What Affects the Cost of Exterior Cleaning & Sealing
No price list — but no mystery either. Here is exactly what moves the number on a paver sealing, roof cleaning, or house washing job, and what a rock-bottom quote quietly leaves out.
Why We Don’t Post a Price List
We could put a number on this page. Plenty of companies do. The problem is that the number would be wrong for almost everyone reading it.
Two patios of the same square footage can be very different jobs. One is a clean rectangle off the back door. The other is split across seven areas, wraps a pool, has steps and curved borders, and was sealed badly four years ago, and that has to be undone before we start. Quote those the same and one of us loses.
So we look at every job in person. Not to pad it — to catch the details that add up, and to give you a number that holds. What follows is everything we’re looking at when we walk your property, so you can see how the price gets built before we ever show up.
What Drives the Price on Sealing Work
Sealing has the widest price range of anything we do, and the widest gap between a good job and a cheap one. Here is what changes the number:
- Square footage. Measured, not eyeballed. Bigger open areas usually cost less per square foot, not more.
- Layout complexity. Steps, curved borders, pool coping, tree surrounds, and jobs split across separate areas all take far longer per square foot than open field.
- Current condition. How much cleaning has to happen before any sealer goes down. Heavy organic growth in shade is a different job from light surface dirt.
- Joint sand condition. Whether joints need filling before the surface can be sealed and stabilized.
- Number of coats. One coat protects. Two coats is what restores the color and gives you the finish. They are not the same price and they are not the same result.
- Previous sealer. The single biggest swing in the whole estimate. A failed or peeling sealer from a previous contractor may have to be stripped before anything new can go down, and that can cost more than the sealing itself.
- Access. Whether equipment can reach the work or everything gets hand-carried around the house.
- Site prep. Masking posts, columns, and coping edges, and protecting landscaping beds.
- Which sealer the surface calls for. Pavers take urethane sealer. Stamped concrete takes acrylic sealer. Broomed concrete takes an invisible penetrating sealer. They are different products at different prices, and using the wrong one is how surfaces end up cloudy or peeling.
If you take one thing from this section: ask any quote how many coats are included. It is the easiest place to cut a price and the hardest thing to spot until the color fades.
What Drives the Price on a Roof
Roof cleaning pricing is mostly about size, reach, and how bad the growth has gotten:
- Roof area and pitch. A steeper roof takes longer and requires more setup.
- Height and access. Single story versus three stories on a lakefront slope is a real difference.
- Severity of growth. Light streaking versus heavy moss and lichen changes both dwell time and product.
- Roof material. Asphalt shingle, metal, and tile each get handled differently.
- Surrounding landscaping. Dense beds and mature plantings under the eaves mean more protection and rinsing time.
What Drives the Price on a House Wash
House washing is the most predictable service we offer, but a few things still move it:
- Square footage and number of stories.
- Siding type. Vinyl, brick, stone, stucco, and Hardie board each respond differently.
- How much growth there is. A north-facing wall under trees is a different job from a sunny south wall.
- Landscaping density. More beds means more pre-wetting, protection, and rinse-down.
- Add-ons. Gutter brightening and window cleaning are cheaper bundled into the same visit than booked separately.
What Drives the Price on Concrete and Hardscape
Driveways, sidewalks, patios, and pool decks:
- Square footage and how much of it is open, cleanable area.
- Surface type and porosity. Broomed, exposed aggregate, and stamped all clean differently.
- What kind of staining. Organic growth comes off readily. Rust, oil, and battery acid need specific treatments and may only improve rather than disappear.
- Water access on the property.
What a Rock-Bottom Quote Leaves Out
There is always somebody cheaper. Sometimes that is a lean operator with low overhead doing honest work. Sometimes the price is low because the job is smaller than the one you think you are buying. Here is where the difference usually hides.
On any job
- No insurance. Worth asking about before anyone puts a ladder against your house or a hose near your electrical.
- High pressure where soft washing belongs. Fast and cheap on the day. It can permanently mark siding, concrete, and shingles, and that damage does not wash out.
- No site prep. Landscaping that was not pre-wet and rinsed, fixtures that were not covered, windows that were not closed off.
- A number given over the phone. Nobody can price what they have not seen. A phone quote usually gets revised upward once someone is standing in your driveway.
On sealing work specifically
- One coat instead of two. Cuts material cost roughly in half. You will not see the difference on day one. You will see it when the color goes flat.
- Product thinned past spec. More coverage per bucket, less protection per square foot.
- No dry-down. Sealing a surface that has not fully dried is the leading cause of cloudy, hazy, and peeling finishes.
- No masking. Sealer on your columns, siding, or coping is not something that wipes off later.
- No manufacturer certification. Most sealer warranties depend on certified application. An uncertified job may leave you with no recourse when it fails.
Pro-Shine is a Trident Master Certified Applicator. We are trained and certified by the manufacturer on their sealer line — dilution, coverage rates, surface prep, and cure conditions. Sealer failures almost always trace back to application, not product.
On roof cleaning specifically
- Pressure on shingles. It is quicker and it strips the protective granules off your roof, shortening its life and often voiding the warranty. We do not clean roofs that way.
- No gutter or downspout protection, so runoff carries solution straight into the beds below.
Questions About Pricing
Why won’t you give me a price over the phone?
Because the number would be wrong, and almost always too low. The things that move a price the most — whether old sealer has to be stripped, how much of a patio is steps and curves rather than open field, how much of a roof we can safely reach — are things nobody can describe accurately over the phone. We look at every job in person so the number we give you is the number you pay.
Why is one sealing quote half the price of another?
Usually because it’s a different job. One coat instead of two, no masking or site prep, product thinned past the manufacturer’s spec, or sealing a surface that was never allowed to dry. All of those save the contractor money on the day and cost you the finish within a year or two. Ask any quote how many coats are included and how long the surface will dry before sealer goes down.
Does a bigger job cost more per square foot?
Usually less. Large open areas are efficient to clean and seal, and a big house wash is more efficient than a small one. What raises the per-square-foot cost is complexity — steps, curved borders, pool coping, tree surrounds, steep roof pitch, difficult access, and jobs split across several separate areas.
Is soft washing more expensive than pressure washing?
It can be, because it takes longer and uses cleaning solution rather than force. What you are buying is a surface that is not damaged. Pressure washing a roof or older siding is faster and cheaper on the day, and the marks it leaves are permanent. On concrete and other hard surfaces where pressure is appropriate, we use it.
Is it cheaper to bundle services into one visit?
Yes. Most of the cost of a smaller job is getting there and setting up. Pairing services that make sense together — house wash and windows, roof and house, pavers and the concrete around them — means one trip and one setup instead of two, and we price it accordingly.
See the Work
Want a Number You Can Rely On?
Every estimate is free, and we look at every job in person. Call or request a quote and we will come take a look.
Tell us about your project and we'll get back to you fast — usually within a few hours.
No obligation. No high-pressure sales — or high-pressure washing.