Roofline lights on a split-level or bi-level house

Why split-levels are tricky

The short answer to lighting a split-level: treat every eave height as its own line, stop each line where its roof edge stops, and never try to carry one strand across the change in height. The house looks deliberate when each level reads as a clean, level stroke of light. It looks improvised when a single string climbs the siding to get from one roof to the other.

That is harder than it sounds, and split-levels are a common house on subdivision streets in Sterling Heights, Shelby Township and Rochester Hills. Unlike a colonial or ranch, a side-split puts two or three roofs at different heights across one front, often set at different depths from the street, so from the curb their edges overlap.

For a seasonal hang, that geometry causes three problems:

• Ladder setups multiply. Every level needs its own, and the easy way to reach the upper eave is to stand on the lower roof, which is exactly where you do not want to be on a frosty November morning.
• Store strands rarely fit. A boxed string is seldom the right length for either run, so the extra gets bunched at a corner or stretched across the gap.
• Power has to travel. A cord that feeds the upper run from a plug-in point below tends to end up running down a wall in plain sight.

The fix is not more effort on the ladder. It is planning the layout around the levels.

Two or three eave heights

Before you plan anything, figure out which kind of split you have. The name gets used loosely, and the three common layouts in Macomb and Oakland neighborhoods light differently.

The bi-level is the easy one. Its roofline behaves like a ranch: one continuous eave across the front at a single height, with rakes at each end if the roof is side-gabled. If yours has a shallow roof over the entry or a garage that projects forward below the main floor, that is a second, lower line to decide about. The ranch house guide applies directly.

The side-split is the house most people mean. The bedroom section sits higher, usually above a family room or the garage, and the living-room wing runs off to one side at a lower height, often with a front gable of its own. That gives you at least two eave heights across one elevation, and a third when the garage carries its own roof.

The back-split hides its step from the street and lights like a ranch from the front. The height change only matters if you light a side elevation too.

The step between levels

The step is the vertical gap where a lower roof ends against the wall of a taller section. It sits near the middle of the front, so it is where a lighting choice gets noticed.

There are two honest ways to handle it:

1. Two separate lines. The lower eave runs to the wall where its roof meets the taller section and stops there. The upper eave begins at its own corner and runs the width of its own roof. After dark you see two offset level strokes of light. This is the right answer on nearly every side-split.
2. Separate lines joined by a gable. On some houses the lower wing has a front-facing gable whose peak rises close to the upper eave. Lighting both of its rakes pulls the eye up from the low roof toward the high one, so the front reads as one connected outline even though the runs never touch.

What does not work is a visible bridge. A strand dropped down the siding corner, or looped across the gap so both levels share one circuit, draws a line where the house has no roof edge. On seasonal displays it usually happens because the plug is down low and the upper run needs power.

Permanent roofline lighting keeps the light itself on roof edges. The low-profile channel is fastened along fascia boards or tucked beneath drip edges, so it only goes where a roof edge exists to carry it, and each level becomes its own run. Because the runs are zoned, the upper and lower lines can share one color and schedule from your phone or be set apart. How the runs connect is planned in the design, not solved on a ladder in the cold.

Which lines to include

Start with the lines that define the shape from the curb. On a split-level, in rough order of importance:

1. The upper eave. It sits highest of all the level lines, and it is what neighbors pick out from down the block. Light it end to end.
2. The lower wing eave. The second level line. Run it from the outside corner to the wall at the step.
3. Any front-facing gable. Both rakes to the peak, never one. On a side-split it usually sits over the big window of the lower wing.
4. The garage roof. Include it when it has its own eave facing the street and carries the outline to the corner of the house. Skip it when the garage sits under the upper level with no roof edge of its own.
5. The side rakes of the upper section. Optional. They outline the tall part of the house as a shape, which suits a corner lot and can look top-heavy on an interior one; leaving them dark makes the house read lower and wider.

Some edges earn their footage less often. Short rake stubs that die into a lower roof, a little shed roof over the stoop, and edges visible only from a sharp angle each add feet and a run end without improving the street view. The roofline layout guide ranks lines on any style of house; the split-level twist is that the step already gives the front plenty of structure, so you rarely need to add more.

Footage and price

We do not publish a typical length for a split-level. The upper level spans only part of the width, the lower wing may or may not carry a gable, and two split-levels on one street in Rochester Hills or Farmington Hills can differ by a whole garage bay. Our city pages give footage for ranches, two-stories, colonials and lakefront homes, and a Troy two-story colonial is a good example of a type that does have one. A split-level gets measured on its own terms.

That measurement is simple once you think in runs. Write down the upper eave, the lower eave and both rakes of any gable as separate lines, leave out the wall at the step, and add them up. The tape method is in the guide to measuring a roofline, and the photo method is below.

The permanent rate runs $22–34 per lit foot, paid one time. Peaks, dormers, stories and trim complexity move a house within that band, and a split-level brings a little of each: two eave heights, extra run ends at the step, and often a gable on the lower wing. With your total in hand, the price table and five-year calculator set the permanent figure and the lease for that footage side by side.

If you only want lights in December, the seasonal lease suits a split-level well. We own the commercial-grade C9 lights, custom-cut a run to each level instead of forcing one strand across the step, hang it in November using clips instead of nails or staples, fix any outage while the season runs, and pull it all down in January for storage. See why that matters in the custom-cut C9 runs guide.

If you are staying in the house, set the permanent figure for your footage beside five seasons of the lease. That gap is the whole argument for fitting the channel once. If you expect to move soon, or you only want the December look, the lease is the better call and we will say so.

Measuring a staggered elevation from a photo

A split-level is a good test of any measuring method, because the roofline is not one line. Here is how to get a clean number out of the LightCast measuring tool:

1. Stand square to the whole house. Take the photo from the street, straight on to the front, with both levels in frame. If the upper section sits farther back than the lower wing, step back and zoom in rather than walking closer, so the depth difference skews the scale less.
2. Get the garage door in the shot. It is the best ruler on the house: a double door is 16 feet, a single is 9. With no garage door on the front, use the front door or a window at 3 feet, knowing a smaller reference is less precise.
3. Check what the detection found. The tool finds the roofline automatically, counts peaks and valleys, and converts pixels to linear feet. On a split-level, look hard at the step. If it joined the two levels with a vertical line, or missed a lower eave hidden behind shrubs, switch to manual mode.
4. Trace each level as its own string. In manual mode, tap along the upper eave, start a new string, then tap the lower eave and any gable. That mirrors how the runs are actually built, with the gap at the step left out of the footage.
5. Read both prices. The same footage prices the permanent install and the seasonal lease side by side.

The work is done in the browser; no copy of the photo is uploaded. Treat the result as a planning figure: we check the real footage at the house before ordering any material. If you would rather work from a tape measure, the roofline measuring guide covers that method.

A phone and your split-level are all a first number takes. Trace both levels in LightCast, then request an estimate with those figures. Expect our confirmation within 24 hours, and an on-site look at the step before any run gets cut.

Where this applies

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

• Rochester Hills
• Troy
• Farmington Hills