Pressure Washing Prices: What Driveway and Patio Cleaning Costs

Most professional pressure washing in the UK runs at roughly £2 to £6 per square metre for the wash alone, or £100 to £350 for a typical driveway priced as a job. London and the South East sit at the top of those ranges. Everything below is about working out where your drive or patio lands, and why.

You've probably already stood at the front door looking at it. The drive that was golden block paving ten years ago is now dark grey, green at the edges, with black spots that survive every rinse from the hose. You want a number before you talk to anyone. Fair enough. Here's the honest version.

Pressure washing prices: the ranges the cost guides publish

We don't publish our own prices, because two drives on the same street can be very different jobs. But published UK cost guides give a decent bracket, and they're worth knowing before you collect quotes:

• Basic jet washing: roughly £2 to £4 per m² for a straightforward, lightly soiled surface.
• Standard driveway clean: roughly £2.50 to £5.50 per m², or £100 to £350 for the whole drive, depending on size.
• Patio cleaning cost: roughly £5 to £9 per m², or £90 to £400 per job. Patios price higher per metre because they're smaller, with more edges, steps and furniture to work round.
• Block paving with re-sanding: roughly £5 to £7 per m², because washing empties the joints and they need refilling with kiln-dried sand.
• Full clean plus sealing: roughly £8.50 to £15.50 per m².
• Minimum charges: most operators have one, typically £80 to £120, so a tiny front path pays the minimum rather than the per-m² rate.

London price guides put local rates at the top of these figures or beyond, which matches what we see across North London and Hertfordshire. Treat all of it as orientation, not a quote.

Measure your driveway and estimate the job yourself

This is the bit most cost guides skip. You can get within a sensible bracket in ten minutes with no kit at all.

1. Pace out the area. One comfortable walking stride is roughly a metre. Walk the length, then the width, and multiply. A single parking bay is usually about 2.4m by 4.8m, so call it 12m². A typical double drive comes out at 40 to 60m².
2. Multiply by the range. A 40m² drive at £2.50 to £5.50 per m² gives you £100 to £220 for the wash. If it's block paving, allow another £40 to £80 for re-sanding.
3. Note the surface and the staining. Oil drips, black spot lichen and heavy moss all push a job up the range. Write down what you can see.
4. Check the access. Is there an outside tap? Can the machine park close, or is it 40 metres of hose through a side alley? Rear gardens only reachable through the house take longer.
5. Count the extras you actually want. Re-sanding, sealing, a biocide treatment to slow the green coming back. More on those below.

One thing worth knowing while you're out there: if your drive is permeable block paving or drains into a lawn or border, wash water soaks away on your plot and runoff is simple. The government's guidance on permeable surfacing exists because permeable paving "controls and reduces rainfall runoff into drains". An impermeable drive shedding water to the road is a different matter, and a good operator will already be thinking about where the dirty water goes.

What changes the pressure washing cost

Two quotes for the same drive can be £60 apart and both be fair. Here's what moves the number:

• Surface type. Concrete and old tarmac are tough and quick. Block paving takes longer and needs re-sanding after. Indian sandstone is softer, black spot lichen roots into it, and it needs a gentler touch. Porcelain marks easily and hates aggressive pressure.
• Size. The single biggest driver. More square metres, more time, more water.
• Access. Parking for the van, an outside tap, and a straight run to the surface all keep the price down. Carrying kit through the house doesn't.
• Staining. Algae and general grime shift cheaply. Oil needs a degreaser and patience. Black spot is lichen, not dirt, and it's the reason a "clean" patio still looks speckled. The RHS notes that lichens are common on paving and that a pressure washer removes growths quickly but "growths will return if conditions remain the same".
• How long it's been left. A drive cleaned every couple of years is a quick job. One that hasn't been touched since 2015 is a different day.

The add-ons: what's worth paying for

Quotes often list extras, and it's not always clear which ones earn their money.

• Weed and moss pre-treatment. Kills growth before washing so it comes out by the root. Worth it on anything green.
• Kiln-dried sand re-jointing. Non-negotiable on block paving. Washing blasts the jointing sand out, and empty joints let blocks rock and weeds root. If your quote doesn't mention re-sanding, ask.
• Sealing. Optional. It locks the joint sand in, resists oil and brings colour back. We've written honestly about whether sealing block paving is worth it, because sometimes it isn't.
• Biocide aftercare. A treatment applied after washing that keeps algae and lichen spores from re-establishing. On shaded drives and north-facing patios it's the difference between clean for months and clean for years.

