What does a roof damage waiver actually say?#
It says you take reasonable care, it puts a dollar cap on damage from the install or takedown, and it carves out what was already broken. That is the whole clause.
Sample wording (permanent install, from GlowBid's default quote terms):
We install using methods designed to protect your roofline and siding. We are not responsible for pre-existing damage, brittle or deteriorated materials, or damage caused by conditions beyond our control.
Sample wording (lease and seasonal service, from GlowBid's lease library):
Roof and siding: we install with clips and fasteners suited to your roof and siding and take reasonable care. Our liability for damage arising from installation or takedown is limited to $500 per incident. Pre-existing conditions and normal wear are excluded.
What it protects. Brittle shingles crack in November. Old fascia splits when a clip goes in. Without this clause, every one of those is a conversation about whether you caused it. With it, the homeowner has read, before signing, that a 15-year-old roof is a 15-year-old roof. The per-incident cap matters most on a lease, where a three-season term means six roof visits instead of two.
Variants. On a permanent install, add the product line's warranty text underneath so roof damage and product failure are two different promises. On a seasonal service job (homeowner-owned lights) the clause stays the same; the product clause below it changes. Photograph the roofline before the first ladder goes up on every job; the exclusion is only as good as your proof of what was there.
How do you write the weather clause?#
Name the events, promise the earliest safe date, and say nobody owes a penalty. Do not promise a number of days.
Sample wording (permanent install, default quote terms):
Installation dates depend on weather and roof conditions. If we need to reschedule for safety, we will offer you the next available date.
Sample wording (lease and seasonal service):
Weather and events beyond our control: installation and takedown dates may move because of snow, ice, high wind, extreme cold or similar events. We reschedule at the earliest safe date and neither party owes a penalty for that delay.
What it protects. Both sides. The homeowner cannot cancel for a storm delay and keep the deposit; you cannot be held to the 15th when freezing rain closed every roof in the city that week. Strandr's guide uses a 25 mph wind threshold as an example. A number is fine if your crew will stand down at 25 every time; a number you ignore on a busy Tuesday is evidence against you later.
Variants. On a lease, the clause covers takedown as well as install, and it should. Over five seasons you will hit a January where nobody should be on a roof for three weeks.
How is the payment schedule written?#
Deposit to book, balance on completion, and on a lease each later season is invoiced on a fixed lead time before the truck arrives.
Sample wording (permanent install and seasonal service, default quote terms):
The deposit shown on this quote is due to book your installation date. The balance is due on the day the installation is completed.
Sample wording (lease):
Payment: the deposit shown on this quote is due to book, and the balance of season 1 is due on the day of the first installation. Each later season is invoiced 14 days before that season's installation and is due before the crew arrives.
What it protects. The deposit pays for the product cut for that house and holds the November slot. GlowBid's default is 30 percent; Strandr's guide suggests 25 to 50 percent. Balance on the day, not net 30, because on day 30 you are on a ladder somewhere else. The deposit and payment schedule guide covers 30/70 against 50/50 and the staged split for big jobs.
Variants. Add a late-payment line if your province or state allows it and you will actually apply it. On a lease, the 14-day lead time is the whole point: season 2 gets invoiced from that season's install job, not from somebody's memory in October.
What should the service response clause promise?#
A number of hours from the report, with a faster number in December, and only on agreements where maintenance is included.
Sample wording (lease with maintenance included):
Maintenance is included for the term: we repair or replace failed strands, bulbs and controllers at no charge. We respond within 48 hours of your report, and within 24 hours in December.
Sample wording (permanent install, warranty year, default quote terms):
Workmanship is warranted for one year from the installation date. Product warranties are provided by the manufacturer.
What it protects. The homeowner, and your reputation. A dark run on December 20 is the reason people lease instead of buying a box of lights, so put a number on it. It also protects you: "we respond within 48 hours" is not "we fix it within 48 hours". Respond, diagnose, then fix or schedule. The service call and repair pricing page covers which calls are billable and which are on you.
Variants. Seasonal service on homeowner-owned lights carries no response promise, because their product is their risk. Say so in the product clause: "We install and take down what you supply and are not responsible for the condition, safety certification or failure of homeowner-owned products."
When does the takedown window go in the contract?#
On every seasonal agreement, in dates, with "weather permitting" after it.
Sample wording (lease):
Takedown each season is included and takes place in the takedown window, January 2 to February 28, weather permitting.
Sample wording (seasonal service):
Takedown is scheduled in the takedown window shown on this quote; dates depend on weather and roof conditions.
What it protects. You, from "when are you coming to take them down?" on January 3, and from "why are they still up?" on March 1. A window with an end date and a weather caveat covers both. If takedown is a separate paid visit rather than included, the price goes on the same page. The takedown pricing and scheduling guide covers how to price and route it.
Variants. Permanent installs have no takedown clause; the product stays up. If you offer a seasonal takedown of wreaths and garland on a permanent job, write it as an add-on with its own window.
How do you cap storage liability?#
In dollars, or at replacement with equivalent product, whichever is less, and only on agreements where you store the lights.
Sample wording (lease with storage included):
Off-season storage of the lights is included. Our liability for lights in storage is limited to replacement with equivalent product or $500, whichever is less.
What it protects. Storage is a promise to keep somebody's display safe for nine months in a unit you may share with your ladders. A burst pipe or a break-in without a cap is a claim at retail for every bin in the room. "Equivalent product" is the important phrase: the homeowner expects the house to look the same next season, not a cheque for the original invoice. Strandr's guide uses $1,000 as its example cap; ours is $500 because that is close to what one average display costs us to replace at wholesale. Set yours to your own number.
