How to Charge for Pressure Washing in 2026
Most pressure washing pricing advice stops at a range: "$0.15 to $0.75 per square foot." That range is real, but it is so wide that it does not tell you what to put on the next quote. The operators who make money do it the other way around. They know what a job costs them, add a margin, and then check the number against what the market pays.
This guide does both. First the market rates, with sources and dates. Then the cost stack most guides skip, a five-step pricing method, and three example quotes with every line of math shown. All prices are in US dollars unless marked otherwise, and there is a short section on pricing in Canada at the end.
Pressure Washing Prices: How Much to Charge in 2026
Most pressure washing companies charge about $0.15 to $0.75 per square foot for residential work, $180 to $240 for a typical driveway and $300 to $600 to wash a house, with a minimum charge of $100 to $250 per visit. Price each job from your own cost plus a 20 to 40% margin, then check it against those market rates.
| Job | TaskRabbit cost guide (Sept 2026) | Housecall Pro pricing guide (March 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Driveway | $180 to $240 | $100 to $300 |
| House siding / house wash | $300 to $600 | $250 to $800 |
| Deck | $100 to $200 | $150 to $500 |
| Fence | $125 to $235 | $150 to $400 |
| Patio | $50 to $75 | not listed |
| Per square foot | $0.08 to $0.50 | $0.15 to $0.75 residential, $0.08 to $0.40 commercial |
| Hourly | about $52/hour average | not listed |
| Minimum charge | not listed | $100 to $250 |
Sources: TaskRabbit, "How Much Does Pressure Washing Cost?" (September 1, 2026) and Housecall Pro, "How to Price Pressure Washing Jobs" (March 9, 2026). USD.
One thing to keep in mind when you read those two columns: TaskRabbit prices come from a marketplace of individual taskers, many working without commercial insurance or a surface cleaner. An insured company with proper equipment usually prices toward the upper half of the range, and should.
Pressure Washing Prices by Job Type
Driveways and sidewalks
Flatwork is the bread and butter of most pressure washing businesses: fast with a surface cleaner, low chemical cost, easy to measure. TaskRabbit puts a typical driveway at $180 to $240. Many driveways are small enough that they land at your minimum, which is exactly what a minimum is for. Sidewalks and walkways are usually sold as an add-on to a driveway rather than on their own.
House washing (soft wash)
House siding is normally soft washed, not blasted: low pressure and a cleaning solution do the work, then a rinse. TaskRabbit lists vinyl siding at $0.30 to $0.40 per square foot and brick at $0.31 to $0.37, which is how a typical house lands in the $300 to $600 range. Two stories, heavy algae on the north side, or tight access all push the price up.
Decks and fences
Wood decks run $0.35 to $0.50 per square foot and composite $0.50 to $2.00 per square foot in TaskRabbit's data (September 2026). Composite costs more because it needs gentler methods and the right cleaner to avoid voiding the manufacturer's warranty. Fences are priced by length and height in practice, or by a flat rate per side.
Roofs
Roof cleaning is a specialty. High pressure can strip the granules off asphalt shingles and cause leaks, so roofs are soft washed with a stronger mix, from a ladder or a roof harness. Price roofs separately from the house wash, with their own line for safety setup, and never quote a roof by the square foot of the house footprint.
Commercial flatwork and storefronts
Commercial per square foot rates are lower, $0.08 to $0.40 in Housecall Pro's guide, because the areas are large and open. The margin comes from volume and repeat visits. Commercial work also brings rules residential work often does not: under the Clean Water Act, many cities do not allow chemical wash water into storm drains, so price in the time to block drains and recover water where your local rules require it.
Per Square Foot vs Flat Rate vs Hourly
Per square foot is the most defensible way to quote flatwork and siding. The client sees the logic, and you can quote from a satellite view or a quick walk-around with a measuring wheel.
Flat rate by job works once you know your numbers: "standard two-car driveway, $195." Clients like a clear price, and you can build a menu of packages. Our deeper look at flat rate vs hourly pricing covers when each one pays more.
