Price the complete job: labor, travel, setup, chemicals, equipment, overhead, and profit. Use published pressure-washing rates to check your quote, then adjust for the measured surface and conditions. A square-foot rate alone can underprice a small job before you've started the machine.
For context, Housecall Pro reports $150–$400 for driveway/concrete washing and $250–$597 for exterior house soft washing from prices in its customers' price books. Those are useful benchmarks, not a quote for your property or proof that a job is profitable. Price-book benchmarks
Sources checked November 4, 2026. All dollar amounts below are USD. Published benchmarks are identified separately from our illustrative job calculations.
Pressure washing prices: useful starting references
| Work | Published reference | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Driveway and concrete washing | $150–$400 per job | Housecall Pro price-book benchmark; measure the actual area |
| Exterior house soft washing | $250–$597 per job | Housecall Pro price-book benchmark; inspect siding, height, and access |
| Minimum service charge | $165 recommended | Cigar City Softwash Supply's Tampa Bay starting guidance, not a national minimum |
Sources: Housecall Pro, Cigar City Softwash.
Housecall Pro says its price-book sample covers 12 months ending September 2026. Listed prices aren't necessarily completed-job receipts or a representative survey of every operator. Cigar City explicitly frames its guidance around the Tampa Bay market. Neither source tells you what your own crew costs to send out.
Use those references after estimating the work, not instead of estimating it. If the price your business needs is above a benchmark, check scope, productivity, and costs. Don't automatically cut the margin to fit a published range.
Choose a pricing method that fits the surface
| Method | Useful for | What can go wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Per square foot | Measurable flatwork with reasonably consistent conditions | Small jobs don't cover travel and setup; difficult sections take longer |
| Per linear foot | Fences or other repeatable runs | Height, sides cleaned, and condition aren't specified |
| Fixed project price | A defined driveway, patio, or exterior-cleaning package | “Clean everything” becomes an unlimited scope |
| Hourly with a clear scope and approval limit | Work whose duration can't be established reliably in advance | Customer can't tell what the final bill may be |
You can estimate from square footage and still give the customer a fixed price. Write down how you measured: flatwork surface area, fence length and height, or the exterior faces to clean. A house's advertised floor area isn't the same as its washable wall area.
Treat roofs, fragile surfaces, stain treatment, and work at height as separate scopes. Don't copy a driveway rate onto them. The cleaning method and access requirements need to suit the material before you price the labor.
Example: quote a 1,000-square-foot driveway
Assume sound, accessible concrete with ordinary surface dirt, customer-supplied water, and no oil or rust treatment, sealing, or repairs. After assessing drainage, this example assumes no special wash-water recovery setup is required. If the site requires one, price it before using these numbers.
Allow one operator three paid hours total: 30 minutes of travel, 30 minutes of setup/protection, 90 minutes of cleaning, and 30 minutes of pack-up and customer handover. These are planning assumptions, not production-rate promises.
| Estimated cost | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Labor, including owner labor if applicable | 3 hours × $35 loaded cost | $105 |
| Chemicals and consumables | Job allowance | $15 |
| Machine fuel and wear | Job allowance | $20 |
| Vehicle cost, excluding labor already above | Travel allowance | $15 |
| Allocated overhead | Insurance, admin, software, and other shared costs | $35 |
| Total allocated job cost | $190 |
At a target 30% margin on the selling price, calculate:
Price = $190 ÷ (1 − 0.30) = $271.43 before tax.
Rounding the quote to $275 leaves $85 above the listed costs, or about 30.9% of revenue. That is about $0.28 per square foot for this particular driveway. It isn't a universal driveway rate.
Don't use $190 × 1.30 if you mean 30% margin. That produces $247, a 23.1% margin on the same costs. The markup and margin calculator can check the distinction.
The example excludes sales tax and payment-processing fees. If you accept a payment method with percentage fees, include them in your calculation without double counting. For example, with a 3% fee on the pre-tax price and a 30% target margin, $190 ÷ (1 − 0.30 − 0.03) = $283.58. Actual processors may also charge fixed fees or assess fees on tax.
