Christmas Light Material

Christmas light material for C9 roofline installs

Every C9 install, from a single house to a commercial building, comes down to the same short material list: socket wire, LED C9 bulbs, clips, plugs, and sometimes stakes and timers. Christmas Light Material sells each of those lines by the pack and by the case, with the per-unit price shown, so a list built from measurements converts straight into quantities and cost.

The lines on a C9 material list

Socket wire

Measured in feet, ordered by the spool. 1,000 ft. C9 socket spools come in 12 in. and 24 in. spacing, plus a spool in 12 in. and 15 in. options on SPT-2 wire. Runs are cut to length on site, so one spool covers several edges.

Bulbs

One LED C9 bulb per socket, on an E17 intermediate base. Socket count is the run length in inches divided by the spacing. LED C9 bulbs are sold in 25-packs and 500-bulb cases.

Clips

One clip per socket, plus about 5% for breakage and corners. The clip type depends on the surface each edge is mounted to, which is why a good takeoff records the surface along with the length. All-in-one clips cover shingles and gutters, O-clips grip the wire on gutter lips, shingle tabs slide under shingle edges, ridge clips sit on peaks, and magnet clips hold to metal.

Plugs

One male plug and one female plug per cut run. Count runs, not feet. A roofline cut into six runs needs six of each regardless of total length.

Stakes and timers

8 in. light stakes hold C9 bulbs along walkways and bed edges at one stake per socket. A photocell timer controls each circuit.

Measuring for material

Material lists go wrong in the same few places: sloped gable edges measured as if they were flat, corners where a run turns and needs extra clips, and the lead from the start of each run back to the outlet. Measuring one elevation at a time and writing the surface next to each length avoids most of them. The guide below walks through the method with a worked example.

Kits or loose material

For a measured house, a C9 installation kit at or just above the total footage packs the wire, bulbs, plugs and clips into one line. Kits come in 250, 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 4,000 ft. at 12 in. and 15 in. spacing. Loose material makes more sense when the job mixes surfaces and needs several clip types, or when crews cut runs from spools across several jobs. The pricing table on this page shows a 1,000 ft. run built from loose material next to the matching kit.

Ordering

Shipping is free on all orders within the US, with free shipping on $500+ and no added fees, and every order ships the same day. Unused material in its original packaging can be returned within 30 days of delivery, so rounding a line up to the next case is low-risk.

A material takeoff, one elevation at a time

A takeoff turns a building into a material list. Doing it one elevation at a time (front, left, right, rear) keeps edges from being missed or counted twice, and it produces a list that the crew can install from in the same order. This method works from the ground with a tape or a measuring wheel and a sketch of each side.

1. Sketch each elevation and label the edges

Draw each side of the building as it's seen from the street or yard. Mark every edge that will carry lights and label it by type:

• Eave: the horizontal roof edge, usually with a gutter.
• Rake: the sloped edge of a gable.
• Ridge: the peak line along the top of the roof.
• Hip: a sloped edge where two roof planes meet at an outside corner.
• Vertical: corners, columns and posts.
• Ground: walkways and bed edges that will take stakes.

2. Measure horizontals directly, calculate the slopes

Eaves, walkways and vertical corners can be measured directly. Rakes and hips are easier to calculate. For a rake, measure the horizontal width of the gable, halve it, and multiply by the pitch factor:

• 4/12 pitch: 1.05
• 6/12 pitch: 1.12
• 8/12 pitch: 1.20
• 10/12 pitch: 1.30
• 12/12 pitch: 1.41

A 28 ft. wide gable on an 8/12 roof has two rakes of 14 × 1.20, or about 17 ft. each. Pitch can be read from the ground with a level and tape, or taken from the building plans when they exist.

3. Record the surface with each length

The surface decides the clip, so write it next to every length: gutter, shingle edge, ridge cap, tile, metal fascia or ground. On one elevation a single roofline can run along a gutter, turn up a shingled rake and finish on a metal porch roof, which is three clip types on one run.

4. Mark the runs and the power

Decide where each run starts and where it gets power. A run usually ends at a corner, a change in surface or a break in the roofline. Each run is one male plug and one female plug. Add the distance from the start of each run to its outlet, since that lead is also wire.

Turning lengths into quantities

With every elevation measured, total the lengths and convert:

• Sockets and bulbs: total inches ÷ spacing. At 12 in. that's one per foot; at 15 in., about 0.8 per foot. LED C9 bulbs ($0.638 per bulb by the case).
• Clips: one per socket, totaled by surface type, plus about 5%. O-clips for gutter lips ($0.228 per clip by the case), shingle tabs for shingle edges ($0.219 per tab by the case), ridge clips for peaks, magnet clips for metal.
• Socket wire: total feet of lit edge plus the leads to each outlet, rounded up to the spool.
• Plugs: one male and one female per run, plus a few spares. Male plugs ($0.699 per plug by the case).
• Stakes: one per socket on ground runs.
• Timers: one photocell timer per circuit.

A worked example

Front elevation of a single-story house: a 46 ft. gutter eave, a 28 ft. gable over the entry on an 8/12 pitch, and a 20 ft. walkway. The rakes come to about 34 ft. together. At 12 in. spacing that's 80 ft. of roofline (80 sockets, 80 bulbs, about 84 clips split between O-clips on the eave and shingle tabs on the rakes) and 20 stakes with 20 bulbs on the walk. Three runs (eave, rakes, walkway) mean three male and three female plugs. Repeat for each elevation and add the totals.

If the lit roofline across all elevations comes in under 250 ft. and uses one clip type, the 250 ft. kit at 12 in. spacing ($435) covers it as a single line. Mixed surfaces usually point to loose material instead.

Keep the takeoff

Save the sketches with the lengths, surfaces and run breaks. Next season the same sheet becomes the install plan, and only the changed edges need measuring.