Dallas glass on west and south walls takes daily hard-water sprinkler overspray, and mountain cedar pollen settles on it through the winter months.
Dallas Water Utilities does not publish a hardness figure, so treat any single number you see quoted with caution; what the glass shows is spotting where sprinklers hit west and south walls every day. Mountain cedar pollen settles through the winter, so April, July to September and November are the times to wash. The Park Cities and Preston Hollow set the top of the market, while a typical single-story exterior runs $320 to $540.
Dallas draws several reservoirs through several plants, and in big multi-plant systems like this one a single citywide hardness figure rarely holds everywhere. DWU's 2025 report prints no hardness figure; numbers quoted online cluster around 8 to 9 grains, but they come from sellers citing the utility, not from the utility. Treat the supply as reliably hard in direction, unresolved in magnitude, and probably variable by plant.
| Hardness | not published Dallas Water Utilities publishes no hardness figure in its 2025 Water Quality Report (dallascityhall.com). |
|---|---|
| Manganese | 0.00227 mg/L (range 0–0.0068) |
| Disinfectant | ozone + chloramine |
| Source and treatment | Surface water, per the EPA SDWIS federal record · Permanganate, coagulation, flocculation, rapid mix, lime and recarbonation for pH, sedimentation, dual-media filtration, pre-ozonation and chlorination with chloramines as the residual, fluoridation, with an orthophosphate inhibitor and post lime dosing for corrosion control · No softening step. |
Not in the report: pH, alkalinity, corrosion index, iron, sodium, chloride and total dissolved solids.
SOURCE · Dallas Water Utilities 2025 Water Quality Report, Water Quality Data Report for 2025 · How we source these numbers
Irrigation is the mechanism that actually governs this market. Bermuda and St. Augustine lawns need daily summer watering, and spray heads throw hard water onto west and south elevations every single day — so the interval on an irrigated property is set by the sprinkler schedule rather than by dust or weather. Pollen then runs an unusually long season, cedar through winter overlapping oak and pecan in spring.
TEXAS SEASON BY SEASON →Dallas Water Utilities draws several reservoirs through several plants and its 2025 report prints no hardness figure, so the single numbers you may see quoted for Dallas do not come from the utility. Operationally the market is governed by irrigation rather than weather: daily summer overspray from Bermuda and St. Augustine lawns puts hard water on west and south glass, and a five-month cedar-into-oak pollen season makes recurring contracts the only honest model.
Dallas Water Utilities draws a network of reservoirs including Ray Hubbard, Tawakoni, Grapevine and Lewisville through multiple treatment plants, and DWU's own 2025 report prints no hardness figure. Every hardness number you will find for Dallas comes from a plumber or seller citing the utility, not from the utility itself.
That matters more here than it would elsewhere. Large western and Texan systems usually publish by area, by plant, by source or by season, which is why a single citywide figure tends to be wrong somewhere. A single citywide number for Dallas is the least likely shape to be correct.
Lawn irrigation is the dominant operating challenge and it is a daily mechanism rather than a seasonal one. Bermuda and St. Augustine turf needs watering through the summer, spray heads reach west and south elevations, and hard water drying on hot glass leaves deposit that a maintenance clean alone will not keep ahead of.
Redirecting or shielding sprinkler heads is often the single most valuable thing a professional can do on a Dallas property, and it costs nothing but attention. Customers routinely blame the cleaning for marks their own irrigation put there the following morning.
The pollen season runs unusually long. Mountain cedar peaks through winter, then oak and pecan take over in spring, giving roughly five months of near-continuous pollen film rather than a single spring wave. Scheduling around it is impossible; selling frequency through it is honest.
Summer surface temperatures make timing the whole job. On a west-facing elevation in July the top of a large pane dries before the bottom is squeegeed, so the working order runs shaded elevations first and west last, or early morning only.
The Park Cities and Preston Hollow set the top of the residential market, with large glazed elevations, extensive irrigation and an expectation of maintenance contracts. Downtown and Uptown curtain wall is rope-and-stage work on a separate rate. The long pollen season plus daily summer irrigation together support genuinely high frequency, which makes recurring contracts rather than one-off cleans the sustainable model here.
