About us
About Hawkeye
A repair company with one item on the price list, and nothing else to sell you.
What we sell
Repairs, and only repairs
Who turns up
A technician, not a closer
First thing you get
A firm written price
When we say replace
We also say call somebody else
Our story
It started with a question nobody answered straight
Why does a sash that will not stay up come back as a quote for the whole house?
We kept watching Iowa homeowners get told that their windows, their patio door, their entire rear elevation needed replacing — when the actual fault was a parted cord, a balance that had lost tension, or a strike plate three millimetres out of register. The quotes were not fraudulent. They came from companies whose business is selling replacement units, and a replacement is what those companies have to offer.
It matters more here than in a lot of places. Iowa is full of century farmhouses, small-town Victorians and brick bungalows whose windows were built from the outset to be taken apart and serviced, standing in openings that have moved enough over a hundred years that a standard replacement unit has to be packed and shimmed into them anyway.
So Hawkeye was built the other way round. The price list has one item on it. If a repair will hold, we do it. If it genuinely will not, we say so and tell you to call somebody else — which costs us the job, and is the only reason the advice means anything.
How we work
Four things we hold to
01
Repair, and only repair
There is no version of this business where recommending a replacement earns us anything. That is the entire design, not a slogan on a van.
02
Diagnose before quoting
The fault is rarely where the symptom is. A lock that will not throw is usually a dropped slab. A slider that drags is usually rollers and the rail they ruined.
03
Carry the parts
Cords, balances, operators, rollers, locks, spline and mesh ride on the van. On a rural call that is the difference between one visit and three.
04
Say the unprofitable thing
Winter condensation on the room side of your glass is indoor humidity, not a failed window. Defogging does not restore a seal. Planing a sticking door creates a January draught.
Our technicians
The people who turn up
A narrow trade worked every day. Our technicians handle the same systems constantly — wood double-hung sash on cords and weights in farmhouses and older town housing, balances in the post-war and suburban stock, builder-grade patio doors from the subdivision decades, and hardware from manufacturers that closed years ago.
They arrive in a stocked van, which matters more in Iowa than in a dense city. A forty-mile return trip for a part nobody thought to bring is a wasted morning for everybody, so the diagnosis starts on the phone and the van is loaded accordingly.
They will also explain what they found. If you want to know why the sash binds in August and rattles in February, or why the west elevation fogged before the others, ask. That conversation is part of the job.
Homeowners
Single-visit repairs on windows, glass, patio doors, screens and hardware.
Farm properties
Farmhouses and outbuildings, with routes planned around rural distance.
Landlords
Turnover work and tenant requests, several units handled in one visit.
Small commercial
Storefront glass and doors, office suites, closers and hardware.
Where we work
The whole state, town and country
Des Moines metro
Des Moines, West Des Moines, Ankeny, Urbandale, Waukee, Johnston, Clive and Altoona.
Cedar Rapids corridor
Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Coralville, Marion and North Liberty.
Eastern Iowa
Davenport, Bettendorf, Dubuque, Clinton and the river towns.
Western Iowa
Sioux City, Council Bluffs and the Loess Hills counties.
Central and northern towns
Ames, Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Mason City, Fort Dodge, Marshalltown and Ottumwa.
Rural routes
Farm properties and small towns across all ninety-nine counties, planned rather than surcharged.
Let's take a look at it
Free estimates anywhere in Iowa.