LED strip lights are a good way to add some color and ambient light to many different rooms in your house. LED strip lights have become quite a popular choice of colored light in the home as they are relatively cheap, easy to use, and are very versatile. You can hang them from multiple surfaces using various methods, but can you use a stapler to hang LED strip lights in your home?
You can staple LED strip lights onto a surface. However, you need to ensure that the staples hold the strip rather than go through the LED light. The staple should be an arch over the LED strip light. If you pierce the LED strip light with a staple, you may cause damage to the circuitry of the LED.
You can use LED strip lights to create multiple different lighting effects in your home for any occasion. However, many people can agree that their adhesive backing is not what it should be and can lose strength over time. This leads people to come up with other ways to hang their LED strip lights. One of these methods is using a stapler, but is this method a good idea?
Hanging LED Strip Lights With A Stapler
You can use a stapler to hang your LED strip lights in your home. However, this does depend on the width of the staples you use compared to the width of the LED strip lights. There are also a few concerns you should go through before you make this decision.
This is a semi-permanent way to hang your LED strip lights, since they they will stay up, but they would be removable if necessary. Although removing the staples may be somewhat of a challenge.
Removing the staples can cause scratches on the LED strip lights coating as the staples are difficult to remove from the surface they were stapled to. This could cause you to slip when trying to remove them, causing these scratches on the LED strip lights coating.
This can cause the LED strip lights to look faded and dull, or even peirce the strip and break the circuitry. So, if you use staples to hang your LED strip lights, ensure that you are hanging them in a place where they will not need to be moved from any time soon.
The staples can also cause small holes in the surface you are stapling the LED strip lights too. For this reason, you should be sure that you are not stapling the LED strip lights to a surface that you do not want to be damaged or a surface that is prominent in your house but is not easy to fix, for example, a piece of wooden furniture.
So, you can use staples to secure LED strip lights to a surface. Just be mindful of where you are hanging them and ensure that they can be there for a while.
Will Staples Damage The LED Strip Light?
If you are going to use staples to hang your LED strip lights, you need to make sure that the staples are wide enough to go around the edges of the LED strip light. You want the staples to fit over the LED strip lights like an archway.
If you manage to accomplish this, you should not have any issues, and the staples should not damage your LED strip lights in any way. You do need to ensure that the staples have a wide enough gap in their width compared to the LED strip light’s width. They must not fit too snuggly together so that the staple would fold the strip over.
You do not want the staples to be too tight around the LED strip lights, as this could give you trouble while trying to hang the lights. If the staples are too tight and you accidentally slip while trying to staple the LED strip lights to a surface, then you could puncture the LED lights with the staple.
Alternatively, because the stapler forcefully shoots out the staples, this could cause your hand or the LED strip lights to move mid staple, causing the staple to pierce the LED lights.
If you accidentally pierce the LED strip light with a staple, you could damage the circuits inside the lights, which may stop the LED strip lights from working correctly. If the lights do still work after being pierced by the staple, you should still discontinue their use as this is still a danger, and it may cause a fire in your home.
Basically, puncturing the LED strip with a staple is to be avoided as far as possible!
Other Methods Of Hanging LED Strip Lights
If you do not wish to take the chance of damaging your LED strip lights with an ill-fitting staple, then there are other ways you can try and hang your lights up in your home. These alternatives still have their cons; however, they can be easy to use and are an excellent alternative to staples.
The Already Applied Double Sided Tape
LED strip lights usually come with a strip of double-sided tape already applied to the LED lights’ back. This works well if you are using it to hang up your Led lights for the first time. Once you take the lights off the original surface that you applied them to, the glue on the double-sided tape starts to break down and become less sticky.
If the glue on the tape has lost its stickiness, then you will need to try other methods to hang your LED strip light up in your home.
Small Nails To Hang Your LED Strip Lights
Very small nails can be used to hang your LED lights in your home; they will cause holes in the surface that the lights are going to be applied to. So, if you do not want to cause holes in a surface in your home, then this method is not for you.
To use these small nails, mark a straight line or a simple design along the surface you will apply the lights to. Then nail the nails into the surface, not all the way, leave some of the nails out of the surface.
Run the LED lights on top of the nails and then bend the end of the nails over the LED lights. This will ensure that the lights are safely secured to the surface.
Hot Glue To Hang LED Strip Lights
You are able to use hot glue to stick your Led strip lights onto different surfaces. However, some people experience some problems with getting the hot glue to stick to the back of the LED lights as the previous tape starts to separate from the LED lights.
To get over this issue, you can wrap a small thin wire around the LED lights in the same place you will apply the hot glue. This will give the hot glue something to stick to.
Use Some Cable Ties
If you do not really mind the look of your LED strip lights because you only really care for the colors they give off, then you may consider using cable ties to hang up your LED strip lights. For this, make sure you use clear cable ties. This will not look elegant, but it will do the job, and it will not mess with the colors of the lights.
Use Mounting Putty To Hang LED Strip Lights
This is an alternative that does not require nails, staples, or glues. It is easy to use and is moveable. You can use mounting putty to hang your LED strip lights just about anywhere in your home without damaging anything.
For this method, mold some of the putty to the desired shape, then carefully secure it onto the back of the LED strip light. Once the putty is on the LED light, you can push it onto the surface you want the light to be stuck to. This is a great alternative option because it is easily removeable when you want to take the lights down.
Conclusion
You can use staples to fix Led strip lights in place, but you need to be careful and ensure you use the right size staple. However, there are many alternatives to using staples that may be less dangerous or harmful to the LED strip light.
Whichever way you choose to hang your LED strip lights, make sure you are safe and that the lights work properly. This way, you will know if something pierced the light, and you can take proper precautions.
References
https://www.instructables.com/The-Definitive-Guide-to-LED-Accent-Lighting/
https://askinglot.com/how-do-you-install-led-strip-lights-in-a-kitchen