Window Replacement in Urbandale

Urbandale at a glance

Urbandale is a city of 45,580 people (2020) in Polk and Dallas counties, the 12th largest city in Iowa, northwest of Des Moines.

What that means for your windows

Urbandale grew fast in the 1960s and 70s, so many neighborhoods are full of ranches and split-levels with original aluminum or early vinyl windows and big living-room picture windows; see picture and bay windows. Original aluminum sliders from the postwar boom often sweat and frost on cold mornings, and the frames conduct cold straight into the room.

Split-level challenges

Split-levels have windows at several heights, including half-buried lower-level windows that may need egress upgrades. Lower-level windows in split-levels sit close to the ground, so window wells, drainage and egress size all matter.

A streetcar suburb

Urbandale incorporated on April 16, 1917, in part so residents could form their own school district after raising $2,000 for a two-room schoolhouse. Early on it was a streetcar suburb with four coal mines, and the cars carried miners and students into Des Moines. Homes from the postwar boom that followed are now over half a century old, and many still have their first windows; see replacement windows.