Holiday Decor

[LLSolutions]

Has anyone ventured into this territory this year. I had a few slow weeks so I did 8 houses this year and made anywhere from 500 to 1200 on a house. A few extras too, got some Gfci's out of it couple of timers and 2 services for the spring, hopefully a whole house generator. I know the irrigation companies are the ones that do it the most. I have seen their prices and I see no reason a small to medium size contractor can't make a few bucks. If I do more next year i'll have to adjust my insurance . Any one else play on the roof this year, and what kind of luck?

 

[duplexoutlet]

ALASKA??????them people up there, my goodness?..X-mass lights like wild animals, crazy amounts of money they spent. AND still spend.

One O? the guys that worked for me did that on the side?..made money like on service work?..bla dealing with the home owner??. He got call?s ?bout ?I got one light out? you gotta come here right now??then everybody want?s the light?s down at the sometime?..heck they want ?em up at the same time too?.I?d rather deal with national company that charge BIG bucks for a little work and make ton?s of cash?

 

[LLSolutions]

I just started doing it the last two seasons, I'm going to get my advertising ready over the summer, I want to get some shopping centers around me. Like you said half the work twice the price.

 

[joebell]

I once worked for a contractor who's brother-in-law happened to be a landscape contractor and from the second week in Nov. to just about this time we did alot of residential lighting. One customer had a 45' evergreen that we had to rent a bucket truck for and she only wanted the mimiture lights on it.that took days>


Joe

 

[charlietuna]

Years ago an office building called us in downtown Miami for Christmas lighting at their building--well, this building's manager was also the chairman of the Brickle Avenue Building Owners Association. As we completed the front of his building with our own design--and we went first class!!! Their association had a meeting and wanted to decorate the median strip--- and asked us to do it---I never gave it much thought that this was not just any "STREET" -- it was US-1 !!! All the other building owners along Brickle called us for the same lighting as soon as they saw our first building...... Brickle Avenue is fifteen blocks long !!! And had many trees---big trees--tall palm trees--big round 100 year old oak trees! All of a sudden we blasted with high demands as one building tried to outdo the other!!! At first buying twinkle lights was not a problem because it was the middle of November and we were buying them through Graybar by the pallats---Quickly we started having problems buying them locally--and we were having them shipped in from other states and paying the extra freight. I was meeting with this Association and this turned into a big deal !!! The mayor was invited to turn them on--it was on TV----- We had subcontracted out work to tree trimmers --they would trim a tree and then install twinkle lights--our men were running overhead feeds from different buildings--YES -- over a federal highway!!! Then it struck me-- I NEVER GOT A PERMIT--!!! I went down and set a meeting with the chief--he scratched his head--"well you need some kind of a permit" he said--"take out a circus permit" he told me ! he was cool with it---the permit cost me $125.00 ! But then the road department saw us working in the median with bucket trucks etc !! Oh boy--big trouble!!! I thought i was gonna loose my license! The guy who got us into this heard about the problem--the Chairman Of The Building Association. I was having a meeting with 8 big-wigs from the State Road Department and they were reading me the riot act--- they were telling me how many hours they were gonna give me to get everything off their median and trees!! The Chairman told me " I didn't want to do this, but I'm gonna make a call " ??? About fifteen minutes went by and everyone of the DOT guy's beepers were singing! They had a quick two minute meeting in the middle of the sidewalk--then came over to me and shook my hand and said everything was fine!? Some of the median was feed from buildings and some were fed from generators every night for two months. We bought over $90,000. in clear twinkle lights. At the end we removed all the feeds and panels. The light stringers were left there and re-used the following year. We did make good money and it got us plenty of work in these buildings. But it was hecktic to say the least.......... I never asked that guy who he called??? Maybe the governor? Matter of fact i still have a few cases of zip type extention cords in my warehouse from that job !!!

 

[wireguru]

/long thing about christmas lights/

that is an awesome story!!

 

[boboelectric]

That's my kind of phone call!

 

[charlietuna]

This job was totally new to us--it was like a snowball rolling down a hill! Like getting sick on a particular type of food or drink "I AM STILL ALLERGIC TO TWINKLE LIGHTS" ! I can remember we were in a panic to finish the date the mayor was due to "THROW THE SWITCH" and we had two large oak trees to do to complete the 15 block long job-- we had three pallets of stringers arrive late from G.E. . My plan was to have the stringers ready for the bucket trucks to cover the trees which required each stringer to be removed from their box and pulled off that plastic gizmo that hold each AND EVERY lamp! Then roll the stringer up into a ball --very important-- with the end result having the female end on the outside of the "ball" so it can be installed onto the tree. Well, I picked the three pallets up and took them home to get strated--my crews were worn out ! Me and the wife drew the interest of the neighbors and soon we had about twelve helpers--some stripping the stringers from the boxes--others rolling them into balls!!! Of course, this called for some celebration and a few alcoholic beverages for all ! We finished about 1:00AM .. As we finished each stringer into a ball, we just threw it in the back of the truck--strange looking vehicle mounded with thousands of green balls!! The alcohol was not a good idea-- many of the balls were warped in reverse with the male end exposed-- and as we got to the earlier complete rolls the problem went away of course ! I HATE TWINKLE LIGHTS ! The job drew a lot of interest and of course traffic just crawled while they were "ON" !