About us
About NorthStar
A repair company with one item on the price list, working in the coldest state in the lower forty-eight.
- What we sell
- Repairs only
- Who attends
- A technician
- First deliverable
- A fixed written price
- If replacement is right
- We say so, and decline
Origin
It started with a question nobody answered straight
Why does frost on the inside of a window come back as a quote for the whole house?
It is the most common call we take and the most commonly misdiagnosed. Frost on the room side of glass is indoor moisture meeting a cold surface — it is a humidity and air-sealing problem, and replacing the window does not reliably solve it. Plenty of Minnesota homeowners have spent a great deal of money discovering that the hard way.
We kept seeing the same pattern with everything else. A parted sash cord quoted as a window. A storm window jammed since the nineties used to justify replacing the sash behind it. A door catching because frost had lifted the step, cut down in August and gapping by December.
So we built the business 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.
Method
Four things we hold to
Diagnose before quoting
Particularly with condensation. We take a humidity reading and work out which surface the moisture is on before anybody mentions glass.
Repair, and only repair
There is no version of this business where recommending a replacement earns us anything. That is the design, not a slogan on a van.
Set for the range, not the day
Minnesota moves a hundred and thirty degrees a year and the frost lifts the ground underneath. Hardware adjusted for February is wrong by July.
Say the unprofitable thing
Frost inside is humidity. Defogging does not restore a seal. Planing a swollen door cannot be undone. We will tell you all three and lose the work.
People
Who turns up
A narrow trade worked every day. Our technicians handle the same systems constantly — weight-and-pulley sash in Minneapolis bungalows and St Paul Victorians, triple-track storms across every town in the state, builder-grade patio doors, aluminium storefront doors and closers, and hardware from manufacturers that closed decades ago.
They arrive in a stocked van, which matters in a state this size. The diagnosis starts on the phone and the van is loaded from it, because a return trip to the Range for a part nobody thought to bring is a wasted day.
They will also explain what they found. If you want to know why the north side frosts and the south does not, or why the same door binds in January and clears in May, ask. That conversation is part of the job.
Homeowners
Single-visit repairs on windows, storms, glass, doors, screens and hardware.
Older housing
Sash, putty glazing, wooden screens and original storm windows, repaired in keeping.
Landlords
Turnover work and tenant requests, several units in one visit and invoiced together.
Businesses
Storefront doors, closers, glazing and vestibules, scheduled around trading.
Not offered
Replacement windows and doors, defogging, powered operators and certified panic hardware.
Coverage
The whole state
Minneapolis & St Paul
The city neighbourhoods, Summit Avenue and the bungalow belt, plus Edina, Bloomington, Richfield and St Louis Park.
The metro suburbs
Plymouth, Maple Grove, Eagan, Burnsville, Woodbury, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka and Blaine.
Southern Minnesota
Rochester, Mankato, Winona, Owatonna, Faribault and Red Wing.
Central Minnesota
St Cloud, Alexandria, Brainerd, Willmar and the lake country.
The north
Duluth, Hibbing, Virginia, Grand Rapids, Bemidji and International Falls.
Western Minnesota
Moorhead, Fergus Falls, Marshall and the prairie counties.
Next step
Let's take a look at it
Free estimates anywhere in Minnesota.