When the holidays are upon us, we like to liven up our homes with many decorations. But, the seasons change as well as the festivities we celebrate in our homes. So, we may not want a permanent change at our house. The decorations can be for birthdays or any party, too. But the thing is, we don’t want any holes in our walls or chipping paint.
The most popular decoration piece is led lights. They can be used for any purpose; they can also be the most responsible for the damage to the walls of our house. Led strip lights are rising since they can be removed without leaving holes for us to fix.
However, they also have a downside; the adhesive may ruin the paint on your walls. This brings us to a question; how to hang strip lights without damaging the walls? Fear not, there are ways to achieve this, and we will bring them to light.
How Do You Stick LED Strips without Messing Up the Wall?
The possible damage that strip-led lights can cause mostly depends on the type of surface. Figuring out the art of sticking led lights and removing them will leave you clean walls no matter the surface. We have prepared a guideline to properly get the hang of it to benefit from stick-led lights the most.
The best way to prevent any damage to your walls is to stick the led lights properly on your walls to get a clean peel-off. If stick-led lights are installed decently, getting them off of your walls will most likely be easier than you think. But we still advise you all to look for extra steps to remove them correctly to avoid ruining your walls. So let’s take a look at how to install strip-led lights!
The first thing you will want to do is to choose the right led strip lights. Some come with hooks, some with adhesive properties, and some without any additional help. We advise you to choose the adhesive one for no damaged walls.
The second important step is to measure where you will hang your strip led lights to avoid confusion, which can make your walls look damaged. We don’t want to stick them and remove them constantly. So sticking them decently on your first try is the key.
After the measurement, you should cut your strip lights according to the length of the desired place where you will hang the strip lights. Then, just mark the places you will cut off with a pen that you can later erase and cut the lines you’ve drawn with the help of a knife or a scissor.
Before you hang strip lights, you must thoroughly clean the surface you want to install them on since the adhesive requires a clean surface to stick correctly. If you skip this step, some parts of your lights will loosen and start hanging. You want the adhesive of the strip lights to stick on the wall, not on the dirt on your wall. So clean before hanging.
After completing all of the above, it’s time to hang them. You can draw a line to track where you are going so as not to mess up. Apply pressure for it to stick but be careful about not putting too much strength as it may damage the led lights and cables in them. And there you have it! All there’s left to do is control them to ensure they are working. If the lights don’t turn on, check your connection and trace your steps back to figure out what went wrong and try again.
Do LED Strip Lights Ruin Your Walls?
Led strip lights alone are not enough to damage your walls. However, there are several factors to consider first. For example, the stronger the adhesive, the harder to peel them off, later causing possible damage. The quality of the paint or wallpaper also plays an important role, and their durability matters a lot since we want to clean them off without any damage. So the stronger the paint or wallpaper, the harder it is to damage them.
Another factor is the duration of the adhesive on your walls. Depending on how long they’ve been there, the task’s difficulty will vary. The climate is also a factor in this. These factors affect how strongly they are attached to the wall, which impacts the level of difficulty in removing the led strip lights.
We want to elaborate on the most critical factor and we think that it’s the paint. First, you need to figure out how fragile the paint on your walls is to avoid damage to them. Your paint can be subjected to old age and sunlight. These can affect how delicate your paint is. Thus, if your paint suffers from old age, they are more susceptible to peeling off when adhesive is applied.
New paint is also no different when it comes to delicateness. Fresh paint may need a longer time to settle than it needs when drying on the wall. It takes 24 hours for the paint to dry, whereas it takes 2 to 4 weeks for the paint to settle on your wall. If you install strip-led lights in this process, the bond between the adhesive and the paint will be stronger than the wall and paint. This also will cause peeling on your wall.
It doesn’t end here: Another vital aspect is the quality of the paint job. If you have applied paint on dirty, rusty, unkempt walls, your paint will peel off the next chance it gets. And led strip lights will provide an added incentive for it.
Can You Take LED Lights Off Your Wall and Put Them Back Up?
Yes, you can take led lights off your wall and put them back up another time or in another place. The key is ensuring the strips aren’t lost in the process. However, you will lose the adhesive quality of the product, so you will have to remedy that by buying the necessary parts.
We recommend double-sided backing for your led lights. You can, however, use command strips. You will need a lot more of them than double-sided backings. They are designed to protect your walls so the adhesive won’t ruin them when you remove the led lights. Let’s take a look at how to remove led strip lights and how to reinstall them.
The first step is to unplug the device. To prevent any damage, you can heat the adhesive to come off easier. We recommend using a hair dryer. Just pint the hair dryer on the led lights and let it work its magic. Slowly move the hair dryer along the led lights until it softens.
The second thing is finding an excellent corner to start peeling the strip off. Again, you should use a very thin object to give you a start by lifting the corner. Once it’s done, you should keep softly wiggling it underneath the strip until you get to the end of it.
If you have any difficulties with the steps above, you should try blow drying and peel off simultaneously. After the work is done, there will be leftovers on the wall. Don’t worry, people, because it is completely expected, and you only need to clean them off with your thumb gently.
Simply move your thumb in circular motions until the leftovers come off, and then use a cloth or a sponge to get them off your wall when you want to reinstall them. Then, use the adhesive parts to make the product whole again. And there you have it, good as new!
Conclusion
Once you get the hang of it, led strip lights are a delight among temporary decorations. They are not that hard to install or remove. The steps to installment are pretty straightforward and don’t require extra effort. You can easily remove the led string lights and reuse them for another occasion. You will only need to replace the adhesive part, and it’s convenient.
Moreover, you can do all of that without damaging your wall. Your walls will have no holes, peeled-off wallpaper, or chipped paint. So you can enjoy the festivities without worries!