How Much to Charge for Pressure Washing (2026 Guide)

Search "pressure washing cost" and page one answers the homeowner: $0.20 to $0.40 a square foot for a driveway, $200 to $450 for a house wash, depending on which guide you open. Search the contractor's version, how much to charge for pressure washing, and you get software blogs that repeat the same ranges back to you with "it depends" in between.

The ranges are real. They are also useless on their own, because a 300 sq ft walkway and a 3,000 sq ft parking pad cannot cost the same per foot to clean. This guide builds a pressure washing quote from the cost side: production rate, labor, machine time, chemicals, the drive, overhead and margin. Then it runs that model across job sizes and surfaces, so you can see what your floor is and how much room the market rate leaves above it.

It is written for landscapers adding flatwork cleaning to an existing book of clients, though the maths works the same for a dedicated washing company. One rule up front: every number in the model is an input you should replace. Your wage, your machine, your chemical supplier and your local market set the real figures. The structure of the quote is what carries over.

The short answer

On the inputs below, one operator with a 4 GPM gas pressure washer and a 20-inch surface cleaner, cleaning an 800 sq ft driveway of normal dirt (not oil-soaked, not mildew-black), has a cost-based floor price of $142. That is:

• $0.18 per square foot, just under the $0.20 to $0.40 range HomeAdvisor and Angi publish for homeowners
• $56 of labor: about 1 hour 23 minutes on site plus 30 minutes of driving, at $30 an hour loaded
• $36 of machine, chemical and trip cost
• $14 of overhead at 15% of direct cost, and $36 of margin, set at 25% of the price

That works out to about $76 per labor hour, which lines up with the $50 to $100 hourly rates HomeGuide reports. Two things fall out of the model straight away. Small jobs cost far more per square foot, because setup, breakdown and the drive are the same for 300 square feet as for 3,000. And the market rate sits well above a cost-based floor on most flatwork, which is why pressure washing is one of the better-margin add-ons a lawn or landscape company can sell.

What goes into a pressure washing quote

Pressure washing has one of the simplest cost structures in outdoor services. There are six pieces:

1. Production time. Square feet divided by your real cleaning rate, including pre-treat, edge work with the wand and the final rinse. This is the number that matters most, and the one most people guess.
2. Fixed time per job. Unloading, hooking up water, laying hose, then rolling it all back up. Call it 20 minutes in and 15 minutes out.
3. Travel. Drive time to the job and back to the route or the shop, paid at the same wage as the work.
4. Machine time. Fuel, oil, pump wear, nozzles, hoses and depreciation on the rig, charged per hour it runs.
5. Chemicals. Degreaser on oil spots, sodium hypochlorite mix for organic staining on concrete or for soft washing siding, and surfactant.
6. Overhead and margin. Insurance, the truck, the phone, software, the time you spend quoting, and the profit that makes the work worth doing.

Step 1: Get your production rate honest

Everything in this quote hangs off one number: how many square feet an hour you actually finish. Not how fast the surface cleaner moves when the concrete is already clean, but the whole job, including the edges and the rinse.

The field numbers for a 4 GPM machine with a 20-inch surface cleaner cluster tightly. Contractors on the Pressure Washing Resource forum report roughly 1,500 sq ft an hour on a 4 GPM, 4,000 PSI unit with a 20-inch cleaner on concrete with no gum, and about 1,200 sq ft an hour on a sidewalk including rinsing on a 4.6 GPM machine. The common sizing rule is 4 to 5 inches of cleaner width per gallon per minute, which is why 4 GPM machines usually run a 16 to 20-inch cleaner.

The model uses those as the "light" case and derates for dirt and surface:

If you have never timed yourself, do it on the next three jobs. Start the clock when the water goes on and stop it when the last rinse is done, then divide square footage by hours. Your number will land somewhere in this table, and the quote gets accurate the day you replace our figure with yours.

Step 2: Labor, machine and trip

The worked driveway: 800 sq ft of normal-dirty concrete, one operator.

• Production: 800 / 1,000 = 0.8 hours
• Setup and breakdown: 0.33 + 0.25 = 0.58 hours
• On site: 1.38 hours. Travel: 0.5 hours. Paid hours: 1.88
• Labor: 1.88 x $30 loaded = $56.40
• Machine: 1.38 hours running x $6/hr = $8.28
• Chemicals: 800 x $0.01 = $8.00
• Trip (truck and fuel): $20.00
• Direct cost: $92.68

The $30 loaded wage is wage plus payroll taxes and workers' comp. If you run the machine yourself, use what you would have to pay someone to do it, not zero, or the quote will look profitable and your own week will not.

