Everybody plans the install. Nobody plans the takedown
The whole discussion points at one day in November. Which makes sense, because that is the visible part. Then it is January, and the lights are still on the house. The people who asked the question up front have a much better January than the people who did not.Which is a shame, because it is the half that separates one company from another. Anybody can hang lights in November. The real question is about February. That question is worth asking before you book, not the one you have in January.
What a January ladder day involves
The takedown is the unpleasant half. Cold, dark by five, and nothing to look forward to. Then the strands get boxed and shoved somewhere, and something in there stops working before you see it again.
The version worth paying for
On a properly structured holiday lighting service, January is already covered. At the end of the season the crew comes back and removes the display. Everything gets catalogued and stored off site, instead of living in your attic. You never handle any of it.
Why storage is not a small detail
Three
https://jsbin.com/hijeqevapu things happen when the lights do not live at your house. Your attic stays empty, which is worth something in most houses. Condition holds, which is why so many strands die between seasons. And because they are labeled by where they go on your house, reinstall is faster and lands the same way it did last year.
The permanent alternative removes the question
There is a version of this where January stops being a thing at all. Permanent lighting has no January. It is a bigger first step, and it is not right for everybody. But if the takedown conversation is the part you dread, it is a fair question to raise.
The other question worth asking
A display runs for a month or more, and things mounted outside in December occasionally stop working. The question is what happens then. Service during the season is either included or it is not, and the quote should say which. Ask while you are still comparing companies, not on the twenty second of December.
Year two is much shorter
Year one is the effort. Once a display is designed and stored, repeating it is administrative. Booking the second year is a short conversation. Changes build on the existing plan, instead of a blank page.
What to settle in writing
Get it in writing: does this quote cover removal. Ask who keeps them until next year. Ask how the takedown gets scheduled. EverCrest Lighting handles takedown and off season storage on holiday lighting, and installs permanent LED systems for anyone finished with the yearly cycle, for residential and commercial properties across Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, based in Greenville. Consultations are free. Reach them at (864) 252-1732 or
[email protected].