Washington’s Master Craftsmen in Building Envelope Restoration
About Us
The Seattle area office has served customers throughout Washington and Oregon since 1995.
Western Specialty Contractors helps you take the guesswork out of building envelope maintenance and repairs in a way that lets you provide more value to your clients.
Since the company was founded in 1915 as a small waterproofing contractor in St. Louis, MO, Western has stood by dedication to quality craftsmanship.
Family-owned, the company has evolved to become America’s largest specialty contractor in masonry, concrete, waterproofing and facades restoration.
Services
Sealant Replacement
Got leaks? Water intrusion is more than an inconvenience for property owners and tenants. Left unchecked, it can damage structural elements and shorten the useful life of buildings, parking garages, and plaza decks.
Masonry Restoration
The materials that give masonry structures their character and beauty are vulnerable to age, moisture, pollutants, building movement, and deferred maintenance.
Parking Garage Restoration
An ineffective maintenance routine on a parking structure can quickly lead to costly repairs and restorations that can be disruptive to tenants and cause unexpected costs and safety concerns.
Waterproofing & Coatings
From below grade waterproofing to deck coatings to roof coatings, any waterproofing system is only as effective as the caliber of installation.
Concrete Restoration
Concrete is economical and durable — the backbone of modern construction. But time, water, and weather take their toll and diminish its strength.
Historical Restoration
We can restore the exterior features regardless of composition or age without damaging either the building or its historical charm.
West Edge Apartments | Seattle, WA
Western Specialty Contractors’ Seattle Branch restored and waterproofed the loading dock, surrounding trash rooms and ramps at the West Edge Apartments parking garage in Seattle, WA. Facility maintenance firm Greystar hired Western in June 2025 to apply a traffic coating to the specified areas within the 39-story, mixed-use West Edge Apartments’ parking garage at 1430 2nd Ave. Western’s scope of work included surface preparation and installation of a multi-layer traffic coating system, along with routing and sealing of existing cracks using a two-part urethane sealant. Because the loading dock and surrounding areas are very busy, Western scheduled the work in two phases that allowed for foot traffic and deliveries during the project. With the tight schedule in place, Western successfully applied the traffic coating in July 2025 to enhance durability and surface protection in high-traffic areas, within budget. Maintaining a concrete parking structure can be challenging. Vehicles regularly entering parking…
Kittitas Jail | Ellensburg, WA
Western Specialty Contractors’ Seattle branch restored the Kittitas County Jail in Ellensburg, Washington. Located at 205 W 5th Ave, the Kittitas County Jail is operated by the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office and serves as a detention center for individuals awaiting trial or serving short sentences. The jail was built in the 1980s to house about 45 inmates. In 2012, the Annex was completed, which significantly increased its total capacity to 209. The Kittitas Jail restoration project, started in May 2025, encompassed a broad range of structural and aesthetic improvements. General contractor Belsaas & Smith hired Western Specialty Contractors to perform the jail’s exterior work, which included application of exterior sealants, epoxy injections, and concrete repairs. The exterior work was accessed by manlifts and scaffolding while protecting the surrounding landscape. Western’s crew removed and replaced expansion joints and rustication joints using a DOW 790 silicone sealant. Small cracks were injected with…
Parking Structure Inspection Guide
Maintaining multi-million-dollar parking garages can be a daunting task for building owners and their facility managers. An ineffective maintenance routine on a parking structure can quickly lead to costly repairs and restorations that can be disruptive to tenants and cause unexpected costs and safety concerns.
Fortunately, identifying and tracking problem areas within parking structures has just become easier with Western Specialty Contractors’ new online Visual Guide & Checklist for parking garage inspections.
Caulking & Sealants Cheat Sheet
Practically every building requires caulking and sealants to prevent water from reaching interior spaces.
Caulking and sealants are not only the most commonly used waterproofing materials, but they’re also the most incorrectly used. This quick cheat sheet will help you decode any jargon you encounter for caulking and sealants.
Contact us today about your next project
Whether you’d like us to take a look at minor leak issues, provide a proposal for full capital restoration projects, or give an educational presentation that will help you and your team make your exterior maintenance more cost effective, we’d love to connect with you.