The $6 machine rate comes from a rig of roughly $2,500: a 4 GPM, 4,200 PSI direct-drive washer like the Simpson PowerShot PS4240, which retails around $979 to $1,199, plus a 20-inch surface cleaner, hose reel, hose and a chemical pump. Spread over about 1,500 running hours, add a GX390-class engine's fuel at roughly 0.4 gallons an hour, oil changes, pump packing and nozzles, and $6 an hour is a fair planning figure. A hot-water skid or an 8 GPM belt-drive unit has a very different number.

Step 3: Overhead and margin

Overhead is the cost of being in business on days you are not washing: general liability insurance, the truck payment, phone, software, accounting and your quoting time. The model adds 15% of direct cost, which is $13.90 on this job.

Margin is then set as a share of the price, not a markup on cost. That distinction matters: a 25% markup on $106.58 gives $133, which is only a 20% margin. To get a 25% margin, divide by 0.75:

($92.68 + $13.90) / 0.75 = $142.11

That $142 is a floor, not a target. It is the price below which this driveway costs you money once every hour and every gallon is counted. Where you actually price above it depends on your market, which comes next.

Price per square foot by job size

Here is the same model run across job sizes, all on normal-dirty concrete:

The per-foot cost falls by three quarters from the smallest job to the largest. That is the whole argument for a minimum charge: a 300 sq ft patio has a floor of $107 even though it is only $0.36 a foot. Quote "thirty cents a square foot" on that job and you collect $90 for $107 of cost.

Most operators set a minimum somewhere around $125 to $175 and then quote per square foot above it. Pick the number that covers your floor on your smallest typical job, with margin, and do not discount below it.

Where the market rate leaves you

The homeowner guides put driveways at $0.20 to $0.40 a square foot (HomeAdvisor lists $0.20 to $0.40; Angi says pros often charge $0.30 to $0.55). Compare that to the cost floor on the 800 sq ft driveway:

That spread is why the cost model is worth having even when you price at market. It tells you which jobs you can afford to discount and which ones you cannot. A large commercial pad at $0.12 a foot can still be a good job; a small patio at $0.30 a foot is a bad one.

Surface changes the price more than size

Keep the job at 800 square feet and change only the surface:

The wood deck costs 75% more than the same area of normal concrete, almost entirely because you clean it at a third of the speed. That matches the homeowner guides, which price wood at $0.30 to $0.55 a foot against $0.10 to $0.40 for brick. If you quote everything at one per-foot rate, your decks are subsidised by your driveways.

The house wash

A typical two-story house has around 2,400 sq ft of siding. Soft washing it at 1,200 sq ft an hour, with $60 of cleaning solution, gives a floor of $288, or $0.12 a foot. Housecall Pro's contractor guide lists whole-house washes at $213 to $449, so this one prices comfortably inside the market. Price second stories, steep grades and heavy oxidation as adders rather than folding them into one rate.

The deck

A 400 sq ft deck comes to $167, or $0.42 a foot, because the fixed setup is spread over a small, slow area. If the client wants it stained or sealed afterward, that is a separate line with its own materials and drying time, not part of the wash.

The landscaper's advantage: the add-on

A dedicated pressure washing company pays for the drive on every job. A lawn or landscape crew that is already at the property for a mowing visit, a fall cleanup or a mulch install does not.

Run the 800 sq ft driveway as an add-on to a visit you are already making: no travel time, no separate trip cost. The floor drops from $142 to $88. If you still charge the standalone $142, your margin on that driveway goes from $36 to about $75, more than double, for the same water on the same concrete.

The same logic applies to bundling within one visit. Washed as three separate jobs, an 800 sq ft driveway, a 200 sq ft walk and a 300 sq ft patio have floors of $142, $100 and $107: $349 together. Washed in one visit, 1,300 sq ft costs $177. Quote the bundle below the sum of the parts and above $177, and both sides win.

Practical ways to use this:

• Offer driveway and walk cleaning on the fall cleanup or spring startup quote, as an optional line the client can tick.
• Schedule the washing on the same day as a visit you already have on the route, so the add-on price is real.
• Pitch it to recurring maintenance clients first. They already trust you with the property, and you already know the square footage.

