This guide is for owners pricing their own work. For what homeowners see on house washes, see house washing cost, and for driveways, roofs and decks see the pressure washing cost guide.

Rate card benchmarks: what one operator publishes

Most providers publish size tiers or “starting at” ranges. One Kansas City provider publishes a full per-square-foot card, with the same rates across the whole metro.

Service Published rate (per sq ft) What the provider says is included
House washing (soft wash) $0.20 Siding, trim, soffits, peaks and exterior gutter faces; same price for brick, stone, vinyl and stucco
Roof cleaning (soft wash) $0.25 to $0.30 Priced on actual pitched roof surface area
Driveway and concrete $0.25 Chemical pre-treatment, surface cleaner pass, final rinse
Gutter cleaning $0.10 to $0.12 Priced by house area, so it bundles with a house wash
Concrete sealing $1.00 Includes the cleaning; the provider says the sealer lasts 2 to 3 years
Wood deck cleaning $1.50 Three-step process with a wood brightener
Window cleaning $0.07 Add-on to a house wash only

Source: one Kansas City provider’s residential pricing page, checked 2026-10-08.

The same provider charges the same house-wash rate regardless of how dirty the house is, and bills on footprint: a 1,500 sq ft house is $300 and a 5,000 sq ft house is $1,000. That is easy to quote, but you absorb the difference between a clean ranch and a stained two-story.

Others publish less. A second Kansas City provider lists $275 to $350 “starting around” for 1,500 to 2,500 sq ft homes, and a Charlotte provider lists $350 to $500 for a typical house. One Charlotte sample quote prices an 1,800 sq ft two-story at $475 and a 600 sq ft driveway at $185, about $0.26 and $0.31 per sq ft, both above the Kansas City card. The gap could be market, scope, ladder work or cost structure, which is why you need your own cost floor.

Your cost floor

A rate below your cost floor loses money on every job. The floor has four parts.

  • Chemicals. Operators on trade forums report very different prices and usage for sodium hypochlorite, so use your own receipts and your supplier’s mix ratio. Follow the product label and safety data sheet; this guide gives no chemical safety advice. For free lessons from working owners, see pressure washing pros who teach.
  • Labor. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has no code for pressure washers. The closest catch-all, “Building Cleaning Workers, All Other” (37-2019), had a May 2023 national median of $19.18 an hour and a 90th percentile of $29.25. At the median, two hours of employee time is about $38.36 before payroll costs. Look up newer figures before you rely on these.
  • Time. One Charlotte provider says a standard single-story house wash at the low end of its $350 to $500 range “takes about an hour.” That is one crew’s description, not a standard. Time your first ten jobs.
  • Fuel, travel and wear. The Kansas City rate-card provider includes travel within 20 miles and charges $50 beyond that. Free travel has to be covered inside your rates.

Your rate must clear the floor with a margin for insurance, repairs and marketing. If you are still deciding whether to go into the trade, read starting a pressure washing business.

Turning a rate into a job price

Per-square-foot rates need a measurement. The Kansas City card uses the building footprint; other operators use wall area, which is perimeter times wall height.

Illustrative example (a made-up house, not a sourced quote): a 40 ft by 50 ft two-story house has a 180 ft perimeter. At 18 ft of wall height that is 3,240 sq ft of wall, so $0.20 per sq ft is $648. Priced by its 2,000 sq ft footprint, the same house is $400. State in every quote which measurement you used.

For a driveway, multiply length by width. A made-up 20 ft by 30 ft driveway is 600 sq ft, or $150 at $0.25 per sq ft.

laser distance measurer for measuring house walls and driveways

Setting a minimum charge

Small jobs cost nearly as much to reach as large ones. The Kansas City rate-card provider sets $300 per visit and lets customers mix services to reach it. One Charlotte provider sets $249, and says a driveway is typically $150 to $250 bundled with another service but $249 on its own. A second Charlotte provider describes $150 to $200 as typical of reputable contractors.

Consider a hypothetical 400 sq ft driveway at $0.25 per sq ft: $100, which after the drive, setup, chemicals and rinse may not cover your floor. Set your minimum from the cost of your smallest acceptable job, not from a competitor’s number. Homeowners compare quotes too, so the questions to ask a house washing company show how buyers judge them.

None of the providers we checked advertised an hourly rate. Whatever model you pick, work out your hourly return afterward: price, minus your cost floor, divided by the hours on site and in the truck. What moves the price (stories, condition, hot water at 20% to 30% more, bundles at 10% off) is covered in house washing cost.

How we got these numbers

Prices were read from each provider’s own page on 2026-10-08; forum and BLS figures are noted as such. Our method is on the methodology page.

Sources