Summer heat and hard water combine badly for a homeowner. Working a large west-facing pane in a Dallas July means the top dries before the bottom is finished, and at this hardness what is left is bonded deposit rather than a streak. Redirecting sprinkler heads away from glass is frequently worth more to a customer than an extra clean, and it is the advice most likely to be genuinely appreciated.
OPEN COST ESTIMATOR →2025 annual mean at the Convention Center monitor, 717 South Akard, 3.6 km south-west of the city (EPA site 48-113-0050).
Largest air release: Texas Instruments Inc, 13500 N Central Expressway (computers and electronic products), inside the city limits, 34,876 lb in 2024.
Dallas's Water Conservation Ordinance applies all year: water may not run off onto streets or other drainage areas, and sprinklers are held to two assigned days a week and kept off between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. from April to October, while hand watering is allowed any time. A hand-held hose is fine for rinsing glass as long as the water stays off the street.
City of Dallas, Water Conservation Ordinance watering restrictions (Dallas City Code 49-21) · checked September 2026
Dallas treats it as a City Code violation for a business to let water mixed with soap, detergent or other cleaning chemicals reach the street or a storm drain. Wash water from structures and pavement may go to the drain only if it is chemical-free, clean enough not to harm the receiving creek, and doesn't cause erosion or muddy runoff.
City of Dallas Stormwater Management, Keep Stormwater Clean: pavement and structure washing · City of Dallas Water Utilities, Stormwater Management · checked September 2026
Dallas requires a Certificate of Appropriateness before any exterior work on a Dallas Landmark or a building in a landmark district. Staff can approve repairing or replacing damaged windows in kind as routine maintenance; larger changes go to the Landmark Commission, and in a 2024 Lake Cliff case staff called vinyl windows incompatible and asked for all-wood ones.
City of Dallas Office of Historic Preservation, Landmark review process · City of Dallas Landmark Commission, courtesy review form (routine maintenance) · City of Dallas, Landmark Commission hearing transcript, 1001 N Crawford St (April 2024) · checked September 2026
The central Texas mountain juniper releases huge volumes of cedar pollen from December through February — locally called cedar fever season. Pollen settles on glass in visible yellow clouds on heavy-release days. Sticks tenaciously and needs a surfactant pass.
Live oak and post oak release pollen from late February through early April. Yellow-green pollen layers everywhere in Austin, San Antonio, and the eastern hill country. Heavy enough to require a pre-rinse on most spring jobs.
Heaviest in San Antonio, whose published figure is the extreme end, and on hill-country well systems. Lower-third of patio doors and ground-floor windows accumulate visible mineral cement within a single summer.
Pecan trees, common throughout central and east Texas, release pollen and shed catkin debris in late spring. Catkins lodge in window screens and against glazing beads, decomposing into a sticky residue if not cleared.
Dallas draws several reservoirs through several plants, and in big multi-plant systems like this one a single citywide hardness figure rarely holds everywhere. DWU's 2025 report prints no hardness figure; numbers quoted online cluster around 8 to 9 grains, but they come from sellers citing the utility, not from the utility.
Residential window cleaning in Dallas typically runs $11–16 per pane or $320–540 for a standard single-story exterior. The Park Cities and Preston Hollow set the top of the residential market, with large glazed elevations, extensive irrigation and an expectation of maintenance contracts.
Dallas's drier, frost-free months are April, July to September and November, by NOAA's 1991–2020 normals for the Dallas Love Field station, where May brings the most rain. The calendar on this page marks April (after the March 6 bloom), September (after smoke season) and November (before frost). Frost nights usually run from November 29 to March 2.
Dallas Water Utilities publishes neither hardness nor dissolved solids, so rinse one pane and let it dry in sun; a white ring means switch to pure water. Iron, manganese, sodium and chloride all sit under this site's flags (highest: manganese up to 0.00227 mg/L). Treatment starts with permanganate, coagulation, flocculation and rapid mix.
In Dallas the dominant residue patterns include daily hard-water sprinkler overspray on west and south elevations and mountain cedar pollen through winter. Irrigation is the mechanism that actually governs this market. Bermuda and St.
Summer heat and hard water combine badly for a homeowner. Working a large west-facing pane in a Dallas July means the top dries before the bottom is finished, and at this hardness what is left is bonded deposit rather than a streak.
High-rise commercial concentration; institutional and event-cycle contract work dominant. Highland Park / University Park and Lakewood have their own housing stock and glazing as well.
Just over the Texas line