Tree Wrapping Pricing Per Foot of Height vs Per Strand
Price tree wrapping by the foot of lights, not height: a 20 ft maple with a 12 in trunk takes 189 ft, 6 strands and $1,134 on GlowBid's default rate card.
Price tree wrapping by the foot of lights on the tree, not the foot of height. The footage is a formula: trunk height divided by wrap spacing, times circumference, plus the same for each main branch. At GlowBid's default $6 per foot of wrap, a 20 ft maple with a 12 in trunk and six main branches takes 189 ft of minis, 6 strands, and $1,134. Jason Geiman's $40 per foot of height gives $800 for the same tree.
The same $40 gives $400 for a 10 ft ornamental that takes one strand. The table shows why the two methods drift apart as the trunk gets thicker.
Trunk and main branches only, 4 in between wraps, 100-count 5mm strands at 33 ft each. Per-foot price is GlowBid's default seasonal card; per-foot-of-height is Geiman's $40.
Tree
Height
Trunk diameter
Trunk wrapped
Main branches
Feet of lights
Strands (33 ft)
At $6 per foot of wrap
At $40 per foot of height
Small ornamental (serviceberry, crab)
10 ft
4 in
4 ft
4 at 3 ft, 2 in
32 ft
1
$192
$400
Young shade tree
15 ft
8 in
6 ft
5 at 5 ft, 3 in
97 ft
3
$582
$600
Mid-size maple
20 ft
12 in
8 ft
6 at 6 ft, 4 in
189 ft
6
$1,134
$800
Mature maple
30 ft
18 in
10 ft
6 at 8 ft, 6 in
368 ft
12
$2,208
$1,200
Big oak, spreading
40 ft
24 in
12 ft
8 at 10 ft, 8 in
729 ft
23
$4,374
$1,600
Read the two right-hand columns against each other. Per foot of height overcharges the ornamental by double and undercharges the oak by more than half, because height says nothing about how much bark you are wrapping. The trunk diameter and the branch count do. The rest of this page is how to measure them, how to turn them into strands, and what the card does with the footage.
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Move the sliders. The total comes from the same pricing engine GlowBid quotes with, on the default rate card.
Because the strand is the work. Every foot of lights is a foot of cord you pull tight around bark from a ladder, and a foot of lights costs the same on a serviceberry as on an oak. Height is a proxy that works on one shape of tree and fails on every other.
The published numbers show the spread. Geiman's quoting guide says $40 per foot of height, and his pricing-mistakes post widens that to $30 to $60. His older bidding sheet at Christmas Lights HQ prices a small tree under 10 ft at $75 and a large tree of 10 to 25 ft at $150, which is our mid-size maple at $150 against $1,134. QuoteIQ's calculator says $50 to $200 a tree, Nextdoor $10 to $200, Jobber $75 to $1,500. Strandr says a 6 ft tree takes 100 to 150 ft of minis and a crew does one or two trees an hour. LightMaster's tree page shows a live oak at about 1,450 lit ft and 44 strands and does not publish the formula that produced it. Every one of those ranges is either a flat guess per tree or a formula nobody shows. Ours is below.
Three numbers per tree, all from the ground with a tape.
Trunk circumference. Wrap the tape around the trunk at chest height. If you measured diameter instead, circumference is diameter times 3.14. A 12 in trunk is 37.7 in around, or 3.14 ft.
Trunk height to wrap. Ground to the first main branch, or as high as the customer wants the wrap to go. Most wraps stop where the branches start.
Main branches. Count the branches you will wrap, and estimate the length and diameter of a typical one. Six branches at 6 ft long and 4 in thick is a normal mid-size maple. Wrapping past the main branches into the secondary growth is a different job and doubles or triples the footage; quote it as a separate option.
Feet of lights = (length to wrap divided by wrap spacing) times circumference, for the trunk and again for each branch.
At 4 in spacing with diameter in inches, that collapses to 0.785 times length in feet times diameter in inches. The maple's trunk is 0.785 times 8 times 12, which is 75 ft. Each 6 ft branch at 4 in is 0.785 times 6 times 4, which is 19 ft, and six of them is 113 ft. Total 188.4 ft, call it 189. Certified Lights recommends 4 in wrap spacing on its tree calculator; Christmas Lights Etc's example uses 3 in, which is a third more footage and a brighter trunk. Pick one and put it in the formula.
Divide the footage by the strand length and round up per tree, never per job. The industry strand for trunks and branches is a 100-count 5mm mini at 4 in bulb spacing, 33 ft long; Certified Lights sells it at $19.50 a strand or $444.60 a case of 24 and rates it for up to 21 strands end to end. The maple's 189 ft is 5.7 strands, so 6, and $117 of lights at that price. Add the materials buffer (GlowBid's default is 10 percent, and it goes on the order, never on the price), so 7 strands on the truck for that tree.
Plan the power while you are counting. Twenty-one strands end to end is one run; the big oak in the table takes 23, so it needs two power drops and a splitter, and that is a line item, not a surprise.
GlowBid's default Seasonal C9 line carries a tree run type at $6 per foot, and the seasonal service line (customer-owned lights) carries it at $2.50 per foot, with the same 10 percent per extra storey premium as every other run if you set one. Both are starting numbers you replace. The way we use it: type the wrap footage from the formula into the tree run, tagged as a manual measurement, and the price follows. If you would rather think per tree, switch the tree run type to a flat amount per drawn run and the quote shows a count instead of feet. The rest of the seasonal card, and the roofline lines that usually sit above a tree wrap on the same quote, are in how we price Christmas lights per foot.
The minimum job matters more on trees than anywhere else. Our default is $1,500. A single ornamental at $192 does not clear it, and the engine lifts the quote to the minimum and shows the top-up as its own line so the customer sees why. Pair the tree with the walkway or the roofline, or set a lower minimum for add-on visits.
