Start at the top edge
From the street, a house is mostly a silhouette, and the roof draws it. Nothing else on the house gives you that much unbroken length, and nothing else has the sky behind it. Light that line and the whole house resolves.Which is why the roof edge is where permanent lighting goes rather than anywhere else on the building. It is the most efficient piece of exterior lighting a house can have, measured by what it changes for what it takes.
What roofline lighting actually consists of
Roofline lighting is an aluminum channel matched to your trim holding individual LEDs, mounted along the edge and left in place year round. The channel does two jobs at once: it aims the light and it conceals the hardware. Because it matches the trim, you generally have to be told where it is.
Where the run stops
The main roofline is the anchor, and then the design picks up whatever else earns it. After the main line come the gables, the dormers and the porch, added only where it adds something. Lighting every edge on a house removes the depth you were trying to create.The run itself repays a close look once a crew is done, since holding a true line across a long elevation is not simple.
The noon test
A roofline system is on the house every day, lit or unlit. That is why the color match matters more than it sounds. Tight to the line, color matched, wiring concealed: that is the whole standard.
One line, a lot of uses
After install the system runs from your phone. Plain white most nights, color when there is a reason, and a schedule that runs it without you. The setting that gets the most hours is almost always the plain one, which is not what most buyers expect going in.
What makes one roofline cost more than another
Rooflines do not scale with house size. Length matters less than complexity. Complexity is what drives it: a simple gable runs fast, and a roof with six changes of direction, three dormers and a turret does not. Height is the other one, since upper runs need different access.
Does it attach to the gutter?
Homeowners assume the lights clip to the gutter, because that is how seasonal strands work. The channel fastens to the roof edge itself, not to a hanging
https://evercrestlighting.com/about/ piece of aluminum full of water half the year. That distinction matters because gutters move, sag and get replaced, and hardware attached to one goes wherever it goes.
Getting a plan for your own roofline
Because every roof edge is different, the design has to be drawn for your building. EverCrest Lighting designs and installs roofline lighting for homes and businesses across Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, based in Greenville. The consultation is free. Reach them at (864) 252-1732 or
[email protected] to get started.