Decorating your roof is no easy task especially if you want your house to look great and festive for the holiday season. A good first step is to do a thorough analysis of the state of your roof and ascertain whether it needs any fixer-uppers or maintenance. Here are a few roof decorating tips that will spook your neighbors and make your home stand out whether it is Halloween or any other awaited holiday of the year.
Set Up For Success
When you are checking your roof or trying to hang decorations from there always start from a strong base. Use a stable, strong ladder, have a flashlight or use a miner’s helmet, be wearing your glasses if your eyesight is weak and have someone keeping watch on the ground. Slips from a height can cause injuries and being careful is very important.
The decorations themselves need to be durable and of good quality so that blowing wind, storms, rain, and snow are not going to dislodge them from the roof. You can also do DIY projects such as making skeletons yourself out of wood to ensure their durability.
Damage Can Worsen Over Time
Roofs have a standard life of approximately 20 years that can vary with regard to seasonal and weather changes as well as incurred damage to the roof material. With many roofs, the shingles and tiles can come loose due to rain, snow, or hail or simply wear and tear. It can become unsafe to climb onto the roof for any reason and the damage can grow and worsen with time along with being quite unsightly. A roofing contractor can address your worries professionally and recommend cost-effective steps to get your roof damage under control.
In some cases, you may need to uproot the roof shingle entirely and replace it with a new tile after some basic repairs. While slightly expensive, this can prevent water damage from seeping into your walls and emerging as mold or damaging furniture. The saying ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ applies true here!
A Few Minds Are Better Than One
Decorations need to be fairly unique and creative in order to attract interest from onlookers and passersby. If your roof décor looks the same as any other house down the street you won’t be able to create the reputation of being amazingly creative and innovative with your choice of holiday or Halloween decorations. Consider bringing together your most design-savvy friends and loved ones and brainstorming a theme or concept to bring to life rather than simply doing what all the other houses on the block have planned.
If you have a specific concept in mind, you can also steer clear of generic decorations that are usually mass-produced and purchased by a lot of people before a certain holiday. Taking the time to plan a design with a group usually means people can work on individual pieces that are visually striking to tie the whole theme together.
Be Careful With Lighting
Using lighting or décor pieces that need to be plugged in through extension cords leading up to the roof should be checked beforehand for any malfunctions. Not only do you need all your lighting equipment to work perfectly for a house display, but it can also be dangerous if a wire gets cut or there is a leakage of electrical current. Before you get ready to show off your lights to the whole neighborhood, do a test run to ensure everything is working as it should. Having a backup string of lights and an extension cord can also come in handy.
Go For Temporary
Homeowners can get carried away in creating the best Halloween display anyone has ever seen but a mistake to bear in mind is to not get any permanent fixtures done on the roof. Residential roofers will always recommend using command hooks or other types of plastic temporary fixtures so that you do not damage your roof while decorating. Safe adhesive materials are a good bet at keeping your roof in good shape as you mount décor items.
Check The Weather
It can rain without warning so while decorating as well as when your display is up, always keep tabs on the weather forecast. In the case of rain or a thunderstorm, there can be an event of short-circuiting and you should be prepared for that. You may also need to haul a canopy over part of your display to keep it from getting moistened by weather changes.