself.

8. Are the lights commercial-grade?

Retail-store light strings are not built for a full season on a Houston roof. Ours are commercial-grade C9 bulbs and wire, custom-cut to your rooflines rather than run in fixed lengths with the slack tucked away.

9. What is the warranty, and on what exactly?

Push on this one. Ours depends on who owns the lights: lifetime on leased lights, for as long as they are on your house, and 5 years on lights you buy outright. Both cover the lights and bulbs — the product — and neither is a workmanship warranty on the installation.

If someone offers you an unqualified “lifetime warranty,” ask which part it covers and under what condition. It is rarely the whole job.

Questions about the season

10. What happens when a bulb fails in December?

It will happen. Service visits through the season are part of every package we sell. Ask whether they are included or billed.

11. When will you install, and how firm is that?

Installers work a calendar through October and November, and the closer it gets to Thanksgiving the tighter that calendar is. Book early. Be suspicious of anyone promising you a slot they clearly cannot hold.

12. Is the price one number, in writing, before you start?

It should be. Ours is a lump sum listing every selected feature, produced after we have measured the roofline and checked the access and power — not guessed over the phone.

What we would answer

Holiday lighting packages start at $750. Every package includes the design consult and on-site measure, commercial-grade C9 bulbs and wire, lights custom-cut to your rooflines, professional installation on safe roof clips, service visits through the season, and January takedown. Ridges and hips, window outlines, wreaths and garland, columns and porch, and walkway and driveway lighting are optional and separately quoted — and we list them so you can compare like with like.

See the packages and what drives the price, build a plan for your own house, or start at the lighting hub.