Most guys starting out price a house wash off a gut feeling. They look at the house, think about what the last guy charged, subtract twenty bucks, and say a number out loud before they've done any math.
That's how you end up working a full Saturday for $150 and wondering why the business feels like a job.
Here's what house washing actually pays, and how to land on a number you can defend.
The short answer
HOUSE WASHING RATE
$0.25 to $0.35per sq ft
Of the home's living area.
A 2,000 square foot house at $0.30 comes to $600. Two stories, add roughly 25 percent.
If you're pricing under $0.15 per square foot, you're competing with guys who won't be in business next year.
Where most contractors land
These are working numbers, not consumer estimates:
| Home size | One story | Two story |
|---|---|---|
| 1,500 sq ft | $250 to $400 | $375 to $525 |
| 2,000 sq ft | $300 to $500 | $450 to $700 |
| 2,500 sq ft | $375 to $625 | $560 to $875 |
| 3,000 sq ft | $450 to $750 | $675 to $1,050 |
A 2,000 square foot soft wash takes 90 minutes to two hours including setup and breakdown. At $500, that's $250 to $330 per hour of on-site time before you subtract drive.
$250 to $330
Effective hourly rate on a $500 wash, before drive time.
Why the sites customers read say less
Your customer Googled this before they called you. What they found was Angi telling them a house wash averages around $310, or Thumbtack showing a fixed range of $250 to $350.
Those numbers are real, but they're built from a mix of hobbyists, guys with a Home Depot machine, and actual businesses. They anchor the customer low.
Know the number they saw. Don't price to it.
When someone says "I saw online this should be $200," your answer isn't a discount. It's this:
"You'll find guys at that price. They're usually uninsured and using straight pressure on your siding, which is what causes the streaking you see on houses around here. What I'm quoting includes the insurance certificate, the soft wash process that won't force water behind your siding, and a callback if anything comes back within 30 days."
What actually moves your price
Stories. Two stories adds about 25 percent. It's more setup, more ladder work, more risk.
Access. No outdoor spigot, locked gate, tight landscaping, long hose runs. All of it is labor you're not billing for unless you catch it during the quote.
Growth severity. Light green film versus heavy black mold and lichen is a different job. Heavy growth needs stronger mix and a second pass.
Travel. This is the one new guys ignore. A $200 job forty minutes away is worse than no job. It eats a slot you could have filled locally.
Oxidation. This one deserves its own warning.
The oxidation trap
Check before you quote
Run your finger down the siding. If it comes back covered in chalky residue, that's oxidation, and it is not a house wash.
Washing oxidized siding gets you uneven results, an angry customer, and sometimes worse. Chris Chappell, a longtime contractor on the propowerwash.com forum, puts it bluntly: charge restoration prices, "and we are not talking $0.20 per square foot pricing here either, a lot more." He also notes contractors have been taken to court over uneven results on oxidized siding.
His advice for anyone without restoration experience: walk away from the job.
If you take it, quote it as restoration work at multiples of your wash rate, and set expectations in writing before you start. A one to three hour house wash turns into a multi-day job fast.
What it costs you to do the work
The reason underpricing hurts so much is that chemicals aren't your expense. Your time is.
A typical 2,000 square foot house wash:
- Sodium hypochlorite and surfactant$8 to $20
- Fuel, drive plus generator$10 to $15
- Equipment wear$8 to $12
- Insurance allocation$8 to $12
- Marketing allocation$20 to $30
On a $500 job, chemicals are about 3 percent of the ticket. Cutting your price by $100 to win a bid doesn't come out of your chemical budget. It comes out of your pocket, dollar for dollar.
3%
Chemicals as a share of a $500 ticket.
For context on the fixed costs you're covering with every job: general liability for pressure washing companies averages $895 a year, and workers comp averages $1,601 a year, according to Insureon. Add commercial auto and you're carrying real overhead before a single truck rolls.
Regional reality
Same house, different money:
Northeast and Pacific Northwest
$0.35 to $0.50
Portland Maine, New York, Portland Oregon. Labor costs run high. Defensible from day one.
Midwest
$0.25 to $0.35
Chicago, Kansas City, most of the Midwest.
Southwest and Southeast
Under $0.25
Phoenix, Dallas, much of the Southeast. Expect resistance above this.
Florida
$0.12 to $0.20
Softwash Technologies reports some South Florida operators at this rate, purely because of competition. Strong demand does not guarantee strong pricing.
Florida figure via Softwash Technologies.
Check what's around you before you copy a number off the internet.
Set a minimum and hold it
Every experienced operator has one. Common tiers:
- $150 if you're brand new and building reviews
- $200 by your second season
- $250 once your calendar is consistently full
The minimum isn't about the job. It's about the slot. Starting your truck, driving, setting up, breaking down, and driving home costs you the same whether the ticket is $90 or $290.
Write it on the dash. Say it out loud on the phone before you drive out.
How to know your prices are too low
Track your close rate for two weeks.
Winning more than 7 out of 10 bids? You're the cheap guy. Raise your prices $25 to $50 and keep raising them until you're closing around 5 or 6 out of 10.
That's not a rule from a spreadsheet. It's the logic experienced operators use, and it holds up: if nobody ever says no, you never found out what the market would pay.
Losing a few jobs is the price of finding your ceiling. You'll do fewer jobs and make more money, with less wear on your equipment and your back.
Winning fewer than 4 out of 10? You've overshot your market, or your quote is arriving too slow. Hold your price and fix your follow-up first.
The house wash isn't where the money is
The wash gets you in the driveway. The add-ons pay for your year.
While you're setting up, look for:
- Gutter brightening. Not gutter cleaning. This is removing the black tiger stripes on the outside face. $1.00 to $1.50 per linear foot, tiny chemical cost, and a 30 second demo on one section sells it without a pitch.
- Roof soft wash. Your highest ticket add-on at $0.40 to $0.60 per square foot. The customer can see the algae from where they're standing.
- Driveway and walkways. $0.20 to $0.55 per square foot.
- Concrete sealing. $0.75 to $1.25 per square foot, and it sells best right after they see clean concrete.
Bundle with a small visible discount. House at $600 plus driveway at $150 is $750 separate. Offer $700 and the customer feels like they won while you book $100 more than the wash alone.
Three mistakes to stop making
Quoting from the driveway without measuring. Pull the square footage from the county assessor site or Zillow before you arrive. Walk up already knowing your number.
Giving an hourly rate. Bill hourly and you get punished for being fast. The operator who washes a house in 90 minutes should earn more than the one who takes three hours, not the same.
Dropping your price to win. Change the scope instead. Take the driveway out. Take the gutters out. Never quote $600 and settle for $450, because that customer now knows your real number and so does everyone they refer.
Start here
Pick your per square foot rate from the regional section. Set your minimum. Quote your next five houses without flinching.
Then watch your close rate and adjust.
The guys still running trucks in five years aren't the cheapest ones. They're the ones who figured out what their work is worth and stopped apologizing for it.
Prices in this guide reflect 2025 and 2026 market data across US markets. Your local market may differ. Always price against your own costs and close rate.
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