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Am i a gypo?

Smurf

Well-known member
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20,533
I went to get a refill for my gas water heater at the local supplier and asked do you also sell Sodium Hypochlorite 14/15% (hypo) being they where a swimming pool chem supplier. I told him what I wanted it for and the young chap said "yes and is £23 per 20 ltr and all the gypo's buy it here now once they found out we sell it to use it to clean paving"

I must be a gypo then? /emoticons/biggrin.png

 
I've avoided using hypo upto now but thought I would get some just so to have a play.

 
Its brilliant stuff Smurf - but you have to be careful with it,.. it will ruin your clothes, brown the leaves on plants & flowers, it'll bleach decking grey if you leave it dwell too long and in sunny/hot weather it can affect gloss paintwork too,...

Always pre-wet surrounding lawns, flowers, garden furniture, wooden doors, etc etc that might be affected by overspray, and always rinse these down again immediately after spraying. Always be aware of how far the overspray can go (Don't use hypo in windy conditions), and always wear eye protection.

That said - its brilliant stuff. Spray it on algae & it just melts away,.. it works on gutters, footpaths, decking, patios, painted walls, coloured render, pebble dash, roof tiles,... all sorts of things!

I usually mix a couple of bottles of washing up liquid in with it as the bubbles help it stick to the surface longer. I wanted to try mixing it with SLS (Sodium Laureth Sulfate - the main ingredient in most liquid soaps & shampoos) as its a cheap and easily available thickening agent for bleach,.. I reckon you could use a lot less hypo if it was thicker and stayed on the surface longer instead of flowing away like water.

 
Cheers for that Nat.:thumbsup:

On another forum someone suggested to add wallpaper paste to the hypo for k-render but I thought he was having a laugh.

 
Paste?????? I would expect that to become a horrible sticky mess!! At least SLS is a bubbly detergent thing, designed for getting stuff clean & rinsing away!

 
"yes and is £23 per 20 ltr
That sounds expensive to me. Though when I get it, I buy dry Calcium hypochlorite granules from a chemical supplier and make up the solution myself. Is that price normal?

 
if you want to be a real pikey empty a 20 litre drum of hypo in with the water and tell the custy that its the sealer and charge accordingly ,dont worry about damaging the pump as you pikeys have now problem in going out and robbing another one :laugh::laugh:

 
The dry granules work for me. I don't really do power washing myself, but now and again I get asked to clean mould or stuff off a wall when i am cleaning fascia etc. And this does the trick lovely. As with the other version, it will bleach anything it gets in contact with - including human hair :oops:

It leaves a white film on stuff that it goes on but isn't rinsed, but the white does clean off, I don't know if that is the same as the liquid.

Carrying a small tub of this and making it up as needed is certaily less weight and extra bulk to carry about. You can make it up into solution as you need it with hot or cold water.

The place I get it from is: £24.29 delivered and inc VAT for 1 kg. Or about £11 per kg for 5KG or about £7.80 per kg for 12 X 1kg and even cheaper if you buy 25kg of the stuff.

http://mistralni.co.uk/products/calcium-hypochlorite

The solution that I make up gives you at least 40L of solution per 1 kg of Calcium Hypochlorite granules. Not sure wher I got my measurements from now, but it is a good strong solution, you can probably use a weaker soution even if gently powerwashing afterwards - I just rinse off.

 
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dont let it go thru your pump or itll wreck it . downstream it in
I wondered about that as I thought it was a bit corrosive. Though, I have left plastic buckets, metal painting roller handles and aluminium extension poles with solution drying on them for days a number of times with apparently no ill effect. What does it do to a pump and how soon will the damage be caused?

 
iv never used it myself but i knew a mate who used to use all manner of stuff when pressure washing industrial places, everything was downstreamed after the pump ,i remember him telling me thats how you save the pump

 
Strong chems will rot the seals in a none chemical pump like the ones we use for wfp work

I wondered about that as I thought it was a bit corrosive. Though, I have left plastic buckets, metal painting roller handles and aluminium extension poles with solution drying on them for days a number of times with apparently no ill effect. What does it do to a pump and how soon will the damage be caused?
 
Downstreaming chems does save the pump but it’s still very corrosive on rubber and metals too.

I'm sure @Njones or JD found this out when their xjet clone eventually rotted away

 
another area where hypo can do damage is glass , i was told that if it drys on the glass that it will etch it and is next to impossible to get off

 
Today whilst on a job I was asked if I could hypo the sides of some park homes that are rendered before they are repainted.

To be honest I don't have a clue what to charge or best methods to apply the hypo either.

Any help would be appreciated folks including @Njones

 
another area where hypo can do damage is glass , i was told that if it drys on the glass that it will etch it and is next to impossible to get off
I have gotten the stuff that I use onto glass and it went white. I just used my WFP, gave it a scrub and it came off again. Maybe I did it in time?

 
Today whilst on a job I was asked if I could hypo the sides of some park homes that are rendered before they are repainted.
To be honest I don't have a clue what to charge or best methods to apply the hypo either.

Any help would be appreciated folks including @Njones
I normally use an exterior paint roller, though have never used it on unpained render.

 
Sorry the render is already painted but the site manager wants to referb them to also include re-paint the walls. Hence why he asked me for a price to treat the walls to kill off the algea/lichen growth before they a re-painted.

 
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