How much should I charge for Pressure Washing?

September 12, 2026

Pricing should be figured out based on your business needs for it to make sense. Period

Three common pricing methods

Sqaure footage
Hourly Rate
Flatrate

Professional pressure cleaning varies widely from 0.05 cents a squarefoot to $1 a squarefoot. The wide differance is in what the cleaning job entails. Factors like ease to get it done, danger, cost to completion, size, complexity and more ALL vary.

Another common method used is an hourly rate with all expenses included which can also vary widely because the pressure washing equiptment you have may not make sense to charge hourly.

For example a 2 GPM pressure washer would take you 3.5 hours to clean a standard driveway but you charge $100 per hour, the jobs total would not land with the customer most likley.

The third most common pricing strategy for pressure washers is a flat rate method based on size, this is a more volume based business setup.

The pricing method we use daily for both past and present customers is a combination of them all, PLUS more real world factors.

Below is all the factors we use for pricing in Ivan's Pressure Cleaning Services LLC

Size
Level of Filth
Customer wanting PRESSURE WASHING (Water Only) or SOFT WASHING
Level of Danger/ Complexity
Amount of Landscaping surrounding the property
Type of Roof/ Age or Surface type
Timeline needed/ Time needed to complete
Zero Lot Properties
Market Price Ranges
Customer Profile\
Water Pressure or Water Transfer
Stains Included or excluded

Below is a clear definition of them all.

Size

This is strictly squarefootage used to land a price, a solid benchmark but not the one solves all solution. Typically charged in cents of dollars times the SQ FT.

Example: I always get asked how much we charge per Sq Ft, pretty much meaning the customer wants to quote themselves because they are not sure of the price or dont want to waste your time in reviewing the home for an in person estimate. This is a great chance to show your professsionalism and reassure them the price take many factors into account to achieve quality results and that it would be best to send over the address or pictures via text for a quick quote. [more of this in our video]

Level of Filth

The amount of deep penetrated grime in the surface plays a huge factor on how long and how many chemicals/soaps will be used

A smooth finish wall on a House Wash may be easier to clean than a rough stucco home with its gaps and fillings. A metal roof may take less chemical than a barrel tile pourus old weathered roof.

We many times clean roofs, driveway, back patio and everything exterior cleaning for customer who simply want it clean no matter the reason we go ahead and do it still letting them know it is pretty dirty so we are kind with price, aside from the monthly cleaning customers we handle, I know its a bit much but it makes our customers happy, helps our business and workers will fulltime jobs. So its a win for everyone involved.

Does the Customer Want Pressure Washing (WATERONLY) or Soft Washing (USING CHEMICALS)

In our own personal business scenario of exterior cleaning roofs in south florida we prefer to stick to soft washing roofs and then for the House Washes and Flatwoork we use a combination of pressure & soft wash.

Quick Story: When I started in the business I pressure washed roofs with water alone. It was hell..... I dont even want to put my crew through that. Trust me even with wearing a mask while soft washing it is easier, less time consuming and you dont wreck your body after every roof cleaning. When doing exterior cleaning as a career the main focus should be on cleaning the surface as easily as possible with the most profit made per job possible. After all your taking the risk. Out of 100 roof cleaning jobs we would maybe do one with water pressure only but with a high ticket attached. Soft washing is safer for you & your techs. [Watch a video on this topic here]

Level of Danger and Complexity

The level of danger is a huge factor when pricing out a job. A leaning tower of pisa should be just a tad bit harder to clean than a one story flatroof. Putting jokes aside, the danger factor means your risking your health, crews safety, equiptment and those around just for a cleaning job. Something to definitly look at in your business.

Complexity refers to how difficult the task will be, as an example a simple one car front concrete driveway can be done by driving up the property pulling out a small amount of hose usually 50 to 75 Feet and knock it out, easy. Even if it downpours buckets, who cares, in fact the rain will aid in the rinsing by maintaining wet and rinsing debris down the driveway, same as a concrete sidewalk. Pretty straightforward for the most part.

