Getting a permanent Christmas lights estimate or quote online
You can have a real price range for permanent lights before anyone comes to the house. Here is what the online path asks of you, what it hands back and what happens next.
The short answer
A permanent Christmas lights estimate can start online, from one photo, without booking a visit first. Stand across the street, take a straight-on picture of the front of the house, then load it into the LightCast roofline measurer. In one pass it picks out the eave and gable lines, works out their length in feet, and marks each peak and valley. Then it prices permanent lighting and a seasonal C9 lease with identical math.
A second story, dormers and extra peaks move a house up within the $22–34 band, which is why you get a range and not a single figure.
The online path puts the number first. You see it, then decide whether to talk to anyone. To measure by hand before you trust a photo, see the hand-measuring guide.
What the tool needs from you
Very little. There is no account, no address field and no phone number between you and a price. The tool asks for a photo and one known size, then a quick check of its work.
- A photo of the front of the house. Square to the house, shot from across the street on a bright day, with every eave and gable inside the frame. A phone camera is all it takes.
- A reference you can tap. Something on the house whose real width is standard. A double garage door is 16 feet and a single is 9 feet, which is why a garage door is the best choice. If the garage faces the side, use the front door or an ordinary window, which the tool reads as 3 feet.
- A quick look at the trace. The tool draws the roofline it found. If it followed your eaves and gables, keep it. If a branch or a porch roof threw it off, switch to manual mode and tap the line yourself.
The photo matters more than anything else in that list. A shot taken at an angle shortens one side of the house, and a big maple in front of the eaves hides the line the tool is looking for. Our guide to taking the best photo for a roofline measurement covers where to stand and how to handle trees, hills and corner lots.
Not ready to photograph your own house yet? Press Try a sample house. It runs the full measurement on a demo home, so you can watch the roofline get traced, the peaks get counted and the prices appear before you step outside.
What it gives back
When the measurement finishes, you get footage, a peak and valley count, and two price ranges, and each one maps to something a crew will actually do on the house.
- Linear feet of roofline. The length of every edge that would carry lights, eaves and sloped gable rakes together.
- Peaks and valleys. Each peak is a high point where two slopes meet at the top. Each valley is a low point between two rooflines, like the dip where a front gable joins the main roof. Both add work, which is why they are counted separately from footage.
- A permanent range. The footage priced at $22–34 per lit foot, paid once.
- A seasonal range. The same footage priced as a C9 lease: $18–32 a foot for each season, never less than $595.
Here is what those ranges look like at footages common on the front of homes around Macomb and Oakland County. Smaller two-stories in Sterling Heights tend to run 100–150 feet. Two-story colonials in Troy usually carry 120–180 feet across the front.
| Front roofline | Permanent, installed once | Seasonal C9 lease, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 100 ft | $2,200–$3,400 | $1,800–$3,200 |
| 120 ft | $2,600–$4,100 | $2,200–$3,800 |
| 150 ft | $3,300–$5,100 | $2,700–$4,800 |
| 180 ft | $4,000–$6,100 | $3,200–$5,800 |
Why a range and not one figure? Two houses with identical footage can be very different jobs. A plain ranch eave is one long straight run. A colonial with a front gable, a garage gable and a dormer is a string of short pieces, angled cuts and ladder moves at second-story height. The peak count is the tool telling you which end of the band your house leans toward.
Showing both prices side by side is deliberate. If you might sell in a year, or you only want the classic look in December, leasing may suit the house better, and we say that out loud.
Your photo is never uploaded
This is the part people double-check, so here it is plainly. When you pick a photo, your browser opens it and does all the measuring inside the page. The browser processes it right there and never uploads it: no copy of the picture is sent to us or stored anywhere else.
That matters for more than tidiness. A phone photo can carry more than the image. When location is switched on for the camera, the file can hold the coordinates of where it was taken, and Apple's personal safety guide notes that people you share such a photo with may be able to see where it was taken. A picture of your front door, from your street, is exactly the kind of image you might not want sitting in a stranger's inbox.
The picture itself never gets uploaded. Like most websites, the page does count anonymous usage numbers, such as the footage and price range it produced, so we can see how the tool gets used; the image is never part of them. What you can choose to send is the result, with your name on it. If you tap to have your number sent to you, the message holds your footage and price range. If you go on to request an estimate, the footage, peak count and ranges ride along with the form. In both cases the photo itself is never part of what is sent.
From range to estimate
The range from your photo is honest, but it is built from the one side of the house you photographed. A few things only show up in person, and they are what turn a range into an estimate you can sign.
- Footage you did not photograph. Side returns, a garage that wraps the corner, or a back gable you want lit.
- What the trim is made of. Fasteners are chosen for the substrate, so the crew checks whether your fascia is aluminum-wrapped, painted wood or composite.
- Where the line should stop. Some owners light every edge. Others outline just the front and leave the sides dark. That choice changes the footage.
So the order is fixed. You request the estimate with your number attached, we confirm the details within 24 hours, and someone measures the roofline in person before we order materials. If the in-person figure differs from your photo, you hear it then, not after the channel has been cut. If you want to understand what that visit is checking on install day, how permanent lights are installed walks through it.
A good estimate from any company should hold up to the same scrutiny. Our list of questions to ask a permanent lighting installer is a fair test to put to us as well.
From request to install day
Once your number is in hand, the rest of the path is short and happens in this order:
- Request your estimate. The form on the estimate page asks where the house is, how to reach you and whether you want permanent lighting or a seasonal lease. If you come from the tool, your LightCast number fills itself in.
- Hear back within 24 hours. We confirm the details and answer anything the form did not cover.
- Confirm the footage on site. The roofline, the peaks and the trim are checked at the house, and the final number is set before anything is ordered.
- Get the insurance certificates. Certificates for our $2M general liability and workers' compensation coverage arrive before any work begins.
- Pick your install date. The install itself is a single visit in autumn, and dates are handed out in the order requests come in.
That last step is where timing matters. Requests are booked as they arrive, so the people who ask early get first choice of date. Asking in September leaves more of the calendar open to you than asking once the leaves are down.
If you have decided on a seasonal lease instead, the same request starts it. The display is designed, custom-cut to your roofline and hung in November, and how a Christmas light lease works covers the season from there.
Your price is one photo away. Walk to the curb, take the picture, load it into LightCast and mark the two edges of your garage door. If the range fits your plans, send it with an estimate request and you will hear from us within 24 hours, while there are still autumn dates to choose from.
Questions about this
What if there is no garage door in my photo?
Tap a front door or a standard window instead, both set at 3 feet. A garage door is the steadiest reference because it is wide, but a straight-on photo matters more, so tap the front door rather than shooting at an angle to catch a side-facing garage.
My city does not have its own page. Can I still get an estimate?
Yes. The tool works on any house, and the estimate form has a choice for anywhere else in Macomb, Oakland or the Grosse Pointes. Macomb Power Washing Solutions serves 71 communities across the two counties, plus the Pointes.
I only want a price for a seasonal display. Is the tool still useful?
Yes. The same measurement prices a C9 lease beside the permanent figure, per season at $18–32 a foot, with $595 as the floor. Choose the seasonal option on the estimate form and your footage goes with it.
Where this applies
Typical roofline lengths and priced examples for these communities are on their own pages.