Commercial Pressure Washing Pricing: Per Square Foot, Per Visit and Per Month

How do you price commercial pressure washing?

Price each commercial visit from what it costs you, then turn that into a per-visit and a monthly figure. The per-square-foot number is a result you check, not a rate you start from.

The pages ranking for this topic mostly quote national per-sq-ft ranges. Those ranges mix light sidewalk rinses with greasy dumpster pads, day work with night work, and crews in cheap and expensive towns. Your quote has to cover your own crew, chemicals and truck. The method:

1. Hours = square feet ÷ your door-to-door production rate for that surface.
2. Labour = hours × people × loaded rate, using the wage you actually pay for the shift (night work included).
3. Overhead share = hours × people × (yearly overhead ÷ sellable hours), with water recovery and commercial equipment inside yearly overhead.
4. Break-even = labour + chemicals + overhead share.
5. Price per visit = break-even ÷ (1 − margin). Monthly price = price per visit × visits a month.

The basics of production rate, loaded labour and the minimum charge are covered in the residential guide to pricing pressure washing jobs. This page covers what changes on commercial work.

Commercial pressure washing price per square foot (try it)

Divide the visit price by the area cleaned. For the example storefront that is $0.137 per sq ft, driven mostly by the production rate and the after-hours wage.

The calculator above starts on this example. The 1,000 sq ft an hour is an assumed door-to-door rate for open flatwork with a surface cleaner, including setup, edging, rinse and pack-up. Time your own visits and replace it.

The working: 6,000 ÷ 1,000 = 6 hours, × 2 people = 12 crew hours. At a $28 wage and 30% burden the loaded rate is $36.40, so labour is $436.80. Overhead of $20,000 a year over 2 × 220 × 8 = 3,520 sellable hours is $5.68 an hour, $68.18 on this visit. Add $30 of chemicals and break-even is $534.98. Divided by 0.65: $823.05.

Price per sq ft by surface: storefronts, dumpster pads and drive-thrus

Commercial surfaces clean at very different speeds, so one per-sq-ft rate for every surface either loses money on the slow ones or overprices the fast ones. Give each surface its own production rate and chemical line.

The dumpster pad costs about four times as much per square foot as the drive-thru, because degreasing is slow and the area is small. A bid that lumps the pad into the lot at a flat rate gives that time away. Parking decks, gum removal and graffiti follow the same rule: measure or estimate the rate for that surface, or price it by the hour when you cannot.

How much to charge for after-hours and night commercial work

If you pay more for night or weekend shifts, enter the higher wage. The premium then flows through burden, break-even and margin instead of being tacked on at the end.

If a site wants the work done while the business is closed, the shift wage is the input that changes. The table re-runs the storefront example with only the wage changed. $25 is an assumed day wage, $28 and $32 are assumed after-hours wages; use what you actually pay.

A $3 premium adds $72 to the visit price: 12 crew hours × $3 × 1.30 burden = $46.80 of labour, ÷ 0.65 = $72. If you run the night shift yourself at no extra pay, leave the wage alone.

Water recovery and commercial equipment: put them in overhead

Equipment you buy for commercial work, such as a water recovery setup, a bigger surface cleaner or a hot-water unit, is overhead. Spread it over a year and divide by sellable hours, like insurance.

Whether you must recover wash water depends on the site and on local stormwater rules. Check with the property manager and your city or county before you bid, and follow the chemical label for anything you apply. This page does not state what any rule requires. For pricing, the cost is the same whatever the reason:

• Yearly cost of the gear = purchase price ÷ years you expect it to last, plus upkeep.
• Add it to yearly overhead. Here, $17,600 of base overhead + an assumed $2,400 for recovery gear = $20,000.
• Overhead per sellable hour rises from $17,600 ÷ 3,520 = $5.00 to $20,000 ÷ 3,520 = $5.68, an extra $0.68 per person-hour.

Recovery also adds time on site (setting berms or mats, vacuuming, emptying). Put that time in the production rate, not overhead. The pressure washing pricing calculator sheet keeps chemicals, labour, truck and overhead on separate lines and shows break-even before you quote, so an extra overhead line changes every price at once.

