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Grimes, Iowa

Christmas Light Installation For Grimes, Iowa Homes

Roughly one in four homes in Grimes did not exist in 2020. That is the whole story of this town right now, and it is the reason a Christmas light job here is different from one two towns over. Most of these rooflines have never had a light on them.

Want a real number for your Grimes roofline? Nobody has to come out.

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The Numbers

Grimes Built A Quarter Of Itself In Five Years

This is not a figure of speech. It is arithmetic off the city's own special census.

7,578

housing units in Grimes at the 2025 special census, up from 5,708 in 2020. That is 1,870 more homes in five years.

City of Grimes 2025 Special Census
32.7%

growth in the number of homes over those five years. Work it back and roughly one in four Grimes homes was not there in 2020.

City of Grimes 2025 Special Census
17,809

people living in Grimes in 2025, up from 15,392 in 2020. The town is filling those houses as fast as it builds them.

City of Grimes 2025 Special Census

Two counts that look like they disagree, and do not

If you go looking for Grimes housing numbers you will find two. The special census says 7,578 units in 2025. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey says 6,224, with a median year built of 2009.

Both are right. The ACS number is an average across 2020 through 2024, and the special census is one day in 2025. The gap between them is basically the building that happened in between. We are showing you both because a page that quietly picks the bigger number is not being straight with you.

66.1% of Grimes went up in 2000 or later

Only 5.4% of it is older than 1960. The median Grimes home was built in 2009, so half the town's housing is newer than that.

64.0% detached, 70.9% owned

That detached share is higher than Ankeny at 58.2% and Johnston at 56.4%. Grimes is smaller than both, but a bigger slice of it is the standalone house this job is actually built for.

ACS 2020-2024, tables B25024, B25034 and B25035

New roof, first season, no idea where to start? That is most of this town.

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A Town Of First Seasons

What A Brand New Roofline Means For The Job

A house built since 2020 is a different install from a house built in 1975, in ways that are worth knowing before you get quoted.

Start with the good part. On a roof this new the gutter lip is straight, the fascia has not moved, and the shingle edges are square. Clips sit where you put them. There are no old screw holes from somebody else's set and no guesswork about what got done here last year, because nothing did.

Now the part nobody mentions. We do not assume anything about your roof from the year your street went in. Whatever gables and eave heights your front actually has get read off the satellite image first. Short runs at different heights read as one clean line from the road only if every one of them is cut to the line it sits on.

And on a new street you have no local set to copy. On a block where half the houses have been lit for twenty years, you can look outside and see what works. On a Grimes street where every house closed in the last four years, nobody has done it yet. If you are not sure what to ask for, say so when you send the address and we will walk you through the options.

Power is the last one. The install runs off an existing exterior outlet, and that is all we touch. If your house does not have one where you need it, that is a conversation for an electrician before we start, not a conversation for us.

Your first season

The first season is where your set gets made. Tate measures the roofline, cuts every run to fit it, and puts it up. That set is yours once the job is paid for. It is cut for your house and it will not fit the one next door, even if it looks the same from the street.

Every season after

Your own set comes back out of storage and goes back up on the house it was cut for. Nothing to buy again, nothing to untangle, and nothing living in your rafters in between.

First time doing this? Send the address and we will talk you through it.

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Being Straight About Grimes

Grimes Has No Christmas Tradition Yet

We are not going to invent one to make this page look better.

The city runs no winter event

The City of Grimes' own community events page lists no holiday or winter event at all. Its signature civic event is Governor's Days, and that is in June.

There is no city tree lighting here, no city lights contest, and no famous decorated street that shows up on any metro lights guide.

The chamber runs the one there is

The Grimes Holiday Celebration is a chamber event, not a city one, and it lands on the first Sunday afternoon in December.

Santa and Mrs Claus tour the town on a firetruck from three to five. Then there is a free walk-through from five to seven at the Grimes Community Complex, 410 SE Main Street, with hot cocoa, lights and music.

Ankeny has a street that has run the same display for 31 years. Windsor Heights judges its whole town. Grimes has a firetruck and a good afternoon at the community complex, and that is it so far.

That is not a knock on the town. It is what a place looks like when a quarter of it is five years old. Traditions take longer to build than subdivisions do. It also means the first properly lit house on a new Grimes street gets noticed in a way it never would in Ankeny, because nothing else on the block is competing with it.

