Above-Grade Building Envelope Waterproofing for High-Rises, Offices & Commercial Property
Commercial Waterproofing Specialists in Colorado Springs, CO
There is a recognizable order to how waterproofing fails at 6,035 feet. Ultraviolet coming through thinner air attacks the surface of a coating first. Dry air then draws the flexibility out of a sealant joint until it stiffens and debonds. The freeze finishes the job, because water that entered that opened joint on a bright afternoon expands inside it overnight, levering the joint fractionally wider on every pass. Put a severe hailstorm over the top of that, capable of opening coping, flashing and membrane along a whole elevation inside twenty minutes, and a single season takes a building from watertight to leaking.
Above-grade commercial waterproofing is what Presto Restoration brings to Colorado Springs and the wider Pikes Peak region, covering downtown towers on Cascade Avenue and Tejon Street through to institutional property out toward Fort Carson and the Academy. Restoration comes first here, and that is the difference. A deteriorated surface gets cleaned and restored before anything is sealed over it, which is why the finished work performs longer. The capability list runs to breathable masonry water repellents, silicone and elastomeric coating systems, expansion joint and crack sealing, and wet glazing and glass sealing backed by our own products such as Glass Defender. We also offer niche solutions such as Leach Stop Protection for precast concrete. We work above grade only, not on foundations or below-grade waterproofing.
OUR COMMERCIAL WATERPROOFING SERVICES IN COLORADO SPRINGS
Joint sealants through to full coating systems, the above-grade waterproofing we do on Colorado Springs buildings divides in two. There are core systems, which hold the envelope watertight. Then there are specialized restoration-waterproofing services, which combine deep cleaning and restoration with protection that lasts.
Core Waterproofing Services
Movement is designed into a concrete frame, and here the frame is asked to perform it daily rather than seasonally, since temperature crosses the freezing point and back on most winter days. All of that movement gathers at expansion joints, control joints and facade cracking. Sealant at a movement joint that has hardened and lost its range becomes the quickest way for water to get inside, and through winter it doubles as the place meltwater sits and refreezes. Those joints are resealed with high-movement silicone and polyurethane systems built to stretch and compress alongside the structure rather than tear away from it. Across most buildings in this city, joint sealing returns more per waterproofing dollar than anything else.
Minerals, not salt, are what go after glass in this city. Low humidity dries irrigation overspray quickly and bakes the dissolved solids onto the surface. Alkaline runoff descending off concrete and cast stone etches it. Grit driven off dry open ground hazes and micro-scratches it. Our proprietary Glass Defender treatment bonds a hydrophobic barrier onto the glass. Minerals find nothing to anchor to, water sheets away rather than drying in place, and routine cleaning becomes both easier and less frequent. Glazing treated this way keeps its optical clarity through years of high-altitude exposure.
Snow collects on ledges, parapets, copings and balcony edges, melts there, travels a short way and refreezes, and those are precisely the details where a conventional coating gives out first. We detail them with high-performance silicone coating systems, seamless monolithic membranes bonded straight onto the substrate, carrying none of the laps and terminations at which ordinary products let go. Silicone survives what defeats other coatings, standing meltwater included, along with a heavy ultraviolet load and sharp swings inside one day. On flat and near-flat surfaces across Colorado Springs commercial property it is our default answer.
Few waterproofing components on a commercial tower fail earlier than the sealant joint holding glass to frame. Let that perimeter seal harden, split or let go and wind-driven rain and refreezing meltwater pour into the wall cavity, where water may travel several floors before anybody indoors sees it. The cure is wet glazing, applied at source. Spent sealant comes out and new high-performance silicone goes in, restoring a watertight bond between glass unit and frame. Storefront, curtain wall, ribbon window and punched window systems are all reglazed, with the sequence built around the temperature windows the material genuinely cures in.
