Hail-Damaged Glazing, Terra Cotta & Cast Stone Repair for North Texas Buildings
Commercial Facade Restoration Specialists in Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth’s downtown is not a glass skyline. It is a compact run of early-twentieth-century masonry: white terra cotta on the 1914 Burk Burnett Building, a limestone shaft and terra cotta cornice on the 1925 STS Tower, cast stone ornament on the 1929 Electric Building, Art Deco and zigzag moderne through the 1930 Sinclair Building and the 1931 Texas & Pacific Terminal, and the 1895 pink granite of the Tarrant County Courthouse at the center of it. Those materials fail in a specific order here. Hail chips a cast stone arris and crazes terra cotta glaze. Roughly 29 freeze nights a year turn water held in a soft lime joint into a wedge that widens it. A recorded range from 113 °F to −8 °F cycles every joint in the wall, and 37 inches of rain arriving in short convective bursts finds whatever the cycling opened. Once water is behind the face, it corrodes shelf angles and anchors and pushes units out of plane.
Presto Restoration delivers a complete facade restoration, caulking and coating program built for that stock. Our crews pair industrial rope access and swing-stage capability with restoration products we manufacture ourselves, so a single team addresses every weak point on the elevation: spent sealant stripped and replaced, corroded architectural metal refinished rather than ripped out, glass and skylights restored, terra cotta and cast stone repaired, brick repointed in mortar softer than the units it sits between, and flexible elastomeric coatings applied over the finished wall. The 5 May 1995 Mayfest storm, which destroyed windows and skylights throughout downtown, is the reason we start with impact and work outwards.
OUR FACADE RESTORATION SERVICES IN FORT WORTH
When a Fort Worth building leaks, the joint is usually where it started. Sealant here is worked from three directions at once: a 121-degree recorded temperature range that moves every joint in the wall, high UV through a long cooling season that hardens the material, and about 29 freeze nights a year that pry at anything already debonded. Hail finishes the job on exposed lines at coping and cornice. Our high-rise technicians cut out the spent material, prepare and prime each joint, set proper backer rod to the right depth, and install industrial-grade silicone and polyurethane sealants chosen for movement capability and impact rather than for salt resistance. Window and skylight perimeters, expansion joints, panel joints, penetrations and control joints are all covered in one coordinated pass.
Architectural metal on a Fort Worth building is usually detail rather than skin: storefront and lobby framing, spandrel and window units, canopies, cornice flashings, marquees and the aluminum curtain wall on the later stock including Burnett Plaza. It fails from oxidation, UV fade, hail denting and the grime that a convective downpour drives under a lip and leaves behind. Before budgeting for wholesale panel replacement, let our metal restoration team recover the original finish. Controlled micro-abrasion lifts oxidation, corrosion and embedded contamination, and refinishing brings factory color and luster back. Owners get like-new metal at a fraction of replacement cost with far less disruption to the street. (Restored metal is normally sealed with a protective clear coating afterwards: see our Commercial Waterproofing services, which pair naturally with this work.)
Glass is the Fort Worth surface with a documented local history. The Mayfest storm of 5 May 1995 destroyed windows and skylights right through downtown, City Hall’s among them, and hail seasons since have kept glazing and skylight work on the schedule. Short of breakage, glass here suffers a slower set of problems: mineral deposits from irrigation overspray and runoff baked on through a long hot season, alkaline runoff from limestone and cast stone etching the surface, and wind-borne grit from a prairie landscape leaving haze and micro-scratching. Our chemical glass restoration process dissolves staining, lifts mineral contamination and removes surface damage while preserving the glass itself. (To hold that clarity, ask about our proprietary Glass Defender treatment, covered on the commercial waterproofing page.)
Stucco, EIFS, precast and cast stone all share porosity, and in North Texas that matters for two reasons rather than one. Wind-driven rain forces moisture into the substrate, where it corrodes reinforcement and starts the spalling cycle; then the freeze cycle takes whatever moisture is still held in the pore structure and expands it, which is why a wall that looked sound in October opens up in February. Presto installs elastomeric waterproof coating systems that cure to a flexible, breathable membrane. It moves with the thermal expansion the recorded 121-degree range demands, bridges hairline cracks up to 1/16 inch, stops bulk water at the surface and still lets trapped vapor out. Systems come in a full palette of factory colors and finishes, so the waterproofing doubles as a facade facelift on a Camp Bowie or West 7th frontage.
