How to get to my roofline?

J

Jbrew1974

New member
Hi all,
Haven’t been on here in forever but moved to a large house and can’t get to my roofline to run lights across the top, I just want to run C-9 LEDs across but don’t want to pay anyone. I also don’t want to kill myself by trying to walk it, don’t wanna spend Christmas dead.
Does anyone have any tricks or ideas without renting a boom or paying someone else 500 or so to do it? Pic of my house attached.
 

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There's nothing there you can't reach from a ladder. If you don't own one, buy one. That'll be the cheapest way to get them up and down year after year.
 
I have seen some folks on here rent booms - unfortunately the only way I could come up with was to borrow my neighbor,s 28 foot ladder... need to get on my tippy toes for the peaks, and I admit I still get scared, but have gotten the job done for the past 7 years. If you’re afraid of heights or may have difficulty multitasking while 30 feet up, you might be better off hiring someone.


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I have ladders, even with a 40 foot I can’t get to the top without walking it, which I’m not comfortable with. No fear of heights or walking on a roof, but with the height and slope I don’t wanna risk it. I can get to and walk on the left side where the valley is so I could technically get to one side of the roof line, problem is reaching the other 50 or so feet across the top.
 
so if the average height of a story is 9-10' your two story house should be 18-20' from the ground to the gutters. Maybe a bit higher at the peaks at 25' or so. Why can't you get to this with a 40' ladder? Is there something i'm not getting here?
 
I think he is referring to the peak along the very top of the roof. Do you have a friend at the local fire department? (ladder truck) If not, you are not going to get there unless you walk up to the peak. Your roof looks like a 6/12 pitch, which is not that steep. If you fear falling, tie yourself off to the ground at the front and back of the house and then you can confidently walk along the ridge. If that is a no go, then you may have to settle for not lighting the peak.
 
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rstehle said:
I think he is referring to the peak along the very top of the roof. Do you have a friend at the local fire department? (ladder truck) If not, you are not going to get there unless you walk up to the peak. Your roof looks like a 6/12 pitch, which is not that steep. If you fear falling, tie yourself off to the ground at the front and back of the house and then you can confidently walk along the ridge. If that is a no go, then you hay have to settle for not lighting the peak.
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Yes, referring to the roofline peak only, I can get to the gutters no problem. Maybe I can get a roof harness thingy, throw a strong rope over the other side and tie it off to a tree, should save me from dying.
 
If you gotta get it done, how about this (note my handle):
Throw a light weight rope over the right side of your house. Attach you LED string to the rope and pull it up the the top. Securely tie off the the front and back end of the rope centering the LED string near the roof line. Using the valley, climb to the left side of the roof line with the other end of the LED string (more rope likely involved). Pull LED string taut across roof line and secure it. This is not a great solution but it may be good enough.

<humor on>
Fear is reason fighting stupid.
Screw the roof line.
Gutter and gable lines are good enough.
<humor off>
 
MikeKrebs said:
There is going to be at least a one time effort to put some kind of anchors up. There is system that uses magnets and once installed you use a long pole to click the lights to the anchors. Or same thing with some hooks. But I would think using a 25' pole would be a feat all its own.
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Yeah, I've got a similar issue in that I can't easily get lights up on the 2nd story gutters, or the roofline. I'm 53 and don't really like the idea of climbing all over my roof to hang and then remove lights every year. I *do* have anchors on the roofline that were installed when the house was built, but I still don't like the idea of getting up to said anchors to tie myself off. I also want to put lights up inside the archway of my front porch (see picture below) and figure if I can get up there once to install hooks or something, I can then use a pole to attach strings. I can actually climb out that window over the garage doors and hang a frame for that window, but getting up to that roofline and those top-level gutters...ugh...

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One of my fantasies has been a motorized winch system in the attic that lowers hooks on cables and raises the lights from ground level without the need for a ladder.
 
Hi
I do have a life time fix ?? with a bit of money and time making them.
Hire a scaffold tower with out riggers and wheels,make sure it will go to the height you need. Make 2 pulleys that you can fix to the roof tiles or the brick work just below the tile but make sure the pulley is above the roof tiles. Buy some very strong fishing line put one end in the wheel move the tower around to the other side keeping hold of the end of the line (some one holding the roll of line will a pencil or rod so line comes off freely ) When you fix the other pulley put the line thought done so now you can pull your lights up every year ( just make sure one end is always fix the the ground ) You do need to test this on the ground but i can not see why it will not work ????? all best Martin
 
So Here’s what I ended up doing as want a break from the ladder thing for a few years I’ve installed mine to be a semi permanent install at least hopefully a couple years any way . But will have to get up there at some point to mount them.
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Can’t see em till you get up close so I can keep the HOA off my but. Working out the details as I go along. But can remove and repair with little effort . Beats going up and down that ladder each year .


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So I recently had this issue. Was paying a guy $300 a year to hang my lights because my roofline is 3+ stories in some areas. Was going to rent a boom lift then found out my neighbor had a bucket truck. I borrowed that and installed pixel led lights in j channel along the roof line. It’s a clean install and can be kept up year round. It satisfied my wife so it worked out.
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Adam_pgh said:
So I recently had this issue. Was paying a guy $300 a year to hang my lights because my roofline is 3+ stories in some areas. Was going to rent a boom lift then found out my neighbor had a bucket truck. I borrowed that and installed pixel led lights in j channel along the roof line. It’s a clean install and can be kept up year round. It satisfied my wife so it worked out.
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I am not quite 3-stories up, but my roofline is similar to yours. We are on a crawl space and the back slopes down. I am not a ladder fan and will not go up to the peaks on a ladder. I am looking for a permanent install for the rooflines. I thought about the J-channel route and may very well do that for price. I have seen the new Permatrack. I may go that route when I weigh price/performance. Like you I will be looking for someone I know that has a bucket truck to get up there or I am hiring someone to do it.
 
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