TL;DR
Residential flatwork runs $0.15 to $0.30 per square foot, a standard two-car driveway is $100 to $300 with the national average near $175, house washes run $170 to $360 and up with size, and most full residential jobs land between $150 and $500. Set a $150 job minimum, add 25 to 50 percent for heavy staining, and target $75 to $150 per hour of on-site time after chemicals. The operators who fail in this trade almost never fail on quality; they fail by pricing at $99 and discovering the math in August.
Every pressure washing forum has the same thread: a new operator asks what to charge, three people say "know your costs," and nobody posts numbers. Here are the numbers, with the national data to back them, and the working-backward math that tells you when a price is actually profitable.
The 2026 rate card
Ranges reflect national data from HomeGuide and Angi cost guides plus what operators actually report; your metro sits somewhere inside them, and dense high-cost metros sit at the top.
| Surface | Typical price | Pricing basis |
|---|---|---|
| Driveway (2-car, 400–600 sq ft) | $100–300, avg ~$175 | $0.15–0.30/sq ft |
| Sidewalk / patio | $60–150 | $0.15–0.30/sq ft, job minimum applies |
| House wash (soft wash, 1-story) | $170–280 | $0.10–0.30/sq ft of facade |
| House wash (2-story) | $250–450+ | Height premium, ladder or extended reach |
| Deck or fence | $120–300 | $0.25–0.50/sq ft, wood takes finesse and time |
| Roof (soft wash) | $300–700+ | Specialty chemicals, risk premium |
| Commercial flatwork | $0.08–0.20/sq ft | Volume discount, recurring contract rates |
| Verdict | $150 job minimum, $250 average residential ticket, and stains add 25–50%. Anyone consistently below these numbers is paying to work. | |
Two adjustments that belong on every quote: heavy oil, rust, or years of buildup add 25 to 50 percent (per Angi's cost data, and per your knees), and first-time cleans on neglected surfaces should be priced as restoration, not maintenance. The maintenance re-clean next year at the same price is where the margin lives.
Working backward: your real floor price
A price floor is not a feeling. It is arithmetic:
- Equipment: a $3,500 rig amortized over 3 seasons of ~500 jobs is about $2.50 a job.
- Chemicals: $5 to $20 per residential job depending on mix.
- Insurance at $100/mo across 40 jobs a month: $2.50 a job.
- Fuel and truck: $10 to $25 a job with normal routing.
- Your time: the number everyone forgets to price. At a $75/hour target and 1.5 hours on site plus half an hour of drive and setup, that is $150 of labor.
Stack it and a typical driveway job carries $170 to $200 of true cost at a modest wage. That is why the $175 average exists: it is not what the market tolerates, it is what the work costs. The $99 operator is not undercutting you; he is paying his customers the difference and calling it a business until the truck needs tires.
the underpricing spiral: price at $99, need double the jobs to make rent, cut corners to go faster, collect the reviews that cutting corners earns, and exit the trade by August. It repeats every spring.
Flat rate or hourly?
Quote flat, calculate hourly. Customers strongly prefer a firm number, and flat pricing pays you for speed: as your technique and equipment improve, the same $250 house wash takes 90 minutes instead of three hours and your effective rate doubles. Keep hourly quoting for genuine unknowns (first-time restoration cleans, construction cleanup) and state a range up front.
The one place hourly beats flat: small-job stacking. "Driveway plus walkway plus patio" quoted as one bundled number beats three line items, closes higher, and fills the schedule with fewer stops.
Charging right but the phone's quiet?
Pricing discipline only pays when the calls come in. We build sites and local search presence that keep service businesses booked.
Commercial pricing is a different sport
Commercial flatwork prices lower per square foot ($0.08 to $0.20) but wins on volume and recurrence: a shopping plaza on a quarterly contract at $800 a visit is worth more than a month of driveways, books in one sales conversation, and washes at 6am with nobody parked on it. Bid monthly and quarterly maintenance contracts rather than one-time cleans, and put net-30 terms and proof of $1M liability coverage in the proposal, because that is what their property manager needs to say yes.
Raising prices on existing customers
Repeat customers are the asset, and most operators underprice them out of fear. The playbook: raise 10 to 15 percent at the start of a season, notify with the booking reminder rather than a special announcement, and pair the increase with something visible (sealed edges, gutter brightening, before-and-after photo delivery). Losing the bottom 10 percent of customers at a 15 percent higher rate is a raise, not a loss.
Three pricing moves to skip
- Matching the lowest quote. The customer who shops four bids for a driveway churns to next spring's new operator regardless; you cannot buy loyalty with margin.
- Discounting for "exposure" on HOA or property-management trial work. Commercial buyers respect contract terms, not gifts; a paid pilot at full rate proves more.
- Unpriced add-ons. "I'll just hit that walkway too" trains customers that extra surfaces are free. Name a price, even a small one, for every addition.
If you are still setting up the business itself, licensing, insurance, gear tiers, and first customers are covered in the full how to start a pressure washing business playbook. The marketing engine that keeps a season booked is in our contractor marketing guide, and if quotes are going out but jobs are not closing, the leak is usually follow-up speed; that fix is in the lead follow-up system.
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