How to quote a pressure washing job

Measure every surface, name the method and the result you expect, and price the extras before the customer has to ask about them.

Scope: surfaces, method and what to expect

List each surface with its measurement: siding by square feet or by stories, flatwork by square feet, fences and gutters by linear feet. Name the method for each, a soft wash (low pressure with a cleaning solution) or pressure, and what it should achieve. Be plain about stains: old oil, rust and oxidation may fade without disappearing, and saying so up front heads off an argument. Note what the job needs, such as a working spigot and a way up to the higher stories, and what you’ll protect, like plants and outlets. Exclusions go in writing too: sealing, paint prep or window cleaning, unless quoted.

How pressure washing is priced

Surface	Priced as	Show on the quote
House wash	Per sq ft, or per house by stories	Siding type, stories and method
Driveway, patio, walkways	Per sq ft	Material and measured area
Deck	Per sq ft	Wood or composite; sealing or not
Fence	Per linear ft	Height, and one side or both
Gutter faces	Per linear ft	Faces only, or cleared out too
Minimum job	Flat	The smallest job you’ll take

Price each surface on its own line, even inside a package price, so the customer can drop one and still see the rest.

Fees and extras to state up front

• Minimum: the smallest job that covers your setup and drive.
• Water: a fee if there’s no working spigot and you bring your own.
• Access: upper stories, steep ground or ladder work.
• Stain treatment: oil, rust or gum, per spot or per area.
• Wash water: decide where the water will go before you price. EPA says a discharge into a municipal storm sewer may need a permit, depending on what you discharge, and to ask the NPDES permitting authority (EPA). If it has to be collected and hauled, that takes equipment and time, and it belongs on its own line.

Add-ons as options

Offer extras as optional items that join the total only when the customer adds them: sealing the deck once it dries, brightening the gutter faces, rust removal on a wall, or a second patio. The base price stays easy to accept.

Valid-until and weather

Give the quote a valid-until date, and say what happens when weather moves the job: the price holds and you set a new date, rather than washing in freezing temperatures. If you take a deposit, for example on a large commercial job or one where you buy sealer or stain, set it on the quote and say what it covers.

Selling at the door: the Cooling-Off Rule

Have the customer sign and date the quote, marking the options they picked.

A wash sold on the doorstep, or quoted in person and agreed at the house, can fall under the FTC Cooling-Off Rule. The rule reaches a consumer service the seller solicits in person, including at the buyer’s invitation, when the buyer agrees at their residence and the price, counting any interest and service charges, is $25 or more, unless the sale fits one of the exclusions it lists (16 CFR 429). Once it applies, the buyer can call off the sale any time until midnight on the third business day following it. When they sign, tell them about that right, and give them a fully completed copy of the contract or receipt, dated and showing your name and address, with the rule’s cancellation statement in bold type of 10 points or larger beside the signature space, plus the Notice of Cancellation form, completed, in duplicate. A buyer who cancels in time gets every payment back within 10 business days of your receiving the notice. The rule doesn’t exempt you from your state’s door-to-door sales laws, except where they are directly inconsistent with it, so check those as well.

Lead-safe washing on homes built before 1978

EPA’s general rule: if you’re paid for work that disturbs paint in housing or a child-occupied facility built before 1978, you must be certified, even as a sole proprietorship (EPA). That means certified under EPA’s program or, in a state EPA has authorized to run its own, under the state’s, and working in more than one state can mean needing both (EPA). Washing comes under the rule where it disturbs paint on those buildings. Minor repair and maintenance that disturbs 20 square feet or less of exterior paint is outside it, as long as none of the work practices the rule prohibits or restricts are used and the work involves no window replacement or demolition of painted surfaces (40 CFR 745, subpart E).

Where the rule does apply, EPA’s answer on pressure washing is that it isn’t a prohibited practice but takes the same containment as other permitted work practices. Before the renovation starts, isolate the work area so that no dust or debris, including in the waste water, leaves it while the work goes on, and keep the plastic or other impermeable material from tearing or shifting. EPA adds that it’s important to dispose of the waste water properly, and to check with your local water treatment authority (EPA).

Before a covered renovation in a home, the owner must receive EPA’s Renovate Right pamphlet from you within the 60 days before work begins, with either their written acknowledgment of it or a certificate of mailing obtained at least 7 days before the work. Where the owner lives elsewhere, the rule also has you give it to an adult occupant, with its own ways to document that (40 CFR 745, subpart E). Ask what year the house was built when you quote it, then either price in the containment and the certification the work needs or pass on the job.

Three pressure washing quoting mistakes that lose the job or the margin

1. Measuring from the street. A guessed square footage on a house wash is where the margin goes.
2. Silence about stains. A customer who expected the oil spot to vanish will argue about the whole price, not the spot.
3. Forgetting water and access. No spigot, a third story or a steep yard turns a quick job into a long one at the same price.