How to Price Pressure Washing Jobs in 7 Steps: An Easy Guide

There is a belief among people that pressure washing services are easy to offer, and everyone can do that easily.  Everyone thinks they can start a pressure washing business right away by purchasing a high-efficiency pressure washer.

But this is not the case! You must know how to turn the business around to make profits. Isn’t it important to consider before investing a lot in industrial-grade pressure washing equipment? How can you do that?

You can do it by pricing the services right! You cannot offer a fixed price for power washing services because their intensity differs due to several factors such as demand, location, and local competition.

Therefore, if you want to turn your business into a profitable player in the industry, then you must learn how to price pressure washing jobs.

7 Steps to Estimate Pressure Washing Jobs

When you first get a pressure washing job, you must create a price estimate. The beginners with a new power washing business might believe it is easy to estimate power washing jobs. But some factors might just change the way you think. 

The cold climates might suppress the demand for pressure washing. In such cases, your company’s location will only have a seasonal demand for power washing. Apart from that, if there is a lot of competition around your operating city, then you must frequently keep a look at the changing average pressure washing price. 

Such instances and more can make things complex for you to decide on the pressure washing cost when you are unaware of the basic steps. As a result, when you estimate power washing jobs, it will be mostly inaccurate, leading you to lose the pressure washing job and, ultimately, the client. 

So, when you are willing to price a service request, be knowledgeable about the approach. Therefore, here are the seven steps for you to learn how to price a power washing job:

Step 1: Residential or commercial pressure washing; What do you intend to offer?

Firstly, you must decide whether to dedicate your pressure washing company to offering residential or commercial services. 

The need for equipment and manpower will be less for residential pressure washing than for commercial pressure washing. Therefore, the cost will vary for these service types. 

The washing pricing instructions from the next step will be the same for both commercial and residential pressure washing. If you are just starting, then commence with one trade at the initial stage. And later, you can upgrade to offer residential and commercial power washing. 

Step 2: Measure the working space

You need to schedule an inspection of the job site as the first action after getting a service request. And measuring the working area will be the primary important factor in deciding the pressure washers and washing cost. 

The employee you send to the site can measure the working area in two ways; by square feet or by linear footage. 

The property to be power washed along with the fences, roofs, sidewalks, decks, garage floors, parking lots, and driveways should be measured with the square footage technique.

The steps to find the square feet of an area are:

• Find the length and width of the working area. You can use a laser measure to determine the accuracy of the values. 
• Now, multiply the length by width. 
• Take the multiplied value and again multiply it by 1.35 to determine the approximate square footage. 

You can decide your price based on per square foot to easily calculate the overall cost of service depending on the size of the working space. 

You can also measure the size of the working site with the linear footage method. It is most preferable for measuring houses and boats. In this technique, the length of the structure is important, whereas the thickness and width are not considered. 

After determining the working area of length, you can mention the total in your pressure washing estimate template. Remember that the per square-foot price is always less than per linear foot for a pressure washing job. 

Step 3: Choose a perfect pricing strategy

No business can estimate a power washer’s job without proper pricing strategies. Therefore, the new start-ups must pick one and head forward with it. 

The most common pricing strategies that a pressure washing business should follow are per square or linear footage, per hour, and flat rate: 

• Per-square foot or per linear-foot pricing strategy

  Pricing with the use of the per-square-foot or linear foot method is proficient for pricing the power washing job at many sites of different shapes and sizes. To calculate the price per square foot, you need to get the current market value and divide it by the total square footage.

  The steps to measure the total square footage are mentioned in the previous step.

• Per-hour pricing strategy

  If your business follows the per-hour strategy of pricing pressure washing jobs, you will have to charge the customers for every hour your employee needs to complete the service request. In such cases, the employees will also be paid based on their time to complete a pressure washing job.

• Flat rate pricing strategy

  Flat rate pricing is mostly for experienced power washing businesses. A business owner must realize all the factors contributing to the pricing of a pressure washing job. A pre-defined area, work intensity, need for manpower, and other factors should be set at a predictable amount. 

  And then, you can decide on a flat rate for specific residential properties, commercial cleaning properties, or separate structures. It might not be the exact price based on accurate measurements, but it will be a rough estimation to determine a fixed or flat service rate.

  You will eventually be earning more with flat-rate pricing than with per-square-foot, per-linear-foot, or per-hour pricing. 

