any of you guys hang lights?

[Nikster78]

I was curious if any of you guys do landscape lighting?

 

[TreeW?rx]

Not yet, but I am hanging christmas lights for the two churches in town this year. Small town, 2 churches, 2 bars.

 

[ronnyb]

We do holiday lighting. Pretty profitable.

 

[mattfr12]

around here people get whole 50+ foot pines strung with lights

 

[GlennG]

We hang lights for the local municipalities and homeowners. Its profitable and brings good cheer. Repeat business too. Keeps guys employed in the winter. Its a good thing and easy .

 

[Hddnis]

We do it. Demand is down a bit this year.

I like doing the big trees. Decorating a tree was the first climb I ever did wearing climbing gear. I was thirteen at the time. I wanted to decorate the spruce in the front yard. I put a big white star at the top and then colored lights on the rest of it.



Mr. HE

 

[squad143]

Christmas lights: I used to do it (5 years) for a friend of mine that owned an electrical company. Only did commercial properties. Kept me busy for the whole month of November and then a few weeks in January. I was paid as a sub contractor. That was a few years ago and since then I've been too busy with tree work during that time. Tree work definitely pays better but there is a market for x-mas lights.

Landscape lights.... can't speak of.

 

[Lawnmowerboy48]

Yup, Boss just bought a house lighting franchise. Although we think and do believe he is crazy, he does bust ass to keep us busy.

 

[chewbacca]

I used to be in landscape construction. We did landscape lighting then. Now, the company I work for does Christmas lights in the winter. Definitely helps to keep us busy Nov., Dec., and Jan. Pretty good money-maker too. Can't tell you how many people will spend $2000+ per year for us to put Christmas lights on their house.

 

[GlennG]

Yup, Boss just bought a house lighting franchise.

How does one buy a "house lighting franchise" How much does a "house lighting franchise" cost? Where do house lighting franchises exist?


House lighting franchises boggle my mind.

 

[chewbacca]

The company I work for owns franchises in christmas lighting. Dunno if thats what he was talkin about or landscape lighting. Anyway, the franchise we own is called "Christmas Decor". We bought the ones that were available in our branches' areas. You can look up the Christmas Decor website. I've been doin it in the winter for about 5 years now and the idea still boggles my mind.

 

[groundsmgr]

How does one buy a "house lighting franchise" How much does a "house lighting franchise" cost? Where do house lighting franchises exist?


House lighting franchises boggle my mind.

http://www.christmasdecor.net/

 

[pdqdl]

You guys that do this kind of work are staying pretty close-lipped about what and how you charge for the lighting service.

Please, tell us more!

 

[arbor pro]

I just strung a 50' spruce tuesday night with 2800' of lights. took 5 hours and cost the customer $500. I charge basically the same as I do for tree work including my cost of using the bucket truck. Only thing different is I charge a bit less on my hourly labor fee as I'm not using any rigging equipment or saws just my hands and sometimes an LED headlamp when stringing in the dark - which works great so you can see the effect as you work. The lights along with a spotlight on the ground gives me ample working light to be safe.

I wish I could do more but around here, i get a few jobs a year at best.

 

[chewbacca]

You guys that do this kind of work are staying pretty close-lipped about what and how you charge for the lighting service.

Please, tell us more!

Not a whole lot to tell. Our service includes the cost of the lights (which are about the highest quality available - there IS a difference), the labor in putting them up, and we are available within 24 hours to come fix ANYTHING that goes wrong with the lights (we have definitely been called out to replace one bulb), also includes the labor of taking the lights down, and for storing the lights all year. The next year we come out and do it all over again. Its a full-service operation for one price. They pay and don't have to worry about a thing. We do everything from running lights on roof ridges to stringing trees, to hanging lighted garland and wreaths, to setting up fully decorated trees in foyers. The service is expensive and very proffessionally done. It's not for everyone but for the people out there with money who appreciate quality, we give it to them. As far as how much it costs, we have salesmen who basically follow pricing cards so I'm not the best guy to ask about that (I'm just a grunt). I can tell you that a two man crew produces about $2000 a day installing lights. Important things to consider about this though, are that the same crew produces $0 for removal of the lights which takes about half the time as the install. High quality lights (like the ones we use) are also not cheap. Throw in a possible service call on Christmas eve and storage of the lights the rest of the year and you come up with our $2000 a day. I'm thankful we do it, as I said, it helps to keep us (and our bucket trucks) busy in the winter time.

 

[Fireaxman]

Here is one that is a little different. Our church built a new sanctuary with a 27 foot "Cathedral" ceiling. The contractor installed a light bar with 2 spots and 2 floods (including fuses, plus fuses for 2 more floods over the choir loft) dead in the middle of the ceiling. Gave NO THOUGHT to replacing fuses and bulbs. Same story second verse for two projectors. Whenever a new audio-visual person trys to operate the lights (or sometimes when a regular forgets) they bring the lights up too fast, blowing fuses and bulbs. It was costing the church $125 each time for a man lift to get to the light bar.

The last time they rented the man lift for this I set 3 tie-in points in the beams above the light bar and permanently installed pulleys and ropes for DdRT. Takes me about an hour to replace bulbs and fuses, something I do about once every couple of months.