Des Moines Window Pros provides professional thermally broken aluminum windows in Des Moines, IA for residential and commercial properties across Greater Des Moines. 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.
The visible symptom is water rather than heat. Condensation forms on the coldest interior surface in the room, and on an untreated aluminum frame that surface is the frame. Homeowners blame the glass, replace the glass, and watch the same puddle appear the following January because nothing at all changed at the metal.
Thermally broken framing solves it properly, and it is the only version of aluminum we will put in a heated room. A poured-and-debridged urethane channel, or a set of polyamide struts, breaks the metal between the room side and the weather side so the frame is no longer one continuous conductor. A well-made system of that kind carries a condensation resistance rating on its NFRC label, and that number is worth reading before you sign anything.
That engineering costs money, and on a house it usually buys nothing a good vinyl or fiberglass frame would not have bought for less. So on residential work we quote aluminum when there is a specific reason: a steel-look interior, a very large opening, a mid-century elevation you want to keep honest, or a commercial-grade unit in a loft conversion.
Where it genuinely belongs is the commercial side, and we do a lot of that work downtown and along the older commercial corridors. Storefront framing, entrance doors with a ten-inch bottom rail, curtain wall infill, borrowed lites and interior office glazing are all aluminum jobs, and there the strength-to-sightline ratio is the entire point of choosing the material in the first place.
Existing aluminum in older houses is a separate conversation. Single-glazed aluminum sliders and awnings from the sixties and seventies are the one window type we rarely argue to keep, because no storm panel fixes a frame that is itself the defect and the hardware has usually been out of production for thirty years.
Even then the money order holds. If the attic is thin, we would rather see you seal and insulate this year and replace those sliders next year than borrow against both at once. We will tell you which units are genuinely urgent, which ones will sit another winter without doing any damage, and roughly what each group will cost when its turn comes.
Finish is worth specifying properly on anything we do install, because it is the one decision you cannot revisit cheaply. Class I anodizing or an AAMA 2605 fluoropolymer coating holds color and gloss for decades. A cheap AAMA 2603 coating on a south elevation will chalk within a few years, and repainting extruded aluminum in place is a poor substitute for buying the correct finish once.
Our licensed and insured team brings the right materials and equipment to every job — dense-pack cellulose and attic top-plate air sealing done ahead of glass, AERC-rated low-e interior and exterior storm panels, warm-edge spacers in replacement insulated glass units, pultruded fiberglass lineals with a glass-matched expansion rate, polyamide thermal struts in commercial aluminum framing, EPA Lead-Safe Certified containment on pre-1978 openings — and backs the work with a written workmanship warranty. We serve Des Moines and nearby communities including West Des Moines, Ankeny, Ames, Urbandale.
What We Handle
Everything our thermally broken aluminum windows in Des Moines covers
One crew, one point of contact, and the full range of thermally broken aluminum windows work in Des Moines, IA. If it is on this list we do it in house rather than handing it to a subcontractor:
- aluminum windows
- thermally broken aluminum
- polyamide strut framing
- poured and debridged frames
- condensation resistance rating
- aluminum window replacement
- steel look windows
- anodized aluminum windows
- AAMA 2605 finish
- commercial grade windows
- aluminum slider replacement
- mid century windows
- window condensation on frames
- aluminum window condensation Des Moines
- large aluminum openings
Not sure which one describes your situation? Describe it in plain words and we will sort it out — or browse the rest of our Des Moines services.
Materials, equipment and how we do thermally broken aluminum windows
The difference between thermally broken aluminum windows that lasts and thermally broken aluminum windows that gets redone in three years is almost always preparation and materials, not the finish you see on day one. We work with dense-pack cellulose and attic top-plate air sealing done ahead of glass, AERC-rated low-e interior and exterior storm panels, warm-edge spacers in replacement insulated glass units, pultruded fiberglass lineals with a glass-matched expansion rate, spec them to the job instead of to the invoice, and write the material grades into the free estimate so you know exactly what you are buying.
Every Des Moines job runs the same way: site walk and measurements, written scope and fixed price, protection of the surrounding area, then the work itself with a daily clean-up. Years of window work in Greater Des Moines means we have already met whatever your property is going to throw at us — awkward access, older construction, an HOA with opinions.
Where we do thermally broken aluminum windows outside Des Moines
Des Moines Window Pros covers Des Moines and the surrounding communities of Greater Des Moines. Crews run out to the same nearby cities every week, so an out-of-town job does not mean an out-of-town price.
- Thermally Broken Aluminum Windows in West Des Moines, IA — Polk County, population 68,723 at the 2020 census
- Thermally Broken Aluminum Windows in Ankeny, IA — Polk County, population 67,887 at the 2020 census
- Thermally Broken Aluminum Windows in Ames, IA — Story County, population 66,427 at the 2020 census
- Thermally Broken Aluminum Windows in Urbandale, IA — Polk County, population 45,580 at the 2020 census
- Thermally Broken Aluminum Windows in Johnston, IA — Polk County, population 24,064 at the 2020 census
- Thermally Broken Aluminum Windows in Waukee, IA — Dallas County, population 23,940 at the 2020 census
Start on the Des Moines Window Pros homepage for a free estimate, or call (844) 511-2320 and describe the job.
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
The standards behind thermally broken aluminum windows
Quality here is not a matter of opinion — it is written down. The thermally broken aluminum windows work we do in Des Moines follows published industry standards: NFRC sets the U-factor and SHGC ratings on every window label, and ENERGY STAR defines the efficiency thresholds by climate zone. If a contractor cannot tell you which standard a detail comes from, that is worth asking about before you sign.
Every thermally broken aluminum windows project in Des Moines gets the same attention, whether it is a single room or a full commercial job. We show up on schedule, keep the site clean, and stand behind the work — the estimate is free and there is no pressure.
Ready to get started? Call (844) 511-2320 for a free thermally broken aluminum windows free estimate in Des Moines, or request a quote and we'll get right back to you.