How Much to Charge for Pressure Washing
There's always someone in your town quoting less than you. Most of them will be gone in two years, and your job is to price like you plan to still be here.
The answer
$0.20–$0.45 per sq ft, or $55–$85/hr
A two-car driveway runs $150 to $300. A full house wash runs $300 to $600. Roofs are different work at a different price — soft wash only, $450 to $900.
Per square foot, flat, or hourly?
You need all three, but they do different jobs.
Per square foot — how you calculate
This is your working math. Measure the surface, multiply by your rate, sanity-check the total. It keeps you consistent between quotes, and it stops you from lowballing a big driveway because it "looked normal."
Flat price — what you tell the customer
Say the number, not the formula. "Your driveway is $240." Nobody wants a math lesson in their front yard, and a flat price means you keep the money when you're fast. That's the whole reward for buying a good surface cleaner.
Hourly — your private check, and for weird jobs
Before you send any flat quote, divide it by the hours you think it'll take. Under $55 an hour and the price is wrong. Quote hourly out loud only for jobs you genuinely can't predict — heavy equipment cleaning, a graffiti removal, a job where nobody knows what's under the grime.
Real math — Charleston, SC
A 780 sq ft concrete driveway with heavy mildew. At $0.28/sq ft that's $218. Round to $220.
Time on site: 2 hrs 10 min, including pre-treat and rinse. Drive: 35 min round trip. Chemicals: sodium hypochlorite mix, about $7. Gas for truck and machine: $12.
Left after costs: $201 for 2 hrs 45 min of his day. About $73 an hour. He'd have said yes at $190 and no at $150 — and knowing that number in advance is the entire skill.
Set a job minimum of $150 to $200. Unrolling hose, mixing chemicals, running the machine up to pressure, and packing everything back down takes 35 to 45 minutes whether the job is a walkway or a whole driveway. Below the minimum, the setup eats the job.
Price by surface, not by size
This is the thing new operators get wrong. A 500 sq ft deck and a 500 sq ft driveway are not the same job — not in time, not in risk, not in price.
| Surface | Method | Per sq ft | Typical job total | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Driveway, concrete | High pressure + surface cleaner | $0.20–$0.35 | $150–$300 | Low — hardest to damage |
| Sidewalk / walkway | High pressure + surface cleaner | $0.20–$0.30 | $80–$180 | Low, but often below your minimum |
| House siding (vinyl) | Soft wash, low pressure | $0.20–$0.45 | $300–$600 | Medium — water behind siding |
| House siding (wood / cedar) | Soft wash only | $0.30–$0.50 | $400–$700 | High — furring is permanent |
| Wood deck, clean only | Low pressure, wide tip, with the grain | $0.35–$0.60 | $250–$500 | High — easy to gouge |
| Deck clean + seal | Clean, dry 48 hrs, then seal | $0.75–$1.50 | $500–$1,200 | High — two visits, weather-dependent |
| Roof (asphalt shingle) | Soft wash only — never high pressure | $0.30–$0.60 | $450–$900 | Very high — fall risk, warranty risk |
| Brick / paver patio | High pressure, re-sand after | $0.25–$0.45 | $200–$450 | Medium — blows out joint sand |
Two lines on that table deserve extra attention.
Paver patios — high pressure blows the sand out of the joints. If you don't re-sand, the customer's patio starts shifting and weeds come through, and they'll blame you. Either build re-sanding into the price or write "re-sanding not included" on the estimate.
Deck sealing — the deck has to dry 48 hours before sealer. That's two trips and a weather forecast you don't control. Price it as two visits or don't offer it.
Roofs: different work, different price, real danger
A roof is not a big driveway. Read this section twice if you're thinking about adding roofs.
You never put high pressure on an asphalt shingle roof. Pressure strips the granules off the shingles. Those granules are the roof's UV protection. Strip them and you take years off the roof — and you can void the homeowner's shingle warranty, which turns a $600 job into a five-figure claim against your insurance.
