Updated October 21, 2026
The honest answer to how to price pressure washing jobs is that each surface is its own job. Concrete flatwork, vinyl siding soft washing, roofs and wood decks clean at different speeds and use different chemicals, so they get different prices per square foot. Your hourly rig rate ties them together.
Quick answer: Calculate what your rig, truck, labor and overhead cost per hour and add profit to get an hourly rate. Time how many square feet per hour you clean on each surface, convert to a price per square foot, and add chemical cost per square foot. Charge a setup and travel allowance once per visit, and set a job minimum.
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| Cost per working hour | Assumption |
|---|---|
| Operator labor | $25 + 15% burden = $28.75 |
| Rig (trailer, pump, surface cleaner, hoses, reels) | $18.00 |
| Truck and fuel | $10.00 |
| Overhead (insurance, phone, marketing, software) | $15.00 |
| Cost per hour | $71.75 |
| Billable rate at 25% profit | $71.75 ÷ 0.75 = $95.67, use $96 |
Illustrative assumptions for a solo operator.
Time your own work; these are example rates only.
| Surface | Example rate (incl. pre-treat and rinse) | Example chemical cost |
|---|---|---|
| Concrete driveway, surface cleaner | 600 sq ft per hour | $0.02 per sq ft |
| Vinyl siding, soft wash | 1,000 sq ft per hour | $0.03 per sq ft |
| Wood deck, low pressure plus brightener | 300 sq ft per hour | $0.05 per sq ft |
An 800 sq ft driveway and a house wash with about 2,000 sq ft of siding, same visit.
| Line | Calculation | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Driveway | 800 ÷ 600 = 1.33 h × $96 = $128, plus chemicals 800 × $0.02 = $16 | $144 |
| House wash | 2,000 ÷ 1,000 = 2 h × $96 = $192, plus chemicals 2,000 × $0.03 = $60 | $252 |
| Setup and travel, once | 0.5 h × $96 | $48 |
| Total | $444 |
Booked separately on two days, the customer would pay setup twice. That is your honest reason for bundle pricing: it really does save you time.
Storefronts, drive-throughs, dumpster pads and parking areas are often bid as recurring contracts priced per visit, sometimes overnight to avoid customers. Time the first visit carefully and price the contract from it. Ask about water access and wastewater rules on site before quoting.
Many customers text a photo and ask for a price. Quote from the photo using your rate table, and add a line that the price is confirmed on arrival if the surface or square footage differs. That keeps you fast without being trapped.
Ask whether outdoor water is available and adequate, and price in hauling water if it is not. Commercial sites and some municipalities have rules about wastewater from cleaning; check before quoting, because recovery equipment and extra time change the price.
For the first month of using this method, write down the surface, square footage and actual time on every job. After twenty or thirty jobs you will have your own production rates for each surface, which are more accurate than any example. Update the table each season. Rates change when you upgrade equipment, such as a larger surface cleaner or a higher-flow pump, and those upgrades should show up as faster times, not just as a nicer rig.
Keep notes on surfaces that took longer than expected, such as heavy algae on north-facing siding or old sealer on pavers, so you can recognize them from the next customer's photo.
The company that answers the photo first often gets the job, and you cannot text back while you are washing. Unmanually is a 24/7 AI Office Manager: it replies to new requests in about a minute, asks for the surface and rough size, sends a quote from your rates and books the visit. You approve anything that spends money. See what it does for pressure washing companies, or run the calculator to see how many hours of messages and quotes become minutes of talking.
What to use at 1, 2 and 4 rigs, and the spring quoting hours a tool saves.
What the AI Office Manager does for pressure washing companies, from calls to invoices.
Getting more pressure washing customers by replying to photos first.
Divide your hourly billable rate by the square feet per hour you clean on that surface, then add chemical cost per square foot. Each surface type gets its own rate.
Yes. Setup, travel and breakdown take the same time on a small job as a large one, so a minimum keeps small jobs profitable.
Yes, using your rate table, with a written condition that the price is confirmed on arrival if the size or surface condition differs from the photo.
Home service businesses answer only about half their calls (Invoca, July 2026), and owners spend about 11 to 16 hours/week on admin. Knowing what to do is the easy part; the money leaks out in the calls you can't take, the quotes nobody chases and the invoices that sit unpaid. Unmanually is a 24/7 AI Office Manager for pressure washing that you run by voice from your phone:
Sources: Invoca, July 2026 (52% of home-service calls answered by a person, 60M+ calls); admin hours: Time etc / Censuswide 2023 and Amex SME Barometer 2026.
Unmanually is an AI Office Manager that works 24/7 and that you run by voice from your phone. Leave your mobile number and the AI Office Manager calls you right away, the same way it would call back one of your customers. That call is the demo: it answers, books you a 15-minute time with the founder and follows up.
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