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Almost every pressure washing price guide online is written for homeowners. They tell you what a job costs to buy, which is a different question from what you should charge to do it.
This one is written for the person holding the wand. Below are current 2026 US rates by square foot, by hour and by service, plus the job minimums and commercial rates that decide whether your week is profitable.
Most solo operators charge $0.20–$0.50 per square foot, or $50–$160 per hour, with a job minimum of $100–$250. A typical residential job lands between $250 and $450.
Concrete flatwork sits at the low end of the per-foot range. House soft washing sits in the middle, roofs at the top.
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Per square foot rates by surfaceHourly ratesFlat prices by serviceWhy you need a job minimumCommercial pricingHow to set your own pricePricing mistakes that cost you moneyFAQ
Per square foot rates by surface
Square footage is the most defensible way to quote, because the number scales with the work rather than your guess at how long it will take. Rates vary by surface because each one needs different pressure, chemicals and care.
One reason published rates disagree so wildly is that the measurement basis changes by service. Flatwork is quoted on the actual surface cleaned, while house washing is usually quoted against the home’s floor area rather than its true siding area.
Sanity-check any rate against the flat price. A standard two-car driveway of 400–600 sq ft at the typical $155–$190 works out to $0.26–$0.47 per square foot, which is where most solo operators actually land.
On a 2,000 square foot job that spread works out to roughly $400 to $1,000 before travel and chemicals. The gap between the low and high end of that range is the whole difference between a good year and a bad one.
Hourly rates
Hourly pricing runs $50 to $160 per hour in 2026, with solo operators clustering around $75–$110 and crews at the top of the range.
Most experienced operators quote by the job and keep hourly as a backstop for unpredictable work — heavy oxidation, unknown mould, anything where you genuinely cannot see the scope until you start.
The reason is simple. Hourly punishes you for getting faster, and pressure washing is a trade where better equipment and technique cut job times dramatically. Quote the outcome, not your time.
Not sure what your hourly floor should be? Our free Hourly Rate Calculator works backwards from your target take-home, billable hours, overhead and taxes to the rate you actually need.
Flat prices by service
Homeowners prefer a single number to a formula, and flat pricing removes the awkward maths on the doorstep. These are the ranges customers currently expect in most US markets.
Bundling is where the money is. Adding a driveway to a booked house wash costs you twenty extra minutes on a site you have already driven to, set up on and will pack down from anyway.
Why you need a job minimum
Set a job minimum of $100 to $250 and hold it. This is the single most common gap between operators who make money and operators who stay busy.
The maths is unforgiving. A $60 walkway forty minutes away consumes drive time each way, setup, pack-down, fuel, chemical and wear on a $3,000 machine.
The minimum is not greed, it is arithmetic. It also filters out price shoppers before they eat your morning, which is worth as much as the revenue.
Commercial pricing
Commercial concrete typically runs $0.10 to $0.40 per square foot — lower than residential per foot, because the areas are far larger and the work is repetitive.
The trade-off is worth understanding. You accept a thinner per-foot rate in exchange for volume, predictable scheduling and, crucially, recurring contracts rather than one-off jobs.
Restaurants, retail forecourts, petrol stations and property managers usually want a set schedule — monthly or quarterly. A handful of those contracts turns a seasonal business into a stable one, which matters more than the headline rate.
Two things to price in that residential work does not need: proof of insurance at the level the property manager requires, and out-of-hours work, since most commercial sites want cleaning done before opening or after closing.
How to set your own price
The ranges above tell you what the market will bear. They do not tell you what you need to charge, and those are different numbers.
Work it out in this order rather than copying a competitor’s price list.
1. Find your hourly floor. Add your annual overhead — insurance, fuel, chemicals, equipment replacement, phone, software — to the take-home you need. Divide by realistically billable hours, not total working hours.
2. Time your own jobs honestly. Door to door, including travel and setup. Most operators underestimate by 20–40%, which is exactly the margin they are missing.
3. Convert to a per-foot rate. If you clean 1,500 sq ft of concrete in two hours and your floor is $90/hour, your rate is $0.12/sq ft before profit. If that is under the market range, you have room to raise.
4. Add profit on top, not inside. Your hourly floor covers costs and wages. Profit is a separate margin above it, and it is what funds a second machine or a slow February.
Billable hours is where most people go wrong. A solo operator working 40 hours rarely bills more than 25 of them once quoting, driving, invoicing and chasing payment are counted.
Our free Job Pricing Calculator runs steps one to four for you — labour, materials, travel and overhead with your margin folded in — and exports a branded PDF quote you can send from the driveway.
Pricing mistakes that cost you money
Four errors show up again and again, and every one of them is fixable this week.
Quoting from a photo. Oxidation, heavy algae and previous bad cleaning jobs do not show up in a customer’s phone picture. Quote a range from photos, confirm on site.
Matching the cheapest competitor. The operator charging $0.08 a foot is usually uninsured, using a homeowner machine, or about to quit. Pricing against them means joining them.
Forgetting chemical cost on soft wash. Sodium hypochlorite and surfactant on a large roof is a real line item, not a rounding error. Soft washing costs 10–20% more to deliver than concrete cleaning.
Never raising prices. Your rates should move with fuel, chemical and insurance costs. Existing customers rarely leave over a 10% increase, and the ones who do were your least profitable.
If you are still working out whether the business itself stacks up, our pressure washing business guide covers startup costs, equipment and finding your first clients. Running lawn care alongside it? We have the same rate breakdown for lawn mowing prices.
FAQ
How much should I charge for pressure washing per square foot?
Between $0.20 and $0.50 per square foot for most residential work in 2026. Concrete flatwork like driveways and sidewalks sits at $0.25 to $0.40, house and siding soft washing at $0.20 to $0.50, and roofs at $0.30 to $0.70. Heavy mould, algae or oxidation pushes all of these higher.
What is a good hourly rate for pressure washing?
$50 to $160 per hour depending on whether you are solo or running a crew, and on your equipment. Most solo operators land between $75 and $110. Quote by the job where you can and keep hourly as a backstop for unpredictable work.
How much should I charge to pressure wash a driveway?
A standard two-car driveway runs $100 to $300, with most jobs landing near $155 to $190. If the driveway needs hand scrubbing or a bleach treatment for built-up mould first, charge toward the top of that range or above it.
Should I have a minimum charge?
Yes. Set it between $100 and $250. A small job still costs you travel each way, setup, pack-down, fuel, chemical and machine wear, and without a minimum those jobs quietly run at a loss while keeping you too busy to take profitable work.
Why is commercial pressure washing cheaper per square foot?
Commercial concrete runs $0.10 to $0.40 per square foot because the areas are much larger and the work is repetitive, so your setup time is spread across far more footage. The trade-off is worth it for recurring contracts, which give you predictable revenue through the slow season.
How do I know if my prices are too low?
Time a full job door to door, including travel and setup, then divide your price by those hours. If the result is below the hourly rate you need to cover overhead and pay yourself, you are too low regardless of what competitors charge.
How we researched this: These ranges come from current 2026 US pricing data cross-checked across multiple independent cost trackers and industry pricing guides, then filtered for what a solo operator actually charges rather than what a national franchise quotes.
Rates vary by region, and a coastal metro will support prices a rural market will not. Treat these as a sourced baseline for setting your own rate, not a national fixed price.
Last verified: August 6, 2026.
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