Des Moines Window Pros: Replacement Windows, Patio Doors and Entry Doors
Expert residential and commercial window services. Measured quotes, priced in tiers, with the cheaper job listed first.
- ✓Registered Iowa construction contractor under Iowa Code chapter 91C
- ✓EPA Lead-Safe Certified practices on housing painted before 1978
- ✓Every quote priced in tiers, with the repair option listed first
- ✓Written workmanship warranty covering flashing and air sealing
Des Moines Window Pros installs and repairs replacement windows, patio doors and entry doors across Des Moines, Iowa, in vinyl, pultruded fiberglass, aluminum-clad wood and thermally broken aluminum. We also handle insulated glass unit replacement, sash balance and operator repair, screens and storm panels, and commercial storefront glazing.
Every quote we write names the whole-unit U-factor and air-leakage rating off the NFRC label, the spacer type inside the sealed unit, and the flashing detail at the sill, because a low U-factor set into an unsealed rough opening will not perform. Low-E coatings, argon fills, warm-edge spacers, welded corners and sloped sill pans are specification items here, not upsells.
We also tell you when glass is the wrong first purchase. In a heating climate, air sealing and attic insulation usually return more comfort per dollar than new windows do, so our estimates put the cheaper work ahead of the glass and price all of it separately. We are entirely willing to leave with a smaller job than the one you called about, and we say so before the tape measure comes out.
Why Des Moines Chooses Des Moines Window Pros
- ✓We price the repair before the replacement, and we will take the smaller job
- ✓Whole-unit NFRC ratings on every quote, never center-of-glass numbers
- ✓Sloped sill pans with back dam and end dams on every opening we set
- ✓Insulated glass unit replacement offered on any sash that is still sound
- ✓We name what the same money would buy in air sealing and attic insulation
- ✓Openings surveyed and priced individually rather than as a whole-house package
About Des Moines Window Pros in Des Moines, IA
Des Moines Window Pros works on windows, doors and glass across Polk, Dallas, Warren and Story counties, on houses that run from the pre-war blocks of Sherman Hill and the Beaverdale brick Tudors out to subdivisions finished last spring. Residential and commercial, new units and repairs, and a good deal of work that is honestly neither: balances, operators, sealed units, screens and storm panels.
The thing that makes us different is the order we recommend. In a heating climate the cheap work outperforms the expensive work per dollar spent, so we price air sealing and insulation into the conversation even though we do not sell either of them, and we put the smallest honest job at the top of the estimate rather than buried at the bottom of page two.
Do not hire us if you want a same-day whole-house number over the phone, or if you have already decided on nineteen new windows and want somebody to agree with you. If two of those nineteen have failed seals and the rest are sound, that is what our estimate will say, and it will be a much smaller number than you were expecting.
Our Window Services in Des Moines, IA
High-Performance Glazing and Energy-Efficient Windows
Before we quote glass we ask what the attic measures. The Department of Energy puts heat gain and heat loss through windows at 25 to 30 percent of residential heating and cooling energy use, which leaves roughly three quarters of the problem somewhere else in the house.
Vinyl Replacement Windows
Vinyl is where most of the value sits in this market, and we will argue that against anyone who wants three times the money for a frame you cannot see from the street. What decides a vinyl window is the extrusion and the installation, not the badge on the corner.
Fiberglass and Composite Window Frames
Fiberglass earns its premium in a narrow set of cases, and we would rather name those cases than sell the material by default. Pultruded frames cost meaningfully more than vinyl per opening, so the only question worth asking is whether your particular openings repay the difference.
Aluminum-Clad Wood Windows and Sash Restoration
This city has a lot of houses worth keeping original sash in. The 2019-2023 American Community Survey puts about 27,000 of Des Moines' roughly 97,000 housing units at 1939 or earlier, and much of that glass is old-growth wood that outlasts what replaced it.
Thermally Broken Aluminum Windows
We talk homeowners out of residential aluminum more often than we sell it. In a climate zone where the code baseline for glass is a U-factor of 0.32, a bare aluminum frame is a conductor bolted through the wall, and the sill is where you will see the evidence.
Double-Hung and Single-Hung Windows
The double-hung is the most common window in this city and by far the most over-replaced. Half the calls we take about them concern a sash that drops when you let go of it, and that symptom points at the balance rather than at the window around it.
Casement and Awning Windows
On a casement the frame usually outlives the hardware by twenty years, so the honest first question is whether you need a window or a crank. We stock operators, hinge arms, keepers and multipoint locks, and we will fit them rather than sell you a unit.
