Light Up Your House

Mark Sullivan, owner of Sully's Landscape Lighting, talks outdoor holiday lighting.

By Melissa Mauzy
Photography by Colin Miller/Strauss Peyton

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SLHL: Do you provide the lights for homeowners or can they use their own?
Mark: We do provide the lights, but if the customer would like to use their own then we will work with them on a time-and-material basis.

SLHL: When is the best time to call to set up an appointment for holiday lighting?
Mark: When thinking about holiday lighting, it best to call late September to mid-October to ensure your lights are up in time to enjoy them throughout the holiday season.

SLHL: What is the difference between the lights you use and lights you buy at the store? Do you offer LED lighting?
Mark: The lights we use are a commercial grade and can be easily customized for your home. We offer both LED and incandescent lighting strands and bulbs. There is a misconception with regards to the color for the white LED lights. They now come in warm white and white. The colored LED bulbs are much more brilliant than the incandescent lights. I like to use only LED lights on the roofline to cut back on callbacks to have to change a bulb out during the season. Trees can be done by spiral wraps or trunk and limb wraps. If we are doing trunk and limb wraps, we typically use incandescent lights to save the customer on cost of product and labor to take down.

SLHL: Does a homeowner need to change or add electrical power to support the lighting?
Mark:  Typically with the LED lighting you will not have to add electrical service to your home. However, if you’re using incandescent holiday lights, the power requirement increases, and you may have to add electrical-dedicated circuits.

SLHL: How long do the lights last?
Mark: Typically the lightstrands that outline a roofline will last five to six years, depending on the weather. The LED bulbs have a five-season warranty and 50,000 hours of bulb life. The incandescent last one season.

SLHL: Do you store lights for your customers?
Mark: Part of our service is that we will put up, take down and store your lights. We offer one-, two-, and three-year contracts.

SLHL: What are the different size and color options available?
Mark: There are a variety of sizes from icicle lights to C-7 and C-9 that would outline a roof. For trees and shrubs, there are mini twinkle lights and globe lights. All these lights come in a variety of colors including green, red, white, warm white, orange, blue, purple and multicolored.

SLHL: Do you provide more than holiday lighting?
Mark: Besides light strands, we provide prelit and unlit garland and wreaths, bows and prelit figurines.