Ten towns, roof by roof
Christmas Light Installation Service Areas Across Metro Detroit
5.0 from 792 Google reviews
Christmas light installation in Northville and nine nearby towns. Glass Guru provides the lights, hangs them on your roofline in the fall and comes back for them in January. Book early in the season, since the weather sets the calendar.
Owner-operated in Northville since 2014
- Towns with their own page
- 10
- When the lights come down
- January
- Where we are based
- Northville
Priced by the roofline
Why one house takes longer than the next
Two things set how long a house takes to light: how high the roofline goes, and how many times it breaks. A long eave at one height is quick to plan. A roof that turns corners, steps down over a porch and climbs again over a dormer means a new start, a new finish and a new ladder spot for every piece.
The older streets have the busiest roofs. In the City of Plymouth, 30 percent of homes predate 1940, and in Birmingham and downtown Northville the prewar share is high too. Those roofs are short runs and careful setups. In Plymouth the township is newer and plainer, which is why one town can hold both kinds of job.
The subdivisions trade pieces for height. Novi, Canton and Commerce Townshipbuilt heavily from 1990 on, and the standard house puts the tallest gable right over a two-story entry. It's one clean line, and it's well out of reach from a household ladder.
Then there are the outliers. Livonia is ranch country, one story and one long eave. Farmington Hills has quad-levels whose roofs step through several heights. West Bloomfield and Bloomfield Hills have big houses with several gables, and on the lakes a second front facing the water.
Find your town in the table for what its roofs need.
| Town | What the roofs are like |
|---|---|
| Northville | Prewar gables near Main and Center, and tall front peaks across the township. |
| Novi | Stacked front gables on newer builds, and lake-facing backs at Island Lake. |
| Plymouth | Porches and dormers near Kellogg Park, plain 1970s eaves in the township. |
| Canton | Two building booms, both with a second story and a peak over the entry. |
| Livonia | One-story ranches with a single long eave from end to end. |
| Commerce Township | Walkout lots on the lakes, so the water side stands a story taller. |
| West Bloomfield | Several gables per house, and rooflines facing Cass Lake and Upper Straits. |
| Farmington Hills | Quad-levels whose roof sections step through three or four heights. |
| Bloomfield Hills | Big houses on deep lots, where only some rooflines show from the road. |
| Birmingham | Prewar houses and post-2000 two-stories on the same blocks. |
The same season in every town
Booked in the fall, down in January
The service is the same everywhere we go: our lights, our ladder work, and a January takedown. Which rooflines and which color is up to you.
The weather sets the calendar. Detroit Metro, the long-record station closest to all ten towns, averages its first fall freeze after mid-October, and its December normal is a 25.3 degree low with 8.9 inches of snow, by NOAA's figures. Frost and freezing rain turn a roof into a hazard, so the installs go up in the fall, on dry shingles, and the fall is when to book.
January is the second half of the season and the one people forget to plan for. Detroit Metro's January normals are the coldest of the year, a 19.2-degree average low with 14 inches of snow, and that's when the lights come down. That's included, so nobody in the house is on a ladder for it.
Gutters still packed with leaves when the install date comes? Clear them first: our gutter cleaning can go on the calendar ahead of the install. Photos of houses we've lit, and the full detail on the service, are on the Christmas light installation page.
Pick your town
Grouped by the roofline
Older streets near downtown
Steep gables, porches and dormers
Houses from before 1940 with roofs broken into short pieces. Every porch roof and dormer means the run stops and starts again, so these take longer than their size suggests.
1990s and 2000s subdivisions
Two-story fronts with a tall peak
One clean roofline, high up. The gable over the entry is what the street sees first, and a household ladder won't get there.
Postwar ranches
One long eave at one height
Low enough to reach and long enough to show every sag. A straight run from corner to corner takes a ladder move every few feet.
Lakes, estates and quad-levels
Big roofs at several heights
Main roof, garage roof, a gable or three, plus, on lakefront lots, a rear elevation facing the water. Each section is its own run with its own ladder setup.
Our own photos
Houses we've lit
Every photo on this site is a Glass Guru job. None of it is stock.
Every gable, dormer and eave 
Red and white, porch and all 
Multicolor on the gables 
Warm white along every eave 
A tree wrapped branch by branch 
A blue spruce and net-lit hedges
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Let's get them up this year
Book Christmas lights in October, and earlier is better.
Free quote
Tell us about the house
Send your address and tell us what you'd like lit.
Rather talk it through? Call (906) 203-6538
How your quote is worked out
Christmas light installation is quoted per property.
How long it takes
Christmas light installation runs across the season. Installations run from late October into early December, and takedown runs through January after the holidays.
In their words
What our clients say
Word for word from our Google profile.
More Christmas lights reviews“The guys from Glass Guru did a great job putting up Christmas lights on our house!”
The guys from Glass Guru did a great job putting up Christmas lights on our house! I highly recommend Glass Guru for window cleaning and Christmas lights!
Review 1 of 3
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Book this year's lights
Tell us where the house is and which rooflines matter to you. A quote follows.