Stone is Fort Worth’s defining exterior material, and the city sits on the eastern edge of the limestone-based Fort Worth Prairie, so limestone and cast stone are local in more than one sense: the Courthouse’s pink granite, the STS Tower’s limestone shaft, the cast stone ornament on the Electric Building, and the sills, surrounds and water tables on almost everything else downtown. Presto restored the natural stone and renewed the exterior caulking at 1300 Houston Street, a few blocks from all of it. We open every stone project with substrate evaluation and gentle, controlled cleaning that lifts contamination without scarring the face, then apply penetrating sealers and breathable coatings that block moisture while leaving the material’s character alone. Spalled, cracked or hail-chipped sections get color-matched patching engineered to behave like the original stone rather than harder than it.
In any brick wall the mortar fails long before the brick does, and Fort Worth accelerates that. Stockyards and warehouse brick was laid in soft lime mortar, and about 29 freeze nights a year work water held in an eroded bed joint into a wedge. Once the joints go, rain crosses the wall assembly, and interior leaks, efflorescence and loose brickwork follow.
Our masonry crews rake eroded joints to the correct depth, install replacement mortar matched to the original in color, compressive strength and composition, and tool the finished joint to reproduce the wall’s original profile. Structural repointing and decorative tuckpointing are handled by one accountable team.
On the Stockyards and on downtown’s designated buildings we specify lime-based blends softer than the masonry, because a hard modern mortar in a soft historic wall makes the brick face spall instead of the joint.
Our Facade Restoration Process in Fort Worth
Every Fort Worth facade project runs through the same disciplined five-phase process: find every defect before a price is written, keep crews and occupants safe while the work runs, and hand over a documented record at the end. On this stock the first phase carries the most weight, because hail damage to terra cotta glaze, a cast stone arris or a cornice flashing is invisible from the street.
Building Envelope
Assessment
We inspect the whole envelope from the ground, by drone and at arm’s length from suspended access. Sealant, metal, glass, skylights, stone, coatings and masonry are photographed and logged, with cornice, coping and parapet given their own pass because that is where impact damage hides.
Diagnostic Testing
Where a leak or concealed deterioration is suspected we run controlled water spray testing, infrared thermography and moisture readings, so the source is traced rather than the symptom patched. After a hail season this is what separates a fractured coating from a failed joint.
Scope & Planning
Findings become a line-item scope with quantities, named products and a phased schedule built around the September to November window. Your project manager handles access logistics, occupant communication, City of Fort Worth permitting and, on a landmark, the Certificate of Appropriateness submission.
Restoration Execution
Certified rope-access and swing-stage crews execute to manufacturer specification, with field supervisors enforcing quality control and documenting progress daily. Terra cotta and cast stone repairs are signed off unit by unit rather than by the elevation.
Closeout & Warranty
At turnover you receive the whole record: warranty documents, product data sheets, before-and-after imagery by elevation, and a maintenance roadmap that says what to look at after the next hail event.
Our Local Fort Worth, TX Support Network
Covering downtown, the Stockyards, the Cultural District and a county-wide spread of commercial property properly takes more than a visiting crew. Presto coordinates a network of specialized regional divisions so clients get seamless coverage, from major envelope restoration down to routine facility care.
Property managers looking for day-to-day and preventative support can call on our sister divisions directly:
Building Restoration Fort Worth: Focused on localized structural repair and exterior masonry preservation.
Building Maintenance Fort Worth: Dedicated to the preventative maintenance that keeps a Tarrant County property performing between restoration cycles.
Building Services Fort Worth: Your partner for day-to-day commercial building support across the Fort Worth market.