Gutter cleaning works the same way, and we priced it in how much to charge for gutter cleaning.

Does buying the rig pay?

At the floor price, margin on a normal 800 sq ft driveway is about $36, so a $2,500 rig takes roughly 70 driveways to pay for itself. At $0.30 a foot, margin is about $133 and it pays back in under 20. Sold as an add-on at the standalone price, it pays back in about 33. For a company with 100 or more recurring clients, that is one season of modest take-up.

Before buying, check two things that are easy to miss:

• Insurance. Some general liability policies written for lawn and landscape work exclude pressure washing, or exclude damage from it. Ask your agent in writing before the first job.
• Wash water. Many cities restrict letting wash water with detergents or chemicals run into storm drains. Rules are local, so check your city or county stormwater office, and plan how you will block, divert or recover runoff on jobs near a drain.

Putting it on the estimate

A clean pressure washing quote has a few lines, each one something the client can understand:

1. The surfaces, by area: "Driveway, approx. 800 sq ft" and "Front walk, approx. 200 sq ft". Measure, do not eyeball; satellite views plus a tape on site are enough.
2. Treatment notes: "Oil spot pre-treat, 3 spots" as its own line if it takes real time. It explains why this driveway costs more than the neighbour's.
3. Any adders: second story, sealing, rust removal.
4. What is not included: stain guarantees. Old oil and rust often lighten rather than vanish; say so on the quote, not after the job.
5. The minimum: state it once so small add-on requests do not surprise anyone.

Line-item quotes are faster to build when the surfaces and rates live in your software. In Landscapey, you can save pressure washing as a service, quote it line by line, and turn the approved quote into a scheduled job and then an invoice without retyping it. For a template to start from, see our sample job quote and how to bid landscaping jobs. Once the price sheet is set, power washing ads covers how to fill the calendar.

FAQ

How much should I charge per square foot for pressure washing?

For concrete, most of the market sits between $0.20 and $0.40 a square foot. On this model, a two-car driveway of normal dirt has a cost floor of about $0.18, small jobs need far more per foot, and large commercial areas can go below $0.12 and still make money. Work out your floor first, then price at market above it.

Should I charge by the hour or by the square foot?

Quote by the square foot or by the job; clients understand it and it rewards you for getting faster. Use the hourly figure internally, as a check: if a quote works out under about $75 a paid hour on these inputs, it is close to the floor.

What is a good minimum charge for pressure washing?

Whatever covers your floor on your smallest typical job, with margin. On these inputs a 300 sq ft job costs $107 to do, so a minimum of $125 to $175 is reasonable. As an add-on to a visit you are already making, a lower minimum works because the drive is already paid.

How much does it cost to pressure wash a driveway?

For a typical two-car driveway of 600 to 800 square feet, HomeAdvisor's range of $0.20 to $0.40 a square foot gives $120 to $320. Our cost-based floor for 800 sq ft of normal dirt is $142.

How much should I charge to soft wash a house?

On this model, about 2,400 sq ft of siding comes to $288, inside the $213 to $449 range Housecall Pro lists for whole-house washes. Add for second stories, heavy oxidation and difficult access.

Is pressure washing a good add-on for a lawn care business?

Usually, yes. You already have the clients, the truck and the route. Sold on a visit you are already making, the cost floor of an 800 sq ft driveway falls from $142 to $88, so the same price earns roughly twice the margin. Check your insurance and local wash-water rules first.

Sources and limits

• Homeowner price ranges: HomeAdvisor ($0.20 to $0.40 per sq ft, driveways), Angi ($0.30 to $0.55), HomeGuide ($50 to $100 per hour; $0.08 to $0.35 cold water), Housecall Pro ($213 to $449 whole-house wash), as published in 2026.
• Production rates: contractor reports on the Pressure Washing Resource forum (about 1,500 sq ft/hr on a 4 GPM, 4,000 PSI machine with a 20-inch cleaner; about 1,200 sq ft/hr including rinse at 4.6 GPM).
• Equipment: Simpson PowerShot PS4240 (4,200 PSI, 4.0 GPM, Honda GX390) retail listings of $979 to $1,199.
• The operator, wage, machine rate, chemical costs, overhead and margin are illustrative inputs, not survey data. The derated production rates for heavy concrete, siding and decks are our planning estimates. Replace every one with your own numbers.