Pressure washing cost calculator

Pressure washing is priced by the area you wash. We opened the cost guides from Fixr, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, Bob Vila and Today's Homeowner and combined their rates for each surface. Low is the middle of the guides' lows, high the middle of their highs.

The siding rate is the average of two things: the all-siding range four guides agree on ($0.10 to $0.50) and Fixr's rate for that one material. That keeps the material difference without leaning on a single source.

Whole-job numbers from the same guides line up with the table. HomeAdvisor puts a driveway at $100 to $350 with $210 as the average. Fixr puts most houses at $500 to $900, and about $700 for a 2,000 sq ft vinyl home. HomeAdvisor puts a full house at $150 to $750 for one story, $400 to $1,400 for two and $700 to $1,800 for three.

• Height. Second and third stories mean ladders, extension wands or a lift. Thumbtack's whole-house ranges are $218 to $363 for 1 story, $279 to $472 for 2 and $286 to $509 for 3. At the midpoints that puts a 2-story at about 1.3 times a 1-story and a 3-story at about 1.4 times. Thumbtack does not publish a per-story adder; the ratio is ours. The calculator applies that to siding, roof and gutters only, not to ground-level concrete.
• How dirty it is. Heavy mildew, algae, rust or oil stains take a second pass or a stronger treatment. Price those near the top of the range.
• The surface. Stucco, wood and composite need low pressure and more care. Concrete can take full pressure and goes faster.
• Access and water. No outdoor spigot, a long walk from the truck or a steep yard all add time.
• Sealing. Sealing a driveway or staining a deck after washing is a separate job and a separate price.
• Minimum charge. HomeAdvisor and Fixr both name $100 as the usual minimum. A small patio on its own costs the minimum, not its square footage.

Ask the company which method it will use on each surface before you book. A good quote names it: soft wash for the siding and roof, surface cleaner for the driveway, low pressure for the deck. If a quote says only "pressure wash house", ask.

Pressure washing uses high pressure water to strip dirt off hard surfaces such as concrete and brick pavers. Soft washing uses low pressure and a cleaning solution, usually a diluted bleach mix, that kills mold, mildew and algae and lets them rinse off.

Roofs, painted siding, stucco and wood should be soft washed. High pressure can lift shingles, force water behind siding, etch wood and strip paint. That is why roof cleaning is priced higher per square foot: more chemical, more time on the roof and more risk.

Paint is the other thing to watch. Washing before painting is normal and helps the paint stick, but if the old paint is already peeling, a pressure washer will take more of it off. Wood siding, older homes and anything painted before 1978, which may contain lead, should be soft washed or cleaned by hand.

A 2-story vinyl house with about 2,000 sq ft of wall, a 600 sq ft driveway and a 300 sq ft wood deck.

• Siding. 2,000 sq ft × $0.20 / $0.325 / $0.45 × 1.3 for two stories = $520 / $845 / $1,170.
• Driveway. 600 sq ft × $0.30 / $0.32 / $0.40 = $180 / $192 / $240.
• Deck. 300 sq ft × $0.30 / $0.38 / $0.45 = $90 / $114 / $135.
• Total. $790 to $1,545, with about $1,150 as the typical price. At $82 an hour, the typical rate in three guides, that is about 14 crew hours.

Booked on its own, the deck would have cost the $100 minimum or more. Done on the same visit, it adds about $114.

Same job, smaller house. A 1-story house with 1,200 sq ft of brick wall and just the front walk (150 sq ft) comes to about $246 to $522 for the brick at about $0.21 to $0.44 a sq ft, plus $45 to $60 for the walk: $291 to $582 in total. No height factor applies, since everything is reachable from the ground.

Seasons change the price a little, too. Spring is the busy season for house washing in most places. Booking a deck or fence wash in late summer or early fall, before staining, can mean an earlier slot.

When people search for the price to pressure wash a house, they usually mean the siding, start to finish. Three guides publish whole-house prices by the number of stories:

The spread is wide because house size is not in those numbers. Thumbtack also prices by home size: about $190 to $291 for a home under 1,000 sq ft, and $550 to $834 for one of 4,000 to 5,000 sq ft. That is why the calculator asks for the wall area instead of the story count alone. A quick way to estimate it: walk around the house, add up the length of each wall, and multiply by the wall height, about 9 to 10 ft a story. Leave the windows in; they get washed too.

Getting ready for the crew saves time and sometimes money:

• Close every window and door, and check that outdoor outlets have covers.
• Move cars, grills, patio furniture and potted plants away from the walls and the driveway.
• Show the crew where the outdoor spigot is and make sure it runs.
• Point out anything fragile: old paint, loose siding, cracked window seals, delicate plants.

The numbers on this page are what homeowners see when they look up a price. Here is how to turn them into your own prices.

1. Know your hourly cost. Add up a year of truck, trailer, machine, insurance, chemicals and your own wage. Divide by the hours you can bill. That is the least an hour on site can earn.
2. Measure your speed. Time yourself on a few jobs. Concrete with a surface cleaner goes fast; a 2-story soft wash goes slower. Your rate per square foot is your hourly price ÷ the square feet you clean in an hour.
3. Check against the market. If your rate lands well above the table, you either need to work faster or sell on quality. Well below it, and you are leaving money behind.
4. Set a minimum. Never let a job drop under what it costs to load up and drive there. $100 to $150 is common.
5. Sell the bundle. Offer house, driveway and deck as good, better, best options on one estimate. Most customers pick the middle.
6. Sell it again. Mildew comes back. Offer a yearly visit at a set price and put it on the calendar.

On every estimate, write down what is included: the surfaces, the method (soft wash or pressure), whether you treat for mildew and whether you rinse the plants. That heads off the most common complaint, which is a customer who expected a surface that was never on the quote.

Track your actual hours against the estimate on every job for a month. The calculator shows a time check at the typical hourly rate; if your real hours keep running over it, your square-foot rates are too low for how you work.

For commercial work, such as storefronts, parking areas and dumpster pads, price by the hour or by the square foot with a monthly or quarterly schedule, and price night work higher.

Koira's tools for pressure washing companies turn these lines into an estimate the customer signs and pays a deposit on from their phone, then put the yearly repeat visit on your calendar.

Renting a pressure washer costs less than most single jobs, and a flat driveway is a fair DIY job. Hire out the parts that can go wrong: anything off a ladder, roofs, painted or stucco siding, and old wood decks. Too much pressure in the wrong place costs more to fix than the wash ever saved, and a ladder with a kicking wand is how people get hurt.