Pressure washing profit calculator
Whether a pressure washing business is profitable comes down to three numbers you can find in an afternoon: what an average job pays, what each job costs you to do, and what the business costs to keep running whether you work or not. Put yours in and see the season’s profit before you pay yourself, the jobs a week that break even, and how the slow months look.
Season profit and break-even
Pre-filled with example inputs, not survey figures. Replace every one with your own.
Net profit before owner pay, per season
$33,060
82.0% gross margin / 52.5% net
- Season revenue
- $63,000 from 210 jobs
- Direct cost per job
- $54
- Gross profit
- $51,660
- Fixed costs
- $18,600
- Left per job toward fixed costs
- $246
- Break-even jobs per week
- 2.2 a week
- Jobs per week to also pay you
- Enter your pay
- Plan shortcut, worked all year
- 1.6 a week
Above break-even
The season, month by month
| Per month | Busy month | Slow month |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $6,750 | $3,150 |
| Gross profit | $5,535 | $2,583 |
| Fixed cost share | $1,550 | $1,550 |
| Left before your pay | $3,985 | $1,033 |
PSI & nozzle quick reference
- 0 degRed
- Spot jet. Etches most surfaces.4000 PSI
- 15 degYellow
- Stripping bare concrete.4000 PSI
- 25 degGreen
- General concrete and walkways.3500 PSI
- 40 degWhite
- Siding, wood, vehicles.1500 PSI
- ~65 degBlack
- Detergent draw, low pressure.500 PSI
Is pressure washing a good business? What the arithmetic says
The shape of the trade is what makes it attractive. The direct cost of a job is small next to the ticket: chemical, fuel for the trip and a share of tip and hose wear on a driveway come to tens of dollars, and the ticket is hundreds. In the example below 82.0% of every dollar billed survives direct costs.
That margin is also why the question is easy to get wrong. A high margin on one job says nothing about whether you sell enough jobs, in enough workable weeks, to carry a truck, insurance and equipment payments. Operators in this trade run out of money on volume and season far more often than on the margin of a single driveway.
Why there is no average income figure on this page
How to use this calculator
- Average ticket. Average your last twenty invoices. With no invoices yet, price three typical jobs in the pressure washing cost calculator and average those.
- Jobs per week. What you can sell and finish in a normal week once driving is counted, not your best dry week.
- Working weeks. The weeks your climate lets you work, less holidays and the week the pump is in the shop.
- Direct cost per job. What one more job costs: chemical, the fuel for that trip, disposal and wear, card fees.
- Fixed costs per year. What you pay with zero jobs booked: liability insurance, the truck, equipment finance, marketing, software and phone. Kit bought outright goes in as its price divided by the years you expect it to last.
- Your pay and the season. What you intend to earn, how many months are busy, and how much of the work lands in them.
A worked example
These are the calculator’s starting inputs. They are an example to overwrite, not a survey of what operators charge or earn.
| Line | Example | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Average ticket | $300 | A 1,000 sq ft driveway at the middle of the site’s $0.20–$0.40 concrete band |
| Jobs and weeks | 6 x 35 | 210 jobs in the season |
| Direct cost per job | $54 | $45 chemical, fuel and wear, plus 3% card fees |
| Fixed costs | $18,600 | Insurance, truck, equipment, marketing, software |
| Revenue | $63,000 | Ticket x jobs |
| Gross profit | $51,660 | 82.0% of revenue |
| Net before owner pay | $33,060 | Before your pay and before income tax |
| Break-even | 2.2 a week | Over 35 working weeks |
Break-even, the same sum as the business plan
Break-even in jobs is fixed costs divided by what each job leaves after its direct cost. The SBA states it the same way: fixed costs divided by price minus variable cost. Divide the result by your working weeks and you have the weekly figure you actually feel.
The pressure washing business plan runs the same arithmetic monthly and divides by four, which quietly assumes you work all year. The calculator prints that shortcut too, so you can see the gap. On the example it says 1.6 a week; spread over 35 real working weeks it is 2.2 a week. The plan’s own advice is to build on workable weeks, and this is what that advice does to the number.
Break-even is before you are paid
The slow months
The month-by-month chart under the results spreads the season’s gross profit across busy and slow months and draws the monthly share of fixed cost across them. A slow-month bar below that line is a month the busy season has to bank for in advance.
The usual counters change the job mix rather than the effort. Recurring commercial work on a written service contract runs year-round; fleet washing is weekly or monthly by nature; gutter cleaning peaks just as flatwork tails off. The last counter is the ticket itself.
If the calculator says the price is the problem, build the rate from your costs with the hourly rate calculator, read how much to charge for pressure washing, and check the result against the per-square-foot bands on the pressure washing prices page.
Questions operators ask
How much can you make pressure washing?
Whatever the gap is between your season’s gross profit and your fixed costs, which is the “net before owner pay” line above. Income tax and your own pay both come out of it. GrimeKit publishes no average, because an average would hide the two inputs that decide it: your ticket and the number of weeks you can work.
Is a pressure washing business profitable in the first year?
The first year carries the kit. Enter equipment you financed as its yearly payments, and equipment you bought outright as its price spread over its working life, so the first season is not judged on a purchase that serves five. The guide to starting a pressure washing business lists the equipment floor.
What counts as a direct cost and what counts as fixed?
Ask whether it goes away if you book one job fewer. Fuel for the trip, chemical and card fees do, so they are direct. The truck payment, insurance and software do not, so they are fixed. Fuel the truck burns on quotes and errands sits closer to fixed; put it there if you track it.
Why does the break-even figure rise when I shorten the season?
The fixed costs are a year’s worth whatever the weather does. Fewer working weeks means the same bill shared across fewer weeks, so each one has to carry more jobs.