It's the time of year when I think "there must be a better way" to hang outside fairy lights. We have exposed joist ends and cast-iron gutters, so I've made wire hooks to hang-over the gutter edge and support the lights, but it's a pain to do and doesn't look wonderful, so I'd rather fix something to the joist ends that I could just hook the wire into next year. Perhaps something like these:
Screw these into the joist ends?
This is uk.d-i-y. Make your own.
Glue neodymium magnets to the wire every foot or so, and let em stick to the cast iron gutter.
Regular P clips:
Not very helpful. I seem to recall somebody buying a job lot of what look like mini carabinas for hooking security passes to clips. It should not be too hard to make some way of screwing them to something. The only issue might be how they would stand up to the climate outside, and I doubt anyone would know without trying them!
Brian
In message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Chris Hogg snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net writes
Or bang in some fencing staples?
>
There are lots of plastic hooks for hanging light strings from the gutter -
"*I've made wire hooks to hang-over the gutter edge and support the lights*, but it's a pain to do and doesn't look wonderful, so I'd rather fix something to the joist ends that I could just hook the wire into next year."
I want to be able to leave the fixings in place from year to year, that's why I was thinking of hooks
Yes (and I've made some) but I was hoping to find something to attach to the joist/rafter
Nice idea but I want a solution that accepts any lights. Also, the damn things get tangled enough as it is - just imagine what would happen with loads of very powerful magnets !!>
interesting ... cutting-off the front tab would produce a hook. I wonder how well they would survive a few years of UV ...
screw-in cup hooks?
I'd wondered about those, but thought they would rust if out in all weathers.
I've just found this
Brass ones shouldn't rust.
The black ones might do ok.
Just hanging lights off hooks is no good, first bit of wind and your lights are a tangled mess on the ground. I simply use U staples to the the fence and also to the eaves of the garage. The ones on the garage are up permanently and have survived everything the weather has thrown at them for the last 4 years.
Richard
tie wrap the lights to the staples. Then cut the tie wraps.
Or use biodegradable twine.
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