Get your festive decorations out and get ready to deck the halls – it is the holiday season! Hanging lights, wreaths, and other decorations can help make your home more festive, but they can also cause potential damage to your home’s roof, siding, and windows. With a vinyl-sided house, hanging decorations are tricky because you shouldn’t drill or nail through it. If there are holes in your vinyl, water will seep behind it, creating problems for your home.
The winter months are already challenging for your home’s roof and exterior. Holes in your vinyl siding may be small but are the least of your worries–you can also accidentally rip off shingles, gutters, fascia, capping, etc., with improper methods of hanging your decorations. Don’t put your home at risk. Follow these tips will help you protect your home’s exterior from holiday decor damage:
1) Use Plastic Light Clips
Holiday lights make a beautiful outline for your home, but keeping them on your gutters and roofs can be tricky. However frustrating it may be, you do not need staples, glue, or nails to keep these lights held in place. Plastic light clips are perfect for lining your roof and gutters with lights. Not only will these clips save your roof, but they allow for more creative control over the display. Now you can place the lights exactly where you want them without having to worry about them blowing off or getting tangled. The clips also work with the popular icicle lights you see around your neighborhood. The best part of these clips is that they are easily removable. The clips can be easily removed without tugging on stapled wires that could potentially damage your gutters, fascia, capping, or shingles.
2) Try Vinyl Siding Hooks
Vinyl siding hooks are one of the most flexible ways to hang holiday decorations without damaging them. They are specially designed to grab onto vinyl siding without causing any damage. It’s simply a matter of sliding the hook up under the siding and pushing it down toward the wall. The hook latches onto the siding without the use of nails, screws, or staples. Once you’re done, they come off the siding without leaving any holes behind.
It is very convenient to hang decorations on siding hooks since you can hang them almost anywhere.
Avoid purchasing cheap siding clips. Choose clips made from stainless steel or other materials that won’t rust. Otherwise, you may find rust stains on your siding after removing your clips. Such stains are difficult to remove and are very noticeable.
3) Use Suction Cup Hooks on Vinyl Siding and Windows
Suction cups with hooks are great for hanging wreaths, bows, and other accents on your exteriors, and many of them have surprisingly strong holding power. With this method, you can avoid scratching your windows and siding.
Clean, dry, and flat surfaces are the ideal surface for suction cups. Using soap and water, thoroughly clean the area where the suction cup will hang. Allow the area to dry and clean it again with rubbing alcohol. Let it dry again. After that, wet the back of the suction cup and press it firmly against your siding or windows.
You should wait at least 24 hours before hanging any decorations from the suction cup. Keep in mind that the larger the suction cup, the greater the amount of weight it can support. It is possible to hang lights with a series of cups, but if you are hanging a wreath or a plastic Santa Claus, you’ll need to think bigger. If the decoration is large, you may also need more than one suction cup.
When January comes around, you’ll be able to remove the suction cups, wash them with warm water, and store them for next year.
4) Explore In-Window Adhesive Decorations
There are a number of holiday decorations that can be directly applied to a window. You can buy stick-on decorations such as snowflakes or holiday characters from your local craft store to adhere to the inside of your windows and peel them off at the end of the season. Just like suction cups, clean, dry windows are ideal for applying these decorations, and there should be no residue left behind. You can also use them to get younger family members involved in holiday decorating!
BONUS: Wrap Columns & Railings
Screw-in clips are a big “no-no.” Save your columns and railings and add some festive flair by wrapping your columns and railings with garland, tinsel, or other decorations. When you add nails or screws to columns it will damage them and possibly ruin the structure of the column and railing causing them to become weaker and may eventually lead to them getting destroyed.
Tis’ The Season For Change!
Holiday lights, sounds, and smells are some of our favorite things about the Christmas season. It’s definitely one of the best times of the year. However, we also care about your home’s exterior condition and ensure you get the most life out of it. This season, don’t shorten the lifespan of your home’s exterior. If you don’t follow the above tips, you may find that your annual tradition will be costing you much more than your December electric bill.
Are these tips a little too late? Contact Unified Home Remodeling today at (888) 631-2131 to learn how much replacing your roof, siding, or windows might cost and what options we offer. We’ll be glad to give you a free and accurate estimate and answer any questions you may have.
