Power Washing Pricing Calculator
Price pressure washing and soft washing jobs from your real costs — loaded labor, rig & overhead, chemicals, and rental fees — with your profit margin built in, not bolted on. Every result comes with a full breakdown so you can see exactly where the price comes from.
Your Shop Setup
Set these once — they reflect your business, not the job.
Price a Job
Enter the job — the price updates as you type.
Instant Rate Card — Common Power Washing Jobs
Twelve common residential and light-commercial jobs priced with your shop settings above. Change your labor rate or margin and the whole menu reprices instantly. Hours and chemical costs are typical starting points — every operator should adjust to their own rig, region, and reality.
| Job | Typical hours | Typical chemicals | Your flat rate |
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Worked Examples: Three Real Power Washing Jobs
Using the default shop settings above ($26/hr loaded labor, $21/hr overhead, 60% materials markup, 20% target margin, 3% card fee, 2% callback reserve):
1. Two-car concrete driveway — 1.25 hours, $8 in chemicals
Labor $32.50 + overhead $26.25 + chemicals charged at $12.80 = $71.55 base. Divided by 0.75 and rounded, the flat rate is $99. After card fees and reserve, the job leaves about $27 of estimated job return — a 28% return margin. A $99 driveway sounds like easy money until you count the trailer, the insurance, and the 40 minutes of driving on either side of it; the breakdown is what keeps the price honest.
2. Two-story house soft wash — 3 hours plus a half hour of helper time, $32 in chemicals
Labor $85.80 + overhead $73.50 + chemicals charged at $51.20 = $210.50 base → flat rate $289, leaving about $83 of job return at a 29% return margin. Soft washing burns real chemical — sodium hypochlorite and surfactant for a whole house isn't a $5 line item — and the second story adds ladder time, wand extensions, and risk.
3. One-story asphalt roof soft wash — 3 hours plus 1 helper hour, $48 in chemicals
Labor $93.60 + overhead $84 + chemicals charged at $76.80 = $254.40 base → flat rate $349, leaving about $106 of job return at a 30% return margin. Roof work is the highest-chemical, highest-risk job in the trade — if your roof price is only a little above your driveway price, one of the two is wrong.
What Does Power Washing Overhead Actually Cost?
Overhead is every cost of being in business that isn't a specific job. For a one-rig power washing operation, a typical month includes: truck or trailer payment, fuel, and maintenance; general liability insurance (and it's real money in this trade — you're spraying chemicals next to cars, windows, and landscaping); pump rebuilds, hoses, nozzles, and surface-cleaner wear; water tank and softener upkeep; phone, software, and website; and marketing — which power washing needs more of than most trades, because so much of the work is one-time rather than recurring. For many solo operators that lands around $2,400–$3,500 per month before anyone earns a wage.
The number that matters is overhead per billable hour. A solo operator in season rarely bills more than 130–150 hours a month — the rest disappears into driving, quoting, refilling water and chemicals, and equipment maintenance. Divide monthly overhead by billable hours, not working hours: $2,900 ÷ 140 billable hours ≈ $21 per billable hour — which is exactly the default this calculator starts with. And if your season is eight months long, the overhead of the quiet months has to be carried by the busy ones — raise the monthly number accordingly rather than pretending winter is free.
Common Power Washing Pricing Mistakes
Recommended Profit Margins for Power Washing
These are working benchmarks, not laws. Recurring commercial contracts (storefronts, dumpster pads, fleet washing) often run thinner per visit but pay every month and smooth out the season; one-time residential work should carry a stronger margin because every job includes fresh acquisition cost. What matters is that the margin is a decision you made, visible in your price — not whatever was left over after the job.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should I charge to power wash a driveway?
Build the price from your numbers, not the neighborhood average: loaded labor for the time on site, overhead per billable hour (machine, trailer, fuel, insurance), chemical cost with markup, divided by one minus your target margin. With typical solo-operator costs that lands most 2-car concrete driveways in the $99–$199 range — but your rig, your insurance, and your drive times decide your real number, which is what this calculator computes.
Should power washing be priced per square foot or per job?
Per-square-foot rates are a useful sanity check, but flat per-job pricing is what protects you. Square footage ignores setup time, water access, how dirty the surface is, and the drive — a small filthy driveway can take longer than a big lightly-soiled one. Price the job from hours and chemicals, then quote one flat number.
What's the difference between pressure washing and soft washing, for pricing?
Soft washing (low pressure, stronger chemical mix) uses more chemical and more dwell time but less machine wear, and it's the correct method for siding, roofs, and painted surfaces. Chemical cost per job is meaningfully higher — which is why house and roof washes carry bigger materials numbers than flatwork in the rate card above.
What profit margin should a power washing business target?
A common target is 15–25% true net margin after labor, overhead, chemicals, card fees, and a callback reserve. Because the trade is seasonal in much of the country, margins in the busy months have to carry the slow ones — pricing at break-even in June is how operators go broke in January.
Why is my price so much higher than the kid down the street with a store-bought machine?
Because he isn't counting insurance, licensed business overhead, pump rebuilds, or his own payroll taxes — and one day the chemical overspray or a stripped deck will be his customer's problem. Your price includes doing the job correctly and being there next year. This calculator makes that visible: every flat rate comes with a breakdown of where the money goes.
Is this calculator really free?
Yes. No account, no email, no ads. The calculator runs in your browser and the numbers you enter are never sent to us. We use basic traffic analytics, described in our privacy policy.