Price a pressure washing job from your own costs, not a competitor’s per-square-foot rate. Below is the method, a production-rate table, the markup vs margin math and a complete worked bid for a two-story house and driveway.
Quick Answer
Measure every surface, estimate the hours from your real production rate, then add chemicals with a little waste, an hourly charge for your equipment and your overhead per job hour. Divide that cost by (1 minus your target margin). At a 30% margin that means cost ÷ 0.70. Set a minimum that covers drive time and setup before any washing. Then sanity-check against the market: Housecall Pro’s 2026 guide lists $250 to $800 for a house wash and $100 to $300 for a driveway. Prices vary by region, so check what contractors near you charge.
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Where this comes from: I’ve spent 20+ years bidding residential remodels, not running a pressure washing rig. The production numbers come from operators who do this work every day, labeled that way. The bidding math is the same math I use on every job I price.
The Three Ways Contractors Price It (and Which One to Quote)
Most pressure washing companies quote one of three ways:
| Method | Published range | Works best for | Where it bites you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per square foot | $0.10 to $0.50/sq ft (Jobber) | Flatwork and house washes you can measure | A low rate on a dirty, two-story house |
| Hourly | $50 to $100/hr (Jobber) | Unclear scope, heavy stain work | Customers can’t compare it, and it punishes you for being fast |
| Flat price per surface | $90 to $200 per job (Jobber) | Residential quotes, bundles | Underestimating scope on a job you didn’t measure |
Here’s how I’d use them: build the number from cost and hours, then show the customer a flat price per surface. The customer sees “House wash: $625” instead of a rate they have to multiply. You keep the hourly and per-square-foot math in your own head as a check.
What to Measure on the Site Visit
You can’t price what you didn’t measure. Walk the whole property and write these down.
House siding. Perimeter times wall height gives the wall area. Add the gable ends as triangles: half the width times the rise. Don’t deduct windows and doors, because the crew still treats and rinses around every one of them.
Stories and height. Note the tallest wall you have to reach and whether you need a ladder anywhere. Second-story walls, high gables and elevated decks add setup time and safety work.
Flatwork. Length times width for driveways, walks and patios. Mark oil stains, rust and gum separately, because those are their own line items.
Decks and fences. Deck board area plus railings. Fences are length times height, times two if you’re doing both sides.
Roofs. If the customer asks for a roof cleaning on asphalt shingles, know the rule before you quote. The Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association says not to use a power washer on algae and that high-pressure washing is likely to damage asphalt roofing. It describes a diluted bleach solution, left on 15 to 20 minutes and rinsed gently, and says other chemicals or methods shouldn’t be used without the shingle manufacturer’s approval. Price a roof as a soft wash, or don’t price it.
Water supply. Time how long it takes the outdoor spigot to fill a 5-gallon bucket. Sixty seconds means 5 gallons per minute. If the spigot gives you less than your machine draws, plan for a buffer tank and price the extra setup.
Condition. Rub the siding with your palm. Chalky residue means oxidation, which takes a different product and more time. Note mildew on the shaded sides, plants against the house, outlets and lights you’ll need to cover, and anything already damaged.
Take photos of everything. Loose siding, failing paint and cracked concrete are easy to blame on the guy with the wand if nobody documented them first.
How Long the Work Takes: Production Rates
Labor is the biggest number in the bid, and it comes from how many square feet your rig cleans per hour. The honest answer is that it depends on your machine, your surface cleaner and how dirty the concrete is. Here’s what operators reported on the PressureWashingResource forum in 2014. Treat these as starting points, not promises.
