The Texaco Building – Houston, TX

The Texaco Historic Restoration project on the three buildings located on Rusk Street that were erected in 1915, 1936 and 1959 started with a complete investigation of the building’s exterior limestone and terra cotta envelope. The limestone facade, after extensive testing, was determined to respond best to cleaning by hot water mist and hand scrubbing. The façade was rigged with hot water sprinklers and crews alternated between locations on a 30 minute schedule scrubbing the limestone multiple times. The project included removal and replacement of 1000 terra cotta units as well as addressing any structural steel issues that were discovered after removing the terra cotta pieces. Selected areas on the 3 buildings were identified to need minor to major mortar joint repairs. All lower level granite elements were also restored on the buildings.