Hourly is the trap. TaskRabbit's national average is about $52 an hour. A pro with a surface cleaner and a hot water unit finishes a driveway in half the time of a tasker with a wand, so billing by the hour punishes you for being good. Use an hourly number internally, as a check on whether a job was worth it, not as the price.
What a Pressure Washing Job Really Costs You
This is the section most price guides skip, and it is the one that decides whether you make money. Every job carries these costs:
- Labor. Your time, or your crew's, at a real hourly wage. Include setup, pre-treat, rinse and teardown, not just the minutes the wand is running.
- Chemicals. Sodium hypochlorite, surfactant, degreaser, deck cleaner and brightener. Work out your cost per gallon of mixed solution from your supplier's price and your mix ratio, then your cost per job.
- Fuel for the machine. A gas pressure washer burns fuel every hour it runs. The US average for regular gasoline was $4.48 a gallon, and diesel $6.53, in the week of September 21, 2026 (EIA).
- Fuel for the truck. Round-trip miles to the job, at your truck's real mileage.
- Water. Usually the client's tap, but budget for it on commercial jobs or when you haul water.
- Equipment wear. Pumps, hoses, surface cleaners and nozzles wear out. Set aside a per-hour amount so the replacement pump is already paid for when it fails.
- Overhead per job. Insurance, marketing, phone, software and vehicle costs, spread across your jobs for the year.
If you have never totalled these, start with your job costing for last month. The number is usually higher than people expect.
How to Price a Pressure Washing Job, Step by Step
- Measure. Square footage of each surface: driveway length times width, siding wall area, deck length times width. Write down stories, surface type and access.
- Pick a model. Per square foot for flatwork and siding, flat rate for standard jobs you do every week, a separate line for roofs.
- Add up your cost. Labor hours, chemicals, machine and truck fuel, equipment wear and overhead per job, as above.
- Apply your margin. Divide your cost by (1 minus your target margin). For a 35% margin, price = cost / 0.65. A markup calculator does this in one step and shows the difference between markup and margin, which trips up a lot of people.
- Check the minimum and the market. If the price is below your minimum, charge the minimum. If it is far below local market rates, you are leaving money on the table; if it is far above, recheck your time estimate.
Three Example Quotes With the Math
Here is the method on three real-world jobs. These numbers are assumptions for illustration, not market data: an owner-operator paying labor at $35 an hour per person, a 20-mile round trip at 15 miles per gallon, a gas pressure washer burning about half a gallon an hour, gas at the September 2026 EIA average of $4.48, $8 an hour set aside for equipment wear, and $15 of overhead per job. Plug in your own.
Quote 1: a 600 sq ft driveway
| Line | Math | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Labor | 1.5 hours x $35 | $52.50 |
| Machine fuel | 1.5 hours x 0.5 gal x $4.48 | $3.36 |
| Truck fuel | 20 miles / 15 mpg x $4.48 | $5.97 |
| Equipment wear | 1.5 hours x $8 | $12.00 |
| Chemicals | degreaser and surfactant | $5.00 |
| Overhead | per job | $15.00 |
| Total cost | $93.83 |
At a 35% margin: $93.83 / 0.65 = $144, or $0.24 per square foot. That is below a $150 minimum, so the quote is $150. This is the most common lesson in pressure washing pricing: small jobs live and die by the minimum.
Quote 2: a 2,000 sq ft house wash (soft wash)
| Line | Math | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Labor | 2 people x 3 hours x $35 | $210.00 |
| Machine fuel | 3 hours x 0.5 gal x $4.48 | $6.72 |
| Truck fuel | 20 miles / 15 mpg x $4.48 | $5.97 |
| Equipment wear | 3 hours x $8 | $24.00 |
| Chemicals | sodium hypochlorite mix and surfactant | $20.00 |
| Overhead | per job | $15.00 |
| Total cost | $281.69 |
At a 35% margin: $281.69 / 0.65 = $433, so quote $435, about $0.22 per square foot of siding. That sits inside the $300 to $600 market range, which is a good sign the time estimate is realistic.