Roofs get soft washed: low pressure, a sodium hypochlorite mix with a surfactant, dwell time, then a gentle rinse. The chemical does the work. Your machine barely does anything.
The other half is that this is genuinely dangerous work. Wet roof, chemical underfoot, a ladder, and a hose you're dragging. Falls from roofs kill people in this trade every year. If you're going to do roofs, get proper roof-rated fall protection, or work entirely from the ground with a soft wash system that reaches — plenty of good operators do exactly that and never step on a roof at all.
The three surfaces that generate the claims. Cedar and soft wood siding — pressure raises the grain permanently, and there's no fixing it without sanding the whole wall. Old window glazing — pressure forces water past the seal and into the wall, and the customer finds it as a stain two weeks later. Asphalt shingles — granule loss and a voided warranty. On all three the answer is the same: soft wash, or don't take the job. Your business structure and your liability policy exist for the day you get one of these wrong.
Water: who pays, and who supplies it
On residential jobs, you use the customer's outdoor spigot. Nobody itemizes it and nobody should — a driveway uses a few hundred gallons, which is usually a couple of dollars on their bill.
What you do need to check, before you quote:
- Is there a working outdoor spigot on the side of the house you need?
- Does it produce enough flow? Your machine needs more water than it uses, or it starves and the pump is what pays
- Is the house on a well? Some wells can't keep up with 4 GPM for three hours straight — ask
- Commercial site: is the spigot locked, and who has the key on the day?
- Where does the runoff go? Some cities restrict wash water entering storm drains
- Is there power for anything you need to plug in?
Put "customer provides water access and electricity" on your estimate. It's one line and it prevents a wasted trip.
Real math — Mesa, AZ
An operator quotes a strip mall sidewalk at $0.22/sq ft, 2,400 sq ft = $528. He shows up at 6am on a Sunday. The only spigot is inside a locked utility closet and the property manager isn't answering the phone.
He drives home. That's a wasted 5am start, 45 miles, and a rescheduled job. Since then, one line goes on every commercial quote: "Water access must be confirmed and unlocked before arrival. Trips where water is unavailable are billed at $150."
He's charged that fee twice in three years, and had zero wasted trips since — because the line itself makes property managers check.
If you take on work where you have to bring your own water, that's a real change: a tank, the weight, the fill time, and about $0.01 to $0.02 a gallon. Price it as a separate line, not as goodwill.
Why the "$99 driveway special" crowd is gone by year two
You've seen the ads. Sometimes it's $89. It works, for a while, and then it doesn't. Here's the actual arithmetic.
A $99 driveway takes about 2 hours on site plus 40 minutes of driving. Direct costs are maybe $20 — chemicals and gas. So it feels like $79 for the day's block, which feels like $29 an hour. Thin, but survivable.
Except those aren't the costs. These are:
| Cost | Per job | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Chemicals | $6–$14 | SH mix, surfactant, degreaser |
| Machine + truck fuel | $10–$18 | Gas engine runs the whole time |
| Surface cleaner wear | $4–$9 | Swivel + nozzles; a swivel is $80–$200 and wears out |
| Pump + machine reserve | $8–$15 | A pump rebuild is $300–$600; set it aside per job |
| Hoses, tips, fittings | $3–$6 | Consumables you replace all season |
| General liability insurance | $6–$14 | $700–$1,600/yr spread over your jobs |
| Card processing (~3%) | $3–$9 | On a $240 job, about $7 |
| Self-employment + income tax | 25–30% | Of what's left, and nobody withholds it |
| Total before tax | $40–$85 | On every single driveway |
So the $99 driveway nets roughly $30 before tax, for 2 hours 40 minutes. Call it $8 an hour. After tax, less.
The reason it looks like it works in year one is that new equipment doesn't break. The pump is fine. The surface cleaner swivel is smooth. Insurance was paid in a lump nobody's counting per job.
