Window Replacement in Forest Lake, MN
Forest Lake sits about half an hour from our East Bethel base, with an older core of 1970s homes and a wave of 2000s houses now reaching replacement age.
Owner-run. The owner has personally installed more than 10,000 windows over 24 years in Minnesota. Licensed residential contractor, MN Lic. BC809328. EPA Lead-Safe Certified firm.
A short drive from our shop
Forest Lake sits in the northwestern corner of Washington County, off both I-35E and I-35W, and it is about a half hour from our base in East Bethel without traffic. That makes it one of the shortest drives on our schedule, which matters when a job runs two days or when a follow-up visit is needed. We work throughout Washington County, one of the nine counties we serve.
The Window Guys is owner-run. The owner has installed more than 10,000 windows over 24 years and still runs the crews. ProVia is our main window line, with Andersen and Marvin also available. Exterior aluminum wrapping and interior wood trim (jamb, casing and stops) are done by our crews. If you want a number before anyone comes to your house, use Quick Price, our online pricing tool at build.windowguysmn.com, then book an in-home visit. Minnesota residential contractor license BC809328.
Two Forest Lakes: the 1970s core and the 2000s wave
The median Forest Lake home was built in 1988, but very few houses here actually date to the late 1980s. The city's roughly 8,700 housing units split into two groups. About a third are from the 1970s or earlier: 17 percent from the 1970s alone, 7 percent each from the 1950s and 1960s, and a notable 7 percent built before 1940, an old-town core you do not see in most north-metro suburbs. Then there is the building wave: 13 percent from the 1990s, 21 percent from the 2000s and 12 percent from the 2010s. Roughly 41 percent of the city's homes predate 1980.
Those two groups have completely different windows. The 1970s houses carry first-generation aluminum sliders and early wood casements with single-pane or early double-pane glass, cold to the touch and drafty at the meeting rail. The pre-1940 and 1950s homes have original wood double-hungs, often painted shut, with storm windows outside and sills that have started to go soft. The 2000s houses are a different problem entirely: builder-grade vinyl now 20 to 25 years old, with fogged glass where the seals have failed, broken balances, and sashes that slide down as soon as you let go.
Lake homes, acreage homes and the wind that comes with both
Forest Lake covers more than 30 square miles of land and nearly 5 square miles of water, and about 14 percent of residents live in areas the census counts as rural. That is because the city annexed the surrounding Forest Lake Township in 2001, bringing in acreage lots and farm parcels along with the lakeshore. The lake itself is three connected basins, known as 1st Lake, 2nd Lake and 3rd Lake, with the city's boat access north of Broadway and east of Highway 61.
Open water and open fields both mean wind. Windows on an exposed acreage home or a lake-facing wall take more weather than the same windows in a sheltered cul-de-sac, and that shows up as earlier seal failure, worn weatherstripping and water tracking into the sill. When we measure a Forest Lake home we note which walls face the wind and plan the flashing and wrap on those exposures accordingly.
Forest Lake's permit rule is one sentence long
The City of Forest Lake states its rule plainly: a permit is required to install all doors and windows, whether new or replacing existing ones. Siding and roofing replacement need permits too. Applications go through the city's online BS&A permit portal, and our office files them before the crew is scheduled. We also coordinate the inspection. There is nothing for you to fill out and nothing to drop off at City Hall on Lake Street.
If you are replacing siding at the same time, which is common on the 1970s houses, the two permits are filed together and the work is sequenced so the new windows are flashed into the wall before the siding goes on. That is the order that keeps water out, and it is the order the inspector expects to see.
What installation day looks like at a Forest Lake home
After the in-home visit we measure every opening to the eighth of an inch and order the windows built to those sizes. When they arrive, the crew shows up in the morning, lays down floor protection, and works one opening at a time so the house is never open to the weather for long. The old unit comes out, the opening is cleaned and checked, and the new window goes in, gets shimmed square, fastened, insulated around the perimeter and sealed. Outside, the trim is wrapped in aluminum that is bent on site to fit that opening. Inside, the jamb, casing and stops are fitted and finished by the same crew.
At the end of the day the old windows, the packaging and the debris leave with us. For most Forest Lake homes the whole job is one day for inserts and two for full-frame work with new interior trim. We walk the house with you before we go, inside and out, and make sure every sash locks and every crank turns the way it should.
Insert or full-frame, by decade
With two distinct housing eras, Forest Lake gets both kinds of replacement. An insert leaves the existing frame in place and sets the new window inside it; full-frame removes everything back to the rough opening and rebuilds frame, sill and trim. For a 2000s house with vinyl windows whose frames are square and dry, inserts are usually the right call, and the job goes quickly. For a 1970s aluminum slider the metal frame comes out anyway, and we decide on full-frame based on the condition of the surrounding wood.
For the pre-1940 and 1950s homes, full-frame is the norm, because the weight pockets need insulating and the sills usually need replacing. Those homes also predate 1978, so the work follows EPA lead-safe practices: containment, no high-heat paint removal, HEPA cleanup and bagged disposal of the old sashes. The Window Guys is an EPA Lead-Safe Certified firm with certified renovators.
Forest Lake window questions we hear most
Does Forest Lake require a permit for replacement windows?
Yes. The city's rule is that a permit is required to install all doors and windows, whether new or replacing existing ones. Our office files the application through the city's online permit portal and coordinates the inspection. You do not need to do anything with the city.
My Forest Lake house was built in the mid-2000s. Do I really need new windows already?
Possibly. Builder-grade vinyl from that era is now 20 years old, which is when seals fail, balances break and sashes stop staying up. If one window is fogged, it can be dealt with on its own. If several show the same symptoms, and the rest are the same age from the same builder, replacing them as a set is usually the better plan. Because those frames are typically still square and dry, inserts are the normal approach and the job is quick.
Is Forest Lake a long trip for your crew?
No. Forest Lake is about half an hour from our base in East Bethel without traffic, one of the shortest drives we make. That makes scheduling flexible and follow-up visits easy. Most Forest Lake homes take one to two days, with full-frame jobs that include new interior trim running toward two.
What about the original windows on my older Forest Lake farmhouse?
About 7 percent of Forest Lake homes predate 1940, and many of the older acreage homes fall in that group. Those windows are usually original wood double-hungs with weights, pulleys and exterior storms. Full-frame replacement is normally the right approach so we can insulate the weight pockets and replace soft sills. Because the paint predates 1978, the work follows EPA lead-safe practices; The Window Guys is an EPA Lead-Safe Certified firm.
Ready to price your Forest Lake windows?
Get a real number online first, then book an in-home visit when you are ready. No pressure and no sales games.
Also serving nearby: East Bethel, Ham Lake, Blaine, Roseville, St. Paul.