How to price pressure washing jobs by the surface, the square foot and the hour

Pressure washing looks simple to price because the work is measurable. You can see the surface, you can measure it from a satellite image, and you can time how fast your surface cleaner moves across concrete. That measurability is an advantage. The mistake is collapsing it into one number per square foot for everything. A pressure washing price should be built surface by surface, from your own production rates, with fixed time and chemicals added on top. This guide walks through that method for residential and light commercial work. For the general math behind cost per hour, labor burden and margin, start with how to price service jobs; this page assumes you know your hourly cost.

What units drive a pressure washing price?

Each surface type has its own unit and its own speed:

• Flatwork (driveways, sidewalks, patios, pool decks): square feet. Your surface cleaner diameter, machine flow (GPM) and the condition of the concrete set the speed.
• House washing (soft wash on siding): square feet of wall, which you can estimate from the home's footprint perimeter times wall height. Stories matter because a second story means longer reach, more chemical travel and more rinsing time.
• Decks and fences: square feet for deck boards, plus railings and stairs counted separately, or linear feet for fences with each side priced on its own. Wood takes more care and lower pressure, so it runs slower.
• Roofs: roofing squares (100 square feet each), adjusted for pitch and walkability. Steep roofs take extra crew and safety gear.
• Specialty items: rust stains, oil spots, gum, graffiti and gutter face brightening, each priced per item or per spot.

Keep these as separate line items on the quote. Customers can see what they are paying for, and you can drop or add a surface without starting the quote over.

How do you measure your own production rates?

A production rate is how many square feet you finish per hour on one surface type with your equipment. Nobody else's rate is useful to you, because rigs, crew experience and local grime differ. Build yours from your own jobs:

1. On each job, note the square footage of each surface before you start.
2. Log start and stop time for each surface, excluding setup and breakdown.
3. Divide square feet by hours. Keep a running average for each surface and condition (light, moderate, heavy).
4. After 10 to 15 jobs per surface, use the average in your quotes and keep logging.

Condition can change the rate a lot. Concrete that has not been cleaned in a decade, or siding on the shaded north side covered in algae, can take much longer than a home that gets washed every year. Track condition with each log entry so your quotes can tell the difference.

Then add the fixed time on every visit: unloading, connecting to water, running hose, mixing chemical, covering plants and outlets, rinsing landscaping, rolling up and loading out. This time is the same for a small patio and a large driveway, which is why per-square-foot pricing alone fails on small jobs.

What about chemicals, water and access?

Soft washing uses chemical mixes measured per gallon. Divide the cost of one batch by the square feet it covers on your rig, and you have a chemical cost per square foot. Heavy organic growth takes a stronger mix or a second application, which raises the chemical line. Flatwork may need a pretreatment and post-treatment. Put these on the quote as a material cost, separate from labor.

Access adds time that the square footage hides. Long hose runs to a backyard patio, no outdoor spigot, a low-pressure well, steep yards, delicate landscaping or a second-story deck over a finished patio all slow the crew. Ask about them before you quote, or include an access line you can adjust on site.

Wash water deserves a line in your process too. The EPA explains that polluted stormwater runoff commonly travels through municipal storm sewer systems and is often discharged, untreated, into local water bodies. EPA's guidance for permitted municipal systems defines an illicit discharge as any discharge to the storm sewer that is not entirely stormwater, with some exceptions, and tells those systems to run a program that finds and eliminates illicit discharges. Local ordinances set the specifics. If your area requires recovery or diversion on some jobs, the recovery equipment and the extra time belong in the price. Check with your city or county before quoting that work. Nothing here is legal advice.

A worked example: a house wash and a driveway

Here is a hypothetical one-person job: a two-story vinyl house wash plus a driveway. Every figure in this table is invented for illustration, including the production rates, wage, overhead and chemical costs. Use your own logged numbers.

Two checks after the math. First, divide the quote by labor hours: $400 ÷ 4.75 is about $84.21 per hour on site in this example. Compare that with your floor from the hourly rate calculator. Second, look at what each surface would cost alone. The driveway by itself still carries the full 0.75 hours of setup, so it is 2.75 hours, not 2. With labor and overhead at $50 an hour combined, that is (2.75 × $50 + $12) ÷ 0.75, or about $199, against about $149 if you priced only its 2 hours of washing. The job price calculator runs the labor, overhead, materials and margin lines for any combination.

How do you set a minimum charge and price add-ons?

Your minimum charge should cover the fixed setup time, a short stretch of actual washing, the drive, and your margin. Work it out from your own cost per hour and state it on your website and quote form. A customer with a single small stoop or a short walkway can accept it, add more surfaces or go elsewhere, and any of those beats doing the job at a loss.

Pre-price the add-ons your crew sees every week so they can quote on site without a phone call:

• Gutter face brightening (per linear foot or per side of the house)
• Rust, oil or irrigation stain treatment (per spot or per area)
• Deck or fence sealing after washing (square feet plus material, and a separate dry-time visit)
• Window rinse or screen cleaning after a house wash
• Patio furniture, trash bins or playsets

Sealing is a different job with different risks. Price it from its own production rate and material coverage, and schedule it as its own visit if the surface needs to dry.

How do you price recurring and commercial washing?

Annual house washes and twice-yearly flatwork cleanings can be sold as a recurring plan at signup instead of one visit at a time. Repeat visits usually go faster because the growth hasn't built up, so you can offer a lower recurring price and still hold your hourly floor. Base the discount on logged time from the second visit, not on a guess.

Commercial work (dumpster pads, drive-thrus, storefront sidewalks, gas station canopies, parking garage stairwells) is often recurring and may need to be done at night. Price it from a site walk, include after-hours labor costs, water recovery if required, and the reporting the property manager expects. Monthly or quarterly contracts with card on file or invoiced net terms keep collection predictable. Autopay setup and failed-payment handling are covered in the recurring service billing guide.

Should you quote from photos or a site visit?

Most residential pressure washing can be quoted remotely. Measure flatwork and roof area from satellite imagery, estimate wall area from the footprint and story count, and ask the customer for photos of the worst stains, the water spigot and anything fragile near the work area. Write the quote with a condition clause: if the surface or access is materially different from the photos, you adjust before starting.

Go in person for commercial bids, roofs you haven't seen, historic or painted surfaces, and anything where damage risk is high (oxidized siding, old wood, soft mortar). A site visit takes paid hours, so either carry it in overhead or charge an estimate fee and apply it to the job if the customer books.

Speed matters as much as accuracy. A homeowner collecting several quotes can book someone else before a slow one arrives. A CRM with quote templates that holds your production rates, chemical costs and add-on prices lets you send a line-item quote from the truck in minutes.

Common pressure washing underpricing mistakes

• One rate for every surface. A blended square foot price overcharges easy driveways and loses money on detailed decks and second stories.
• Ignoring fixed time. Setup and breakdown on a small job can be a large share of the visit.
• Forgetting the drive. The IRS business standard mileage rate is 76 cents a mile for the second half of 2026, up from 72.5 cents for January through June. It is a tax deduction figure, but it makes a sensible cross-check on your own per-mile vehicle cost for jobs far outside your core area.
• Pricing heavy growth like light growth. Condition changes both labor and chemical cost.
• Free resealing advice that turns into free work. If you seal, price it as its own line.
• Never rechecking. Compare quoted hours with actual hours every month and update your rates.

For more on the trade itself, see our pressure washing industry page and the guide on starting a pressure washing business. If you also clean gutters or windows, the sibling guides on pricing gutter cleaning and pricing window cleaning show how those add-ons build up from their own units.

Frequently asked questions