Pressure Washing profit margin benchmarks
The IRS reports what one-owner businesses filing Schedule C earn, by sector. Pressure Washing falls under Administrative and support services. For tax year 2023, 3,118,914 returns reported $114.4 billion in receipts, $17.9 billion in cost of sales and $24.2 billion in net income less deficit (the table gives thousands of dollars):
| Benchmark | Value |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 84.3% |
| Net margin, owner pay included | 21.2% |
| Average receipts per return | $36,687 |
| Average net income per return | $7,769 |
The owner's own draw is not an expense on a Schedule C, so that net margin is mostly the owner's wage, not profit on top of it.
Where the money goes in pressure washing
Pressure washing is labor, chemicals and fuel, with equipment wear on top. Setup and teardown time is the same on a small job as a large one.
For a worked example, our pressure washing cost calculator puts house wash, vinyl siding at $0.20 to $0.45 a sq ft, typical $0.32, and treats about 85% of that as labor. On the typical price, that is about $0.28 of labor and $0.05 of materials, equipment and everything else, before your overhead and profit.
Where pressure washing margin leaks, and how to win it back
- No job minimum for small jobs
- Water supply problems that stretch the day
- Chemical use not tracked
- Damage claims from too much pressure
- Long drives for single jobs
Ways pressure washing companies raise margin: set a job minimum; sell the house, drive and gutters together; track chemical use per job; book yearly repeat washes.
Check your pressure washing prices against the costs
The typical national prices from our sourced calculators are a check on whether your prices leave room for margin:
| Service | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|
| House wash, vinyl siding | $0.32 | $0.20 to $0.45 a sq ft |
| Roof soft wash | $0.75 | $0.50 to $1.00 a sq ft |
| Gutter brightening | $1.00 | $0.50 to $1.50 a foot |
| Driveway or other concrete | $0.32 | $0.30 to $0.40 a sq ft |
| Wood deck | $0.38 | $0.30 to $0.45 a sq ft |
| Fence wash | $0.35 | $0.30 to $0.40 a sq ft |
Work out the margin on each line of your menu, not just the big jobs. The usual pressure washing menu: house wash, vinyl siding; roof soft wash; gutter brightening; driveway or other concrete; oil stain treatment; concrete sealing; wood deck; fence wash; deck staining after wash.
Overhead comes out of the margin before profit. In pressure washing it includes general liability insurance, which Insureon's customers who are pressure washing businesses pay an average of $73 a month for; commercial auto at $262 a month on the same figures.
Work out your own margin
Put one recent pressure washing job into the calculator above, or switch it to "My margin for the year" to set your year next to the IRS benchmark. A 50% markup is a 33% margin; the markup calculator shows the rest.
Sources
- IRS Statistics of Income: Nonfarm sole proprietorships, Table 2, income statements by industrial sector, tax year 2023, checked October 9, 2026
- IRS: SOI tax stats, nonfarm sole proprietorship statistics, checked October 9, 2026
- Insureon: Insurance cost for pressure washing businesses, checked October 9, 2026
- Fixr, cost to pressure wash a house, checked October 8, 2026
- Fixr, cost to pressure wash a deck, checked October 8, 2026
- Fixr, cost to pressure wash a fence, checked October 8, 2026
- Fixr, roof cleaning cost, checked October 8, 2026
- HomeAdvisor, power washing cost, checked October 8, 2026
- HomeAdvisor, driveway pressure washing cost, checked October 8, 2026
- HomeAdvisor, roof cleaning cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Thumbtack, power washing prices, checked October 8, 2026
- Bob Vila, cost to pressure wash a house, checked October 8, 2026
- Today's Homeowner, pressure washing, checked October 8, 2026
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (state and national files), checked October 8, 2026
- US Census Bureau, 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to county relationship file, checked October 8, 2026
Last checked October 9, 2026. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and differ by state and city, so confirm with the agency named before you act.