Pricing and quoting for pressure washing without racing to the bottom
Square-foot pricing by surface, good-better-best bundles that lift an average ticket, deposits, minimums, and how your prices change what your marketing costs.
There are two pressure washing businesses. One sells $149 driveways to whoever answers the ad, runs 25 jobs a week and clears very little. The other sells $625 house-plus-driveway packages, runs 12 jobs a week and takes home more. The equipment is identical. The difference is entirely in how the price is built and presented.
Pricing is also a marketing decision. What you charge sets what you can afford to pay for a lead, and that decides whether Google Ads and Meta ads work for you at all.
Price by the surface, not by the hour
Hourly pricing punishes you for getting faster and invites arguments. Price by measured square footage with a minimum.
Typical US ranges, as of the 2026 season:
- Concrete driveways and walkways: $0.15 to $0.30 per square foot. A standard two-car driveway lands at $189 to $325. Set a $150 minimum so a small walkway is never worth doing.
- House washing (soft wash): priced by exterior square footage or by story. Single story $250 to $425, two story $400 to $700, large or complex $700 to $1,200.
- Roof soft washing: $0.25 to $0.55 per square foot of roof, or $500 to $1,100 typical residential. Steep pitch, tile and height add.
- Decks and fences: $0.18 to $0.35 per square foot for cleaning. Add $1.00 to $2.50 per square foot if you are staining or sealing.
- Pavers, cleaning and sanding: $0.30 to $0.60 per square foot. With sealing, $0.90 to $1.80.
- Commercial flat work: $0.08 to $0.18 per square foot at volume, or $85 to $150 an hour for dumpster pads, drive-thrus and forecourts. Night work commands more.
Set a company minimum, usually $150 to $250, and say it out loud on the phone. "Our minimum for any residential job is $185, so most people add the walkway to make it worth the trip." That sentence sells an upgrade and defends your floor at the same time.
Good, better, best, every single quote
Never send one number. Send three, on one text or one page.
For a house wash lead:
- Good, $325. House wash only. Siding, soffits, gutters cleaned on the outside.
- Better, $625. House wash plus driveway and front walkway. Most popular.
- Best, $985. House wash, driveway, walkway, back patio and gutter brightening, plus a spring touch-up on the north elevation.
Three things happen. The middle option gets chosen most of the time, which is the whole point. The $325 lead becomes a $625 job with 20 extra minutes of work on a property you already drove to. And the customer stops comparing you against the $149 guy, because he did not offer three of anything.
Label the middle one "most popular" and mean it. Across the exterior cleaning work we have seen, a good-better-best quote typically raises the average ticket 30% to 60% against a single-line quote, at no extra acquisition cost.
Quote from a photo, same day
Driving to quote a $250 driveway is a losing trade for a one-truck operation. Two hours of windshield time for a job that pays $250.
Ask for a photo instead. On the phone, in your text-back, on your website form: "Text me a photo of the driveway and your address and I will have a number back to you within the hour." You will quote four times as many jobs in the same evening.
Drive out only for roof work, anything over about $800, and commercial. Those deserve eyes on the property, and the drive is defensible against a $900 ticket.
Deposits, and when to take them
For residential work under $500, a deposit costs you more bookings than it saves. Skip it.
For anything over $800, for booked spring work sold in winter, and for anyone who has already rescheduled once, take 25% to hold the date. Say it plainly: "I hold the date with 25% down and the rest when you see it finished."
Winter pre-selling is where deposits earn their keep. A $50-off spring house wash sold in January with $100 down is a job that will not evaporate the first warm week when three competitors start knocking. The seasonality guide covers that whole play.
What your price lets you spend on marketing
This is where pricing and marketing meet, and where most owners have never done the arithmetic.
Say your average ticket is $325 and your direct cost (fuel, chemical, labor, wear) is 40%. Gross profit is $195 a job.
- If you close half of your calls, you can pay up to about $97 per call and break even. Anything under $40 a call is a healthy campaign.
- Now raise the average ticket to $625 with bundling. Gross profit is $375, and the same $40 call is suddenly a very comfortable buy.
That is why the bundling matters beyond the one job. It expands the price you can afford to pay for a lead, which lets you outbid the $149 operator in the same auction. Cost per call ranges by term are in the Google Ads guide.
Publish ranges, do not hide them
Put ranges on your website and in your ads. Owners fear this and the fear is backwards.
A price range on the page repels the caller who wanted $79 and attracts the caller who was afraid of a $1,500 surprise. Your quoting time goes down and your booking rate goes up. Write it with a condition attached so nobody holds you to the bottom of the range: "Most two-car driveways run $189 to $325. Final price depends on size, access and how long it has been." The website guide covers where that block goes.
Raising prices without losing the book
Do it once a year, in February, before the spring rush, and do it by 8% to 12%. Do not announce it. Do not apologize for it. Existing customers who booked last year get one line: "Prices went up a little this year with chemical and fuel, you are at $349 this season."
A washer who has not raised prices in three years is quietly running a pay cut. If you lose two customers out of thirty over a 10% increase, you came out ahead.
Frequently asked
Should I offer a discount for the neighbor? Yes, and structure it as route density rather than charity. "$25 off each if we do both on the same day" is honest, saves you a trip, and is the mechanism behind neighborhood clustering in the Meta ads guide.
What about annual maintenance plans? They work well for house washes and roof treatments in humid climates. Sell a yearly wash at 15% off, billed at the visit, and put it on the calendar before you leave. It smooths your schedule and it is the cheapest job you will ever sell.
Do I have to match the low bidder? No, and you should stop bidding against him. Change the comparison by quoting three options, showing before-and-after photos of the exact surface, and giving a firm date. Price is what people argue about when nothing else has been shown to them.
If you want quote templates, the follow-up texts and the pricing put in front of the right buyers, the marketing side is one of the services in the free 14-day trial. Text or call (385) 832-6175.