The Rules Question

What We Know, And What We Could Not Read

No ordinance, anywhere in this metro

We went through the municipal codes of every town we serve looking for a rule on holiday decorations, seasonal lighting, or a deadline to take them down. There is not one. Not in Grimes and not in any of its neighbors.

Grimes design standards: we could not read them

Grimes publishes Visual Design Standards, but they sit in a viewer that would not open for us, and we could not confirm whether they even apply to single-family homes. So we are not going to tell you what they say. Anyone who does tell you has not read them either.

Your HOA, and how to check it yourself

No Grimes association publishes its decoration rules, so if you are in one, we cannot tell you what yours allows and we are not going to guess. We also cannot tell you how many Grimes subdivisions have an association at all, because nobody publishes that either.

What we can tell you is what we have read elsewhere. We read the full recorded covenant for Prairie Trail in Ankeny and the published covenant summary for Country Club West in Clive, which covers 646 homes. Neither says a word about holiday lights. Two of the most rule-heavy associations in the metro, and neither restricts this.

To check your own, every declaration of covenants in Iowa is recorded and free to search at iowalandrecords.org. Search Polk County and your subdivision name. Bylaws and day-to-day rules usually are not recorded, so for those you still have to ask your board.

The Finished Look

Runs At Different Heights, Reading As One Line

Real homes around the metro. No stock photos.

Warm white C9 bulbs running the full gutter line and front peak of a two story home at dusk

Cut to the roofline, not bought by the box.

LED C9 bulbs spaced evenly along the eaves and entry gable of a newer suburban home at night

Even spacing is what makes it look finished.

Same day ballpark, most days. No appointment for that part.

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Still Building

The Hope District Is Not Finished Yet

About 200 acres, still going up

The Hope District runs roughly 200 acres from West First Street north to NE Beaverbrooke Boulevard. The Hy-Vee Multiplex, a 50-acre sports complex, opened inside it in 2023. Grimes is not a town that finished growing.

Which is why we book Grimes early

Every year there are more houses here than the year before, and the install window is the same length it always was. First season jobs take longer than repeat ones, because the set has to be cut. Grimes is mostly first seasons.

When A Grimes House Does Not Need Us

Single story, one straight gutter run you can reach off a step ladder, and you like doing it? Go do it. You will save real money and it will look fine.

It stops being worth it on a two-story front, and on anything where the entry gable and the garage gable sit at different heights. That is where a store-bought strand stops fitting and starts looking like a store-bought strand.

Timing In Grimes

The Weather Sets Your Deadline Here, Not The Town

No town date to work back from

In towns with a big tree lighting, that evening is the deadline everyone works back from. Grimes does not have one, so most people here aim at the first Sunday in December, when the chamber celebration runs, or just at the first weekend their family is all home.

The freeze is the deadline that is real

We work on rooflines. In Polk County the average first 32 degree freeze lands in the middle of October, and the odds climb quickly through the rest of the month.

Iowa State University Extension, Polk County

More on this: when to book Christmas lights in Des Moines →

What You Get

One Price, Start To Finish

  • Commercial-grade C9 bulbs, cut to fit your Grimes roofline
  • Pro-grade clips that attach without nails or screws wherever the roofline allows
  • Maintenance all season. Bulb out or clip loose, fixed within 48 hours
  • Takedown in January, booked with you
  • Storage of your set until the following October

There is no separate takedown bill and no storage fee. The bulbs, clips and cord are yours once the job is paid for. We just hold them for you so your garage stays empty.

Tate is the one who measures your roof, cuts the runs, puts them up, comes back if something goes out, and takes it all down. He owns the company and he is the one on your roof.

Go deeper: what drives the price • everything we install • DIY vs hiring • how storage works • contact Tate

Nearby towns: Johnston • Urbandale • Ankeny

Get A Free Satellite Estimate For Your Grimes Home

Send the address. Tate pulls satellite imagery of your roofline, measures the runs, 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.

Get your Grimes estimate

Two fields. Tate reads your roofline off satellite imagery and texts a ballpark back, usually the same day.

Required: texting is how Tate sends your estimate and confirms your install date.

The estimate is free and there is no obligation. Installs start mid-October and the calendar fills before Thanksgiving, so earlier is better.

Rather talk first? Call or text 515-585-9079

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