How to Price Pressure Washing Jobs

Build every price from production time

Every pressure washing price is the same math underneath: crew time on the job, times what that time costs you, plus chemicals and other materials, plus overhead and profit. Square foot, job and hourly prices are just different ways to present the result.

Your production rate is how much surface your crew and rig clean in an hour, by surface and condition. It depends on your equipment: the machine's flow in gallons per minute (GPM), the width of your surface cleaner and how you apply chemicals all change it. That's why copying a competitor's price per square foot is risky. It was built on their rig and their costs.

Keep a production log on every job:

• Surface and material, such as a concrete driveway or vinyl siding
• Condition: light, average or heavy, with notes on oil, rust, mildew or moss
• Area in square feet or linear feet
• Crew time per surface, plus travel, setup and breakdown
• Gallons of concentrate used

After a few dozen jobs, you'll have your own rates for the work you do most.

Then work out what a crew hour costs: wages, payroll taxes and workers' comp for everyone on the job, plus the truck, trailer, machines, fuel and repairs. How to set your labor rate covers the labor side. If rig costs go into the hourly number, leave them out of overhead so you don't count them twice.

Example: These numbers are invented to show the method. Your two-person crew costs $80 an hour with payroll taxes and workers' comp. The truck, trailer, machines, fuel, vehicle insurance and repairs cost $30,000 a year over 1,500 hours on the clock, or $20 an hour. A crew hour costs you $100. If your surface cleaner covers 700 square feet an hour on average concrete and 400 on heavily stained concrete, crew time costs about $0.14 a square foot on the first and $0.25 on the second, before chemicals, travel and setup.

Pick the pricing unit that fits the work

Choose the unit by what makes the work vary, then do the math underneath in crew hours.

Price each surface on its own terms

Siding, concrete, roofs and wood each use a different method, mix and pace, so each needs its own production rate and its own line on the quote.

House washes

Siding is usually soft washed: a cleaning solution applied at low pressure, left to work, then rinsed. Chemical use, dwell time and protecting the landscaping matter more than pressure.

Price house washes on wall area, not the home's living square footage. A two-story house has more wall per square foot of living space than a ranch, and half of it is up high.

Example: Two invented houses, each with 2,000 square feet of living space. The ranch sits on a 40 by 50 foot footprint: 180 feet of perimeter times 9-foot walls is 1,620 square feet of wall. The two-story sits on a 25 by 40 foot footprint: 130 feet of perimeter times 18 feet of wall is 2,340 square feet, about 44% more to wash, half of it on the second story. Priced by living area, the two-story would be undercharged.

Then adjust for what changes the time:

• Siding material. Vinyl, painted wood, stucco and brick each wash differently, and rough or porous surfaces can take more solution and rinsing.
• Growth. Heavy mildew or algae on shaded walls usually needs more solution and dwell time.
• Oxidation. The chalky film on older vinyl and painted aluminum may not come off with a standard wash. Removing it is slower work, often by hand, so quote it separately after a test spot.

Flatwork

Concrete driveways, sidewalks and patios are usually cleaned with pressure and a surface cleaner, often with a pre-treatment and a post-treatment. Price them per square foot with condition tiers from your log, and price the extras separately:

• Steps, curbs and edges are slower than open slab, so give stairs a per-step price.
• Oil, rust, tire marks and gum are spot treatments with their own chemicals and time. Quote them as add-ons without promising full removal.
• Pavers can lose joint sand during cleaning, so make re-sanding a separate line or an exclusion.
• Sealing is its own job with its own materials and drying time.

Roof soft washing

Roofs are soft washed too, but price them from their own log entries: they have their own mix and quantities, a slower pace and more safety setup. What drives the time:

• Size and pitch. A steep roof has more surface than its footprint suggests, takes more setup to work safely and moves slower.
• Runoff. Solution coming off the roof runs through the gutters and downspouts toward plants, so wetting, covering, rinsing and flushing the downspouts take time on every roof.
• Type of growth. Moss and lichen may not rinse off the same day. Say whether a follow-up visit is included.