| Setup reported | Reported rate | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| 4 GPM, 4,000 PSI, 20” surface cleaner | About 1,500 sq ft/hr | Concrete, no gum removal |
| 4.6 GPM | About 1,200 sq ft/hr | Residential sidewalk, includes edging and rinsing |
| 5.5 GPM, 2,500 PSI | About 1,600 sq ft/hr (his estimate) | Same operator, same kind of work |
| 8 GPM, 3,000 PSI cold water, 20” cleaner | 1,750 sq ft driveway in 45 minutes (about 2,330 sq ft/hr) | Concrete driveway |
| 8+ GPM hot water, 24” to 48” cleaners | 3,000 to 10,000+ sq ft/hr per person | Large surface cleaners, gum excluded |
For house washes, InvoiceFly’s pricing guide puts a 2,000 sq ft house at 2 to 4 hours of pro time and 3 to 5 hours as a general estimate, with dirt, access and soft-wash needs driving where you land.
The numbers that matter are yours. Log square footage and clock time on your next ten jobs, split into setup, washing, rinse and teardown. That’s a production rate you can bid from.
Count the hours nobody sees: drive, unloading, hose, outlet covers, plant pre-wet, dwell, rinse, teardown and the walk-around. On a small job that’s most of the job.
Chemicals and Water: Quantities With Waste
Price chemicals by what you actually put down, not by a guess.
- House-wash mix. Mix to the product label. Track how many gallons of mix you apply per job and divide by the square footage. That’s your coverage number for the next bid.
- Degreaser, rust remover, post-treat. Price these per stain or per area, from your supplier invoices.
- Waste. Some mix always stays in the tank and lines, and some goes on overspray. The worked bid below adds 10%. Use what your own records show.
- Water. Jobber’s guide says not to charge extra when you use the client’s water, and to pass the cost on when you haul your own. Plan the volume either way: a 4 GPM machine on the trigger for 90 minutes uses 360 gallons.
Housecall Pro’s guide shows the simple version: chemical cost equals the product used times cost per unit, so a quarter gallon of a $40-a-gallon product is $10 on the job.
Equipment, Overhead and Your Labor Rate
Labor. Use the burdened rate, not the wage. Payroll taxes, workers’ comp and paid time off all ride on top of the hourly pay. Run your real number through the burdened labor rate calculator. The example below uses $22 an hour with a 25% burden, which is $27.50 an hour.
Equipment. Housecall Pro’s method is machine cost divided by expected billable hours. Its example is a $6,000 rig over 1,200 hours, which is $5 an hour. Include surface cleaners, hose, reels and the trailer if they wear out on the job.
Overhead. Insurance, the truck payment, fuel, phone, marketing, software. Jobber’s formula is monthly overhead divided by billable hours per month. If you carry $2,400 a month and bill 80 hours, every job hour has to carry $30 of overhead. The contractor overhead calculator walks through it.
Markup vs Margin: Get This Right
This is the mistake I watch quietly eat profit on remodel bids, and it works the same way here.
Margin is profit as a share of the price. Markup is profit as a share of the cost. They aren’t the same number. Mark a $100 cost up 30% and you charge $130, but your margin is only $30 ÷ $130 = 23.1%.
To hit a target margin, divide cost by (1 minus the margin). Housecall Pro’s guide suggests a 20% to 40% target margin and uses exactly this formula.
| Target margin | Divide cost by | Same as a markup of |
|---|---|---|
| 20% | 0.80 | 25% |
| 30% | 0.70 | 42.9% |
| 40% | 0.60 | 66.7% |
If this still feels slippery, read markup vs margin for contractors or plug numbers into the profit margin calculator.
Worked Bid: Two-Story House Wash Plus Driveway
Here’s a complete bid from start to finish. Every input is an example, so swap in your own rates.
The job. Two-story house with vinyl siding, 40 ft by 30 ft footprint, light mildew on the north side. Customer also wants the driveway and front walk cleaned. One oil spot on the driveway. Two-person crew, 4 GPM machine, customer’s water.
