Des Moines Window Pros provides professional aluminum-clad wood windows and sash restoration in Des Moines, IA for residential and commercial properties across Greater Des Moines. 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.
So on a pre-war house the first job is separating the frame from the finish. Peeling paint, a stuck sash, a cloudy pane and a broken cord are all maintenance. Rot through the sill, a jamb that has moved out of plane, or a meeting rail you can push a screwdriver through is failure. Only the second list justifies buying a new unit.
When the sash is sound, the cheaper and better answer is usually restoration plus a storm. Reglaze with linseed putty, swap cord for chain, ease and prime the stiles, add spring bronze at the parting bead, then hang an AERC-rated low-e storm panel. The Department of Energy puts those storms at savings similar to full replacement for roughly a third of the cost.
Anything painted before 1978 brings the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule with it, and window work is among the dustiest jobs that rule covers. That means a certified firm, plastic containment, wet methods and HEPA cleanup. It is a real line on the estimate, and we will not pretend otherwise or quietly leave it off to look cheaper.
Where a genuine aluminum-clad wood unit belongs is on the replacements you cannot avoid: rotted openings, additions, kitchen bump-outs, dormers opened up during an attic conversion, and the occasional full rebuild where matching an original profile matters. Extruded cladding with a factory fluoropolymer finish holds up far better than roll-formed cladding with a lap joint sitting at the sill horn.
Ask what is behind the cladding, because that is where the failures start and it is the one thing no showroom sample shows you. Preservative-treated pine with sealed end grain and a drained sill will outlive a bare finger-jointed jamb by decades, and the sill horn is the first place water finds if the metal is folded around the corner rather than welded.
If your block sits inside one of the city's local historic districts, the exterior work goes in front of a review before it goes in front of a saw. Sash profile, muntin pattern, exterior color and whether a storm mounts inside or outside can all become conditions of approval, and getting that order wrong costs a season.
We take restoration work and we take replacement work, and the second of those pays us considerably better. That is precisely why we tell you which one your house actually needs before we tell you what either of them costs, and why the estimate lists the openings we think you should leave alone this year alongside the ones we think you should not.
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 aluminum-clad wood windows and sash restoration in Des Moines covers
One crew, one point of contact, and the full range of aluminum-clad wood windows and sash restoration work in Des Moines, IA. If it is on this list we do it in house rather than handing it to a subcontractor:
- aluminum clad wood windows
- wood window restoration
- historic window repair
- sash cord replacement
- linseed putty reglazing
- spring bronze weatherstrip
- old growth wood sash
- extruded cladding windows
- wood window replacement Des Moines
- lead safe window work
- pre-1978 window renovation
- storm windows over historic sash
- divided lite wood windows
- historic district windows
- rotted window sill repair
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 aluminum-clad wood windows and sash restoration
The difference between aluminum-clad wood windows and sash restoration that lasts and aluminum-clad wood windows and sash restoration 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 aluminum-clad wood windows and sash restoration 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.
- Aluminum-Clad Wood Windows and Sash Restoration in West Des Moines, IA — Polk County, population 68,723 at the 2020 census
- Aluminum-Clad Wood Windows and Sash Restoration in Ankeny, IA — Polk County, population 67,887 at the 2020 census
- Aluminum-Clad Wood Windows and Sash Restoration in Ames, IA — Story County, population 66,427 at the 2020 census
- Aluminum-Clad Wood Windows and Sash Restoration in Urbandale, IA — Polk County, population 45,580 at the 2020 census
- Aluminum-Clad Wood Windows and Sash Restoration in Johnston, IA — Polk County, population 24,064 at the 2020 census
- Aluminum-Clad Wood Windows and Sash Restoration 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 aluminum-clad wood windows and sash restoration
Quality here is not a matter of opinion — it is written down. The aluminum-clad wood windows and sash restoration 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 aluminum-clad wood windows and sash restoration 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 aluminum-clad wood windows and sash restoration free estimate in Des Moines, or request a quote and we'll get right back to you.