Business: Deck the halls … and roofs, trees and bushes (11/25/19) – Southeast Missourian

C.B. Forck says its hard to estimate the extent of the Christmas decorating he does every year as the holiday season approaches.

We probably hang enough lights every year to stretch 50 miles at least, he said as he climbed the ladder to the roof of a Cape Girardeau home. And tens of thousands of lights for sure. Maybe more.

Now in its 20th year, Forcks Lite Designs & Guttering of Benton, Missouri, is responsible for outdoor holiday lighting for more than 100 homes and businesses throughout the Cape Girardeau and Jackson area as well as several surrounding counties in Southeast Missouri.

Chris Vernon, left, C.B. Forck, foreground, and Brent Forck hang lights last week along the roofline at the home of Vince and Jan Kelley in Cape Girardeau.

Jay Wolz ~ jwolz@semissourian.com

We start hanging lights in the middle of October and try to have everything up by the first week of December, Forck said. For several months, he and his eight-man crew (including two of his sons) work almost every day, often regardless of weather, decorating home and business exteriors as well as trees, shrubs, light poles and virtually anything else from which they can hang lights, wreaths and garland.

They spent the past few days stringing miles of lights through Jackson City Park and this week theyll focus on Old Town Capes new 30-foot tree at the intersection of Broadway and Fountain Street, across from The Courtyard by Marriott.

Jacksons park lighting ceremony is at the same time as the Christmas tree in Cape, Forck said. Both are scheduled for Friday evening.

Weve been doing the Jackson Park for a few years and that is a major keep your fingers crossed project when we turn it on, Forck laughed. We had issues our first year there four years ago because it was raining. And Im not talking about a little bit of rain. The ground was flooded, Hubble Creek was out of its banks and electricity, GFI outlets and water dont mix!

Forcks holiday lights business evolved out of the landscape work he was doing in the 1990s. We had a few residential customers ask us about doing exterior Christmas lighting and thats how we got started, he said. Since then, we no longer do the lawn care and landscaping. These days, we do construction work guttering, siding, soffits and fascia the rest of the year.

The Christmas lighting business has grown every year, he said, mostly thanks to word of mouth. Thats our No. 1 form of advertising, so to speak, he said. That and our trucks. People see us driving around and see us at customers homes and businesses and decide they want to hire us to do their homes and businesses, too.

C.B. Forck poses for a photo with one of his Forcks Lite Designs & Guttering company trucks.

Jay Wolz ~ jwolz@semissourian.com

Forck says many of his clients hired him because they dont have the time, inclination or expertise to do the work themselves. A lot of homeowners dont have the ladders and that sort of thing we have, he said.

One thing Forck and his employees dont appear to have is a fear of heights as they seem very at ease working on rooftops two and three stories above the ground.

About 60% of Forcks customers are residential clients while the rest are businesses such as banks and office buildings. One of his biggest clients is Cape Girardeaus downtown business district where the seasonal lights have recently been converted from incandescent lights to LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs.

Virtually everything we do now is commercial grade LED lighting thats custom cut to fit your house, Forck noted. There are advantages to LED lights. They use less power, theyre more reliable and a lot of the same bulbs are still going after 10 years. Youre never going to find that with incandescent lights.

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It takes about three or four hours to light the average home, but some well be at all day, he said. It all depends on what the customer wants and the size of the installation.

The work doesnt stop once the lights are hung. We do a complete weekly drive through of all of our properties after dark to verify that everything is burning like its supposed to be and replacing a bulb here and a bulb there, even if a customer hasnt called, Forck said. Of course, if a customer calls, we respond within 24 hours. Weve even done repairs between Christmas and New Years because customers want everything lit for New Years parties and things of that sort.

And, of course, what goes up must come down.

Well start taking everything down starting the first week of January and, weather permitting, well have everything down and stored by the middle of February, Forck said. We store about 90% of everything we hang in a 7,000-square-foot warehouse in Benton.

Chris Vernon attaches individual Christmas to shingles on the roof at the home of Vince and Jan Kelley in Cape Girardeau.

By Jay Wolz ~ jwolz@semissourian.com

The warehouse is adjacent to Lite Designs & Gutterings shop and offices where Forcks wife, Pam, handles the companys billing, scheduling and other administrative responsibilities.

Does Forck think of himself as an artist when it comes to Christmas lighting? Yeah, Ive had people for years who say they can tell the homes we do because all the lights are in straight lines, every bulb is clipped and theres not stuff hanging everywhere, he said. Its nice to sit back and look at em once theyre lit.

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Business: Deck the halls ... and roofs, trees and bushes (11/25/19) - Southeast Missourian