Planning permanent lights on a new construction home

Lights go on last, after trim and gutters

On a new construction home, permanent lights are the last thing on the exterior, installed after the fascia, drip edge, gutters and trim are all final. The planning is what belongs early. A few small decisions made while the builder is still framing make the install simpler later.

The reason for the order is simple. The aluminum channel attaches to the fascia or sits beneath the drip edge, and each fastener is picked to suit whatever that surface is made of. Until the wrap is on and the gutters are hung, there is no finished surface to fasten to and no final line to measure. Anything mounted early is in the trim crew's way, and anything in their way tends to come back down.

The punch list matters too. If your walkthrough turns up a dented fascia wrap, a loose drip edge or a gutter that holds water, get the builder to fix it before the lights go on. Repairing trim behind a lit channel is slower for everyone than repairing it first.

Tell the builder what trim and fascia material you are getting

Fascia on a new Michigan house is often something other than plain painted wood. It might be a wood board wrapped in bent aluminum coil, vinyl fascia over a sub-fascia, or a PVC or composite trim board. Each takes a fastener differently, and we choose the fastener for the substrate. So the most useful thing you can hand us is a plain answer to one question: what is the fascia made of, and what is behind it?

Your selections sheet or the builder's exterior spec usually says. If it does not, ask your builder rep to put these in writing:

• Fascia: the material, and whether there is a solid board behind any wrap.
• Drip edge: metal or not, and its color.
• Gutters: the style and color, and whether guards are going on now or later.
• Trim color names: fascia, soffit and gutters, which are sometimes three different colors.

While you have the builder's attention, mention that you plan permanent lighting on the fascia and ask whether their workmanship warranty on exterior trim says anything about attachments. That is the builder's document and the builder's answer, so get it in writing before closing rather than guessing afterward. For why the channel belongs on the fascia and not on the gutter itself, see permanent lights on fascia, not gutters.

Outlet and circuit questions go to the builder's electrician

The lights run on low-voltage power from a power supply, with a small controller beside it, and that power supply plugs in somewhere. Where that receptacle goes, what it is wired to and what the local requirements are for it are questions for the electrician wiring your house, not for us and not for a blog post. They know the plan and the panel, and a new build is the easiest moment to ask, before the drywall and siding close everything in.

What you can bring to that conversation is how the lights behave, so the electrician can answer the right question:

• The lights run on schedules set from your phone, so the power supply and controller want power that stays on. A receptacle tied to an interior switch that someone flips off will stop the schedule.
• The power supply and controller want a dry, reachable spot near where the roofline runs begin, which on many new colonials means somewhere around the garage, and the exact spot is settled on site.
• Ask whether that receptacle would share a circuit with anything else outside, and let the electrician decide what is appropriate.

Write down what the electrician tells you and put it in your estimate notes. For how the controller and the runs draw power once they are mounted, read how permanent lights get power.

Measuring from the elevation drawing

You do not have to wait for a finished house to know roughly what the lights will cost. The builder's plan set includes elevation drawings, straight-on views of each side of the house, and they are drawn to scale. The scale is usually printed in the title block, often in the lower right corner of the sheet, as something like 1/4 inch equals 1 foot or 1/8 inch equals 1 foot.

1. Get the front elevation, plus any side you want lit. A PDF from the builder is fine.
2. Print it at actual size. A print set to fit the page shrinks the drawing and quietly breaks the scale.
3. Find the scale in the title block. At 1/8 inch to the foot, every inch on paper is 8 feet on the house. At 1/4 inch, every inch is 4 feet.
4. Measure each eave line and each gable rake you want lit, convert, and add them up. Count the peaks as you go, since peaks move a price within the band.
5. If all you have is a sales brochure rendering with no scale, use the garage door as the ruler. A double door is 16 feet wide and a single is 9 feet, so measure the door on the page and scale everything else from it.

Two cautions. A gable that faces the street shows its rake at true length on the front elevation, but hip lines and returns that angle away from you draw short, so treat those as a floor. And the drawing cannot show which lines the trees or the neighbor's garage will hide, which is part of deciding which lines are worth lighting at all. For peak-by-peak technique, see measuring gables and peaks.

Then put a number on it. New smaller two-stories in Macomb Township run 100 to 150 feet of front roofline. At 100 feet, permanent lighting is $2,200–$3,400 installed once. At 150 feet it is $3,300–$5,100. A 60 foot ranch front is $1,300–$2,000. The larger new builds on acreage in Washington Township, colonials built around side-entry or three-car garages, measure 150 to 250 feet of main elevation. At 200 feet that is $4,400–$6,800. That is a real line for the closing budget, and it beats finding out in October.

Once the siding and the garage door are on, stand across the street, take one square-on shot of the front, and give that shot to the LightCast measuring tool. Your new garage door becomes the ruler, and the number now comes from the finished house instead of the drawing, and we confirm the final figure on site before ordering anything.

Builder trim colors and color matching

The channel is color-matched to the trim, which is why it reads as part of the eave in daylight instead of as hardware. On an existing house we match what is there. On a new build you know the trim color before the trim exists, which makes it easy to get right the first time.

Copy the exact color names off the selections sheet, not a description. White, bright white and a builder's standard white are not always the same color on a coil of aluminum. Then tell us which surface the channel will sit against. If the fascia is almond and the gutters are white, the match is to whatever surface the channel is mounted on, and it helps to know both.

If you have not picked colors yet, the lighting does not need to change your choice. Pick the trim you like for the house. Brick fronts and tan or gray siding both hide a matched channel well in the shadow of the eave.

Your first autumn in the house

The install happens in an autumn visit. Dates are booked in the order calls come in, so the earlier you call, the more choice you have. When you close decides how that plays out.

• Close in spring or summer. Measure from the drawing now, photo the finished house after move-in, and request an estimate before the autumn rush so you have your choice of dates.
• Close in autumn. Request an estimate as soon as the gutters are hung and the punch list is done. Whether the install lands this autumn depends on where the calendar stands when you call.
• Close after the window. If you want lights the first December anyway, a seasonal C9 lease covers it. We hang it in November with clips that leave new shingles and gutters alone, fix outages during the season and take it all down in January. Plan permanent for the next autumn.

Be honest with yourself about that lease year. On a 100 foot front, a lease runs $1,800–$3,200 for the season, close to the $2,200–$3,400 that permanent costs once. If you are sure you want permanent, one dark December is the cheaper path.

Two more first-year items. Many new subdivisions come with an association and architectural guidelines, sometimes still run by the developer, so read yours before booking and see getting HOA approval for permanent lights. And if the landscaper is planting beds along the front that autumn, say so in your estimate notes so ladders land on lawn, not in fresh mulch.

If you have the elevation drawing on your desk, you can have a budget range tonight. If the house is already standing in Shelby Township or anywhere nearby, use the photo instead. When you request your estimate, put the fascia material, the trim color names and what the electrician told you in the notes, and the on-site visit becomes a confirmation rather than a discovery.

Where this applies

Typical roofline lengths and priced examples for these communities are on their own pages.

• Macomb Township
• Washington Township
• Shelby Township
• Orion Township

Sources

1. Using Engineer and Architect Scales, U.S. Fire Administration (FEMA) usfa.fema.gov