Hairline cracks show up in stucco, EIFS and concrete walls, and in this climate each one is an entry point where water will subsequently freeze. Elastomeric coatings answer by never losing their flexibility. Laid at something like ten times the film thickness of ordinary paint, they span small cracks instead of splitting along them. That elasticity earns its place here because the substrates are in daily micro-motion, not seasonal. Our systems breathe, so any vapor that gets in can get out, hold steady under a high-altitude ultraviolet load, and come in a full palette of factory colors and finishes.
Brick, block, precast, cast stone and Lyons sandstone are all porous, and porous masonry drinks. Come the freeze-thaw cycle, that absorbed water expands from within the material, delivering surface loss, efflorescence streaking, bedding joints pushed open and damp showing on interior walls. We apply clear breathable penetrating repellents on silane and siloxane chemistry, which soak down into the substrate and turn it hydrophobic with no change to how it looks. The wall afterwards appears untouched, yet rain and snowmelt now bead and run rather than soak. Cured, these sealers are invisible, hold up under intense ultraviolet, and are formulated to go on working through years of freeze cycles.
Specialized Restoration-Waterproofing
The distinction at Presto is that a surface is never simply sealed. It is cleaned and restored beforehand. Waterproofing done in those two steps looks better, performs better and outlasts standard contractor work, and it resolves particular problems an ordinary waterproofing contractor has no equipment for.
Water-soluble minerals sit inside precast concrete panels and leach out any time moisture works through, with the runoff settling on everything below as stubborn staining that looks permanent on windows, metal trim and other facade elements. Removing those stains is difficult, and weeks after a cleaning they are back, because nothing about the cleaning addressed the source. Our Leach Stop Protection service shuts the leaching down where it starts. Existing staining is cleaned away and the precast treated so further mineral migration is blocked, which finally gives lasting relief to a building that has been losing the window-staining battle for years.
Ultraviolet at altitude, winter road chemistry carried up onto lower elevations, and hail all keep working on architectural metal panels, curtain wall framing, mullions and Alucobond composite panels. Instead of steering an owner toward costly panel replacement, we put protective clear coating systems over the metal to seal it and hold the original factory finish. Those clear coats bond straight onto the existing surface and hold moisture and chloride away from the substrate beneath, which stretches the service life of material already hanging on the building. The bill is regularly a fraction of what replacement would run.
Our Commercial Waterproofing Process in Colorado Springs
Every waterproofing project runs through the same five phases, built to diagnose the failure correctly, specify systems that suit the substrate and the climate, and deliver watertight performance that survives more than one winter.
Building Envelope Inspection
Every above-grade waterproofing system on the building gets inspected, sealed joints and coatings through to exposed decks, parapets and masonry walls, with each failure point documented in photographs and detailed notes.
Diagnostic Testing
Because meltwater travels differently from rain, water intrusion on a Colorado Springs building frequently traces back to somewhere nobody expected. Controlled water testing, moisture readings and visual tracing are what separate a real cause from a symptom.
Scope & Specification
Products are specified against your actual substrates, silicones, elastomeric systems and traffic membranes, itemized in clearly quantified lines, while Pikes Peak Regional Building Department permitting and tenant coordination sit with the project management team.
Waterproofing Installation
Trained crews work off rope access, swing stage or lifts, whichever the building calls for. Installation follows manufacturer specification, stays inside the temperature window the product demands, and carries strict quality control and full documentation.
Project Closeout & Warranty
Documentation handed over at the end is complete, covering warranty paperwork, data sheets for each product, photography taken before and after, and a set of maintenance recommendations written to pull the longest life out of the new systems.
Tell Us What Your Colorado Springs Building Is Doing
Water getting in, sealants giving up, coatings breaking down on your building? Tell us about it, or send photographs, and our specialists will identify the failure and set out the most cost-effective way forward.
Call 1-800-785-9927 or Request A Free Quote.
Why Colorado Springs Property Managers Choose Presto for Commercial Waterproofing
More than 27 years of restoring and protecting commercial buildings nationwide stand behind Presto Restoration, and what gets specified shifts from market to market. In this one it means materials chosen for ultraviolet at 6,035 feet, for joints moving daily instead of seasonally, and for hail damage delivered in a single afternoon, with permitting routed through the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department rather than one municipal office.