Horizontal Slider Windows
A horizontal slider is the least airtight operating style you can buy and by some distance the easiest one to keep running. Both of those facts should shape what you spend on it, and neither of them means the slider in your wall has to go this year.
Bay and Bow Window Assemblies
A bay is a small piece of structure with glass in it, and most bay problems are structural rather than glazing. Before anyone quotes new units we want to know what is happening at the head board, the seat board, the cables and the little roof above.
Picture, Transom and Architectural Shapes
Fixed glass is the biggest single line on most quotes and usually the last line that should be funded. A picture window has no operating hardware, no weatherstrip to wear and no balance to fail, so a sound one can quietly outlive everything else in the wall around it.
Basement Egress Windows and Window Wells
Egress is the single topic here where we tell you to spend first and ask about payback afterwards. An escape opening is a life-safety item and a code item, and it does not compete with attic insulation for the same household dollars in the same way.
Laminated Security and Sound-Control Glass
We are going to argue against the way this product is usually sold here. Laminated impact glass is a genuinely good thing to own in central Iowa, but almost never for the reason it gets marketed, and the honest version changes what you should pay for it.
Sliding Patio Doors
A patio slider is the single largest hole in most houses, and it is one of the very few places where we will tell you to spend on glass before you spend on the attic. Six or eight feet of moving assembly leaks more than a wall of windows does.
French and Hinged Patio Doors
A hinged patio door seals better than a slider and costs considerably more to get right. Both halves of that sentence matter, and which half dominates depends entirely on how much swing space the room has and how the existing opening was framed.
Entry Doors, Sidelites and Service Doors
This is the page where we openly reverse the usual order. In a heating climate the front door, the service door and the door from the house into the garage will usually return more comfort per dollar than any window on the same elevation.
Window Screens, Rescreening and Storm Panels
Screens are the cheapest thing we do and we would far rather do them than sell you a window. A torn screen on a sound sash is a twenty-minute rescreen, and a surprising number of replacement quotes in this city start with a homeowner staring at a damaged screen.
Glass Repair and Insulated Glass Unit Replacement
A fogged window almost never needs a new window. The insulated glass unit inside the sash has lost its edge seal, and in most cases that unit comes out and a new one goes back in while the frame, the hardware and the interior trim stay where they are.
Commercial Storefront and Entrance Glass
On a commercial front the money almost never belongs in the glass first. Doors, closers, thresholds and the perimeter sealant joint all fail long before the glazing does, and they are what your customers and your heating bill actually notice about the building.
Storefront, entrance and curtain wall glazing for Greater Des Moines businesses
Commercial work follows the same sequence as our residential work and for the same reason: on a storefront the money almost never belongs in the glass first. Closers, pivots, sweeps, thresholds and the perimeter sealant joint fail long before the glazing does, and they are what your customers, your staff and your heating bill actually notice.
We rebuild entrances, re-glaze what is broken, correct blocked weeps and failed joints, and phase larger frame replacements across budget years so a building owner can plan rather than react. We work on retail fronts, office suites, restaurants, clinics, warehouses and multi-tenant buildings, and we will tell you plainly which items can safely wait another year.
- ✓Aluminum entrance doors rebuilt: closers sized to the leaf, pivots, sweeps, thresholds and panic device adjustment
- ✓Storefront framing and all-glass entrances with patch fittings for tenant fit-outs and retail conversions
- ✓Thermally broken systems with polyamide struts where the space is heated and an untreated frame would sweat
- ✓Curtain wall and spandrel panel glass replacement, including fogged sealed units in older assemblies
- ✓Emergency board-up and same-week re-glaze after break-ins, vandalism and storm damage
- ✓Laminated glass and applied safety film where security or street noise is the real problem
- ✓Perimeter sealant joint renewal and weep hole clearing before any glazing work is quoted
- ✓Borrowed lites, interior office partitions and obscure glazing for clinics and conference rooms
Recent Projects Across Greater Des Moines
How It Works
- Walk the envelope before we look at the openings. The first visit starts in the attic hatch and the basement rim, not at the windows. We check insulation depth against the R-49 the state energy code asks for at the ceiling, look for open top plates, bath fan chases and dropped soffits, and check whether the band joist has ever been sealed. That tells us where your money will actually work hardest.
