Western Specialty Contractors’ Austin, Texas, branch took on the tough task of restoring the century-old Skyhouse Lounge building, tackling crumbling masonry, hidden materials and roof conditions that demanded quick thinking and skilled coordination.

The building, home to the city's first rooftop barbershop and cocktail lounge, was located adjacent to a public parking lot. The historic building’s exposed masonry wall had been damaged, neglected, painted, and overlaid several times over the years. To further complicate the restoration, the wall’s existing masonry was covered in tar, stucco, paint and other mysterious foreign materials.

Western, partnered with project engineer ECS Southwest, was tasked with performing masonry restoration, tuckpointing and waterproofing on the exposed wall.

“The bricks and mortar were basically crumbling out of the wall, and it took delicate care to properly remove, lay up the brick/block and tuckpoint,” said Western Project Manager Webster Wrightsman. “The engineer originally estimated 50% of the mortar needed to be tuckpointed—this turned into virtually 100%. Many of the bricks were too deteriorated to salvage, so we had to purchase pallets of new brick to lay up. We ended up purchasing reclaimed bricks to keep the aged aesthetic to the facade. There were also many years of stucco, waterproofing, and paint layers to remove. This required brainstorming from the engineer and manufacturer to figure out the best cleaning agent to remove everything.”

Photo courtesy Western Specialty Contractors. 

Western’s crews were also tasked with making repairs to the building’s lower roof wall. As it turned out, the wall adjacent to the lower roof, which was initially thought to be all brick, was actually made of half brick and half gypsum board, so a pivot in repairs was necessary.

“We had to alter the work scope to extend the TPO membrane up the bottom half of wall and place Hardie backer board on the top half," Wrightsman said. "Our excellent roofing crew flawlessly installed the new membrane and had no issues with the unforeseen circumstances."

Photo courtesy Western Specialty Contractors. 

Western’s crew also faced challenges coordinating with the adjacent parking lot owners and the neighbors to access the roof and wall for certain scopes of work.

“Access to the south elevation wall was a challenge because all parking stalls adjacent to the wall had to be purchased by ownership for the duration of the project," Wrightsman said. "We also had to de-mobilize and re-mobilize during the project to allow full parking lot access for a South by Southwest (SXSW) event.”

The project started on Feb. 24, 2025, and Western completed the project about two weeks after the contract deadline on July 25, 2025, but within budget despite several unforeseen conditions and additional work required to properly complete the restoration.