Our Local Colorado Springs, CO Support Network
Restoration at this level across Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region runs on dedicated infrastructure. Presto coordinates with specialized regional networks precisely so a client receives the most comprehensive care available, major structural restoration and ongoing facility upkeep alike.
Property managers after routine upkeep and localized facility services are encouraged to look at our sister divisions:
Building Restoration Colorado Springs: Localized structural repair and high-rise exterior preservation.
Building Maintenance Colorado Springs: The ongoing preventative maintenance that keeps an exterior ahead of the weather.
Building Services Colorado Springs: Day-to-day commercial building support across the region.
Recent Waterproofing Projects in Colorado
COLORADO PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHTS
Above-grade waterproofing, caulking and coating work completed on commercial property in Colorado.
Colorado Springs Commercial Waterproofing FAQs
How often should commercial building sealants be replaced in Colorado Springs?
This climate is hard on sealant for reasons that have nothing to do with salt. Ultraviolet exposure at 6,035 feet, air carrying about 16.5 inches of precipitation a year, and a joint that is worked through a freeze cycle on most winter days all shorten service life below what the label suggests. Manufacturers rate many commercial sealants at fifteen to twenty-five years; on exposed high-rise elevations here we routinely see meaningful failure inside ten to fifteen. A full envelope inspection every five years is the most reliable way to catch it before it reaches the interior.
What is the difference between waterproofing and water damage restoration?
One is preventative, one is consequence. Waterproofing stops water entering at all, by way of sealants, coatings and membranes installed properly. Water damage restoration comes later and deals with cleaning up and repairing whatever the water reached. Presto sits on the preventative side, restoring and maintaining the exterior systems that hold water out of the envelope, and doing so is nearly always cheaper than remediating the inside over and over.
Can waterproofing be done on an occupied commercial building?
Yes, and the majority of our projects run on fully occupied buildings, among them offices, hotels, hospitals and institutional property. Wherever an elevation allows it we go to industrial rope access instead of scaffolding, put the noisier operations outside peak hours, keep tenants briefed, and phase things so common areas and daily operations stay open.
What is the difference between elastomeric coatings and regular exterior paint?
Appearance is what ordinary exterior paint is designed for. You get color and modest weather resistance, but nothing that stretches with the building or spans a crack. An elastomeric coating is a waterproofing system that happens also to look well. It lays down far thicker than paint, travels with thermal movement in the substrate, and bridges hairline cracking so water finds no way through. On a wall the sun heats hard and the night then freezes, that distinction is what decides whether the coating survives five years.
Is waterproofing urgent on my building, or can it wait a season?
Several signs mean now rather than later. Joint sealants cracking or separating. Dark streaking running down an exterior wall beneath a failed joint. Efflorescence, that white mineral bloom, across masonry or concrete. Damp patches or paint bubbling on walls indoors. Coatings chalking, peeling or fading beyond normal wear. Concrete spalling or reinforcing left visible. The season supplies a second answer. Everything on that list costs less to repair ahead of the first hard freeze than behind it, because each cycle in between widens the opening.
Does Presto handle permits and local requirements in Colorado Springs?
Yes. The Pikes Peak Regional Building Department issues permits and inspections for commercial work throughout Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Fountain, Manitou Springs, Monument, Palmer Lake, Green Mountain Falls, Calhan and Woodland Park, which means a portfolio spread over the region answers to a single authority. Applications are filed by our project management team, along with any association or ownership approvals, and a designated historic property adds review by the City of Colorado Springs Historic Preservation Board. Nationwide general liability and workers’ compensation insurance is carried, and applicable local and state requirements are met on every project.
Other Colorado Springs Building Restoration Services
Keep Water Out of Your Colorado Springs Building
Caught in September, a small sealant failure costs very little to put right. Let that same joint take a winter of water entering and freezing inside it and you are buying concrete repair, with an interior damage claim attached. Nothing costs less than having the envelope looked at before the cold shows up.
Call us today at 1-800-785-9927 or click Request A Quote.