Rotary surface cleaner vs lance: why the machine matters

Ask one question when you collect quotes: what head goes on the end?

A rotary surface cleaner is a round hood with spinning jets inside that glides across flat areas. It cleans evenly, contains the splash, and it's several times faster than a wand on open ground. A lance, the long wand everyone pictures, is for edges, corners, steps and spot work. Used across a whole drive, it leaves zebra stripes that show the moment the surface dries.

If someone plans to do your entire 50m² drive with a lance, you'll see it in the price and again in the result.

Wash water and runoff: the rules on drains

Dirty wash water isn't just muddy water. It carries grit, algae, degreaser and sometimes oil, and where it goes is regulated.

The government's pollution prevention guidance is blunt about why: "Surface water drains discharge directly to the environment." The drain at the kerb outside your house usually runs straight to a stream or river, untreated. Dirty water should go to the foul drain, and only "with permission from your water company", or be collected and taken away.

A responsible operator plans for this: diverting runoff to gravel or borders where the surface allows, keeping detergents out of surface drains, and not blasting silt into the gully at the bottom of your downpipe. It's worth asking what they do with the water. The blank look tells you plenty.

What a cheap job looks like six weeks later

We get called to a lot of these, so here's the pattern:

• Stripes. Lance lines across the drive, visible every time it's wet.
• The black spot is back. It never left. Lichen survives a blast of plain water, so without a proper treatment the speckles reappear within weeks.
• Empty joints. The sand got blasted out and never replaced, and now two blocks rock under the car.
• Weeds by August. No pre-treatment, no re-sand, nothing to stop regrowth.
• Splash damage. Brown lines up the garage door, the car and next door's wall.
• A flooded pavement. Water sheeting off the drive onto the road. The Planning Portal's driveway rules make impermeable surfaces over five square metres draining to the highway a planning issue for a reason: the water is supposed to soak away on your plot.

The £60 saving disappears the day you pay someone to do it properly.

FAQ

How much does it cost to clean a driveway? Published UK cost guides put a typical driveway clean at £100 to £350 as a job price, or roughly £2.50 to £5.50 per m². Block paving with re-sanding runs higher, around £5 to £7 per m², and London sits at the top of the ranges.

Is jet washing priced per m² or per job? Both exist. Per m² suits big, simple areas. Most residential driveways and patios end up as a fixed job price once size, access, staining and extras are factored in. Small jobs usually hit a minimum charge of roughly £80 to £120 instead.

How much does patio cleaning cost? Cost guides put patio cleaning at roughly £5 to £9 per m², or £90 to £400 per job, because patios are smaller with more edges and furniture to work around. Soft stone like Indian sandstone with black spot costs more than plain concrete slabs.

Does block paving need re-sanding after jet washing? Yes. Washing blasts the kiln-dried sand out of the joints, and empty joints let blocks shift and weeds root. A proper block paving quote includes re-sanding once the surface has dried.

Is it cheaper to hire a pressure washer and do it myself? Hire is roughly £30 to £200 a day and a domestic machine £90 to £500, against £100 to £350 for a typical professional driveway clean. DIY is genuinely fine on plain concrete. On Indian sandstone, porcelain or block paving, the wrong nozzle or pressure etches the surface or empties every joint, and that's when the repair bill arrives.

Why is my quote higher than the per-m² rate I saw online? Because the online rate assumes a large, flat, lightly soiled surface with easy access. Staining like oil or black spot, awkward access, a small area that triggers a minimum charge, and extras like re-sanding all move a real job up the range.

Get a real number for your driveway or patio

Ranges are useful, but the only number that matters is the one for your surface. Send us a couple of photos and rough measurements and we'll tell you honestly what it needs, whether that's a straightforward wash or re-sanding and a biocide treatment too. You can see how our driveway cleaning service and patio cleaning service work first, and our guide to the best way to clean a patio covers the DIY route if yours is a simple job.

Get a free, no-obligation quote, call us on 07375 104665, or message us on WhatsApp at wa.me/447375104665 for a same-day answer. We cover North London and the Hertfordshire borders.

Last updated: 5 October 2026

About Techno Clean: a London deep-cleaning company covering North London and the Hertfordshire borders. We specialise in one-off deep cleans, end of tenancy and after builders cleaning, fully insured with £5 million public liability cover and DBS-checked teams, rated 4.9 from over 180 reviews across 500+ completed jobs.