House Wash Mix Question

I am sorry for all the posts recently, but I really value the opinion of everyone here and ya’ll have already helped me so much thus far! I have a question about my house wash mix. I have not tried anything yet, but I would just like a baseline. I am having trouble finding SH here in Fort Worth at a reasonable price. Walmart has it for $3.64 a gallon, but I don’t want to have to raid Walmart each time I need SH. I found a local chemical company that sells it 5 gallons at a time, but it is $5.82 a gallon. The upside to this company though, is that they also carry sodium percarbonate and oxalic acid, so it would be a one stop shop for me.

My main question is how much SH should I expect to use per house? I can order it in 10% and 12.5% from this company. However, since I am down here in Texas we do not have a lot of mold and mildew issues on houses, it is mostly dirt and grime so I figured I would be fine with 10%. So would 4 gallons of water to 1 gallon of 10% SH and a surfactant cover me for the average house wash around here? Obviously, I could up the ratios if the house was extremely dirty. I will most likely be using Fresh Wash or Sap It from PowerWash.com as my surfactant. They are local to Fort Worth and I can just pick it up instead of having it shipped.

I know there is no one magic mix for every situation, and I am sure I will learn a lot more once I start washing and I can adjust my mix accordingly, I would just like an idea of where to start. Thanks in advance!

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5.82 a gallon in is insane… theres gotta be an age store on ever corner

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Yeah, I choked when she told me the price. Unfortunately, no pool supply places are allowed to sell in bulk, at least thats what I have found from my research. So right now it is looking like $5.82 a gallon from a reputable chemical company, or $3.64 from Walmart… I am open to any other suggestions! haha

There is a Brenntag somewhat close (hour and a half) to me, I am still waiting to hear back from them with a quote on their SH price.

agriculture stores

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I will check it out and see if I can find something. By ag store do you mean Tractor Supply or Arrow Feed? Or something else?

Where ever they sell hay and horse feed. The more mom and pop the better your chances. Find a rancher and ask where he gets his. Those places usually have bulk tanks. Dow chemical is huge in Texas too. I would think you could get it direct from them dirt cheap.

If you are not dealing with much mold and mildew using 2-3 gallons of 12.5 in a 5 gallon mix will be just fine. That’s $18 per house in SH

I pay $1.95 a gallon for 12.5 but it’s really about 15-16%

That’s good to know, that is a much higher ratio than I was going to start out with.

I would do at least 2gallons of SH to 3 gallons of water and 5oz of surfactant. Even houses that I clean with no algae or mold clean easier with a good mix. Time is money and you will spend more time washing a second time if it doesn’t all come off the first.

When my SH is fresh I run it 50/50 and after it’s a week or two old I do 75% SH to 25% water

It certainly makes sense! What you may spend in extra SH will be nothing compared to time saved not going back for a second round.

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Hands down…

Powerwash.com is located in Ft. Worth, call them and ask. I guarantee they will be able tontell you where to get it cheap.

Well when I went up there and ordered my pressure washer, he said he would just look at pool supply places. He can sell it, but only in 55 gallon drums, and I am not equipped to buy it that way.

Tried Petrachem?

I saw it, but haven’t reached out. I am actually on the other side of the metroplex, so didn’t consider it too much. If they could beat $3.00 a gallon though, it might be worth the drive. Are you local?

Hold on, are you telling us that there are no pool shops that have SH in bulk? I find that hard to believe. I live in Ajax Canada and we have pool shops selling sh for $13 for ten gallons. I think you just need to find the right supplier

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How they going to sell gallons in Canada ahe :sunglasses:

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Well I have done a lot of research, and from my understanding, due to the high amount of detergents found in water testing done around Fort Worth and Dallas, purchasing SH in bulk in DFW has become very difficult because the cities want to try and limit the detergents getting into the water. Most suppliers will not sell bulk SH unless it can be delivered to a loading dock. Now, whether or not this is true, I don’t know. This is just what I have been reading in the forums. I still have a few local pool shops to try, and they may have SH, but I don’t know how affordable it will be.

Not local, used to do a lot of work in texas with a company that painted home depot’s. I know SH is more regulated in Texas and the pool supply stores wont sell it in bulk. We used to get our SH through sherwin williams, but not sure where they were getting it from. We didnt have any issues because we were placing $20k-30k orders.

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I pay $285 every two weeks for 110 gallons delivered. You can pick up 55 gallons at a time for under $2/gallon

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