The roof edge is the line your eye already follows
Look at any house after dark and the shape you recognize is the roofline. It is the one line that runs the whole width of the house, and it has open sky behind it, which is why light on it reads from a distance. Put light on it and the house has an edge again, which is most of what people mean when they say a house looks good lit.That is the reason the roofline gets the hardware, and why one line up there outperforms a dozen fixtures at ground level. It is the highest impact run on the building, for what it costs to install.
What roofline lighting actually consists of
Roofline lighting is an aluminum channel matched to your trim with LEDs set into it, fastened along the roof edge and left there. 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.
Which lines get lit
Every plan starts with the primary roof edge, and works outward. 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.Look along a completed run from one end, because a line that stays true over that distance is the mark of a careful install.
The noon test
A roofline system is visible twelve months a year whether it is on or not. That is why the channel gets matched to your trim rather than sold in one color. Tight to the line, matched to trim, wire tucked: that is a clean install.
One line, several jobs
Once the run is in, the rest is what you set it to. Plain white most nights, color when there is a reason, on a timer so nobody has to remember. The setting that gets the most hours
https://hectorfqqc690.zenbloomer.com/posts/lighting-under-the-eaves-why-that-spot-on-the-house-why-permanent-lights-mount-at-the-eave-the-practical-reasons-the-roof-edge-explained-which-part-is-which is the warm white, which surprises people who bought it for the holidays.
What drives the size of the job
Rooflines do not scale with house size. Linear feet is the obvious factor, but it is not the main one. 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. Two stories changes the job.
Does it attach to the gutter?
The gutter comes up in almost every consultation. The channel fastens to the roof edge itself, rather than to gutter that flexes and fills. Fastening to the roof edge is why the run stays true.
The next step
No two rooflines are the same, so the design comes from a look at the actual house. EverCrest Lighting designs and installs roofline lighting for residential and commercial properties across Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, working out of Greenville. Consultations are free. Call (864) 252-1732 or email
[email protected] to have somebody look at your roofline.