Quote 3: a 20 x 20 wood deck (400 sq ft)
| Line | Math | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Labor | 2 hours x $35 | $70.00 |
| Machine fuel | 2 hours x 0.5 gal x $4.48 | $4.48 |
| Truck fuel | 20 miles / 15 mpg x $4.48 | $5.97 |
| Equipment wear | 2 hours x $8 | $16.00 |
| Chemicals | deck cleaner and brightener | $15.00 |
| Overhead | per job | $15.00 |
| Total cost | $126.45 |
At a 35% margin: $126.45 / 0.65 = $195, or about $0.49 per square foot. That lands right at the top of TaskRabbit's wood deck range of $0.35 to $0.50, and inside Housecall Pro's $150 to $500 deck range.
Notice what the three quotes have in common: the driveway earns about $100 per crew hour, the house wash about $72 per person-hour, the deck about $98. That is the internal check. If a job type keeps landing well below your target per hour, raise its price or change how you do it.
Soft Washing: Why It Costs More
Soft washing replaces pressure with chemistry: a sodium hypochlorite mix with a surfactant that clings to siding or roofing, kills algae and mildew, and rinses off at low pressure. It costs more to deliver than flatwork for three reasons:
- Chemical cost. In the examples above, chemicals were $20 on a house versus $5 on a driveway.
- Training and equipment. Proportioner or batch tank systems, chemical-resistant pumps, and knowing the right mix for each surface.
- Liability. Overspray can burn plants, damage paint or etch glass. Plants need pre-wetting and a rinse, which is labor time.
Price soft washing per square foot of siding or roof with its own rate, not as "pressure washing, but for the house."
Minimum Charges, Add-Ons and Bundles
A minimum charge protects you on the small job that costs a full trip. Common minimums run $100 to $250 per visit (Housecall Pro, March 2026). We cover how to set and explain one in our minimum service fee guide.
Add-ons are where average ticket grows without new marketing:
- Gutter brightening, the outside face of the gutters, while you are already washing the house.
- Window rinse after a house wash.
- Deck or fence sealing a few days after cleaning, as a second visit.
- Sidewalks and walkways with a driveway.
Price each add-on as its own line on the estimate, so the client sees what they are choosing and you can see which add-ons actually sell. Sending a short menu of packages up front, like "house wash," "house wash plus driveway," "full exterior," also makes the bigger option easy to say yes to.
Recurring Contracts: Annual and Commercial Pricing
The steadiest pressure washing revenue is recurring:
- Annual house wash. Offer a small discount per visit for clients who book the same wash every spring. You get predictable work and zero marketing cost per job.
- Commercial flatwork contracts. Restaurants, gas stations, retail fronts and drive-thrus often need monthly or quarterly cleaning. Price per visit from the same cost stack, with a lower margin in exchange for guaranteed volume.
Recurring work is also the easiest place to raise prices, one season at a time. Our guide to raising prices without losing clients covers how to word the notice.
Pricing Pressure Washing in Canada
We could not find a reliable national dataset for Canadian pressure washing prices, so be wary of any guide that quotes one. The method above works the same in CAD: build your cost per job from your own labor rate, fuel price, chemicals and overhead, then add your margin. Two differences matter. The outdoor season is shorter in most provinces, so your yearly overhead is spread across fewer jobs and your price per job needs to carry more of it. And remember GST/HST on top of your price where it applies.
The Bottom Line
Market rates tell you the range, and your cost per job tells you where you belong in it. Measure every job, total your real costs, divide by (1 minus your margin), respect your minimum, and check the result against the $0.15 to $0.75 per square foot market. Do that on every quote and pricing stops being a guess.
Once your numbers are set, keep them in one place. In WorkZen you can save your per-square-foot and minimum rates in the price book so every estimate starts from the same math, then put repeat clients on the schedule so the spring rebook is not a memory test. Estimates, the price book and scheduling are all on the free plan, for up to 3 users.
If you are still setting up the business side, start with our guide on how to start a pressure washing business.
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