How to price a recurring commercial pressure washing contract

Monthly contract price = price per visit × visits a year ÷ 12. For weekly service that is 52 ÷ 12 = 4.33 visits a month, not 4.

Billing the weekly pad at 4 visits a month gives $591.76, which is $49.31 a month short. Over a year that is $591.76: four free visits. Recurring work often carries a lower per-visit cost because the surface stays cleaner. If that is true for you, measure the faster rate on repeat visits and enter it; do not guess a discount. For how monthly contracts are structured in a neighbouring trade, see how to bid commercial cleaning jobs.

The common mistake: markup, and one rate for every surface

Adding your margin as a markup keeps less than you think. On the storefront, 35% markup gives $722.23 and keeps 25.93%; dividing by 0.65 gives $823.05.

The gap is $100.82 per visit. At six visits a week for a year, $31,456.93. The markup vs margin guide has the conversion chart.

The second mistake is quoting a whole property at one per-sq-ft rate. The table above shows why: the pad and the drive-thru differ by about four times per square foot. Break the bid into surfaces, price each, then add them up.

"What is the profit margin for a pressure washing business?" has no single answer here; the margin in these examples is the 35% you choose in the formula. Whether the business makes money at that margin depends on volume against fixed costs, which the break-even calculator guide works through.

What to put in a commercial pressure washing bid

A commercial bid should show each surface, how often it is cleaned, the price per visit and the monthly total, so the property manager can compare it line by line.

• Surfaces and areas: sidewalks, entries, drive-thru, dumpster pad, parking, each with square footage.
• Frequency for each surface: weekly, twice a month, monthly, quarterly.
• Service window: after hours or during business hours, since it changes your wage.
• Price per visit and monthly price, with monthly = visits a year × price ÷ 12.
• What is excluded: gum, rust, oil stain treatment, graffiti, priced separately by the hour.
• Water handling and site access: who provides water, where you can discharge or recover, and any site rules.
• Term and price review: when the price is updated for chemical, fuel and wage changes.

Behind the bid, your price sheet holds a production rate, chemical cost and crew size for each commercial surface, plus your loaded rate, overhead per hour and margin.

Excel formulas for commercial pressure washing pricing

One row per surface works well. The formulas use this layout: B2 = square feet, B3 = production rate, B4 = people, B5 = wage, B6 = burden %, B7 = chemicals, B8 = yearly overhead, B9 = people in the field, B10 = billable days, B11 = target margin %, B12 = visits a year.

Rather not build it? The pressure washing pricing spreadsheet ($39 one-time, Excel and Google Sheets) costs SH and surfactant on every job, shows break-even before you quote, and has an "Am I underpricing?" check that answers in dollars. Its market check uses published per-sq-ft bands for driveways and house washes; it does not claim a commercial band, so commercial prices rest on your cost-up figure.

Commercial pressure washing calculator, app or spreadsheet?

Use whichever makes you enter the wage for the shift, the chemical cost and the overhead before it shows a price.

No tools yet? The free Job Pricing Starter covers loaded labour cost, overhead, break-even and the price to quote on one sheet. For a sheet built around your own surfaces and contract terms, there is a done-for-you custom build ($497).

Step-by-step: Commercial Pressure Washing Pricing: Per Square Foot, Per Visit and Per Month

1. Split the site into surfaces. List each surface (sidewalk, entries, drive-thru, dumpster pad, parking) with its square footage and how often it is cleaned.
2. Convert each surface to hours. Divide each area by your door-to-door production rate for that surface, then multiply by the number of people on site.
3. Cost labour at the shift wage. Multiply crew hours by the wage you pay for that shift × (1 + burden %). A $28 night wage at 30% burden is $36.40.
4. Add chemicals and overhead. Add chemicals for the visit plus crew hours × overhead per sellable hour, with water recovery gear inside yearly overhead.
5. Price the visit on margin. Divide break-even by (1 − margin). For 35%, divide by 0.65 rather than multiplying by 1.35.
6. Convert to a monthly contract. Monthly price = price per visit × visits a year ÷ 12. Weekly service is 4.33 visits a month.

Related guides