How to Choose a Christmas Light Installer: 9 Questions and 6 Red Flags

Holiday lighting draws seasonal operators. Some are excellent. Some are a ladder, a truck, and no insurance, and they are hard to tell apart from a website. These are the questions that sort them out.

The nine questions

1. 1Are you licensed and insured, and can I see the certificate? A real company sends it without hesitating. Someone working on your roof without coverage becomes your liability.
2. 2How long have you been in business locally? Ask about the company, not the holiday division. Ours is a seasonal service of Captain Clean Pro Wash, established 1985.
3. 3Do you provide the lights, or am I buying them? Both models exist. What matters is that you know which one you are signing, and who replaces a failed bulb.
4. 4What happens when a light goes out in December? Get a time commitment in writing. Ours is 48 hours, all season, included.
5. 5Is takedown included, and when does it happen? Removal should be in the same agreement at the same price, with a stated window.
6. 6Do you store the lights? If you are storing them, that is your closet and your problem next October.
7. 7How do you attach to my roof? The answer should involve clips designed for shingles and gutters. Staples and nails into fascia are damage waiting to happen.
8. 8Can I see photos of installs you did in my town? Local night photos of real homes, not stock images or renderings.
9. 9What are the payment terms? A reasonable deposit is normal. Full payment in cash up front is not.

Six red flags

• No proof of insurance on request, or a promise to send it later.
• A verbal quote only. No measurements, no written scope, nothing to hold anyone to.
• Cash-only, full amount up front.
• No local footprint. No address, no local phone, no photos of houses in the area.
• Pressure to book today at a price that expires in an hour.
• No answer on service calls. If nobody will commit to a fix window, expect to be dark by mid-December.

Reviews: what to read past the star rating

Sort to the most recent reviews and read the ones from December and January, not July. In-season reviews tell you whether the company actually came back when something failed. A four-star company that answers service calls beats a five-star company that disappears after install day.

Book earlier than you think

Install slots fill in the order they are booked, and roughly eighty percent of the searching happens in November, when the good crews are already full. Booking in September or early October gets you first pick of install dates. We take ten percent off for anyone booked by October 15.