How to Charge for Pressure Washing? Get the Pricing Guide

How Much To Charge For Pressure Washing Services?

Setting an ideal price is necessary for a successful pressure-washing business. This is because, with proper pricing, you can make the right profit. Costing can make or break your business game, so you must determine it wisely. Here are 7 steps to decide your price.

1. Justify Your Service Area

How much does it cost to pressure wash a driveway? To determine the right answer, initially, you need to decide what will be your areas of service. Whether it will be residential or commercial. This is because the cost of the service varies in both cases.

A residential pressure washing needs less equipment and effort as compared to commercial pressure washing jobs. At the initial stage of the business, you must start with one and then add another area to your service.

2. Take the Measurement of Space

Square footage or linear footage are two considerable parameters for measuring space in the pressure washing business. So you must visit the site/house to determine the proper measurement of the space. Let’s understand both parameters –

Linear Footage

Linear footage is majorly useful when you wash a house. In this case, measure the length and avoid width and thickness. The pressure washer charge of linear footage is always higher than square footage.

Square Footage

Driveways, roofs, fences, sidewalks, decks, garage floors, parking lots, and commercial cleaning come under this parameter.

Determine the length and width and then multiply them. Then multiply the output by 1.35 to get the approximate square footage.

3. Pick Your Pricing Strategy

There are many pricing strategies available. However, you must choose the best that matches your pressure washing business. Some common pricing strategies include the following –

Per-hour Pricing Strategy

In the per-hour pricing strategy, you need to charge for every hour you provide the service to your customer. The payment of employees will also be on an hourly basis. The average hourly rate you can consider is $50 to $100 per hour. However, this also depends upon the size, location, and equipment.

Per-square Foot or Per Linear – Foot Pricing Strategy

Determine the current market value and then divide it by the total square footage to get the per-square-foot price. This kind of strategy is well suitable when you have to cover multiple surfaces. The ideal cost for this strategy is $0.10 to $0.50 per square foot. This also depends upon the property location and the pressure washing job scope.

Flat Rate Pricing Strategy

This pricing strategy is mostly suitable for experienced pressure washers. This is because experienced pressure-washing businesses already know the factors that affect the pricing. You need to calculate the rough cost based on square footage and then add a markup.

4. Calculate Your Overhead and Materials Cost

When it comes to how much power washing costs, you can’t ignore overhead and material costs. Overhead costs cover the entire expenditure applicable to operate your business. Some overhead costs involved in the business are as follows –

• Supplies for cleaning – $400 or $3.33/hour
• Insurance for the car – $125 or $1.04/hour
• Vehicle loan – $400 or $3.33/hour
• Equipment maintenance – $10/hour
• Gasoline – $500/month or $4.17/hour
• Office rent – $900/month or $5.00/hour
• Internet cost – $150 or $1.25/hour
• Marketing investment – $600/month or $5.00/hour

To calculate the hourly overhead cost, you must use the below formula –

Hourly overhead cost = Total monthly overhead cost/number of billable hours per month

After that, use the hourly overhead cost to calculate the overhead costs for the pressure washing job while using the below formula.

Overhead costs for the job = Hourly overhead costs/number of hours the job will take to complete

It is advisable to calculate the material cost along with the overhead cost. You must mention all the additional costs that reflect the special cleaning solution and equipment that you use.

5. Calculating Total Cost & Profit Markup

Once you have the final cost of all the factors including square footage, linear footage, and overhead, you can now determine the total cost. You have to consider material and overhead costs in such cases.

One thing to remember is that cold water cleaning and hot water cleaning have different prices as below.

• Cold water cleaning – $45 to $50
• Hot water cleaning – $55 to $60

In some cases, water is provided by the client and hence you must avoid including the water charges in this case.

You must consider per-hour rates if your business follows a per-hour chargeable strategy.

Now, suppose you have the following prices –

• Service cost – $150
• Overhead cost – $5
• Material cost – $50

Project Estimate = Hot water price or cold water price + (2 x material cost)

Assuming the hot water price is $60

Project estimate = $60 + (2 x 50)
= $160

6. Pressure Washing Pricing Guide

The typical cost of pressure washing is $192 to $405 in the USA. You can follow a proper guide as per the average pressure washing cost.

• Gutters – $55 to $160
• Deck or Patio – $200 to $240
• Fence – $180 to $300
• Driveway – $100 to $260
• Roof – $250 to $600
• House/siding – $170 to $360

7. Creating an Estimate for Pressure Washing

The terminating step is creating your pressure washing estimate once you determine all the costs. You can opt for a manual process but that’s time consuming and highly prone to mistakes.

In such a situation you can consider software like Moon Invoice for estimation. You can find estimated templates that make your estimating job easy. Just fill out your required details and create a professional estimate to share with your client.

In the estimate template you need to include the following information –

• Estimate number, date, and currency
• Pressure washing company details and client details
• Pressure washing service details with cost
• Include your terms and conditions or payment terms

Once you fill out the details, you must review them and then share it with your client for approval.

What Is the Ideal Time to Adjust the Pressure Washing Price?

You have to adjust your pressure washing cost in some moments. Business professionals can accomplish this in the listed scenarios –

You Just Start Your Business

Every new business has to make strong roots in the market. One approach is to adjust your service cost. Similarly, there is nothing wrong with adjusting your business service price when you start your professional power washer business.

Your Clients Are Your Neighborhood

If your clients are your neighbors in the local area then you can adjust the price. Offering discounts in such cases increases your chance of client retention.

Offering Service Packages or Bundles

You can adjust your service price when you offer your power washing services in a bundle or in package form. Incorporating a discount in this case is also a good approach.

The above scenarios are reflecting a low price but you can also adjust the price at a high level. You can hike your service price when your fuel, material costs, and other expenses increase. Furthermore, you can also increase the price when you expand your business and get too many clients.

What to Consider During Determining the Pressure Washing Charges?

Below are some additional notes that you must consider on how to charge for pressure washing.

Season

Depending on the climate condition, the peak time of pressure washing companies can vary. For instance, the winter season is not an ideal time for this business. Thus, demand is less in such a period. In high demand, you can give high value to your service but don’t avoid competitive prices.

Service Packaging

You can upgrade your income by combining your multiple power washing services into one and creating a service package. This will enhance your costing and let you avail good income.

Labor

Mind it that you have to pay a salary for your team of employees. This will also be a part of your pressure washing prices. This applies to large-scale businesses. In a small business, you will only be the person who takes the salary because you are the only one who performs the task. The overall cost to power wash will be increased when you put more employees on a single job.

Travel Distance and Accessibility

The distance of your project site from your location also impacts on your project cost. That includes the expenditure on your fuel consumption. Accessibility includes moving the equipment and materials to the site. You can charge more when it is harder.

Ending Words

How to charge for pressure washing? Well, we expect this is not a big deal for you after reading this blog. Mind it, you must decide the fair price that leads to a fair profit. Too much high price can be a reason to lose a client and too low a price can cause low profit.

Therefore, always research the current market, perform site inspections, and consider all the power washing pricing factors before sharing your estimate.

Frequently Asked Question