Permanent Lighting

Why Your Permanent Lighting Quote in Farragut Should Start With an Accurate Roofline Measurement

New Age Lights • October 2026 • Farragut, TN • 7 min read

Hand holding a section of tan, color-matched permanent lighting track with built-in LED lights, Knoxville, TN

Short Answer: Permanent lighting is priced by the foot, so the footage on a proposal decides the price. Before you sign, ask how the roofline was measured and whether the price is fixed. A bid that undercounts the roofline isn’t cheaper. It just moves the cost to install day.

This time of year, a lot of Farragut homeowners and HOA boards have two or three lighting proposals side by side and are trying to figure out why the numbers don’t line up. Most people go straight to the price at the bottom. The better place to start is the footage at the top.

Permanent lighting is priced by the linear foot, so every permanent lighting quote in Farragut comes down to one number: how many feet of roofline are getting lights. A fixed price only stays fixed if that number is right.

The Bid That Was Missing 75 Feet

Our team recently reviewed a proposal on a clubhouse project where another bid had the roofline at 185 feet. Joey, our guy up north in the Cincinnati market, bid the same building and put it plainly: “They bid it as 185 feet. It is 260 feet.”

A gap like that rarely shows up while you’re comparing bids. It shows up on install day, when the crew gets on the roof and the conversation turns into “it’s another 70 or 80 feet, we’re going to have to charge.”

Here’s the math at $30 a foot, which sits in the middle of the $25 to $35 range JellyFish publishes:

Quoted: 185 feet x $30 = $5,550
Actual: 260 feet x $30 = $7,800
Surprise on install day: $2,250

The lower bid was never really lower. It was measuring less building. The property was going to pay for 260 feet either way. The only question was whether anyone found out before signing or after the ladders came out.

Why We Measure Before We Order a Single Light

Permanent track isn’t pulled off a spool on install day. It’s ordered to the footage ahead of time, and custom JellyFish track takes time to arrive. So the measurement isn’t just how the price gets set. It’s the order itself.

If that number is short, the crew shows up short of track. That means a change order, a second trip, or both. We have more reason than anyone to get the footage right before anything ships.

Every customer can have a free on-site design consult, and plenty of people want one. If you’d rather not have anyone out, digital measuring lets us measure the roofline, design the system, and order the lights before install day without stepping on the property. It’s accurate enough on its own, and we still double-check when it matters. Multi-level homes and larger projects like a clubhouse get a second look before the order goes in.

Getting the roofline measurement for permanent lights right before ordering is what lets the price on your proposal be the price you pay. If you’re curious what happens after the order arrives, here’s how permanent lighting is installed on Knoxville homes.

How a Short Measurement Happens

Usually it isn’t anything sinister. It’s a number estimated from the street instead of measured run by run. The front elevation gets counted carefully. The gable rakes, the garage wing around the side, or the back of a two- or three-story walkout get guessed at or missed entirely.

On a lot of Farragut homes, the back of the house is where the footage hides. It’s also the side nobody sees while they’re standing in the driveway talking price.

Three Questions to Ask Before You Sign

Whoever you’re talking to about permanent lighting in Knoxville, ask these before anything gets signed:

How did you measure? You want a specific answer, not “we eyeballed it from the street.”
Can you break the footage down by section? Front, sides, garage, back. If a proposal only shows one total, ask for the breakdown.
Is the price fixed, or can the footage change at install? If footage can change, the price can too.

One more check you can do yourself: pace the rooflines you want lit before requesting quotes. You won’t be exact, but if a bid comes in well under what you walked, ask why before you treat it as the cheap option. For everything else that separates installers, including warranty and service, see how to choose a permanent lighting company in Knoxville.

For Farragut HOA Boards and Property Managers

Plenty of Farragut neighborhoods have boards or architectural committees, and they tend to compare lighting bids side by side for clubhouses, entrances, and amenity buildings. That’s the right instinct. Just make sure every bid is measuring the same building.

Start before the bids come in. Give every company the same scope: which buildings, which elevations, which rooflines. Requesting bids without specifications is a common mistake associations make, and it’s how two companies end up quoting what are effectively two different projects.

Then line each bid up on three things:

Total footage. If two bids on the same clubhouse are far apart on footage, ask both companies for their section-by-section breakdown. One of them is off.
Per-foot cost. Divide each total by its footage. This tells you whether a lower bid is a better rate or just fewer feet.
What’s included. Ask about the controller and app, color and schedule options, how the track is mounted and matched to the trim, power requirements, and who handles service later.

Ask for footage listed by building or elevation, too: clubhouse, entrance, pool house. When a board has to explain its pick to residents, per-foot math on a clean breakdown is a lot easier to defend than “it was the lowest number.”

A good install sits tight to the roofline and is hard to spot in daylight, which is what an architectural committee will judge it on. More on community and business projects is on our commercial lighting page.

When to Get Measured

Since the lights get ordered before install day, the measurement is the first domino. Fall is when most people start thinking about lights, and it’s also when install calendars fill up. Getting a measured, fixed quote now gives you time to compare proposals properly instead of rushing a decision. If you’re already cutting it close, here’s how late you can order and still be lit by Christmas.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have to come to my house to quote permanent lighting?

Only if you want us to. Every quote comes with the option of a free on-site design consult. If you’d rather skip the visit, we can measure your roofline digitally, design the system, and order the lights before install day.

Can the price of permanent lights change on install day?

It can if the footage on the proposal was wrong. That’s why it’s worth asking whether a quote is fixed and how the roofline was measured. Our quotes are fixed because the footage is measured before we order.

Why do two permanent lighting quotes on the same house show different footage?

Usually because one was measured run by run and the other was estimated. Gable rakes, side garages, and the back of the house are the most common places footage gets missed.

How should an HOA compare permanent lighting bids?

Give every company the same scope, then compare total footage, per-foot cost, and what’s included. If two bids on the same building disagree on footage by a wide margin, ask each company to walk you through their numbers before comparing price.

Get a Quote Built on Real Footage

If you’re comparing options for permanent lighting in Knoxville, or want a second set of eyes on a permanent lighting quote in Farragut, New Age Lights offers a free on-site design consult and a fixed proposal with the footage laid out section by section. See our work around Farragut, or get a free quote at (865) 264-0180.