Now lets look at a more complex flatwork (or driveway) cleaning to compare. Cleaning of an old chicago brick or old aggregate stone driveway. These surfaces are a tad bit harder becuase they require a different technique, they cannot stand the hard pressure, instead it is best you switch to a soft washing/low pressure rinse method. [Video: How to Wash without damage]

Next looking at a very complex flatwork pressure washing would be removing old or failed paint/sealer. This is usually a pain to remove completely because of how stubborn they are bonded to the surface in certain areas. In almost all cases a high pressure turbo tip is needed and sealer stripper to remove, allowing for dwell time, roll or spray it on, prepping the surrounding landcape and paint with masking tape or tarps or watering throughout to avoid the splashback, keeping everything wet all the time is key here.

All of these pressure washing projects carry their own set of complexity.

Amount of Landscape surrounding the property

Number 5 on our list is usually the biggest reason for callbacks and even plays a big part into being a professsional out in the field. Plants have a cost and there is a cost associated to keeping them protected.

Lets continue on our two example set up we are rolling with for now.

Take a roof soft washing job with only pavers in the backyard, stones on the side of the home, synthetic turf on the other side and only concrete infront of the home. Virtually no plants to harm, unless you find a way to kill the synthetic grass turf....(that was a joke). This job is much much much easier to accomplish, than our second example.........

A roof soft washing with no gutters & very delicate shrub right below the dripline beggin to drink up that SH and be replaced, one side of the home with a koi fish pond that even the mention of SH the fish are already turning upside down, the other side of the home has lushious green grass and finally the front of the property orchids like no tomorrow that the wife adores with sensative rose bushes the owners late mother gifted to them for their wedding day.

Which job would you take and why?

The price might have changed so drastically you might not even want the job or your like me and willing to take the precautions needed.

Type of Roof/ Age or Surface Type

The type of roof refers to asphalt shingle, barrel concrete tile, clay barrel tile, metal, slate concrete tile, wood cedar shake, membrane flatroof and so on. This mainly determines how your spray technique would change and how much chemical will be used.

The age or surface type means how pourus the material is such as a brand new barrel tile compared to a 25 year old barrerl tile that have been turbo tipped until what they thought was mold came off (they were eating away at the material and dark colorants of the roof tile)

Side note: In my experiance I have cleaned a roof where the previous contractor or uneducated person cleaned the roof with muriatic acid. I let the homeowner know before sending out the quote to not leave any doubt incase they think it may have been me.

A new metal roof will still have its glossy appearance and will come clean like a dream with the proper SH treatment, meanwhile a 25 year old oxidized metal roof will hold on to the mold much harder, not to mention the oxidization may be disturbed if the cleaning technique is off.

Timeline Needed/ To Complete

This is the timeline the customer needs it done and the time is personally takes you or your team to complete the cleaning in measured hours.

This one is quite simple the timeline the customer needs sometimes is needed weeks out because of an event or arrival or sometimes months out to when they have the money. Then you have the customer who need it literally this second, wanting you to stop what your doing and run over to clean up their home, that is fine but..... this comes with a price.

The time to completion would be how many hours it would take you to complete and what hourly wage you want to pay yourself. Or what your cost is per hour to run your crew fully for it to make sense.

Funny enough today I had new customer call last minute to quote a cleaning they needed done, we talked, asked questions and quote was sent and approved, then they said they found someone cheaper who can also do it same day, all this time we had no idea they wanted it today. It happens, keep going, it will be worth it.

Zero Lot Properties

This factor matters much less compared to the others because it refers to having the property on a zero lot where the landscape below the roof you are cleaning or where the sidewalk ends sometimes carries a stubborn neighbor that safegaurds every inch of their property & rightfully so but your their to work and not to cause a ruckus. It is best to knock on their door and be fully transparent with the work you are doing along with the steps taken to protect their property, in many cases this has led to many jobs because it shows our level of professionalism, to care for the work we are doing so much that the neighbor gets affected by it is amazing. Most are grateful that we take the time to care and others...........