Year two, the swivel starts leaving lines on concrete ($140). The pump loses pressure ($400). Insurance renews. The truck needs tires. All of that has to come out of a price that never had room for it. That's when the ads disappear.
Real math — Kansas City
Two operators, same 850 sq ft driveway, same 2 hours. One charges $99. One charges $235.
The $99 guy: $99 − $62 real costs = $37 before tax. About $26 after tax, for 2 hrs 40 min including drive. Roughly $10/hr. He needs 5 driveways a day to make $130, so he books tight, runs late, and rushes.
The $235 guy: $235 − $62 = $173 before tax, about $124 after. Three jobs is a good day and he's home at 4. He answers his phone, shows up on time, and sends a real invoice.
Guess which one gets the repeat customer and the neighbor's referral. Being cheapest doesn't win this trade — being the one who shows up does.
There's a wider pressure here worth naming. The number of pressure washing businesses has been growing far faster than the industry's total revenue. More operators, roughly the same amount of work. That doesn't mean you should cut your price — it means the ones who cut theirs will churn out, and the ones who priced properly will still be answering the phone next spring.
How to say your price out loud
When someone says "the other guy said $120," you don't defend and you don't drop. You say this:
"That's a fair price for what he's offering. Mine's $235 — I pre-treat, I'm fully insured, and if anything on your property gets damaged, that's covered. Happy to send you the estimate either way."
Then stop talking. Some will go with the $120. The ones who don't are the customers you actually want, and they'll call you again next year.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for pressure washing?
$0.20 to $0.45 per square foot, or $55 to $85 an hour, is the typical 2026 range. A two-car driveway runs $150 to $300, a full house wash $300 to $600. Surface type moves the price more than square footage — a deck takes longer and carries more risk than concrete of the same size.
How much should I charge to pressure wash a driveway?
A typical 600 to 900 sq ft driveway runs $150 to $300. Most operators use $0.20 to $0.35 per square foot with a $150 to $200 job minimum, because setup and pack-down take the same 40 minutes no matter how small the job is.
How much is a house wash?
Single story typically $300 to $450, two story $400 to $600. Two story costs more because it's slower and needs longer reach — and because that's where the injuries happen. Cedar or painted wood siding prices above vinyl since it must be soft washed carefully.
Should I charge by square foot or by the hour?
Quote a flat price to the customer — it's what they understand, and you keep the money when you're fast. Use square footage to calculate it and an hourly figure to check it. If a flat quote works out under about $55 an hour of your time, it's too low.
Who pays for the water when pressure washing?
On houses, you use the customer's spigot and nobody itemizes it — a driveway is usually a couple of dollars of water. On commercial jobs, get water access confirmed in writing before you quote. If you have to haul your own, that's a different job at a different price.
Is roof cleaning priced differently?
Yes. Roofs are soft washed — low pressure and a cleaning solution, never high pressure, because pressure strips shingle granules and can void the roof warranty. It's the most dangerous work in this trade, so it prices higher: typically $450 to $900 on an average home.
Why do cheap pressure washing companies go out of business?
A $99 driveway covers fuel and chemicals but not equipment wear, insurance, tax, or the operator's own time. It works while the equipment is new. It stops working the first time a pump or surface cleaner swivel needs replacing — which is usually year two.
Do I need insurance for pressure washing?
Yes, and more urgently than in most trades. Surface damage claims are common here: furred cedar siding, water behind old window glazing, granule loss on shingles. General liability is standard, most commercial clients demand proof, and it's what stands between one bad afternoon and your savings.
Keep going
Also useful: the free invoice template, the handyman business hub if you're adding repair work, and whether to form an LLC — worth reading in a trade where damage claims are a real possibility.
Price ranges on this page are compiled public ranges as of August 2026. They're a starting point for setting your own price, not a quote. Business licensing and wash-water runoff rules differ by city and state — check your city's business licensing page and your state's environmental agency site before you start.