Measurements
- Wall area: perimeter 140 ft × 18 ft wall height = 2,520 sq ft
- Two gable ends: ½ × 30 ft × 6 ft rise = 90 sq ft each, 180 sq ft total
- Siding total: 2,700 sq ft
- Driveway: 20 ft × 40 ft = 800 sq ft
- Front walk: 4 ft × 30 ft = 120 sq ft
- Flatwork total: 920 sq ft
Hours
- Drive: 0.5 hr × 2 people = 1.0 labor-hour
- Setup and teardown (hose, plant pre-wet, outlet covers, walk-around): 1.0 hr × 2 people = 2.0 labor-hours
- House soft wash, apply, dwell and rinse: 3.0 hr × 2 people = 6.0 labor-hours
- Flatwork: 920 sq ft at about 1,200 sq ft/hr is 0.77 hr, plus pre-treat and the oil spot, call it 1.0 hr × 1 person = 1.0 labor-hour
- Total: 10.0 labor-hours. Job time 5.5 hours (5.0 on site plus 0.5 driving)
Cost build
| Line item | Math | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Labor | 10.0 labor-hours × $27.50 | $275.00 |
| House-wash mix | From your coverage records | $32.00 |
| Degreaser for the oil spot | Supplier invoice | $8.00 |
| Flatwork post-treat | Supplier invoice | $6.00 |
| Chemical waste | 10% of $46.00 | $4.60 |
| Equipment | 5.0 rig hours × $5 | $25.00 |
| Overhead | 5.5 job hours × $30 | $165.00 |
| Total cost | $515.60 |
Price at a 30% margin: $515.60 ÷ 0.70 = $736.57. Round up to $740.
Check the margin: $740 − $515.60 = $224.40 profit. $224.40 ÷ $740 = 30.3% margin, which is a 43.5% markup on cost.
How the customer sees it
| Line | Price |
|---|---|
| House soft wash, 2,700 sq ft, two-story | $625 |
| Add driveway and front walk on the same visit, 920 sq ft, includes oil spot treatment | $115 |
| Total | $740 |
Why $625 for the house alone? Pull the flatwork out and the house carries all the drive and setup: $437.70 in cost, divided by 0.70, is $625.29. The flatwork adds $77.90 in cost, which is $111.29 at the same margin. Round the house down to $625 and the flatwork up to $115, and the two lines total $740.
Sanity check against the market. The house works out to about $0.23 per sq ft and the whole job to $0.20, inside Jobber’s $0.10 to $0.50 range. Housecall Pro lists two-story homes at $400 to $800 and driveways at $100 to $300. Both lines land inside those ranges. If your cost-built price landed way outside them, look at your production rate or your overhead before you look at your margin.
Your Minimum Charge
Every job carries the drive and setup before the first square foot gets wet. Using the same crew and rates:
- Drive plus setup and teardown: 3.0 labor-hours × $27.50 = $82.50
- Equipment for the setup hour: $5.00
- Overhead for 1.5 job hours: $45.00
- Cost before any washing: $132.50, divided by 0.70 = about $190
So a $120 driveway quote loses money before you pull the trigger. Housecall Pro’s guide puts minimum service fees at $100 to $250. Figure out where your own minimum lands, quote it on small jobs, and use it to sell bundles: “The driveway alone is $190. Add the patio while we’re set up for just the extra time it takes,” priced like the flatwork line above.
Common Pricing Mistakes
- Copying a competitor’s per-square-foot rate. Their rig, crew, overhead and drive distance aren’t yours.
- No minimum. Small jobs with no minimum are the ones that lose money.
- Pricing a dirty two-story house like a clean ranch. Height, access, oxidation and mildew all change the hours. Housecall Pro’s guide makes the point that buildup can matter more than square footage.
- Leaving out drive, setup and teardown. On a driveway job that can be half the time.
- Treating markup as margin. A 30% markup is a 23.1% margin.
- Not writing down what’s excluded. Rust stains and oxidation don’t always come out. Say so in writing before the job, not after.
