Last updated October 31, 2026

How much to charge for pressure washing work in 2026

The hourly rate a one-truck pressure washer needs to charge, built from what pressure washers actually earn, a price list for 13 common jobs with the arithmetic shown, what moves the number, and the mistakes that cost the most.

Short answer: a one-truck pressure washing business that pays its owner what the median cleaner earns, carries normal overhead, and keeps a 20 percent margin needs about $55 an hour. To pay yourself like the top quarter of pressure washers, charge about $55. Top ten percent, $65. Below $50 you are subsidizing the customer with your own wages. Every number on this page is built from published wage data and a model you can see, and the price list further down uses the $55 rate.

Pressure washing is the trade with the biggest gap between the wage the BLS tracks for the closest occupations, cleaners and laborers, and what a well-run one-truck washing business bills. That is because the business is equipment and route, not labor: a trailer rig, a surface cleaner and a soft-wash system do in an hour what a person with a wand does in four, and the price is set by the result and the speed, not by the hour. The model rate here is the honest floor; the market price per job is usually above it.

Washing prices by the surface: per square foot for driveways and decks, per house for soft-wash siding, per window or per linear foot for gutters and fences. The customer buys a clean driveway, not an hour, and a per-job price that reflects your speed is how a washer makes real money with equipment that costs what a car does.

What pressure washers earn, and what that means for your rate

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 860,670 people working as maids and housekeeping cleaners in its May 2025 survey and published what they are paid. That is the wage an employer pays an employee, which is the floor for what an owner-operator should pay themselves. A rate is built on top of it: the hidden cost of an hour of labor, the overhead of running a truck, the hours you cannot bill, and a margin. The model here uses a 22% labor load for payroll taxes, workers comp and the liability share, $24,000 a year of overhead for the truck, insurance, phone, software, tools and licenses, 1,100 billable hours a year, and a 20% margin. Change any input and the rate moves; the hourly rate calculator runs it with your numbers.

If you pay yourself like the	BLS wage	Loaded	Overhead per hour	Rate to charge
Bottom quarter	$15	$18	$22	$50
Median	$17	$21	$22	$55
Top quarter	$19	$23	$22	$55
Top ten percent	$23	$28	$22	$65

Rate = (wage × 1.22 + $24,000 ÷ 1,100) ÷ (1 − 0.2), rounded to $5. Wages: BLS OEWS May 2025, maids and housekeeping cleaners, national.

The $24,000 overhead covers a truck and trailer rig, a 4 gpm or bigger pressure washer, a soft-wash pump, surface cleaners, hoses, chemicals and insurance. The two BLS rows are cleaners and construction laborers, both well below what a washing business should bill per hour, which is why the price list uses per-surface pricing and why the hours in it are short.

A pressure washing price list, with the math

Flat prices for the jobs pressure washers quote most, built the same way every time: hours at the $55 rate, plus materials at cost with a 30 percent markup, rounded to $5. The hours and material costs are example inputs for a typical job in a typical market, stated so you can swap in your own. A job with a crew of two doubles the labor line. Prices are per surface for normal soil, with water from the customer's spigot and normal access. Heavy staining, rust, oil and gum are add-ons. Soft-wash prices include chemicals.

Job	Labor	Materials at cost	Price	What it assumes
Driveway, concrete, per sq ft	0.0015 h	$0	$0	Surface cleaner, pre-treat, rinse
Driveway, two-car, 600 sq ft	1 h	$12	$70	Typical job as a flat price
Patio or pool deck, concrete or pavers, per sq ft	0.002 h	$0	$0	Rinse and post-treat
Wood deck wash, per sq ft	0.004 h	$0	$0	Low pressure, cleaner and brightener; staining extra
House soft wash, single story, per sq ft of footprint	0.002 h	$0	$0	Vinyl, stucco or brick; sodium hypochlorite mix
House soft wash, two story, per sq ft of footprint	0.0028 h	$0	$0	Taller rig, more chemical
Roof soft wash, asphalt shingle, per sq ft	0.003 h	$0	$0	No pressure; algae and moss treatment
Fence wash, wood, per linear foot of 6-ft fence	0.012 h	$0	$0	Both sides
Gutter exterior brightening, per linear foot	0.01 h	$0	$0	Tiger-stripe removal
Sidewalk, per linear foot of 4-ft walk	0.005 h	$0	$0	Surface cleaner
Rust or oil stain treatment, per spot	0.25 h	$12	$30	Specialty chemical
Commercial storefront walk and entry, per visit	1.5 h	$20	$110	Monthly route pricing
Minimum job charge	1.5 h	$10	$95	Covers the trip and setup

Price = hours × $55 + materials × 1.3. Trip or diagnostic fees, permits and disposal are extra lines.

