How these estimates are calculated
Place, currency and tax. Prices are for Canada, in CAD (C$). They exclude GST, HST and any provincial tax. Which of them applies, and at what rate, depends on the province and, for provincial tax, on the kind of service. The range is a national average. When you pick your province, the calculator scales the labour share of the range by a local index from 0.85 to 1.24. The calculator does not quote below its minimum price, C$175 at the national average.
Where the range comes from. The market range for this job comes from prices published for Canada by price guides. We name these sources by type, not by company. We check the hourly rates against Job Bank wage data, and for lawn care the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association wage survey. A trade's rate should sit well above what its workers earn, because it also pays for overhead, travel and insurance.
When we checked. We last checked these rates against their sources on September 30, 2026.
Market price and your price. "What pros charge" is the market range for the job you describe. Your own cost figures do not change it. The table under it, "Your costs at this price", uses your figures: time on the job, labour cost, materials, equipment, travel, fees and overhead. Profit is the market price minus those costs.
Canadian pressure washing prices are published two ways that do not agree. Vendors print a rate per square foot
and a price for the whole job, and on siding the two come out about twice apart. The calculator above prices from
the whole-job figures and from the hourly rate the same sources print, because those two reconcile with each other
and the per-square-foot number does not.
How the calculator works
- Surface sets the band. Driveway, house siding, deck or patio, and fence each carry their own band. Picking
one fills in the area that surface typically covers, so a house wash is not quoted at a driveway’s size.
- Area scales it, and the minimum catches small jobs. A separate front path with steps sells for C$60–C$140
in Canada — below the minimum, and usually sold as an add-on to a driveway rather than on its own.
- Soft wash and soil move the quote. A soft wash adds about 22%. Heavy soil moves the quote up the range
rather than adding an invented cost.
- Your province. Rates are adjusted by a provincial labour-cost index.
- Your economics. “Your costs and margin” turns area into hours, adds chemicals, machine wear and travel, and
shows what the market price leaves you before GST/HST.
Typical Canadian pressure washing rates in 2026
| Surface | Per square foot | Whole job |
|---|
| Driveway | C$0.25–C$0.40 | C$100–C$180 single, C$150–C$260 double |
| House siding | C$0.077–C$0.246 | C$250–C$450 single storey, C$350–C$700+ two storey |
| Deck or patio | C$0.40–C$0.80 | C$150–C$400 |
| Fence | C$0.17–C$0.33 | C$150–C$300 |
Crews bill C$50–C$160 an hour, C$105 typical. Minimum charge C$175. All figures exclude GST/HST.
Where the Canadian numbers are thin, said plainly
The published data has almost no independent sources. The most complete Canadian price guide names its own
sources as HomeStars, Jobber Academy and one operator — and HomeStars belongs to Angi. That is one guide citing a
second vendor and a lead marketplace owned by a third. Four operator price pages outside that circle confirm the
single-driveway range at C$100–C$180, which is why that figure is the most solid one here.
The minimum charge has no consensus. Across five sources it runs C$60–C$250. C$175 is the middle of the range
the main guide prints, and two residential sources of three sit at C$200 or below.
What moves the price
- Two-storey siding. Ladders, longer wands, more water. Quote the top of the siding band.
- Winter and shoulder season. A short season concentrates the year’s work; the published rates reflect summer.
- Oil and rust removal. C$40–C$100 as its own line, not folded into the area rate.
- Sealing after washing. A separate service priced per square foot, not a markup on the wash.
Worked example
A 2,000 sq ft house wash with heavy algae on the north wall. Siding takes the vertical norm, so 2,000 sq ft is 3.1 crew hours. The typical quote lands at C$355 (range C$255–C$460) against a cost near C$201, which leaves C$155 a visit, a 44% margin before GST/HST. The “Fill with sample data” button loads this exact job.
What this calculator does not price
Gutters are sold per linear foot, not per area. Roof soft washing has a Canadian price — C$350–C$900 and up — but
no published hours anywhere, and a calculator that turns area into hours cannot honestly price a surface whose
hours nobody publishes. Commercial flatwork is the same. Quote those from your own records.
The calculator gives you the number. For typical rates and how to build a quote, read our US pressure washing pricing guide. Its rates are in US dollars.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for pressure washing in Canada?
Published Canadian rates run C$0.25–C$0.40 per square foot on a driveway, C$0.40–C$0.80 on a deck, and C$0.17–C$0.33 on a fence. Whole jobs: a single-car driveway C$100–C$180, a double C$150–C$260, a deck or patio C$150–C$400, a fence C$150–C$300. Set a minimum around C$175. Prices exclude GST/HST.
What is a realistic hourly rate here?
C$50–C$160, and the spread is geography rather than noise: C$50–C$160 is the national picture while Toronto operators run C$80–C$200. C$105 is a defensible middle. Check it against your own area rate — C$0.25–C$0.40 a square foot over 217 square feet an hour is C$54–C$87 an hour all in, so the upper half of that hourly band belongs to dense routes and city pricing.
Why is house siding priced so much lower per square foot?
Because it washes about three times faster. A soft-wash applicator covers a wall at roughly 650 square feet an hour door to door, while a surface cleaner grinds along concrete at about 217. Over a 2,000 square foot house the money per hour lands in the same place; the rate per square foot does not.
Do I charge GST or HST on pressure washing?
Yes, once you are over the C$30,000 small-supplier threshold, at the rate of the province where you work: 5% GST in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the territories, 13% HST in Ontario, 14% in Nova Scotia, 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, and GST plus 9.975% QST in Quebec. Washing a house carries no PST in British Columbia or Saskatchewan and no RST in Manitoba. Every figure on this page and in the calculator is before tax, which is how the trade quotes it.
How many hours should a job take?
Divide the area by 217 square feet an hour for flat work and 650 for house siding. Those are door-to-door figures: they include loading, driving, setup, moving the machine and cleanup, not just the minutes the wand is running. Pricing off the active wash rate is how a full day turns into a two-hour quote.
What does the work cost me per job?
Chemicals C$20 a job, machine wear about C$5 an hour, and travel above what a cleaner pays because you are towing a machine and often a tank. Wages are the rest: the Job Bank median for specialized cleaners in Canada is C$19.23 an hour, which is the figure the calculator seeds your cost from.