For asphalt shingles, the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association recommends a bleach and water mix left on for 15 to 20 minutes, then a low-pressure rinse, and says never to use a pressure washer on the roof ¹. That dwell time belongs in your roof production rate. ARMA also says the result is temporary and discoloration may return ², so a roof can become a repeat customer. Follow the roofing manufacturer's cleaning instructions where they exist, and turn down roofs you can't work on safely.

Decks and fences

Wood decks are slower per square foot than concrete because too much pressure can scar soft wood, so the work takes lower pressure, careful passes and often a cleaner followed by a brightener. Price deck boards per square foot, railings per linear foot and stairs per step, and quote staining or sealing as a separate job. For composite decking, follow the manufacturer's cleaning instructions.

Price fences per linear foot by height and condition, one side at a time. The far side may be on a neighbor's property, so confirm access first.

Chemical, water and equipment costs

These costs grow with every square foot you clean, so put them in every price as real numbers.

Chemicals

Work out what a gallon of your mix costs, then multiply by the gallons your log says a job uses.

Example: Invented numbers again. Concentrate costs $5 a gallon and your house wash mix is 1 part concentrate to 4 parts water, so each gallon of mix holds a fifth of a gallon of concentrate, or $1.00 worth. Surfactant adds $0.20, so the mix costs $1.20 a gallon. At 30 gallons for a two-story house, chemicals cost $36.

Price degreasers, rust removers and brighteners the same way, and add the costs that never show on a receipt: pickup trips, containers, protective gear and leftover mix. Mix and apply every product as its label directs.

Water

A machine can use up to its rated GPM for every minute it sprays, so your log's spray time tells you roughly how much water a job takes.

Example: A 4 GPM machine spraying for 3 hours uses up to 4 × 180 = 720 gallons. Before you start, time a 5-gallon bucket at the spigot: 60 seconds means 5 GPM, enough for that machine. At 90 seconds (about 3.3 GPM), plan on a buffer tank and the setup time it adds.

Then say on the quote who pays for the water:

• The customer's spigot: the water goes on their bill.
• Your own water: tank fills, fill time and the fuel to haul a heavy load.
• No usable spigot: haul water in, or ask the water utility about renting a hydrant meter, and price the time and fees.

Equipment, fuel and wash water

Build equipment wear into your crew-hour cost: pump rebuilds, hoses, nozzles, surface cleaner swivels, engine service and fuel. Hot water work for grease and gum burns burner fuel on top of engine fuel, so give it a higher hourly cost.

Where local rules or the property owner require you to keep wash water out of storm drains, capture is its own cost: drain covers, berms, a recovery vacuum, extra crew time and disposal fees. Ask before you quote, especially on commercial sites; how to start a pressure washing business explains the wash water rules.

Set a minimum job charge

Every job carries fixed time whatever its size: driving, unloading, running hoses, checking the water, wetting plants, mixing, packing up and getting paid. A per-square-foot price on a small patio doesn't cover it. Set a minimum that covers that time, the travel and a short stretch of cleaning, and tell customers before you book. It works like a trip charge that includes some work.

Example: Same invented $100 crew hour. A small job still takes about an hour of travel, setup and breakdown. Add half an hour of cleaning and $10 of chemicals and the job costs $160. At a 40% gross margin, $160 ÷ 0.60 = $267, so a $270 minimum covers any job with up to half an hour of cleaning.

When a customer asks for one small area, show what else fits inside the minimum. If you serve a wide area, add a travel charge past a set distance, since the minimum assumes a normal drive.

Add surcharges for height, access and timing

The same square footage can take far longer depending on where it is. Price the usual causes as named adders so similar jobs get similar prices:

• Upper stories: ladder moves, extension poles, longer hose runs and slower rinsing.
• Steep or high roofs: more safety setup and slower movement.
• Long carries: backyards far from the rig, gates and tight side yards.
• Dense landscaping against the walls: more time protecting and rinsing plants.
• Water problems: no usable spigot, low flow or wash water capture.
• Timing: nights and weekends for commercial work, plus any crew premium.
• Overhead power lines where ladders and poles go: plan a safe method or decline the work.