Others tend to threaten us with lawsuits, tell us to comeback another day, or some other weird excuse as to why we cannot do our work. Its always best to keep your cool, talk directly with your original customer and see what can be done.

Stay professional, people get scared but it is our job to help & guide to success.

Market Price Ranges

One solid undeniable factor for coming up with pricing a job is the MARKET, meaning what the surrounding businesses are charging for the same work completed.

A roof cleaning may be quoted at $700 fairly, but the market at lower competitors offer $500 and a few professional veterans in the pressure washing game are charging $850. (mainly because their time in the market has left them with a large portolio of customers)

In most cases the fly by night customer will choose the $500 quote without thinking twice, weather they recieve the same level of customer care or that their homes do is another thing. In this scenario the customer is most likley to win and the pressure washer or company is likley to lose (not making much or anything after the job completion)

A true business cannot be built here realistically.

The next range is the fair $700 range wher a business can be built and sustained and even grown in some cases. This is where the professionals stand and thrive. Where we can deliver the results the customer deserves.

Lastly the $850 mark is where the veterans who after years of work and customer history have built an established business to where they dont need the new work, so they price appropriately and gain big rewards for the same effort.

These brackets are important to keep in mind when quoting out jobs based on the market conditions and what makes sense for your business.

Customer Profile

As a contractor our time is valuable but sometimes not in the eyes of the customer. We must analyze the customer profile to know if this is even someody we want to work with. Sometimes its best to dodge the bullet.

Having a customer who is a handfull for no apparent reason and takes more effort to teach/show should come with a high price range than a customer who is understanding and simple to work with should be given a general pricing strategy.

The veterans in the industry understand this and have worked for years accumulating a huge database of customers to service without needing the headache customer ready to throw issues their way.

At any stage in your power washing business the customer profile will always hold a place when quoting, big or small, it will matter.

Even today in my pressure washing business funny enough I had a customer that my office team and I noticed will be a handfull from the beginging just get a house wash done. After the cleaning was completed they first called to complain about a few spots that were missed which we were willing to go out and fix to help them, then we get another call next day before heading out there saying the crew had damaged the back patio by rinsing out the sand between the pavers. Very hard to believe, so instead we chose to give them a small discount and move on. Hence why we noticed the customer profile and raised the quote.

Water Pressure or Transfer

When pricing out any power washing job its vital to see where were going to get water from, after all how are we supposed to clean without water....

So the customers homes water pressure comes into play, do they have good strong pressure, is the water shut off, do they have low water pressure where we may have to be waiting on water for a large majority of the job or maybe they have dirty yellow well water because they are out in the country side. Well water carries dirt and sediments that harm your tanks, filters and pumps, all expensive pieces of equiptment.

Let us assume the customer has water at the property, the cost will not change much......

Unless the flow is super slow, making you take hours just to fill up & forget about it if somebody is using the washing machine, taking a shower or it runs on a tank resivoir .

Lastly having absolutly no water at all when washing is a huge problem, this often leaves you dead in the water. Leaving you with no other choice than to bring water offsite (tanks setup permitting) or applying for a permit to feed off the fire hydrant.

Typically applying for a permit to connect to a fire hydrant is time consuming and depending your state/city/ county etc it can be complicated. Bringing water offsite is often dangerous and puts max wear and tear on your vehicle/equiptment, all costs that add up.

Stains Included or Excluded

Finally we have the age old debate on what do we consider "clean". Take a back pool patio for example that a customer needs cleaned up, do they mean just the weeds, mold, mildew (organics) cleaned out and treated with SH or do they want it spotless and free from oil stains the grill made? Rust spots the patio furniture created? Black marks caused by foot traffic on the entry way? Or maybe efflorecence by the pool steps bleeding out?

These are all factors that raise the price because all these stains require different chemicals, techniques and knowledge. That has worth in the market, dont let them tell you know.