- Probe and measure every opening individually. Then we go opening by opening. We probe the sill and lower jambs for rot, test balances and operators, check whether a hazed unit is a failed seal or surface film, and measure for both an insert and a full-frame replacement so the difference in glass area is a number you can see rather than a surprise on installation day.
- Quote it in tiers, cheapest job first. You get three prices, not one. What it costs to repair what you have, what it costs to fix only the openings that have genuinely failed, and what a full package would run. Alongside those we note what the same money would buy in air sealing and insulation, so the comparison is on one page instead of in two separate conversations.
- Install to the detail, then prove it. On installation we build a sloped sill pan with a back dam and end dams, lap self-adhered flashing over the housewrap shingle-fashion, set plumb and square, shim at the load points only, and pack the shim space with low-expansion foam. Then we operate and lock every sash with you, and haul the old units away.
What Des Moines Customers Say
I called for a quote on eleven windows and got an estimate for three, plus a page explaining why the attic was the better place for the rest of the money. They replaced two failed sealed units and one rotted sash and left. The upstairs is noticeably warmer and I spent less than a quarter of what the first company quoted.
Our casements would not close properly and two companies told us the windows were shot. These guys replaced the operators, the hinge tracks and the weatherstrip on six units in one morning. They also showed me the corner welds and explained why the frames were still fine. No pressure to buy anything else.
We were finishing the basement and needed an egress window. They walked me through the net clear opening numbers before quoting, sized the well properly with a drain, and coordinated with the inspector. The measurements were exactly what they said they would be, and it passed the first time.
Foggy glass in four windows and I assumed I was buying four windows. They swapped the insulated units in the existing sash instead, with a better spacer than the originals had. Took an afternoon, cost a fraction of the quotes I had, and the trim and paint were never touched.
Service Areas
Des Moines Window Pros serves Des Moines, IA and surrounding communities including:
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I replace my windows or insulate first in Des Moines?
Insulate first in most houses here. The Department of Energy attributes 25 to 30 percent of residential heating and cooling energy use to heat gain and loss through windows, which leaves the majority of the problem elsewhere.
The EPA estimates that air sealing plus insulation in attics, floors over crawl spaces and basements saves an average of 15 percent on heating and cooling costs, or about 11 percent of a total energy bill, usually for a fraction of what a window package costs. Windows jump the queue when they are actually failing rather than merely old.
What U-factor should replacement windows have here?
Iowa has adopted the 2012 IECC, and Polk County sits in Climate Zone 5A, where the prescriptive fenestration U-factor is 0.32. That is a legal floor.
ENERGY STAR Version 7.0 places Iowa in the Northern climate zone and sets the prescriptive bar at a whole-unit U-factor of 0.22 with a solar heat gain coefficient of 0.17 or higher, with equivalent paths at 0.23 and 0.24 if SHGC reaches 0.35 and at 0.25 and 0.26 if it reaches 0.40. Ask for whole-unit numbers, not center-of-glass figures.
My windows are foggy between the panes. Do I need new windows?
Almost certainly not. Fogging means the insulated glass unit has lost its edge seal, the argon has diffused out and the desiccant in the spacer has saturated. If the sash still operates, locks and sits square, we take out the failed unit and set a new one in the same sash, and the frame, hardware and interior trim never move. That typically costs a fraction of a replacement window and restores essentially all of the original performance.
Does a window contractor have to be licensed in Iowa?
Iowa does not license glaziers as a separate trade. It registers construction contractors under Iowa Code chapter 91C, and anyone earning 2,000 dollars a year or more from construction work in the state has to be registered. Contractors whose principal place of business is outside Iowa must also file a 25,000 dollar bond to register. Ask for the registration number, check it, and ask for insurance certificates sent to you directly by the carrier.
Do I need a permit to replace windows in Des Moines?
It depends on what changes. Setting a new unit into an unaltered existing opening is treated differently from enlarging an opening, cutting a new one, or changing structure, and basement egress work almost always involves both a permit and an inspection. We confirm the requirement with the city Permit and Development Center before we order anything, because a permit question answered after the glass arrives is an expensive question.
Can I put a bedroom in my basement with the windows I have?
Only if the opening meets the emergency escape and rescue requirements: a net clear opening of at least 5.7 square feet, a net clear height of at least 24 inches, a net clear width of at least 20 inches, and a sill no more than 44 inches above the finished floor.
Net clear means the hole you can actually crawl through, not the frame size. Plenty of older houses here already comply once the storm and screen come off, and plenty of newer sliders do not.