Built for pressure washing and soft wash operators billing a house, a driveway, a roof and a stain treatment on one ticket — each surface on its own line, with its square footage and its method.
Start a Pressure Washing Invoice →Opens with the pressure washing lines already listed. Free, no sign-up, PDF download.
A pressure washing customer judges the invoice against a picture in their head: the driveway before, the driveway after. That is the good news about the trade — the result is visible from the street. The bad news is that the price is not. A line that reads 'Pressure washing — $640' asks the customer to trust a number they have no way to check, and when a neighbor mentions they paid $300 'for the same thing', your invoice has nothing on it that explains the difference. The difference is almost always in the details the single line left out: which surfaces, how many square feet, which method, which chemical, and what the surface looked like before you started.
Pressure washing also carries a kind of risk most service trades do not. Water at pressure can strip oxidized paint, etch soft concrete, lift loose mortar, and force water behind siding, and bleach-based soft wash solutions can burn plants that were not pre-wet. Most of that damage was waiting to happen before you arrived — but a customer who first notices peeling paint the day after a wash will connect the two. This template puts each surface on its own line with its area and method, keeps stain treatments separate from cleaning, and carries a pre-existing conditions note, so the invoice explains the price and records what you found.
Most residential pressure washing is quoted per surface and priced by square foot — flatwork such as driveways, sidewalks and patios at one rate, house washing by the square foot of siding or by the size of the home, decks and fences by square foot or linear foot, and roofs by square foot at a higher soft wash rate. Operators usually set a minimum job charge so small jobs cover the drive and setup. Add-ons are priced separately: rust, oil and irrigation stain removal (often per stain or per area, with results not guaranteed), gutter brightening, and sealing concrete or pavers after cleaning. Payment is normally due on completion, by card on site or on a net-7 invoice; larger jobs and sealing work often take a deposit. Commercial work — storefronts, dumpster pads, drive-throughs, parking decks, fleet trucks — runs on recurring service agreements billed monthly or per visit on net 30, often at night, and may require wastewater recovery where local rules forbid washing into storm drains. HOAs and property managers buy by the building or the community, frequently once a year, with a purchase order.
These are the lines this trade actually bills, the unit each is measured in, and what each one prevents. Every line below is optional — use the ones that match the job.
| Line item | Billed as | Why it belongs there |
|---|---|---|
| House wash — soft wash, vinyl siding, 2,300 sq ft, all four elevations | per square foot of siding (or flat by home size) | Name the method and the area. 'Soft wash' tells the customer why their siding was cleaned with low pressure and a solution rather than blasted, and the square footage is what makes the price checkable. |
| Driveway and front walk — surface cleaner, concrete, 1,150 sq ft | per square foot of flatwork | Flatwork gets its own line, separate from the house. Customers compare driveway prices more than any other, and a combined number cannot be compared. |
| Roof soft wash — asphalt shingle, algae (black streaks), 2,800 sq ft — no pressure used | per square foot of roof | Say 'no pressure used'. Many shingle manufacturers warn against pressure washing roofs, and the line is your record that you cleaned it the way the roof's warranty expects. |
| Rust stain treatment — irrigation stains, front walk, 3 areas (improvement, not guaranteed removal) | per area or per stain | Treatments are not cleaning. Put them on their own line and say what result you promised, because some stains lighten rather than disappear. |
| Paver sealing — 600 sq ft, two coats, joint sand re-applied | per square foot, labor and materials | Sealing is a separate job with its own materials, its own cure time and often its own sales tax treatment. Keep it off the cleaning line. |
| Water supplied by contractor — 400 gal hauled (no working spigot on site) | flat surcharge | If you normally use the customer's water, the day you bring your own is a real cost. Show it, and the reason, so it is not mistaken for a padded fee. |
| Wastewater recovery — dumpster pad, 2 enclosures, water collected and disposed of per local rules | per visit, commercial | Where you have to capture and dispose of wash water, that setup is work. Commercial clients understand the line; they do not understand an unexplained higher price. |
| Pre-existing conditions noted before work: oxidized paint (rear), cracked concrete (garage apron), loose mortar (chimney) — photos on file | record, $0 | The most important $0 line on the ticket. Write down what was already wrong before the water touched it, and say you have photos. |
| HOA building wash — Building C (12 units), soft wash, PO #2026-118 | per building, per the service agreement | Bill by the unit the association bought — the building — and carry the PO. A property manager paying for twenty buildings matches invoices to the PO and the building, not to the date. |
Open these lines in the invoice builder →Editable on screen · delete what does not apply · free PDF, no sign-up
Nearly every unpaid or short-paid invoice in this trade comes down to one of these.
A downloadable template means fixing the layout, re-entering the formulas, and reformatting every time. This one fills in on screen, does the maths, and downloads a clean PDF — with the pressure washing lines already listed.
Open the Pressure Washing Template →Go deeper
How to invoice for pressure washing — square footage, soft wash, stains, and damage records →The full guide — rates, payment terms, deposits, and what to do when the invoice goes unpaid.
Measure each surface separately and put each one on its own line with its area, its method and its rate — driveway, walkways, patio, house siding, deck, roof. Flatwork is usually the cheapest per square foot because a surface cleaner covers it quickly; house washing and decks sit higher; roof soft washing is higher again because of the chemical, the ladder or roof work, and the plant protection. Rates vary a great deal by region, so build yours from your own costs — chemical, water, fuel, equipment wear and labor per hour — and check them against local competitors rather than a national average. Set a minimum job charge so small jobs still cover the trip. On the invoice, write the area next to each line ('Driveway — 1,150 sq ft'), because square footage is the one thing that lets a customer see why their price is what it is.
Yes — always. Pressure washing uses high water pressure to clean hard surfaces like concrete and some masonry. Soft washing uses low pressure with a cleaning solution, commonly a diluted sodium hypochlorite mix with a surfactant, to kill and remove algae, mildew and lichen on siding, roofs, stucco and painted wood, where high pressure can do damage. The invoice should name the method on each line, because it explains the price (soft wash chemical costs money and takes plant-protection work), it tells the customer why their siding was not blasted, and on a roof it is your record that you cleaned it without pressure, which matters if the homeowner later has a shingle warranty question.
Do three things before the water goes on. First, walk the property with the customer if you can and note pre-existing conditions: oxidized or peeling paint, failing caulk, cracked or spalled concrete, loose mortar, damaged screens, and anything already leaking. Second, photograph them, with the date. Third, put a short pre-existing conditions line on the estimate and again on the invoice, and have the customer sign or approve the estimate. That record is not a guarantee you will never be blamed, but it changes the conversation from 'you did this' to 'this was noted before we started'. Your service agreement should also say what you are responsible for — and you should carry general liability insurance, because a signed note does not pay for a broken window.
Against a written service agreement that sets the sites, the surfaces, the frequency and the price per visit or per building, with each invoice naming the location, the service date, what was cleaned, and the client's purchase order number. Commercial clients such as restaurants, gas stations and retail chains usually pay monthly on net 30 and match invoices by site; HOAs and property managers usually buy a whole community once a year and pay per building. If the work needs wastewater recovery — many cities do not allow wash water with detergents or grease to run into storm drains — include the recovery as its own line so the client sees the cost of doing it legally. For night or after-hours work, say so on the invoice if it is priced differently.
Interior and exterior cleaning crews bill the same way — a count (rooms, panes, feet, square feet) with a stated minimum, add-ons as separate lines, and a note of what was already worn or damaged before the work started.
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