Why Fort Worth Property Managers Choose Presto for Facade Restoration
For more than 25 years Presto Restoration has protected commercial property nationwide, and the crews on your building know what North Texas actually does to an elevation. That means hail on glazing, coatings, cast stone and cornice detail; roughly 29 freeze nights a year working masonry joints apart; a recorded 121-degree temperature range cycling every sealant line; and the 2021 International Building Code and 2021 International Existing Building Code as Fort Worth adopted them, with a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission on top of that for a designated property. Explore our full range of Fort Worth building restoration services.
Send Us a Photograph of Your Fort Worth Elevation
Not sure where your facade stands after the last hail season? Tell us what you can see, and our team will tell you what it takes to put it right and what it does not need.
Call 1-800-785-9927 or Request A Free Quote.
Texas Facade Restoration Projects From Presto’s Portfolio
TEXAS PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHTS
Presto restores masonry, stone and glazed facades on inland Texas buildings, where impact and thermal movement do the damage. Recent work from around the state, including Fort Worth, follows.
Fort Worth Facade Restoration FAQs
How often should a commercial facade be restored in Fort Worth?
Set the cycle by what fails here rather than by a national average. A full envelope inspection every three to five years is sensible, and an extra look after any significant hail event is worth more than the inspection itself. Sealant on a masonry building usually wants replacing every 8 to 12 years, and about 29 freeze nights a year push that toward the shorter end. Elastomeric coatings run 10 to 15 years. Repointing on brick runs 20 to 35 years, but terra cotta glaze, cast stone arrises and cornice flashings are inspected on their own schedule, because those are the elements a single storm can take out.
What are the warning signs a Fort Worth building needs facade restoration?
Sealant that has cracked, shrunk or debonded from a joint. Rust bleed running from a fastener, a lintel or a shelf angle. Efflorescence blooming across brick or cast stone. Terra cotta with crazed, spalling or missing glaze. Fresh chips along a cast stone arris or a sill nose, which usually means impact rather than age. Interior stains that appear only after a hard driving rain. Glass or skylights that stay hazy however often they are cleaned. Mortar you can rake out with a key. After a hail spring, add the cornice, the coping and the parapet to that list, because that is where the damage is hardest to see from the pavement and most expensive to leave.
Can you restore a facade without disrupting tenants or Stockyards trade?
Yes, and Fort Worth makes it easier than most markets because the buildings are low. Rope access and swing stage reach almost every elevation downtown without scaffolding a footway, which matters on Sundance Square frontage and in the Stockyards where the pavement is the business. We phase the work so lobbies, storefronts and garages stay open, schedule the noisy operations away from peak trading hours, and keep managers and boards updated as each elevation closes out.
How long does facade restoration take on a Fort Worth building?
A focused sealant replacement on a downtown mid-rise commonly runs two to four weeks. A full program covering caulking, coatings, masonry, cast stone and architectural metal on an early-twentieth-century building generally runs three to six months, and ornament is the reason: terra cotta units and cast stone details are repaired individually, not by the elevation. Burnett Plaza-scale work sits at the longer end. We issue a firm schedule once the building is scoped, and we build it around the September to November window wherever the calendar allows.
What warranties apply to facade restoration work in Fort Worth?
Terms follow the systems actually installed on your building, since a silicone joint, an elastomeric coating and a repointed lime joint carry different manufacturer positions. We set out what is covered during scoping, before anything is signed, and hand over the full warranty documentation at closeout with the product data sheets behind it. Where a coating is chosen partly for hail resistance, we say plainly what the manufacturer does and does not warrant against impact.
Does Presto handle permitting and historic review in Fort Worth?
Yes. Our project managers file and manage permits with City of Fort Worth Development Services, working to the 2021 International Building Code and the 2021 International Existing Building Code as adopted by ordinance in March 2022 with the city’s own amendments. On a designated landmark, exterior work also needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission, reviewed against the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards. Where a general contractor is running other work on site we coordinate permitting through them. Presto carries nationwide general liability and workers’ compensation coverage.
Other Fort Worth Building Restoration Services
Protect Your Fort Worth Building Investment
By the time a ceiling stains, the elevation has already failed somewhere higher up. Getting a Fort Worth facade looked at before the next freeze, or straight after a hail event, is what keeps a repair small.
Call us today at 1-800-785-9927 or click Request A Quote.