Thin-Air Sun, Hailstorms & Expansive Bedrock: What Colorado Springs Does to a Building Exterior
Commercial Building Restoration Experts Serving Colorado Springs, CO
Standing at 6,035 feet on the southern flank of the Palmer Divide, Colorado Springs is some 755 feet above Denver, and that altitude rewrites the wear pattern on an exterior. Thinner atmosphere overhead absorbs less ultraviolet, so south and west elevations chalk and fade while an identical product keeps its color at lower ground. Dryness compounds it. Around 16.5 inches of precipitation falls in a year, and sealant that has surrendered its volatile content turns rigid and draws back off the substrate. Weather then stops being gradual and becomes an event: a single hailstorm on 28 July 2016 generated 84,500 insurance claims and US$352.8 million in insured losses, fourth costliest in Colorado’s record and the second costliest catastrophe this city has absorbed.
Working nationwide on high-rise buildings, parking structures and historic properties, Presto Restoration brings more than 27 years to the practice. What gets specified here answers a high, bright, dry climate sitting on ground that will not hold still. MS-32, the Colorado Geological Survey’s heave mapping for this city, marks where steeply dipping Pierre Shale and Niobrara lie shallow enough to lift unevenly, and above grade that reads as joints parting at plaza decks and slabs. Cascade Avenue and Tejon Street towers, Old Colorado City brick, the institutional stock around Fort Carson, Peterson Space Force Base and the Air Force Academy: in each case the exterior is restored and the moisture barrier left holding.
OUR BUILDING RESTORATION & WATERPROOFING SERVICES IN COLORADO SPRINGS, CO
Across the region Presto Restoration handles the whole range of exterior restoration work, above-grade waterproofing and envelope consulting, for commercial property in Colorado Springs, Fountain, Monument, Manitou Springs and Woodland Park.
A Colorado Springs wall can take water on under an afternoon sun and hold it as ice by first light. Run that through a season and a serviceable joint ends up a spalled panel. Everything above grade is treated as one continuous assembly, walls, window perimeters, parapets, plaza decks and the joints tying them together. We work above grade only, not on foundations or below-grade waterproofing. Materials get selected for what ultraviolet does at 6,035 feet, and for joints worked on a daily rather than a seasonal schedule.
View Our Colorado Springs Commercial Waterproofing Services →
Two jobs fall to a facade in Colorado Springs and the climate works on both. It has to hold water out of a wall that crosses freezing on most winter days, and it has to keep reading as a building somebody looks after. We rebuild for both, replacing spent sealant, refinishing architectural metal, restoring glass, and applying elastomeric coatings that flex rather than split under heavy ultraviolet. Where elevations are brick and sandstone, in Old Colorado City and the Old North End, the scope broadens into repointing and gentle masonry cleaning.
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A garage here is under attack from two directions, neither of them visible from the entrance. One is chemical. Chloride from winter road treatment arrives on tires, thaws down into the joints and sits there while the slab above cycles through freezing, until it reaches reinforcing steel and the concrete starts breaking apart from inside. The other is geological: where a bay or an approach bears on expansive, steeply dipping bedrock, the ground below lifts unevenly and joints at grade part along the line of movement. Traffic coating systems, concrete repair, full expansion joint replacement and above-grade deck waterproofing answer both.
Low-slope roofs in this city get torn off years ahead of need. Where deck and insulation remain sound, a silicone or elastomeric system goes over the existing membrane and buys another decade or more of service for a fraction of replacement cost. Our scope rebuilds flashings and penetration details, corrects the low spots that pond snowmelt until it refreezes, and closes out the bruising and split seams hail leaves behind. Reflectivity is a secondary gain, though at 6,035 feet under roughly 243 days of sun it is hardly a trivial one.
More of its early commercial fabric survives in Colorado Springs than in most cities of comparable size: brick and Lyons sandstone through Old Colorado City, the Old North End, Historic Uptown, and the Tejon Street blocks downtown. Much of that stone came out of the Red Rock Canyon quarries within the city limits, valued for its color and for how cleanly it took a carving tool. Exterior work on a designated property goes before the City of Colorado Springs Historic Preservation Board, which sits inside Planning and Development. We specify period-correct materials and work with owners, architects and that review rather than around it.
In a Colorado Springs building water enters at one point and surfaces somewhere else entirely, often floors below and months afterward, because through winter the carrier is meltwater rather than rain. Snow banks up at a parapet, thaws on a bright afternoon, tracks under lifted flashing and refreezes there overnight. The Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel makes the point locally. Budget cut its designed rain gutters at construction and the seams were caulked instead; decades on the caulk failed, and the landmark entered a $158 million rehabilitation in September 2019. Controlled water testing, infrared thermography, moisture meter surveys, drone imagery and hands-on inspection hand you a documented failure path instead of a guess.
