How Much Does It Cost to Get Your house Pressure Washed in Columbia, SC?

One of the most prevalent questions I get as an exterior cleaning contractor is “how much do you charge?” Unfortunately, that’s a question that can’t be easily answered. 

 The cost to power wash a house depends on many things.

Size does matter! When we calculate how much your estimate will be for your power washing service, we’ll go to a mapping software like google earth or maps, enter your address, and then measure the footprint of your home. This method is not perfect and does not incorporate a ton of variables, but it’s a start. To add, I get a lot of clients that just want their soffits and dormers soft-washed on a brick home. Well, unfortunately, to get an even and consistent exterior clean, the entire house must be washed. If not, there will be streaks and runs from the soap on the brick- and nobody wants that. 

For this example, let’s say a house is 4,000 square feet. As your estimators, we’ll pan and scroll until we can make out every detail we can about your home. Even the gradient… yep, even the surface gradient (how steep the ground is) will affect your price. More on that later. 

We take into consideration how many bushes you have around your home; we even try and make out what kinds of trees you have adjacent to your home. The reason for this is trees like Japanese Maples require special precautions which add time and labor. 

Next, we’ll look at the gutters and try and measure them in linear feet. Even if inside gutter cleaning isn’t included in the package, the outside almost always needs special attention which requires additional specialized detergent, time, and labor. 

Now, back to measuring the footprint of the house for a square footage total. Depending on the number of floors we will assign a cent per square foot based on the height, surrounding trees/shrubbery, and the grade; for example, a well accessible single-story home, on flat ground we may assign .12 per square foot and multiply by the footprint measurement. In another case, if a house is on a 30% grade; is surrounded with trees and rose bushes we may charge .18 cents a square foot. So the 4,000 square foot home multiplied by .12 equals $480. If the gutters are present and they are filled to the brim with debris and heavily stained, we’ll take the linear foot measure measurement of 200 feet and multiply by $1.00 for a gutter cleaning job of $200. 

Other variables include but are not limited to: 

1. # of levels
2. Accessibility from road
3. How far the house is from the road
4. Trees/bushes close to or touching the house
5. Height of the masonry base of the home
6. Condition of the home itself
7. Water pressure 
8. City/Well water accessibility
9. The distance we have to travel  
10. Obstacles around your home

Now, a little more on the gradient topic, an experienced power washing contractor knows that having a home on a steep grade adds a ton of considerations to calculate into your overall cost. One of those considerations is reaching those hard to get spots that a normal stream of water can’t touch. In this case, we will have to use a ladder to overcome the defilade which will prevent a good thorough cleaning. We have been known to get up on the roof and hand clean an area that can’t be reached or accessed from the ground. This, of course, adds time and additional risk to our employees. 

If you have any questions on this post please reach out to our team at 803-409-8499 and we’ll walk you through it.