Variants. On a seasonal service job you can offer storage as an add-on; if you do, this clause goes in with it. The storage and asset tracking guide covers the bin label and condition log that keep the cap from ever being tested.
How does tiered cancellation work?#
A cooling-off period with a full refund, then the deposit covers materials, then on a lease a fee that shrinks as the term runs down.
Sample wording (permanent install and seasonal service, default quote terms):
You may cancel within 3 days of signing for a full refund of your deposit. After that, the deposit covers materials ordered and scheduling and is non-refundable.
Sample wording (lease):
Cancellation before the first installation: written notice, and the deposit is refunded less the cost of any materials already ordered for your home. Early termination after the first installation: a fee of 50% of one season's price if more than half the term remains, otherwise 25%. Seasons already installed are not refundable.
What it protects. Your materials and your calendar, at a fee you can defend. Leaving after season 1 of 5 costs more than leaving after season 4, because you priced the product over five seasons. A flat fee looks like a penalty; a tiered one looks like what it is.
The cooling-off trap. Our default 3-day window is a floor, not the law. Ontario gives a 10-day cooling-off period, starting the day the customer receives a written copy, on contracts over $50 signed in the home, and many provinces and states have their own version. If you sign at the kitchen table, your cancellation clause starts after that window, not before it. Strandr's guide frames cancellation as 15, 30 or 45 days of advance notice, which suits commercial work better than a homeowner who is moving.
Variants. On a declining rent-to-own schedule, offering the buyout from the disposition clause instead of the fee is often what the homeowner wants anyway.
What does the disposition clause settle?#
Who has the lights when the term ends. Pick one of three.
Sample wording (lease, choose one):
Return: At the end of the term the lights are taken down and returned to the installer.
Buyout: At the end of the term you may buy the lights for $[amount], or return them. (If no number is set: at the buyout price quoted at that time, or return them.)
Keep: At the end of the term the lights become the homeowner's property at no extra charge.
What it protects. Everyone, from a year-three argument about a controller. Flat schedules end in return so good product goes to the next house. Declining schedules end in keep, because the homeowner has paid the product down and expects it. Buyout sits between; write the number now, because "quoted at that time" is a negotiation later. The disposition pairs with the ownership line at the top of the lease ("the lights, controller and hardware remain the installer's property for the full term"), which is what makes early termination a fee rather than a fight over property.
Variants. Only leases carry this clause. A permanent install transfers ownership on payment; a seasonal service job never had it.
A worked example: what each clause is worth in dollars#
The two-storey from the installation contract template: 130 ft of roofline, 72 ft of peaks, three jumps, C9 LED, priced on GlowBid's default card. Season 1 is $1,910.20 before tax, of which $45.00 is a one-time timer, so $1,865.20 recurs each season. Put it on a 3-season flat lease and here is what the library caps or charges.
| Event |
Clause |
Arithmetic |
Amount |
| Deposit to book |
Payment schedule |
30% of $1,910.20 |
$573.06 |
| Cancels before first install, $210 of product already cut |
Tiered cancellation |
$573.06 refunded less $210.00 |
$363.06 back to homeowner |
| Cracked shingle on takedown, roofer bills $340 |
Roof damage waiver |
Under the $500 cap, you pay |
$340.00 |
| Bin lost in a storage flood |
Storage liability cap |
Lesser of replacement or $500 |
$500.00 at most |
| Moves out after season 1 of 3 |
Tiered cancellation, early tier |
More than half the term left, 50% of $1,865.20 |
$932.60 fee |
| Moves out after season 2 of 3 |
Tiered cancellation, late tier |
Less than half left, 25% of $1,865.20 |
$466.30 fee |
| Flat lease runs the full term, return |
Disposition |
3 seasons, product comes back |
$5,640.60 collected |
Your worst-case exposure on this house under the library is $1,000 across two incidents, against $5,640.60 of revenue. Draw this house in the free roofline tool to get the footage, price it on your own card, and the lease schedule and these clauses print from the same quote.
Mistakes we have made or watched others make#
- A roof clause with no per-incident wording on a five-season lease. Ten roof visits, one cap. Write "per incident".
- Skipping the before photo. The pre-existing exclusion is worthless without proof of what was there.
- Promising takedown "within 48 hours of the request" in the weather clause. That is not a promise you can keep in freezing rain.
- A 3-day cancellation window on a contract signed at the kitchen table in Ontario. The customer has 10 by law; your clause starts on day 11.
- A storage cap at the original invoice value. Cap at replacement or a dollar figure, whichever is less, or the cap is not doing anything.
- Auto-renewal for a full new term with no notice period. Renew one season at a time, 60 days' notice, and expect this clause to be the one a regulator reads first.
- "Quoted at that time" as the buyout price. Write the number.
- Copying all eight clauses onto a permanent install. Takedown, storage and disposition do not apply; a homeowner reading them wonders what else in the contract is boilerplate.
How GlowBid assembles these#
The library above is the default. When you pick an agreement type on a quote, GlowBid appends the matching variants: the permanent install carries the default quote terms; seasonal service adds the homeowner-owned product clause and the takedown window; a lease adds the ownership line, the per-season payment clause, then only the service, takedown and storage clauses for the switches you turned on, then the roof, weather, cancellation, renewal and disposition clauses with your numbers in them. Replace any clause with your own wording on the rate card page and every quote after that carries yours. The homeowner signs on their phone, the signed document gets a SHA-256 fingerprint, and the deposit is collected on the same page. The multi-year lease template shows the whole assembled document; the founding price covers Core, Pro and Ultimate.