Worked example: two trees and a walkway in Kanata#
A front yard with a mid-size maple, a serviceberry by the door and a 30 ft walkway, quoted as a stand-alone job because the customer already had the roofline done elsewhere. Every rate is a GlowBid default on the Seasonal C9 line; the footage is from the formula above at 4 in wrap spacing.
Cost stackLine total
Total before tax4 lines
$1,521
1Maple, trunk 12 in by 8 ft, six branches 6 ft by 4 in$1,13475%
2Serviceberry, trunk 4 in by 4 ft, four branches 3 ft by 2 in$19213%
Maple, trunk 12 in by 8 ft, six branches 6 ft by 4 in
75 ft trunk plus 113 ft branches
189 ft
$6.00
$1,134.00
Serviceberry, trunk 4 in by 4 ft, four branches 3 ft by 2 in
13 ft trunk plus 19 ft branches
32 ft
$6.00
$192.00
Walkway, ground stakes
one photo, taped
30 ft
$5.00
$150.00
Run subtotal
$1,476.00
Timer (add-on)
1
$45.00
$45.00
Minimum job check ($1,500)
met, no adjustment
$0.00
Total before tax
$1,521.00
Deposit at signing (30 percent)
$456.30
Materials: 7 strands for the maple and 1 for the serviceberry with the buffer, 8 strands at $19.50, $156 of minis plus the walkway stakes. Geiman's per-foot-of-height method prices the same two trees at $800 and $400 for $1,200, which is $126 less for the pair and $208 more for the tree that took one strand. If the roofline is on the same visit, measure it from the same photo in the free tool using the scale-from-a-garage-door method, and the tree lines sit under it on one quote.
Takedown and what a wrapped tree costs you in January#
Takedown is in our per-foot rate and it says so on the quote. Unwrapping takes nearly as long as wrapping, because the cord catches on every stub, and the strands come off wet and cold. Geiman's bidding guide says build takedown into the price or bill it separately and never do it free, and that is right.
Do not leave wraps on for a second season to save the trip. Trunks grow, the cord does not, and by the second spring the lights are cutting into the bark on a young tree. We take every tree wrap down by the end of February. On a multi-year seasonal lease the takedown window is in the agreement, and a signed lease in GlowBid creates each season's takedown job on its own so nobody forgets the maple.
Pricing by height. A 12 ft crab apple with a 3 in trunk and a 12 ft maple with a 10 in trunk are not the same job, and per-foot-of-height says they are.
Rounding strands per job instead of per tree. Strands do not move between trees mid-wrap. Round up on each one.
Quoting trunk-only and wrapping to the tips. The customer points at a photo of a fully wrapped tree and the quote covered the trunk. Say in the scope block how far out the wrap goes.
Forgetting the power drop. Twenty-one strands is the limit on one run; the oak needs two.
Buffer on the price instead of the order. The extra strand is ours, not theirs.
Leaving wraps on a young tree over summer. Girdled bark, an unhappy customer and a tree that did not deserve it.
One tree, no minimum. A $192 tree with a $1,500 minimum on the card is a conversation you have on the phone, not in the driveway.
Every tree line on a GlowBid quote shows the footage or the count and its source, so a customer comparing two bids sees what they are paying for. The rate card holds your per-foot tree rate, the per-tree option, the minimum, the buffer and the deposit, and the same card prices the roofline above the tree. Founding pricing for installers is on the pricing page.
FAQ
Questions installers ask
How much do you charge to wrap a tree with lights?
By the foot of lights on the tree, $6 per foot on GlowBid's default seasonal card, so a 10 ft ornamental with 32 ft of minis is $192 and a 20 ft maple with 189 ft is $1,134. The published alternatives are Jason Geiman's $40 per foot of height, QuoteIQ's $50 to $200 a tree and Jobber's $75 to $1,500 a tree. Per foot of wrap follows the work; per foot of height does not.
How many strands of lights does it take to wrap a tree?
Divide the wrap footage by 33 ft, the length of a 100-count 5mm mini strand at 4 in spacing, and round up per tree. Trunk and main branches on a 15 ft young shade tree come to about 97 ft, so 3 strands; a 30 ft mature maple with six main branches is about 368 ft, so 12 strands. Wrapping to the branch tips doubles or triples those counts.
What spacing do you wrap at?
4 in between wraps on trunks and main branches, which is the spacing Certified Lights recommends on its tree calculator, with 4 in bulb spacing on the strand. Christmas Lights Etc's example uses 3 in between wraps, which is about a third more footage and a brighter trunk. Tighter spacing is more lights and more time, so pick one, put it in the formula and price from it.
Do you charge per tree or per foot?
Per foot of wrap for anything with a trunk you can measure, per tree for a hedge of matching ornamentals where the footage is the same on every one. GlowBid does both: the tree run type prices by the foot on your rate card, or you switch it to a flat amount per drawn run. Whichever you pick, the quote shows the footage or the count so the customer can see what the number is made of.
Is takedown included in the tree wrap price?
On our card, yes, and it should be on yours or billed as its own line, never free. A wrapped tree takes almost as long to unwrap as to wrap, and lights left on a growing trunk cut into the bark within a couple of seasons. We take tree wraps down by the end of February and say so on the quote; Jason Geiman's bidding guide says the same thing about building takedown into the price.
What is the minimum for a tree-only job?
Whatever your rate card's minimum job is; GlowBid's default is $1,500 and the engine lifts a smaller quote to it and shows the top-up as its own line. One 10 ft ornamental at $192 is not a job, it is a favour. Pair the tree with the roofline or the walkway, or set a lower minimum for add-on visits, but never drive for one small tree at the per-foot price alone.