Set each adder from your log, not a guess.

Example: Invented numbers. Your log shows first-story walls washing at 1,200 square feet an hour and second-story walls at 800. A two-story house with 1,200 square feet of wall on each floor takes 1 hour downstairs and 1.5 hours upstairs, half an hour more than if all 2,400 square feet were at ground level. That's $50 of cost, or about $83 of price at a 40% margin, so an $85 second-story adder fits houses like it.

Price recurring commercial work in two parts

Storefront sidewalks, drive-thrus, dumpster pads, building exteriors and HOA common areas need two prices: an initial clean, then a per-visit maintenance price.

• The initial clean removes months or years of buildup. Price it from a site visit and a test area, by the hour with a cap if the buildup is unpredictable.
• Maintenance visits take less time once the buildup is gone. Price them from the measured time of real visits and review after the first few.
• Frequency changes buildup, so price each frequency from its own time rather than a blanket discount.
• Route density is where a lower price can come from: accounts near each other on the same night share travel.

Put the per-visit scope in writing: areas, methods, what counts as extra (spills, graffiti, gum, grease beyond normal buildup), access times, water source and capture, price reviews and cancellation. Commercial customers may want to pay on terms and ask for a W-9 and a certificate of insurance; how to invoice pressure washing jobs covers that paperwork.

Example: Invented numbers. A restaurant wants its drive-thru lane, dumpster pad and sidewalk cleaned monthly after closing. The first visit takes 5 crew hours with hot water and degreaser: 5 × $100 + $60 of chemicals and burner fuel = $560, and $560 ÷ 0.60 = $933, so you quote $935. Your log then shows maintenance visits at 2.5 hours: 2.5 × $100 + $40 = $290, and $290 ÷ 0.60 = $483, so $485 a visit, or $5,820 a year.

Bundle surfaces into one visit

Bundles work because fixed time is paid once. A house wash, driveway and gutter faces booked separately carry three rounds of travel, setup and breakdown; booked together, they carry one. Build the bundle discount from that saved time and you keep your margin.

Offer bundles as three-tier options: the house wash alone; the house plus driveway and walkways; then gutter faces and the patio on top.

Be specific about gutters. Cleaning the outside faces (the streaks you see from the yard) is a different job from clearing leaves out of them, with different tools, ladder work and time.

Worked example: house, driveway and gutters

Example: Invented numbers, using the $100 crew hour, the production rates above and a 40% gross margin target. The house has 2,400 square feet of wall on two stories, a 1,050-square-foot driveway and walkway, and 100 linear feet of gutter faces.

Item	Crew hours	Materials	Cost
Travel, setup, plant protection, breakdown	1.5		$150
House soft wash, 2,400 sq ft of wall	2.5	$36	$286
Driveway and walkway, 1,050 sq ft at 700 an hour	1.5	$14	$164
Gutter faces, 100 linear feet	1.0		$100
Total	6.5	$50	$700

Price: $700 ÷ 0.60 = $1,167, so the quote is $1,170, noting that water comes from the customer's spigot.

Booked as three separate visits, each service carries its own 1.5 hours of travel and setup: the house alone is $727, the driveway $523 and the gutters $417, or $1,667 in all. The package saves 3 crew hours, which is $300 of cost and about $500 of price, so you can show $1,170 against $1,667 and keep the same margin on both.

Check the price before it goes out

• Compare with your log. Convert to dollars per square foot or linear foot and compare with similar-size jobs, since fixed time makes small jobs look expensive per square foot. A big gap means an input is off.
• Clear the minimum, including add-ons booked alone.
• Price to margin, not markup. Divide cost by 1 minus your target margin; markup vs margin explains why the same markup percentage leaves you less.
• Spell out the scope: each surface, the method, the water source, plant protection, and what's excluded or not guaranteed, such as oxidation and stains that may not fully lift. How to write a pressure washing estimate covers wording, photos and disclaimers.
• Set an expiration date so chemical and fuel price changes don't come out of your margin.
• Log the real numbers after the job so the next quote is more accurate.

If you quote by text, Redline, which is chat-first field service software, includes estimates.