Holiday lights, by roof type.

The most common roof in Chicagoland's post-war and starter housing stock.

Attachment that works

• All-purpose gutter clips along the eaves — the default method; the clip grips the gutter lip and the roofline never gets touched.
• Shingle-tab clips that grip the shingle edge or drip edge where there's no gutter — no fastener, no piercing.

Never

Never nail, screw, or staple through shingles or cords, and don't pry shingles up in the cold — asphalt gets brittle in freezing temperatures and lifting a tab can crack it or break its sealant bond.

What it costs when it goes wrong

• · Cold-weather brittleness: what bends in October can crack in December.
• · Pierced cord insulation is a shock and fire hazard (the reason ESFI bans nails/staples/tacks outright).

The call: On a single-story home with gutters and a properly set ladder, this is the most DIY-realistic roof on this page. Height, not material, is what changes the answer.

The default on newer builds and re-roofs across the western suburbs.

Attachment that works

• Gutter clips first — same as 3-tab.
• The thicker, layered profile means some shingle-tab clips grip poorly; if a clip won't seat firmly, move to the gutter or fascia rather than forcing it.

Never

Same rule: no fasteners through the roof or the cords, and no lifting laminated tabs in the cold.

What it costs when it goes wrong

• · A poorly seated clip that lets a strand sag mid-season means a second trip up the ladder in worse weather.

The call: Same calculus as 3-tab: fine at one story with gutters; think twice above that.

Common on Hinsdale, Barrington, and North Shore homes — and one of the roof types our vetting process weighs local experience against.

Attachment that works

• Gutter and fascia attachment only; ridge clips that grip without penetrating where a ridge line is part of the design.
• LED strands only — they run cool, and wood shake is a combustible material you don't want warm bulbs resting against all season.

Never

Never staple or nail into shakes. A fastener splits dry cedar, pierces cord insulation, and leaves a permanent water path in a roof that costs multiples of asphalt to repair.

What it costs when it goes wrong

• · Shakes split and crack under careless foot traffic, especially when cold and dry.
• · Repairs are expensive and visible — replacement shakes rarely weather-match.

The call: The material punishes improvisation. A crew that works shake knows where it will bear weight and where it won't — that judgment is most of what you're paying for.

The signature roof of the area's historic districts — Winnetka, Lake Forest, and Hinsdale's older estates.

Attachment that works

• Gutter, fascia, and rake attachment only. The slates themselves are never touched.
• Professionals who must access slate use hook ladders (chicken ladders) and load-spreading techniques rather than walking the field of the roof.

Never

Never walk a slate roof to hang lights, and never fasten anything into it. Slate is strong against weather but brittle under point loads — a footstep can crack a slate invisibly, and a hidden crack becomes a leak.

What it costs when it goes wrong

• · Broken slates are costly to replace and hard to match on an older roof.
• · Damage often isn't visible from the ground; you find out when water does.

The call: This is the clearest call on the page. The roof itself is the liability — the lights are the easy part.

Less common here, but present on Mediterranean-style customs in several of our towns.

Attachment that works

• Eave and gutter attachment; purpose-made tile clips that hook a tile's lower edge without fasteners where the profile allows.

Never

Don't walk the tile field. Clay tile cracks under concentrated foot traffic much like slate; concrete tile is tougher but still cracks under a misplaced step.

What it costs when it goes wrong

• · Cracked tiles admit water below the visible surface.
• · Odd-lot replacement tiles are hard to source and rarely match.

The call: Ground-reachable eave runs are manageable; anything requiring roof access belongs with someone who knows where tile bears weight.

Growing fast on high-end builds and additions.

Attachment that works

• Magnetic light clips — but only on ferrous steel. Test with a fridge magnet first: aluminum, copper, and most stainless are non-magnetic, and many premium standing-seam roofs are exactly those metals.
• On standing seam, non-penetrating seam clamps (the S-5!-style hardware used for snow guards and solar) grip the seam mechanically without a single hole.
• Gutter and fascia clips everywhere else.

Never

Never screw or drill into a metal roof for lights. Every penetration is a future leak and rust point, and it can void the roof's warranty.

What it costs when it goes wrong

• · Metal is dangerously slick with frost or dew — a fall hazard beyond what shingles present.
• · A magnet that holds in October can slide under December ice load if the clip is under-rated for the cord weight.

The call: The methods are genuinely non-destructive when matched to the metal — matching them correctly is the skill.

Commercial buildings, additions, and modern designs — EPDM, TPO, and modified bitumen.

Attachment that works

• Parapet and edge-metal clips; ballasted (weighted) bases that sit on the membrane without attachment.
• Adhesive-backed clips only if applied in warm weather — adhesives don't bond in the cold, so mount them in early fall, not December.

Never

Never pierce a membrane roof. A single fastener through EPDM or TPO is a leak path that can travel far from the hole before it shows inside.

What it costs when it goes wrong

• · Ponding water and ice make winter membrane work slower and riskier than it looks.
• · Most flat-roof lighting jobs here are commercial scale — timers, circuits, and coverage beyond a homeowner install.

The call: Between membrane fragility and the commercial scale of most flat-roof displays, this is contractor territory.

Not a material but a geometry — and the defining feature of the area's larger colonials, Tudors, and customs.

Attachment that works

• Work from a properly set ladder at the eave line — the standard 4-to-1 ladder angle, on firm ground, with a helper footing it.
• Everything above the eave belongs to equipment: professionals use lifts, harnesses, and roof-specific access gear.

Never

Never walk a steep roof to hang lights. OSHA classes anything over 4:12 as a steep roof and requires professional crews to use fall protection at 6 feet — the physics don't change because it's your own house.

What it costs when it goes wrong

• · Falls are the leading cause of the thousands of holiday-decorating ER visits CPSC counts each season — mostly ladders and roofs.
• · Steep + frost + a cord in one hand is the worst version of that statistic.

The call: Two stories plus steep pitch is precisely the job our vetting process reviews crews for. This is the page's second unambiguous call.