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How I hang Christmas lights without a ladder

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Re: How I hang Christmas lights without a ladder

#61

Post by mtgentry »

cardamomo wrote: post #49
nemo44x wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it looks like an early 20th century 1920s Craftsman style home. (1905-1929) It’s likely made of extremely high quality old growth wood and a rather lovely home to live in if well maintained.

I love homes from this era! The quality of the materials, at least among the homes still standing, is often excellent. This is anecdotal, but I find that they also tend to have a lot of natural light and stay cooler in the summer.

Yeah I’ve done extensive work on the house and anywhere that’s original is in great shape. All the wood is old growth. It had termite damage at one point but the termites only ate areas where newer (lesser quality) wood was used.

Heck, even the mirror in the bathroom opens and closes perfectly and it’s 110 yrs old.

The downsides are there was zero insulation in the walls when we bought it and the leaded glass windows are single pane. I’ve mostly fixed the insulation problem but the windows will always be pretty to look at but inefficient.

Re: How I hang Christmas lights without a ladder

#62

Post by willcipriano »

nemo44x wrote: post #54
cardamomo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love homes from this era! The quality of the materials, at least among the homes still standing, is often excellent. This is anecdotal, but I find that they also tend to have a lot of natural light and stay cooler in the summer.

Yeah they’re great if maintained. They do tend to have a lot of windows (and larger windows) than typical modern homes. I suspect it’s because windows are expensive and the homes still standing were generally the higher quality homes of the era. Also - no AC back then so windows were very much functional appliances. Double hung sash windows are especially popular in this era because they are designed to maximize airf…

I never knew that about the double sash windows but it makes sense.

Re: How I hang Christmas lights without a ladder

#63

Post by saalweachter »

mtgentry wrote: post #61
cardamomo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love homes from this era! The quality of the materials, at least among the homes still standing, is often excellent. This is anecdotal, but I find that they also tend to have a lot of natural light and stay cooler in the summer.

Yeah I’ve done extensive work on the house and anywhere that’s original is in great shape. All the wood is old growth. It had termite damage at one point but the termites only ate areas where newer (lesser quality) wood was used. Heck, even the mirror in the bathroom opens and closes perfectly and it’s 110 yrs old. The downsides are there was zero insulation in the walls when we bought it and the leaded glass windows…

> The downsides are there was zero insulation in the walls when we bought it

To be fair, "nothing" is like, the best thing you'll find when you look at the insulation in old houses.

Re: How I hang Christmas lights without a ladder

#64

Post by ThrowawayTestr »

pifm_guy wrote: post #52
ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Individually addressable, waterproof LEDs are super cheap. Most expensive part is the power supply.

They also don't last outside long... Eaten by squirrels... Tube gets full of water... As soon as one LED dies, all the rest start flickering like crazy....

You can get ones fully incased in silicone but that might not stop the squirrels...

Re: How I hang Christmas lights without a ladder

#65

Post by WallabyEV »

rufus_foreman wrote: post #55

I'm saddened by the fact that a gun wasn't involved.

While I share an affinity for magnets and their utility, I too was hoping for more zazz like a crossbow and/or Batman type over-engineering. Anything to keep me off a ladder is a safety value-add in my book.

In North Texas a guy who broke his leg went in for routine surgery to fix him up, his oxygen dropped and he is now brain dead and was the sole provider for his aging Mother - malpractice suit awarded but she is caring for him the rest of their days because "he is my everything" (loose translation from Spanish).

Re: How I hang Christmas lights without a ladder

#66

Post by aidenn0 »

mindslight wrote: post #8
senthil_rajasek wrote: post #4

"The carefully split the wire part" in many places has me concerned about electric shock. Is this wiring upto code in the U.S? Also, the comment at the end to use "hooks" beats the whole point of using magnets.

Haha, code. IIRC, Christmas lights have their own exception in the NEC, as the things are wildly unsafe by general NEC standards. For example, nothing stops you from plugging a space heater into the outlet at the end of a string. But relax, it's Christmas! Having said that, OP's lights are built a bit more solid because they look like the 120V parallel-wired style, rather than the series wired tiny lights. I'd be com…

> For example, nothing stops you from plugging a space heater into the outlet at the end of a string. But relax, it's Christmas

Every string I've seen in the past 30 years or so is fused.

Re: How I hang Christmas lights without a ladder

#67

Post by tzs »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #19
brudgers wrote: post #13

Magnet attaches to the roof edge flashing which is metal. In the US, there is a substantial probability the flashing is non-magnetic aluminum. So test first.

Most places in the world with metal flashing, metal gutters, or other metal on an exterior will have aluminum. It’s old houses that might have steel. If you have a new house, I guarantee this won’t work. If you have an old house it’s worth checking, though.

> Most places in the world with metal flashing, metal gutters, or other metal on an exterior will have aluminum.

For gutters that magnets won't stick to it might work to use pairs of magnets.

1. Drop a strong magnet into the gutter.

2. Place another strong magnet on the bottom of the gutter under the place you dropped the aforementioned magnet.

3. Attach a ferromagnetic metal clip to the thing you want to suspend and use the magnet from #2 to hold the clip.

Re: How I hang Christmas lights without a ladder

#68

Post by grepfru_it »

Zircom wrote: post #32
bombcar wrote: post #12

You can get led strips of lights designed for outdoors that when off are just a clearish rope. Install those permanently and when they’re not on they’re basically invisible.

We tried that with some lights we in our bushes thinking it'd be fine to just keep them off, they're not even visible unless you were on our porch with your nose against the bushes looking for them. HOA ended up fining us anyways, nosy fucks.

>nosy fucks

Was probably your neighbor who ratted you out. I’m constantly reporting violations to our HOA

Re: How I hang Christmas lights without a ladder

#70

Post by dionidium »

senthil_rajasek wrote: post #4

"The carefully split the wire part" in many places has me concerned about electric shock. Is this wiring upto code in the U.S? Also, the comment at the end to use "hooks" beats the whole point of using magnets.

The conductors appear to be separately insulated, so this poses no risk. However, it's generally a safe bet that modifying devices or equipment is a no-go. These lights were probably reviewed by a "listing" agency (e.g. Underwriters Laboratories) that's accepted/required by the municipality having jurisdiction and modifying the device invalidates that listing.
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