It's Wednesday, and a text is sitting open on your phone: a homeowner wants her driveway and the north side of the house done before a graduation party on Saturday, and she's asked what it'll run. You've quoted plenty of driveways this year and you still hesitate before typing a number, because the last customer who called around picked the guy who quoted lower, and you don't know if that's the going rate or just bad luck. Type "how much to charge for power washing" into a search bar and you'll find that hesitation multiplied — landscapers, gutter cleaners, siding crews, all holding a phone in someone's driveway this week, trying to answer the same questions before they hit send: what does this job actually cost me, what will she pay before she calls the next guy, and am I leaving money on the table.
The Numbers Under Every Quote
Before you can compare yourself to anyone, you need your own total, and it has fewer moving parts than it feels like late at night with a spreadsheet open. Start with labor — actual minutes on that surface, not the estimate you gave last time. Add machine cost: fuel or electricity, chemicals, and the wear a pressure washer takes on a job like this one, plus water if it's metered. Then add the part most owners skip, which is what your own time is worth if you weren't driving to this job or answering the next text — because underpricing doesn't just cost you margin, it costs you the hour you could have spent booking a better one.
One Job, Different Ways to Price It
A flat per-job rate works when the scope barely changes — a driveway is a driveway. Pricing by square footage earns its keep once size, not shape, drives the cost, which is most true on siding, large patios, and commercial lots. Hourly plus materials is the honest choice for anything you can't fully see until you're standing in front of it — heavy staining, mildew that's worked into the grout, a deck that needs more passes than expected. Matching the method to the job does more for your margin than matching the number to a competitor's quote ever will.
| Job type | Method that fits | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Driveway or patio | Flat rate per job | Scope barely changes job to job |
| Siding or large lots | Price per square foot | Size drives cost more than shape does |
| Decks, fences, heavy staining | Hourly plus materials | Condition varies too much to price sight unseen |
| Recurring commercial contracts | Per square foot with a contract minimum | Keeps margin predictable at scale |
The Calendar Moves Before the Phone Does
The interest behind this exact question isn't flat across the year. Search volume for how much to charge for power washing climbs to its highest point in spring, reaching 720 searches a month in April, and falls to its lowest in the dead of winter, down to 210 in December. That swing means the number you settle on in a slow month can undersell you the moment the calendar turns, because you're not the only one who priced a job low just to fill a quiet week. If your calendar fills faster in spring, that's the season to test a higher number, not just work longer days.
You're Not the Only One Bidding for This Search
This question folds together nine different ways people type it, and together they add up to roughly 920 searches a month. Advertisers already know this, which is why the highest bid for the top of that search page runs up to $4.61 — a business is willing to pay that much just to be the first thing she sees, before she's typed a single word to you. That's worth knowing before you anchor your price to 'what everyone charges,' because 'everyone' now includes companies who've already paid for the chance to be compared to you first.
Turn the Number Into a Line You Can Say Out Loud
Once you've built the real total, practice saying it without hedging — a number delivered with a pause invites a negotiation that a number delivered flatly doesn't. Offer a good, better, best version of the same job instead of a discount when someone hesitates; it protects your margin while still giving them a way to say yes. Put the number in writing right after the call, so 'about' never turns into a dispute later. And revisit the total each season, since your costs and your calendar both move even when your habits don't.
When the Bottleneck Isn't the Price Anymore
Sometimes the real problem isn't what you're charging — it's that you can't tell which call, which review, or which ad actually led to a booked job, so you can't tell if raising your price would cost you customers or just stop losing money on the ones you already have. That's usually the point where outside help earns its keep: not a full agency retainer, necessarily, but someone who can show you, plainly, which of your marketing dollars are turning into work on the calendar. If you can already answer that yourself, you don't need it yet.