Step 4: Price the services based on individual project

Based on pressure wash siding projects, you can set a fixed unit rate or flat rate for the services. Pressure washing typically costs around $192 to $405 in the US, whereas the national average cost is around $299. 

This statistic is picked by comparing the flat rates of several pressure-washing companies who have priced their services by analyzing different factors and overhead charges. Pick a fixed price per the market assessment for pressure washing houses, gutters, boats, roofs, sidewalks, driveways, decks, fences, siding, mobile homes, and commercial spaces. 

The pressure washing prices can also be decided based on the type of material that is to be power washed. The price to power wash concrete, brick, stone, wood, stucco, asphalt, vinyl, or metal will vary from one another. It is mostly because the type of equipment and cleaning solution needed for cleaning such materials will differ. 

Step 5: Determine the overhead costs and material costs

The pressure washing prices you decide should not just retrieve the amount you invest, but it should also make you a profit. It is the root motive for starting and running a pressure washers business. 

And for that, you need to add an overhead charge to the price estimate, which might be fixed for some basic services, while the custom cleaning needs will have different overhead charges. 

Some of the overhead costs that your business spends while running and operating the business are:

• Vehicle loan
• Cleaning supplies
• Car insurance
• Vehicle maintenance
• Equipment maintenance
• Gasoline
• Marketing investment
• Office rent
• Digital tool subscription
• Internet costs

So, you should decide on an overhead percentage for all the mandatory elements and mention it when you quote pressure washing jobs. It will also help you get a good deal of what you spend with a good profit margin.

Along with the overheads, you should also calculate the material costs and mention them when you quote pressure washing jobs. The use of special cleaning chemicals and additional equipment such as ladders and extended pressure washing hoses should be charged. 

Step 6: Calculate the total cost with your profit margin

When you have the square footage or linear footage measurement, the right strategy, project-based pricing, and overheads, you can implement them to determine your estimate for the power washing jobs. 

Keep in mind the hot or cold water cleaning costs, which are around $40-$50 for cold water and $50 to $60 for hot water. Add the overall square footage cost/flat rate, overhead percentage, hot/cold water cleaning costs, and profit markup to estimate the price. 

If you have chosen the per-hour chargeable strategy, then state the per-hour rates, including your profit margin, and add the overhead percentage and hot/cold water costs to the total billed hours. 

Step 7: Get a scheduling software to send easy estimates

After you have prepared your estimate, you need software to send it seamlessly to the clients. With job scheduling software, you will have the feature to send your price estimate to the client through their provided contact details in just a few clicks. 

After you have scheduled and completed the site inspection visit to collect the customer information on various pricing factors, you can add them to your template. When the estimate is ready, you can upload it to the software’s portal and then choose the recipient for sending it. 

How to Price Pressure Washing Jobs?

The varying average charges for different pressure washing jobs are as follows: 

• The typical cost of pressure washing per square foot of a surface is $0.08 to $0.35. The cost to pressure wash the surfaces per square foot will be around $0.40 to $0.80 if there are problems such as dirt, mold, or stains. It is because more time is needed to clean them. 
• The professional power washers cost the customer around $50 to $100 per hour.
• The cost for power washing houses is around $220 to $380.
• The cost of power washing the driveways is around $130 to $220. 
• The overall cost for power washing the patio or deck is around $250 to $420. 

So, if you want to save time and hassle in determining the pricing right from scratch, use these pre-determined average rates currently being charged across the US industry. Use it and tally it with your expenditure and profit ratio to see if these rates give you sufficient profit or not. 

Depending on your pressure washer business and service execution model, you can always amend the rates.

FieldCamp Speeds up the Process of Sending a Price Estimate and Getting the Customer’s Confirmation

Sending the price estimate to customers and collecting the confirmation is now executed professionally. You don’t have to send hand-written or text message price quotes to the customers anymore. 

You can use a service estimate template, fill it up with details, price the services, and upload it to digital software. Now, you have to add the recipient’s email address or phone number to send the price quote in a matter of seconds. 

FieldCamp is the pressure washing software that can help you. No need to wait for hours or days to get a confirmation. The earlier you send the quote, the sooner your customers will respond to you with a confirmation. 

Not just that, but FieldCamp also allows you to schedule visits to inspect the site and also schedule service requests. As a small business owner, you can track the whereabouts of your employees, service progress, invoice dues, and processed payments, all in this software. 

Take a 7-day FREE trial of FieldCamp today, and give us the chance to help you in the pursuit of growing your power washing business.