How to Price a Pressure Washing Job

The four-part formula

Every quote engine used across the trade, including the one in WashQuoter, is a variation on this. The rest of pricing is figuring out reasonable defaults for each variable in your market.

1. Measure the surface

Concrete flatwork

Measure length times width. A standard two-car driveway is roughly 20 ft by 40 ft (800 sq ft). A three-car with approach is often 40 ft by 60 ft (2,400 sq ft). Include walkways, aprons, patios, and pool decks separately if the customer wants them cleaned.

House siding

Two acceptable methods:

• Perimeter times average wall height. Walk the perimeter, measure or estimate the perimeter, multiply by average wall height (typically 9 to 10 ft for single-story, 18 to 20 ft for two-story). Subtract windows if you want precision.
• Front-facade linear feet times a story factor. Measure the front, multiply by 4 (accounts for four sides), and multiply by the story factor (1.0 single-story, 1.8 to 2.0 two-story). Faster.

Roof

Roof square footage is not the same as house floor plan square footage. Multiply the house footprint by the pitch factor and add for overhangs:

For quoting, most contractors quote roof by house footprint square footage anyway and adjust their per-square-foot rate to account for pitch and story. The customer never sees the pitch factor.

Wood deck

Length times width. Add stairs at 50 percent of their measured area to reflect the extra labor per square foot. Note wood species and whether the customer wants clean-only, clean + brighten, or clean + brighten + seal because the per-square-foot rate changes dramatically across the three.

2. Base per-square-foot rates

Below are the national midpoint per-square-foot rates for common surfaces, from published contractor rate posts on PWNA and UAMCC forums cross-referenced against 2025 to 2026 HomeAdvisor and Angi service-cost data. Adjust for your metro (see step 5).

3. Service-type multipliers

The multiplier accounts for how much slower or more chemistry-intensive a job is compared to the baseline concrete flatwork.

4. Trip charge

Trip charges cover drive time, fuel, tank fill, setup, teardown, and the fixed cost of showing up. Common structures:

• Flat trip charge. $75 typical. Simple and defensible.
• Zone-based. $50 within 15 miles, $75 within 30 miles, $125 beyond.
• Waived above minimum. "Trip charge waived on jobs above $400."

Solo operators tend to under-price the trip charge. A 45-minute round trip in a work truck at IRS standard mileage ($0.70 per mile for 2025, per IRS Publication 463) plus 45 minutes of unbilled setup easily justifies $75. See irs.gov/publications/p463.

5. Regional adjustment

Take the national base rate and adjust for local labor cost. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES median wages for SOC 37-2011 (Janitors and Cleaners) and 37-3011 (Landscaping and Groundskeeping) are the most relevant published benchmarks. Rough adjustment bands (compiled from May 2024 OES data):

Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data by metro is at bls.gov oes 372011 and bls.gov oes 373011.

Three worked examples

Example 1: driveway wash, suburban Atlanta

Driveway is 2,400 sq ft of stained concrete. Atlanta sits near the national labor baseline.

• 2,400 sq ft × $0.15 × 1.0 = $360
• Trip charge: $75
• Regional adjustment: 0 percent
• Quote: $435

If the driveway has heavy oil stains that need a chemical pre-treat, add a $50 to $150 stain-removal line item.

Example 2: house wash + driveway combo, suburban San Diego

House is two-story vinyl siding, 2,400 sq ft of exterior wall. Driveway is 1,800 sq ft. San Diego runs +10 percent above baseline.

• House: 2,400 sq ft × $0.20 × 1.2 = $576
• Driveway: 1,800 sq ft × $0.15 × 1.0 = $270
• Subtotal: $846
• Regional adjustment (+10 percent): +$85
• Trip charge: $75
• Quote: $1,006

Example 3: single-story roof soft wash, rural Alabama

Roof is 1,800 sq ft footprint, 6/12 asphalt shingle, single story. Rural county, -15 percent.