Set a minimum charge from the cost of showing up
Suppose a small patio still takes 1.5 total paid hours at $35, plus $27.50 in chemicals, equipment, and vehicle costs, and $25 in overhead. That is $105 of allocated cost. At a 30% target margin, the calculated minimum is $150 before tax and payment fees.
For a 300-square-foot patio, blindly applying the driveway example's rounded $0.28 rate gives only $84. You would be below the assumed cost of doing the work. A minimum charge covers the fixed part of the visit.
Build your own minimum from your time and costs. Cigar City's $165 recommendation is another local reference, not a rule that overrides this calculation. Minimum-charge guidance
For bundled work, count shared travel and setup once. If adding a walkway takes another hour and $15 of consumables/equipment, the incremental cost at $35 labor is $50. Dividing by 0.70 gives $71.43, before any additional overhead or fees. Only use that add-on price when the work genuinely shares the visit and setup.
Adjust the quote for what you find on site
Photograph and describe the conditions that change time or responsibility:
- Stains: ordinary soil, oil, rust, and paint are different scopes. State the treatment included and avoid promising complete removal before assessment.
- Access: long hose runs, locked gates, stairs, parked vehicles, and obstacles add handling time.
- Surface condition: identify loose material, damaged coatings, cracks, and areas excluded from cleaning.
- Water and drainage: confirm supply, where runoff goes, and whether collection or disposal is required.
- Protection and handover: allow time for nearby surfaces, belongings, cleanup, and the final walkthrough.
Runoff requirements vary by location. For example, Portland prohibits pressure-washing wastewater from entering its stormwater system and requires approval for sanitary-sewer discharge. Check the job's local rules and price the needed containment, collection, and disposal. Don't assume a drain is an approved disposal point. Portland guidance
Include appropriate equipment inspection, training, and protective equipment in operating costs. High-pressure spray, chemicals, electricity, and engine exhaust create different hazards. Pressure-washer safety guidance
A customer quote that sets clear expectations
For the driveway example, a useful description would be:
Clean approximately 1,000 square feet of driveway concrete for $275 before applicable tax. Includes the agreed cleaning method, ordinary surface-soil removal, edge work, and cleanup. Customer provides accessible water and clears vehicles before arrival. Oil/rust treatment, repairs, sealing, and additional areas are excluded. Drainage and disposal arrangements confirmed before work begins.
Add the job address, scope photos, exclusions, payment terms, quote expiry, and what happens if site conditions differ. Confirm changes before doing extra work. The scope-of-work guide has a broader checklist.
Use the service price calculator to check the cost and price, then the free invoice generator when it's time to bill. For larger quoted exterior projects, Dave can help keep estimates, photos, and invoices together. A business that mainly needs dense daily routes and dispatch should evaluate software built for that workload.
Common questions
How much should I charge per square foot?
Calculate the complete cost and required selling price, then divide by the measured area. In this example, $275 ÷ 1,000 sq ft is $0.275 per sq ft. Change the price when the surface, time, access, or minimum charge changes.
How much should I charge for a house wash?
Housecall Pro's published exterior soft-wash benchmark is $250–$597. Use it only as context. Inspect the actual exterior, select a suitable method, and calculate labor, materials, protection, access, and disposal for that property.
Should I charge hourly or a flat price?
A flat price works well when the scope and conditions are defined. You can build it from internal labor hours without billing the customer by the hour. Where uncertainty remains, agree on an allowance or approval process before starting.
Is my own labor profit?
No. Include a realistic cost for the owner's working time before calculating the margin. Otherwise, the amount you call profit also has to pay you for doing the job.
What should I record after the job?
Record total paid hours, consumables, equipment or disposal costs, and the invoiced amount. Compare those with the estimate. Use the difference to improve the next quote, rather than adopting another operator's rate unchanged.
