Des Moines is not a new suburb. Nearly half of its housing went up before 1960, and a Beaverdale brick house and a Sherman Hill Victorian are two different days of work. Here is how we read yours.
Seasonal C9 lights: $5 a foot of roofline booked by November 14, 2026, $500 minimum job. Your exact price comes after we measure.
Suburbs built in one decade tend to share a roofline. This city was built over more than a century, and it shows from the street.
Most of Beaverdale's subdivisions went in between 1920 and 1940, and the neighborhood is known for its brick homes. The fashionable Beaverdale Brick houses from contractor E.T. McMurray appeared in 1938.
For lighting, the front gable is the whole picture. That line is what people see from the street, and it is the run that decides how the house looks at night. Tate measures it on your house before anything gets cut.
Most of Sherman Hill was platted between 1877 and 1882. Its Queen Anne, Italianate and Eastlake houses came with gable roofs, porches and decorative millwork. It joined the National Register as a historic district in 1979 and became one of the city's first local historic districts in 1982.
Rooflines like that turn a lot, and simple lines cost less than busy ones, so the quote will reflect it. If yours is in a local historic district, check with the city before anything gets attached. We have not read your rules, so we will not tell you what they allow.
Big trees are the thing to look at in older neighborhoods like these. They can hide a run on a satellite image, so the ballpark comes from the image and the firm price comes after Tate measures in person.
The house decides the job, not the neighborhood. A short, straight run is a small job and a two-story with several gables is a bigger one. Either way the number starts from your roofline, and nobody needs an appointment to get it.
There is no single Des Moines package, and any company that hands you one before looking at the roof is guessing. A quote here starts with what your house actually is.
Send the address and Tate reads your Des Moines roofline off satellite imagery.
Get my free satellite estimateWest Des Moines has 12.4 percent of its housing from before 1960. Des Moines has almost four times that share.
of Des Moines housing was built before 1960. About one unit in four dates from 1939 or earlier.
ACS 2024 1-year, table B25034 ↗of units are detached single-family houses. The rest are attached, stacked or apartments, and those roofs are usually not the resident's to hang from.
ACS 2024 1-year, table B25024 ↗of occupied homes are owner-occupied. Roughly four in ten Des Moines households rent the place they live in.
ACS 2024 1-year, table B25003 ↗There are about 95,681 housing units in Des Moines. Only about one in five went up in 2000 or later, which is the opposite of Waukee or Ankeny, where most of what you drive past is recent.
What that means for you is practical. An older house may have few exterior outlets, so it is worth finding yours before install day. The install runs from existing exterior outlets. Anything beyond that is an electrician's answer, not Tate's.
One price covers the install, the whole season, January takedown and storage.
Get my free satellite estimateLook up the metro's best holiday lights and you land on these streets.
More than fifty homes take part along Ashby and Wallace Avenues, east and west of Beaver Avenue, with a radio station to tune to for a synced show. Check the current year's details before you go.
On Christmas Eve, neighbors line Waterbury Road with paper luminaries, and the tradition has spread to the streets nearby. It is small flames rather than bulbs.
University Avenue between 23rd and 25th Streets lights up through the Drake neighborhood's entertainment district, close to campus.
Free estimate, no appointment, and nobody walks your property for it.
Get my free satellite estimateEvery run is measured and cut to the house it goes on. Even spacing, straight lines, and no cord looping down the wall.
If you like being outside in October, that is a job you can do yourself. Where it stops being worth it is taking it all down in January with the ladder feet on frozen ground.
This is the opposite call. On a steep Beaverdale gable or a Sherman Hill Victorian, the peak is a long way up and the roofline turns several times. This is where people either hire it out or light the porch and call it done.
Roughly four in ten households here rent. Tell us before we quote. Get the owner's yes in writing, and we will keep to whatever they agree to. Without it we do not hang anything.
Pro-grade clips made for gutters, shingles and fascia, attached without nails or screws wherever the roofline allows. Where a spot does not allow it, Tate agrees the method with you before he starts.
Go deeper: what drives the price • when to book • doing it yourself • storage in January • everything we install
Next door: Urbandale • Windsor Heights • West Des Moines • Johnston • Ankeny • Norwalk
Send us the address. Tate pulls satellite imagery of your roofline, measures the runs and counts the peaks off the image, and texts a real ballpark back. Usually the same day. No appointment, and nobody comes to your house for this part.
Two fields. Tate reads your roofline off satellite imagery and texts a ballpark back, usually the same day.
Rather talk first? Call or text 515-585-9079, or use the contact page.