Why Colorado Springs Property Owners Trust Presto Restoration
Presto Restoration has been protecting commercial buildings nationwide for more than 27 years. Behind that record sits something narrower, a working read on what this stretch of the Front Range does to an exterior. Ultraviolet reaches it through 755 feet less atmosphere than Denver has. The freeze line gets crossed on most winter days. Hail lands as a capital event rather than a line item. And the bedrock underneath heaves unevenly beneath anything bearing on grade.
Our Local Colorado Springs, CO Support Network
A property portfolio spread from downtown out through Old Colorado City, Historic Uptown, Manitou Springs and the rest of the Pikes Peak region needs more than one contractor showing up for one job. Presto works alongside specialized divisions so that the whole range is covered, major envelope restoration at one end and routine upkeep at the other.
Those divisions can be approached directly for building-level and day-to-day work:
Building Restoration Colorado Springs: Structural repair and high-rise exterior work on an individual building.
Building Maintenance Colorado Springs: Scheduled upkeep, including clearing drains and gutters before the first freeze of the season.
Building Services Colorado Springs: General commercial building support across the Pikes Peak region.
Recent Building Restoration Projects in Colorado
COLORADO PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHTS
A sample of the commercial restoration and waterproofing Presto has completed for Colorado building owners.
Frequently Asked Questions About Building Restoration in Colorado Springs, CO
What kinds of commercial buildings does Presto restore in Colorado Springs?
Nearly anything commercial in Colorado Springs. Office towers on Cascade Avenue and Tejon Street. Mixed-use and retail through Old Colorado City and Historic Uptown. Hotels, parking structures and hospitals. The institutional and defense-related stock clustered around Fort Carson, Peterson Space Force Base and the Air Force Academy. Designated landmarks too. On the question of surfaces, we work whatever the building is clad in, and in this city that runs to glass curtain wall, aluminum and composite panel, cast stone, Lyons sandstone, load-bearing brick, stucco, EIFS, concrete and low-slope roofing.
What does the Colorado Springs climate actually do to a building facade?
Three at once, and then a fourth arriving all together. Elevation leads: at 6,035 feet there is less atmosphere overhead to soak up ultraviolet, so coatings chalk and factory finishes fade ahead of schedule, and the city banks that exposure across roughly 243 days a year. Dryness is second, around 16.5 inches of precipitation annually, pulling volatile content out of sealant until it stiffens and shrinks off the joint face. Third comes winter, whose days cross the freezing point in both directions, so any water already sitting in that joint expands inside it. Hail is the fourth, and it builds up not at all: the 28 July 2016 storm on its own produced 84,500 claims and US$352.8 million in insured losses.
How long does a building restoration project take in Colorado Springs?
Duration follows scope, and then the calendar trims it further. Replacing sealant on one mid-rise elevation typically runs two to four weeks. Carrying a downtown tower’s facade all the way through is more often a three to six month program. Every coating and sealant carries a temperature window for application and cure, and the dependable working season at this elevation is shorter than it is out east on the plains, so the sequence is built around shoulder seasons and the zones phased to keep tenants, lobbies and parking in use throughout.
Does Presto handle permits and inspections in Colorado Springs?
Yes, and the arrangement here is unusual. Commercial permits and inspections do not run through a city department at all. They are issued regionally by the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, whose jurisdiction takes in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Fountain, Manitou Springs, Monument, Palmer Lake, Green Mountain Falls, Calhan and Woodland Park. An owner holding property in several of those places therefore answers to a single authority instead of nine. Designated historic properties add a second layer, since exterior work on them goes before the City of Colorado Springs Historic Preservation Board. Should a general contractor already hold the site, we permit under that contract, and owners who prefer to pull their own are free to. Nationwide general liability and workers’ compensation coverage is carried on every job.
Building restoration or building maintenance, which does my property need?
Read it as upkeep against repair. Upkeep is cyclical and cosmetic, glass cleaning, washdowns, small touch-ups, and it assumes the exterior is still doing its job. Restoration begins from the opposite assumption. It puts failed waterproofing back into service, strips out sealant that has turned rigid, makes good spalled concrete and corroded metal, and re-establishes a wall that holds weather on the outside. That line matters more here than it does in a mild climate, because a joint that can no longer stretch is indistinguishable from a healthy one until the first hard freeze following a wet spell tests it.
How do I tell whether my Colorado Springs building needs restoration or just a cleaning?
Seven signs are worth a phone call. Sealant gone hard, shrunken, or lifted off one face of its joint. Rust weeping out from beneath fasteners and panel edges. Concrete spalled far enough to show steel. Interior staining that shows up only after a storm or a thaw, never on a steady schedule. White efflorescence blooming across brick and sandstone. Roof membrane that came out of a hailstorm bruised, seams split open. Glass that will not come clean. None of these is housekeeping; each one says the exterior has stopped shedding water. Describe what you are looking at on 1-800-785-9927 or through Request A Quote and we will name the failure.
Sealant letting go, rust bleeding through, a leak that keeps coming back on your Colorado Springs building? Describe it to us and we will steer you to the fix that actually solves it.
Call us today at 1-800-785-9927 or click Request A Quote.