• Roof: 1,800 sq ft × $0.30 × 2.0 = $1,080
• Regional adjustment (-15 percent): -$162
• Trip charge: $75
• Quote: $993

Common pricing add-ons

• Oil stain treatment. $50 to $150 per stain depending on age and size.
• Rust removal. $50 to $200 per treatment.
• Gutter face brightening. $1 to $2 per linear foot on top of the house wash.
• Gutter interior cleanout. $150 to $350 depending on story count and gutter length.
• Deck sealing (materials + labor). $1.50 to $3.00 per sq ft on top of clean + brighten.
• Concrete sealing. $0.30 to $0.80 per sq ft on top of the wash.
• Water hauling. $75 to $150 if the property has no working spigot.
• Wastewater capture (commercial NPDES compliance). $200 to $800 depending on job size.

Minimums and packaging

Most contractors set a job minimum of $175 to $300. A five-minute driveway rinse for a repeat customer is not worth showing up for at $75. If your minimum drives the customer away, quote a package (driveway + walkways + porch flatwork) that clears the minimum and gives them more value.

Packages that convert well:

• House wash + driveway + walks: bundle 5 to 10 percent below the sum.
• Annual house-wash contract: 10 to 15 percent off the one-off rate in exchange for scheduled repeat.
• House wash + roof soft wash: bundle 5 percent off; the truck is already on site.

What contractors get wrong

1. Quoting by the hour instead of by the square foot. Customers do not understand hourly rates for a service they cannot judge the pace of. Square-foot pricing sells better.
2. Skipping the trip charge on small jobs. Solo operators lose money on any job under $200 without a trip charge.
3. Under-multiplying roof soft wash. Roof jobs are 2x to 3x flatwork per square foot for real reasons. Rebate that and you lose money every time.
4. Refusing to raise prices annually. Chemistry and labor moved 15 to 30 percent between 2020 and 2026. If your rates did not, your margin fell.
5. Undercutting to win a first job. Once you set the anchor at $200 for a house wash, that customer expects $200 next year too.

Sending the quote

A clean, itemized PDF converts better than a text message with a number. The WashQuoter calculator on the home page builds one from these inputs and emails it to the customer with your branding. Solo operators who switched from texting numbers to sending PDFs report meaningful improvements in close rate; the effect is not surprising given the professionalism gap.

How to raise prices without losing customers

Most solo operators are afraid to raise prices annually. The cost side moved: 12.5 percent SH rose from about $2.50 per gallon in 2020 to about $3.50 per gallon in 2026, labor rose about 20 percent over the same window per BLS OES data, and vehicle costs (IRS standard mileage) rose from $0.575 to $0.70 per mile. Contractors who did not raise rates in step lost real margin every year.

Practical approach for existing customers:

1. Send a short annual note in February or March: "Rates for the 2026 season are $X. Same crew, same schedule."
2. Do not apologize for the increase. Chemistry and labor cost more.
3. Offer a grandfathered rate for customers who prepay the year's service.
4. For customers who push back, hold the line. Any customer who leaves over a 5 to 8 percent annual increase was not a strong customer.

Tax collection and sales tax

Whether pressure washing is subject to state sales tax varies. In some states (Texas, Ohio, Washington, and several others) it is treated as a taxable service. In others (California, Illinois) most services are exempt. Registration with your state Department of Revenue is required if you must collect sales tax; look up your state on the SBA state-by-state licenses page at sba.gov apply licenses permits. WashQuoter lets you set the tax rate per quote. Confirm your obligation with your state department of revenue or a CPA before you send an untaxed invoice on a taxable service.

Related guides

• Pressure washing cost 2026 (national ranges)
• Best-selling services by margin
• Equipment guide
• Our pricing methodology in full

Sources

• Bureau of Labor Statistics, OES SOC 37-2011 Janitors and Cleaners. bls.gov oes 372011.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics, OES SOC 37-3011 Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers. bls.gov oes 373011.
• IRS Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses. irs.gov/publications/p463.
• IRS Publication 583, Starting a Business and Keeping Records. irs.gov/publications/p583.
• Power Washers of North America, member rate discussion threads and best-practice publications. pwna.org.
• United Association of Mobile Contract Cleaners, member forum rate posts. uamcc.org.
• Kärcher Professional education pages on cleaning throughput. kaercher.com/us/professional.
• US EPA, NPDES stormwater compliance. epa.gov/npdes.