Why washers quote by the square foot, and when they don't
Washing owners quote square feet under roof for houses and square feet of flatwork for concrete, because a surface cleaner and a soft wash rig both cover area at a fairly steady speed. One commercial source gives 1,500 to 3,000 sq ft an hour on sidewalks and 500 to 1,000 sq ft an hour on vertical walls, which is why siding costs more per foot than a driveway.
Two other units show up. Some owners price a driveway by car space, at something like $50 or $60 a space, because a customer can picture a two-car driveway more easily than 900 square feet. And small, predictable commercial jobs (a storefront sidewalk, a drive-thru, a dumpster pad) often get a flat price in the $250 to $700 range.
Under all of it sits a minimum. A common one is $250: below that, the trailer does not leave the yard.
Per-foot rates some washing owners use
These are single owners' or single sources' numbers, not averages. Use them to test your price, not to set it.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Job | Rate some owners use |
| 2 | House wash | About 15 cents per sq ft under roof |
| 3 | Driveway and flatwork | About 12 cents per sq ft |
| 4 | Driveway by car space | $50 to $60 per space |
| 5 | Commercial flatwork | 10 to 40 cents per sq ft; about 20 cents one-time, 10 to 12 cents monthly |
| 6 | Minimum job | $250 |
Here is how those rates play out on a real measure. One owner measured a house at 4,105 sq ft under roof and 2,840 sq ft of concrete. At 15 cents the house came to $615, at 12 cents the concrete came to $340, and after a 15% first-time discount the pair came to $815. The customer only wanted her back patio in the end, so the quote dropped to the $250 minimum for about an hour of work.
That last detail is the useful one. An hour of work at $250 looks like a great rate, but the same owner still had to measure, drive, set up and tear down. The minimum is there to pay for all of that, not only the hour of spraying.
Some owners won't publish prices at all and win on the walk-around instead. They point out that the wash mix can harm plants, then show the customer how they will pre-wet, cover and rinse the beds. The customer ends up choosing care over the lowest number.
Pricing a two-storey soft wash and driveway, line by line
The sample job is a soft wash on a two-storey house (about 3,400 sq ft under roof) plus surface cleaning the driveway and front walk (about 2,400 sq ft), done by the owner and one wash tech.
Chemicals are the smallest part: SH, surfactant, concrete pre-treat, plant rinse, gas, plastic and tape, about 10% of the price. Crew time on the property is about 5.5 hours, from covering outlets and pre-wetting plants to the final walk-through, and the truck, washer, soft wash pump and surface cleaner are charged for the hours they run.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sample quote | Amount |
| 2 | Chemicals, gas and plastic | $84.48 |
| 3 | Crew time and equipment | $357.02 |
| 4 | Quote, drive, setup and other don't-forgets | $155.05 |
| 5 | Cushion and profit | $207.55 |
| 6 | Price | $804.10 |
The business keeps $207.54 after every wage, the owner's included. Across about 8 labour hours that's $79.93 an hour against a break-even of $54.31.
Now the per-foot check: $804.10 across 5,800 sq ft is about 14 cents. At 15 cents for the house and 12 cents for the concrete, the same job comes to $510 plus $288, or $798. Six dollars apart means the built-up number is sound, and it also means those per-foot rates would have worked for this house. On a slower house they might not.
What does a washing crew hour cost before you touch a spigot?
The sample owner-plus-tech business needs $54.31 per billable labour hour, about $108 for the two-person crew, before the truck, the washer or any profit. One commercial source puts real two-person crews at $90 to $150 an hour just to break even, so the sample sits inside that range. The overhead behind it (marketing, storage, insurance, software and the rest) totals $23,200 a year.
The owner is the least billable person on the crew, because the owner also answers the phone and sends the quotes. How that turns into a rate, with the markup that gets you to profit, is on pressure washing hourly rate and profit margin; the general method is in the true hourly rate guide.
Water, stains and patio furniture: costs that never make the washing quote
Most underpriced washing jobs are wrong on everything around the wash, not the wash itself. In the sample, the don't-forget list adds $155.05 to a $596.55 cost, about 26%, and nearly all of it is labour.
The quote. Many owners quote most jobs remotely from satellite and listing photos, and a careful remote quote takes about half an hour. You do that for the jobs you lose too, so the ones you win have to carry it.
Everyone in the truck. Drive time gets counted for the driver and forgotten for the tech in the passenger seat, who is on the clock as well.
Hose, trailer and spigot. Before quoting, ask where the trailer can sit and whether the house has good water pressure. A weak spigot slows the whole job, and filling a tank is time nobody priced.
A test spot on faded siding. Old paint on the sunny side of a house can be so oxidized it rubs off, and a soft wash can strip it. One bad wall can mean a repair bill in the thousands. The test takes minutes, so put it on every house wash, and keep your insurance in your overhead.
Pooled water on flat concrete. Leaving it is a rookie mistake: it dries into dirt spots and you come back to re-rinse for free. A wet vac or sludge sucker pulls it off before you pack up.
Moving the customer's stuff. Some owners add a $100 charge when the crew has to move patio furniture and belongings, and a pot that was already cracked becomes yours once you touch it. Ask the customer to clear the area first, and put your charge in writing.
Oil, rust and gum. A surface cleaner won't lift them; they need specialty products and dwell time. Tell the customer in advance that those stains are charged separately, leave them out of the base price, and quote them before you treat them.
Wear parts and price creep. O-rings, tips, pump oil and surface cleaner swivels wear on every job, and SH and gas prices move. Neither shows up until a season's worth lands at once.
Lifts and disposal. A lift for a third storey or a high commercial wall can add $150 to $300 in rental plus the labour to run it. Pass rentals through with a markup, and handle scope changes mid-job as a change order.
Where washing quotes go wrong: remote bids, hourly quotes, 80% close rates
Quoting a remote job on the best case. If you haven't seen the property in person, quote the worst case. The photo never shows the algae behind the shrubs or the gum on the front walk.
Showing the customer an hourly number. Work your price out by the hour, but hand over a total. An hourly quote gives the customer too many pieces to pick apart, and it punishes you for being fast.
Starting at $50 an hour. A new owner might think $250 for a 5-hour job is fair. In the sample business that is under the $54.31 break-even before a drop of chemical is paid for.
A minimum that doesn't cover a small job. A two-person crew on a one-hour patio still quotes, drives and sets up. The sample's Job Log includes a $250 minimum job that ran long and lost money, which is the warning to check your minimum against your own rate.
Winning almost every quote. If more than about 80% of your quotes turn into jobs, your prices are too low. Somewhere between 40 and 70% is healthy. When leads outgrow the schedule, prices go up. For how profit differs from your own wage in all this, see overhead and profit.
House, driveway or commercial pad: picking the unit for the job
Use square feet under roof for houses and square feet of surface for concrete, and keep them as separate lines even on one visit, because they run at very different speeds. A driveway priced by car space is fine for residential leads, as long as you know what one space costs you in crew time. For commercial accounts, quote per square foot for the first clean and a lower rate for monthly or quarterly visits, since repeat cleans go faster and save you marketing.
Whatever unit you show, work the job out in hours first. The unit is only how you explain the price to the customer.
Price your next house wash from your own numbers
The Pressure Washing Estimate Calculator does this whole page in one file: your break-even rate, chemicals, crew stages, equipment hours, the washing don't-forget list and a customer quote with washing terms. Rather do the rate by hand first? Use the free true hourly rate calculator.