Funding for your situation
The real cost of adding a wash tunnel, what funders look at, and a worked example using illustrative figures.
✓ Checking what you qualify for does not affect your credit score.
The membership list grows every month, but the tunnel is at capacity on Saturdays. Adding a wash tunnel is the most direct way to turn demand you are already turning away into revenue, and it is also a purchase that comes due before it earns.
Merchant Fund Express is a funding marketplace: you apply once, and the file is matched to the structure that fits it. The sections below show what this situation usually costs, how a funder reads it, and what to prepare.
Compliance touchpoints for a car wash often include environmental discharge permit and building permit, which can come up when the request involves a new site, a purchase or a significant change.
A car wash file is read through membership versus pay-per-wash mix, weather volatility in deposits and equipment already financed.
Card and membership sales with recurring plan billing and weather-driven daily swings. A reviewer sees that pattern in the statements before reading a word of the application.
Equipment is part of the picture. A failure such as a conveyor motor and gearbox or a dryer blower can run $9,500 to $9,500 and interrupt revenue while it is down.
| Cost item | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|
| Vacuum bays and pay stations | $24,000 |
| Tunnel equipment upgrade | $65,000 |
| Water reclaim system | $38,000 |
| Chemicals and starting supplies | $4,000 |
| Cushion for overruns and slow early weeks (about 10%) | $13,000 |
| Funding need for one more wash tunnel | $144,000 |
Sizing check. If the full repayment shown in an offer were $187,000 over about 26 weeks, the weekly debit would be about $7,192. Against illustrative monthly deposits of $230,000 (about $53,077 a week), that is roughly 14% of weekly deposits. Your own offer states the real repayment amount in dollars; run your numbers on the factor rate calculator before you accept anything.
Source: worksheet by Merchant Fund Express. Illustrative only: these figures are not an offer, and real amounts depend on your file and the funder.
A real cost of the move that is easy to leave out of the first estimate.
A fixed purchase with a quote you can put in front of a funder.
A real cost of the move that is easy to leave out of the first estimate.
Bought ahead of the first sale and sitting as cash until it turns.
These are the same factors described on revenue and deposit requirements and time in business. Merchant Fund Express walks you through how your own file reads before you apply.
A complete file is what makes a same-day decision possible. If something is missing, tell us and we will work around it.
Merchant Fund Express gives a same-day decision on a complete file, and funding is typically the next business day after signing. The quote or bill of sale for the wash tunnel is the document that usually moves things along.
It can be either. If the purchase is a single asset with a quote, equipment financing may fit; if you also need payroll and supplies for the ramp-up, working capital covers the whole package.
Often yes. A used purchase can shorten the payback, and a quote or invoice from the seller is what the file needs.
The minimum FICO is 500, and better credit means better products and terms. See credit score requirements for how the tiers work.
Merchant Fund Express gives a same-day decision on a complete file. Applying takes a few minutes and will not affect your credit score.
