How to Price a Pressure Washing or Driveway Cleaning Job

"I'll do your drive for £80" is how a lot of pressure washing businesses quote — and it's how a lot of pressure washing businesses lose money on the jobs that turn out to be twice the size or twice the mess they looked like from the pavement. Pricing by square footage and surface type, not by eye, is what separates a sustainable business from one that dreads its biggest jobs.

Pricing by Square Footage

The industry-standard approach is a base rate per square foot (or square metre), adjusted by surface type and soiling level. As a general planning range:

Surface	Typical rate	Why it varies
Concrete driveway, light soiling	£0.80–£1.40/m²	Fast, flat, forgiving surface
Block paving, moderate soiling	£1.40–£2.20/m²	More passes needed to clear joints; often needs re-sanding after
Patio (natural stone/slabs)	£1.60–£2.60/m²	Slower work around edges/furniture, risk of surface damage if pressure is wrong
Heavy moss/algae or oil staining	+30–60% on base rate	Pre-treatment, extra passes, possible chemical treatment needed

These are planning ranges, not fixed prices — local labour costs, water/chemical costs, and competition all shift the number. The point isn't to memorise a rate card, it's to price consistently from measured area rather than a glance at the drive from the car.

What a Flat "Per Driveway" Price Gets Wrong

Two driveways that both "look like a driveway" can differ 2–3x in actual square footage, and differ again in surface type and soiling. A flat price averaged across your typical job means you're underpricing your biggest, hardest jobs and overpricing your smallest, easiest ones — the opposite of where you want your margin to sit. Measuring (or getting an accurate estimate from a site visit or photos) before quoting removes this guesswork entirely.

Costs to Build Into Your Rate

• Water usage — either metered water cost or the fuel/time cost of a water-fed van setup
• Chemicals — degreasers, moss/algae treatment, sealants if offered as an upsell
• Equipment wear — pressure washer pumps, hoses and surface cleaners wear out faster under commercial daily use than hobbyist use; amortise replacement cost into your rate
• Fuel and travel time between jobs, especially for a wider service radius
• Drying/setup time — moving furniture, covering plants, and the pre-treatment soak time before washing, which is real time even though it's not the washing itself

Deposits and Getting Paid

Larger jobs (multi-day, or high material cost like sealant application) are worth a deposit before work starts — it protects cash flow and filters out non-serious enquiries. Tracking which jobs paid deposits, which invoices are outstanding, and photo evidence of completed work (a before/after log) protects you in the small number of disputes that come up in any service business.