This is a sample. The free price book builder prices the full pressure washing book, 31 jobs, with your own wage, overhead and margin, and gives you the PDF for the truck and the spreadsheet that keeps the formulas.

What moves the price

Equipment, not hours. A surface cleaner on a 5.5 gpm machine cleans a driveway in 40 minutes. Price the driveway, not the 40 minutes, and the equipment pays for itself.
Soft wash versus pressure. Siding, roofs and painted surfaces are chemical jobs at low pressure. The chemical is a real cost and the skill is a real risk; soft wash prices above a pressure rinse.
Stains. Rust, oil, gum, tannin and battery acid are specialty treatments. Per spot, on the bid, after you look.
Water and access. No spigot means a tank. A gated backyard or a steep lot means hose runs. Walk it or ask for photos before pricing.
Route and bundles. The house plus the driveway plus the fence on one visit is where the margin is. Bundle on the bid with a visible discount for the second and third surface.

Hourly, flat rate, or by the unit

Per surface, from a short price list by square foot or by typical size, with a minimum charge and add-ons for stains and two-story work. Most customers want a number by text from a photo, and a price list makes that possible in two minutes. Bundle pricing for the whole exterior.

Commercial work is per visit on a monthly route with a signed schedule. Never hourly; the hour is your equipment's advantage and the customer should never be charged for it.

A worked pressure washing bid

A single-story house, 1,800 square foot footprint, soft wash, plus a 600 square foot driveway and 120 feet of fence. House: 1,800 at 0.002 hours and $0.03. Driveway: a flat line, one hour and $12. Fence: 120 at 0.012 and $0.08. About six hours at the top-quarter rate from the table, one person for most of a day. Chemicals marked up 30 percent. A bundle discount on the fence as its own line so the customer sees it. Due on completion by card from the invoice link.

Most markets see $350 to $600 for a single-story house wash, $150 to $300 for a two-car driveway and $1 to $2 a foot for fence, and the bundled bid lands around $800 to $1,100 for the day. The sample pressure washing estimate shows a finished one.

The pricing mistakes that cost the most

Hourly pricing. The customer with a 40-minute driveway pays for your machine's speed instead of you.
Pressure washing siding. Forced water behind vinyl and blasted paint are claims. Soft wash, and price the chemical.
No minimum, and a $60 sidewalk across town.
Roof washing without a release and a plan for the plants. Hypochlorite kills shrubs; pre-wet and rinse, and say so on the bid.

Writing the price into a bid that gets signed

The number is half the job. The other half is a bid the customer can say yes to from their phone: the scope in lines, one price, the deposit and payment terms, the warranty, a date it expires, and a signature. The free pressure washing estimate template is laid out that way in PDF, Word and Excel, and How to bid pressure washing jobs covers the scope lines that keep you out of arguments. If you want the typing done for you, BidWriter Pro turns your notes into a clean bid your customer signs on their phone, with the deposit paid by card. $29 a month, 30 days free.

Sources and method

Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Maids and housekeeping cleaners, national percentile hourly wages and employment.
Also: Construction laborers, median $23 an hour, 1,096,780 employed.
Rate model: labor load 1.22, overhead $24,000 a year, 1,100 billable hours, 20% margin. Hours and material costs in the price list are example inputs, not survey data. Prices are examples, not advice for your market.

Questions contractors ask

How much do pressure washers charge in 2026?

By the surface, not the hour: $0.15 to $0.35 a square foot for driveways, $350 to $700 for a house soft wash depending on stories, $1 to $2 a linear foot for fence. Built from BLS wages, a one-truck washer needs at least $55 an hour at the median wage and $55 to earn like the top quarter, and per-surface pricing usually bills well above that.

How much should I charge to pressure wash a driveway?

A two-car driveway of about 600 square feet lands $150 to $300 in most markets, from about an hour with a surface cleaner plus pre-treat, with oil and rust spots as add-ons.

How much should I charge for a house soft wash?

Single story, $350 to $600; two story, $500 to $900, with the chemicals included. Price by the footprint square footage and the stories.

Should I charge hourly for pressure washing?

No. Your equipment makes you fast; charge for the surface and keep the time you save. A minimum job charge covers small jobs.

What should a pressure washing minimum be?

$150 to $200, covering the trip, the setup and the water. Below that the job does not pay for the drive.

Write a pressure washing bid from your notes

Type the job the way you would text it. It comes back as a finished estimate in about five seconds, in your words. No account.

Type a job the way you would text it

Only what you type goes on the estimate. Nothing gets added.

No account needed to try it.

30 days free, then $29 a month. No card to start.

Free, no account: estimate checker, job price calculator, markup vs margin, hourly rate, and 84 sample estimates.