Pressure washing is one of the lowest-overhead service businesses you can start. A truck, a machine, and a wand. No commercial kitchen, no inventory, no employees on day one. The hard part isn't the cleaning — it's treating it like a business from the first job, not the tenth.
Here's exactly what to do, in order, starting today.
1. Pick your wedge: residential, commercial, or fleet
Three different businesses share the same wand:
- Residential — driveways, decks, siding, fences, roofs. $200–$800 per job, season-driven (April–October in most markets), word-of-mouth + Google searches drive demand.
- Commercial — storefronts, parking garages, restaurant exhaust hoods, gas-station concrete. $400–$3,000+ per job, recurring contracts, sales cycle longer.
- Fleet — trucking yards, construction equipment, RV cleaning. Niche but loyal — once you're in with one fleet manager, the work is predictable.
Most one-truck operators start residential because the cash hits faster. Pick one to lead with — your gear list, marketing, and the customers you attract all depend on it.
2. The gear that actually matters (and what to skip)
You can spend $5,000 or $25,000 on a starter setup. The honest minimum:
- Pressure washer: 4 GPM / 4000 PSI commercial unit (Honda or Kohler engine, belt-drive pump). Skip the consumer big-box stuff — it dies in 6 months under daily use. Budget $1,500–$2,500.
- Surface cleaner: 20-inch flat surface cleaner for driveways. Cuts a 2-hour job to 30 minutes. $300–$500.
- Hoses + reels: 200 ft pressure hose minimum. Hose reel optional but back-saving. $300–$600.
- Soft-wash setup: Downstream injector for siding/roofs. $50–$200 add-on. Lets you do the higher-margin work.
- Tank + truck rig: 100-gallon water tank in the bed of a pickup. Some markets require this (no spigot at commercial sites). $400–$1,500.
Total honest starter kit: $3,500–$5,500. Anyone telling you you need a $20,000 trailer rig on day one is selling you something.
3. Handle the boring legal stuff
Three things, that's it:
- LLC — file with your state, $50–$200. Pressure washing comes with real liability (broken windows, killed plants, slipped customers). Personal-asset protection is non-optional.
- General liability insurance — $500–$1,200/year for $1M coverage. Hiscox, Next, FLIP all cover this trade. Don't skip — one cracked siding panel without insurance and your year is gone.
- Business license — most cities require a basic one ($50–$200/year). Some states require a contractor's license over a certain job-size threshold. Check yours.
You do NOT need: a commercial location, employees, OSHA training (for solo work), or an environmental permit unless you're working in regulated wastewater zones.
4. Set your prices (and stop undercharging)
New operators almost always charge too little. The framework:
- Driveways/sidewalks: $0.20–$0.40 per square foot, $150–$350 minimum.
- House washing (siding): $0.20–$0.50 per square foot of footprint, $300–$600 typical job.
- Decks: $0.50–$1.50 per square foot (more involved than concrete).
- Roof soft wash: $0.30–$0.60 per square foot, $400–$1,200 per job.
- Commercial: hourly rate $75–$150/hr or square-foot pricing 25–50% above residential.
If every customer says yes immediately, you're too cheap. If you're closing 60–70% of quotes, you're priced right.
5. Get your online presence set up
You need three things — not five:
- A page where customers can find you and request a quote. Photos of recent jobs, simple contact form, your service area. We set this up in minutes.
- A Google Business Profile. Free. Takes 15 minutes. Without it, you don't show up on the "near me" map. Why this is non-negotiable.
- A way to respond fast. The operator who replies in 5 minutes books the job. The one who replies tomorrow loses to the guy who replied 5 minutes ago.
6. Get your first 10 customers
Forget social media at first. Real first jobs come from:
- Your truck. Magnetic signs on both sides — phone, website, "Pressure Washing." Drive around. People notice. $40 from VistaPrint pays back in one job.
- Door hangers in cul-de-sacs. $0.50/hanger printed, walk a neighborhood after a job is done so the customer's neighbors see your truck. 3–5% conversion in spring.
- Nextdoor + local Facebook groups. Don't spam — answer questions ("How do I get mildew off my siding?"), mention what you do.
- One job at cost. Free or near-free wash for a high-traffic neighbor or local business. Trade for a Google review and "before/after" photos for your portfolio.
Once you have your first 10 customers and ~5 Google reviews, the searches start finding you organically. That's when the business compounds.
7. Build the system that scales
The bottleneck shifts fast. After the first month it's no longer "find customers" — it's "don't drop the ball." You need a system for:
- Capturing every inquiry — a missed text on a Tuesday is a $400 job to your competitor by Wednesday.
- Sending invoices that get paid — net-30 contractor invoices, not Venmo screenshots. The right software handles this in 2 clicks.
- Collecting reviews — after every job, text the customer: "Thanks for choosing me. If you're happy, a Google review would mean a lot." 25% will leave one. That compounds.
- Knowing your numbers — which job types are most profitable? Which customers rebook annually? Without tracking, you're guessing.
The bottom line
A pressure washing business is one of the cleanest ways to go from W-2 to self-employed. Low capital, high margin, demand exists in every zip code. The operators who make it past year two all share the same trait: they ran it like a business from job one — not job 100.
If you're ready to stop planning and start washing, get your booking page live in minutes. Inquiries land in your phone the same day.