Professional installers charge $2.50 to $7 per linear foot of roofline when they supply the lights, and $1.50 to $3.50 per foot for labor only when the customer supplies them. A typical single-story house with 150 feet of roofline lands between $375 and $1,050, and the average full job in the US runs about $450.
Those ranges are wide because the right price depends on your costs, not on a national chart. The free pricing calculator takes your numbers, the drive, the materials, the hours, and gives you a floor: the price below which a job loses you money. No account needed.
The two ways to price a job
Labor only. The customer hands you their lights and you hang them for $1.50 to $3.50 per foot. Startup cost is a ladder and a box of clips. The catch: thin margin, and you spend unpaid time testing strands someone stored in a hot attic since January.
You supply the lights. This is how established companies price, at the top of that range, with commercial-grade C9 LEDs, takedown included, and the lights stay yours. The customer is renting a finished display, and you are building an asset. The strands you buy this season go up again next season on the same house, and by then your materials cost is close to zero.
If you can cover the upfront buy, supply the lights. The second-season math is the whole business. If you cannot cover it yet, start labor-only and check ways in for getting gear without the cash.
What does it cost to start?
Between $500 and $1,500 to be working. That buys a ladder that reaches a single-story gutter, shingle and gutter clips, a few spools of commercial socket cord and bulbs, plugs, timers and a wheel or laser to measure with. The low end assumes you already own the ladder.
Per job, the consumables are smaller than people expect: roughly $100 to $200 of commercial bulbs and wire the first season a given house is done, plus $10 to $20 of clips and zip ties, plus a timer if the customer has none.
What a real 150-foot job pays
Take a single-story house with 150 feet of straight roofline, at $6 per foot with your lights: $900, takedown included.
Season one, the socket cord, bulbs, clips and cords for that job run about $110 to $220. So the first year that house pays you roughly $680 to $790 before your time. Season two, the same lights come out of your garage, the install goes faster because you measured everything last year, and the same $900 is nearly all yours.
A first straightforward roofline takes three to four hours with two people. On your own, plan on longer. By the third house you are measuring less and second-guessing less, and the same roofline goes quicker. Price off the slow version, because the slow version is the one you will actually do.
What moves the per-foot number
- Second stories. Taller ladders, real fall risk, more time. Charge more, or better, stay on single-story houses your first season.
- Complicated rooflines. Peaks, dormers and valleys all slow the work down.
- Trees and bushes. Priced separately from the roofline: $75 to $200 to wrap a tree, $25 to $75 per bush.
- Takedown. Bundle it into your per-foot price. Sold separately it runs $100 to $400, and skipping it costs you the January visit that books next year.
- Your region. Rates run higher in big metros and lower in small towns. Quote from your own costs and drive time with the calculator instead of copying a number from a national article.
What should your minimum be?
Set one. Whole jobs price between roughly $220 and $700 nationally, and driving out for less than $250 rarely pays once you count the quote visit, the install, and the takedown trip in January. A small job costs you almost as much time as a medium one.
Is permanent lighting the same business?
No. Permanent track systems run $20 to $40 per foot installed, and they are a different trade: electrical work, different insurance, multi-year warranties. If a customer asks for permanent lights, refer it out and say why. Seasonal C9 installs are the beginner business.
When the money happens
The season is short, and that is the point. Quotes happen in September and October, installs run from late October through December, and takedowns fill January. Most of the year's revenue lands inside that window, so a price that would feel high in June is normal in November. An early-bird rate in September is fine if it fills your calendar. Do not discount November. That is when demand peaks and your time is the scarce thing.
Takedown in January is also your renewal call. You are already on the ladder. Ask whether they want the same display next year, write the answer down, and half of next season is sold before summer.
Set your own floor
Every number on this page is a market range. Your price is your costs plus your margin, and your costs are specific: your drive, your ladder, your strand count, your hours. Put them into the pricing calculator and it returns the floor for your first quote. Quote above it. If a customer pushes below it, walk. There will be another roofline.