How to Price a Pressure Washing Job

If you have ever quoted a driveway from the truck window and later realized you barely broke even, you are not alone. Pricing a pressure washing job well is not guessing a number that sounds fair. It is stacking up your real costs, adding for prep and complexity, then building in a margin that keeps your business alive. This guide walks through how to price a pressure washing job the way profitable operators do it, with a full numeric example you can copy.

Start With Your Real Costs, Not the Market Rate

Copying a competitor's price is the fastest way to lose money, because you have no idea what their costs or overhead look like. The market rate tells you what customers will roughly accept, but your price has to cover your business. Build every quote from four buckets: labor, materials, overhead, and profit. Add a fifth layer for prep and complexity when the job calls for it.

Most residential pressure washing lands somewhere in the range of 0.15 to 0.45 cents per square foot, and many operators simply price by the hour at 75 to 150 dollars per hour of production time. Both approaches are fine. What matters is that your final number beats your true cost with room to spare.

Step 1: Calculate Your True Labor Cost

Labor is usually the biggest number and the one people underestimate. Your true labor cost is more than the wage on the check. Add payroll taxes, workers comp, and any benefits. A crew member you pay 20 dollars an hour often costs you closer to 25 to 28 dollars an hour loaded.

Then account for non-billable time: driving, setup, breakdown, and fuel stops. If a two-hour wash actually eats three and a half hours of paid crew time door to door, price the three and a half hours, not the two.

Step 2: Add Materials and Equipment Wear

Materials feel cheap per job, which is exactly why they get ignored. Track what a job actually consumes:

• Chemicals: sodium hypochlorite, surfactants, degreasers, and any specialty cleaners
• Fuel for the truck and the machine
• Water, if you are metered or hauling
• Equipment wear: pumps, hoses, tips, and surface cleaners all have a lifespan

A simple way to handle equipment wear is to add a flat percentage, often 3 to 6 percent of the job, to cover the slow death of your gear. It is not glamorous, but a surface cleaner that dies six months early because you never priced for it comes straight out of your profit.

Step 3: Cover Your Overhead

Overhead is everything you pay whether or not you wash a single square foot: insurance, vehicle payments, phone, software, marketing, licensing, and your own admin time. Ignore it and your best-looking jobs are quietly funding your business at a loss.

To turn overhead into a number you can use, add up your monthly overhead and divide by the billable hours you realistically work in a month. If overhead is 3,000 dollars and you bill 120 hours a month, that is 25 dollars of overhead per billable hour. Every quoted hour needs to carry that weight before you even think about profit.

Step 4: Price Prep and Complexity Separately

Two driveways of the same size are not the same job. Price the difference instead of eating it. Bump your estimate for:

• Heavy staining: oil, rust, mildew, or years of neglect that need multiple passes
• Height and access: second-story soft washing, steep roofs, or tight backyards
• Delicate surfaces: old wood, painted areas, or landscaping you must protect
• Extra prep: moving furniture, taping, pre-treating, or masking windows

A good habit is to walk or photo the job before quoting anything nonstandard. If a surface will take two passes instead of one, that is roughly double the labor for that section, and your price should say so.

Step 5: Add Your Profit Margin

Profit is not what is left over. It is a line you build in on purpose. Once you have labor, materials, and overhead covered, add a markup so the business grows and you can weather slow weeks. Many pressure washing operators target a 40 to 55 percent gross margin after direct costs. Set your number, then hold to it.

A Worked Example: Pricing a Residential Driveway and House Wash

Say a customer wants a driveway wash plus a single-story house soft wash. Here is how the math stacks up.

1. Production time: 3 hours estimated, plus 1 hour for travel, setup, and teardown. Total billable time: 4 hours.
2. Labor: one crew member at a loaded rate of 27 dollars per hour times 4 hours equals 108 dollars.
3. Materials: chemicals and fuel at about 35 dollars, plus 5 percent equipment wear. Round to 45 dollars.
4. Overhead: 25 dollars per billable hour times 4 hours equals 100 dollars.
5. Subtotal cost: 108 plus 45 plus 100 equals 253 dollars.
6. Complexity add-on: the house has moderate mildew needing a careful pass, so add 40 dollars. New cost basis: 293 dollars.
7. Profit margin: target a 45 percent gross margin, so divide 293 by 0.55, which comes to about 533 dollars.

You quote 525 to 550 dollars. Notice the price is nearly double your raw labor cost, and that is by design. Cut it to 350 because a neighbor mentioned a lower number, and you are working for almost nothing once overhead is paid.

Common Pricing Mistakes to Avoid

• Quoting from the truck window without seeing the actual surface condition.
• Forgetting travel, setup, and teardown time, which can be a third of the job.
• Leaving overhead out entirely, so busy months still feel broke.
• Racing competitors to the bottom instead of selling quality and reliability.
• Using one flat rate for every job regardless of prep, height, or dirtiness.
• Never revisiting your numbers as fuel, chemical, and labor costs rise.

Bottom Line

Pricing a pressure washing job is a formula, not a gut feeling. Add up loaded labor, materials, and overhead, adjust for prep and complexity, then layer on the margin that keeps you in business. Do this on every quote and you will stop guessing, win the right jobs, and actually keep the money you earn.