Pressure Wash Productivity Estimates

Pete, can you tell me what kind of productivity I should expect when cleaning sidewalks with just my pressure washer and a wand? I am just getting started and need a little advice. - Nick T.

Nick, this is the kind of question that I love to dive deep in to.

First, there are a lot of variables to consider, such as the amount of soil and the type of soil, the GPM of the machine, which nozzle you are using, the PSI of the machine, etc. It makes a difference if the operator is an employee or a business owner, as you also might guess. The edge of the sidewalk makes a difference too (such as whether or not soil will be washed up onto the concrete when cleaning near the edge).

I will give you my opinion of production rates with an 11 – 13 HP pressure washer used by an employee, since that is the largest size where someone might be tempted to use a wand instead of a surface cleaner. Please keep in mind that these numbers are “guess-timates” based on the productivity I observed with my own crews. Keep in mind that sidewalk cleaning takes a little more time that most flatwork (even most driveways) in part because you are moving your equipment a lot.

• Cleaning with wand alone, cold water: 600 (500-700 sq ft per hour) - You tend to do a lot of “re-washing”…
• Cleaning with wand alone, hot water: 700 (600-800 sq ft per hour)
• Cleaning with wand and concrete cleaner, cold water: 750 (650-850 sq ft per hour)
• Cleaning with wand and concrete cleaner, hot water: 850 (750-950 sq ft per hour)
• Cleaning with surface cleaner alone, cold water: 800 (700-900 sq ft per hour)
• Cleaning with surface cleaner alone, hot water: 1000 (900-1100 sq ft per hour)
• Cleaning with surface cleaner and concrete cleaner, cold water: 1000 (900-1100 sq ft per hour)
• Cleaning with surface cleaner and concrete cleaner, hot water: 1150 (1000-1300 sq ft per hour)

Obviously a larger GPM would produce faster speeds.

The difference that hot water, concrete cleaner, and a surface cleaner make can be huge. Each one alone affects the speed by around 30% in most manufacturers’ estimates. The overall increase in productivity can be pretty dramatic.

I have often been quoted saying that the guy with the biggest equipment sets the price. The guy who can clean 1200 square feet of sidewalk (4’ x 300’) in an hour with his equipment and wants to make $120 per hour and sets the price at 10 cents per sq ft. The guy using cold water, no soap, and just using a wand takes 2 hours to get the job done, so he earns $60 per hour. The $60 difference in earnings per hour is how the second guy would pay for upgrading his entire process over time to match the first guy’s stuff.

Adding hot water increases your speed by 17% to 25% in the numbers above. Your earnings would go up from $60 per hour to an average of $72.50 per hour. If adding a hot box were to cost you $2000, the extra $12.50 per hour that you would be earning would pay for that hot box in about 160 hours – probably a couple of months.

Adding a cleaner might cost $73 plus freight for enough cleaner to do 12000 sq ft of sidewalk (our Concrete Cleaner). Roughly, that breaks down to well under a penny per sq ft to use. You spend less than $10 for cleaner on this 1200 sq ft job (including the cost of freight) and you save 24 minutes overall. Your earnings therefore jump from $60 to $75 per hour. In other words, using $10 worth of cleaner made you an extra $15 per hour or about $24 on this job. The entire jug of soap would take 4 jobs to pay for itself, leaving you 6 jobs where you make extra profit with what is left in the jug.

The right soap is a good investment that pays you back from the very first time you use it. Using soap speeds you up by adding “lift” to the soil, causing it to flow away with the wash water and minimizing the need to rinse. Guys who don’t use soap often have to go back to rinse the area after they wash it, as the soil tends to settle right back down on the surface rather than flow away.

Finally, adding a surface cleaner increases your productivity in the numbers I have used above by between 25% and 50%. Using a 30% average improvement, your average productivity could climb from $60 to almost $86 per hour. Spending $700 on a surface cleaner alone could pay you back in as little as 27 hours of flatwork – as little as a week or two.

Going on these numbers, assuming I owned a cold water machine like the one I described here, my first investment would be adding cleaners. Their payback is immediate. The second improvement I would make is a surface cleaner, as that pays for itself in a couple of weeks. The third investment I would make is to add hot water. Little by little, I would be working towards getting my earnings up to a level over $100 per hour.

All the while I would be recording my productivity in earnings-per-hour in my daily business diary.

It is calculations like this that should guide anyone when purchasing equipment. You should never buy something unless you understand how quick the payback is. My theory is that any tool that pays for itself within 6-12 months is a good investment, and tools that pay for themselves in less than two months are an absolute MUST for any contractor who wants to compete and survive.

I love putting the numbers down on paper for a customer trying to make a solid decision about investing in equipment. I hope this helps you.

Pete