Homeowners don’t see any of this. They see a crew there for five hours and a $740 bill, and they do the math: about $150 an hour. I hear the same thing on remodels: “Why am I paying you $100+ an hour when I make $30 an hour?” The answer is the truck, the insurance, the equipment, the chemicals and the hours they never see. Walk them through it once and the price makes sense.
Presenting the Quote and Following Up
Send a written estimate the same day if you can. List each surface as its own line with the method (soft wash or pressure wash), what’s included (plant protection, final rinse) and what isn’t. Attach the photos of existing damage. Offer a second option, like the house alone at $625 and the house plus flatwork at $740, so the customer is choosing between your prices instead of between you and the next guy.
Then follow up. A lot of my jobs are won on the second or third follow-up, not on the first estimate. Most contractors send a bid and never chase it, so the one who follows up stands out. Simple texts work:
- Day 1: “Hi Sarah, it’s Mike with ABC Exterior Cleaning. I sent the quote for the house and driveway. Any questions I can answer?”
- Day 3: “Checking in on the house wash quote. I have openings next week if you want to get on the schedule.”
- Day 7: “Last check on the quote I sent. It’s good through the end of the month. Want me to hold a spot?”
The hard part is remembering to send them.
FAQ
How much should I charge for a house wash?
Build it from cost and hours, then check the market. Housecall Pro’s 2026 guide lists $250 to $500 for single-story and $400 to $800 for two-story. The worked bid above lands a 2,700 sq ft two-story house at $625.
Should I charge by the hour or by the square foot?
Build the price from hours, then quote a flat price per surface. Hourly quotes are hard for customers to compare and they pay you less as your crew gets faster. Per-square-foot rates are a good check, not a good quote.
What’s a good minimum charge for pressure washing?
Whatever your drive, setup and teardown cost, divided by (1 minus your margin). In the example above that’s about $190. Housecall Pro lists $100 to $250 as the usual range for minimum service fees.
Do I charge customers for water?
Jobber’s guide says not to charge extra when you use the client’s supply, and to pass the cost on when you bring your own tank.
How do I price roof cleaning?
As a soft wash, never a high-pressure wash, on asphalt shingles. Follow ARMA’s guidance and the shingle manufacturer’s instructions, and price the chemical, the dwell time and the extra safety setup. You can rough out roof area with the roof square footage calculator.
Is there a quick way to check my numbers?
Run the surfaces through the pressure washing cost calculator and compare its range to your cost-built price. If they’re far apart, recheck your production rate first.
Quote It Right, Then Chase It
Price from your costs, quote per surface, hold your minimum and follow up. That’s the whole system.
EstimationPro builds the estimate from your photos, a voice walkthrough or notes, with every line item and your markup controls, and contractors save 2+ hours per estimate. Send it from EstimationPro and the client gets a reminder at 24 hours if they haven’t opened it, another 48 hours after they open it with no reply, and a final one at 7 days, so the second and third follow-up happen without you. Pro adds invoices, deposit collection and milestone payment schedules when they say yes. Plans are $79 or $149 a month. It’s not a dispatch or crew-routing system. Try EstimationPro free with a 7-day free trial, $0 today.
Sources
Figures checked on October 13, 2026. Prices change; confirm current numbers before you rely on them.
- Jobber Academy, How to Price Pressure Washing Jobs (hourly, per square foot and flat-rate ranges, overhead and margin formulas, water charges): getjobber.com
- Housecall Pro, How to Price Pressure Washing Jobs (2026 price ranges, minimum fees, 20% to 40% margin, break-even and equipment formulas): housecallpro.com
- InvoiceFly, Pressure Washing Prices (time for a 2,000 sq ft house wash): invoicefly.com
- Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association, Algae Discoloration of Roofs: asphaltroofing.org
- PressureWashingResource forum, Square feet per hour (operator-reported production rates): pressurewashingresource.com
- PressureWashingResource forum, Surface Cleaning (operator-reported production rates): pressurewashingresource.com
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