Pressure washing
Covering Harrogate, Leeds, York, Bradford and across North & West Yorkshire
22 years’ experience
Long enough to have seen most versions of a job before.
Public liability insured
Backed by a written guarantee on every job — ask when you quote.
Free, no-obligation quotes
We look at the job and give you a price. Nothing to pay if you don’t go ahead.
Why it matters
Most of what looks like permanent staining on a wall, a path or a drive is a living film of algae sitting on top of the surface. The skill is not the machine — it is knowing how much pressure a given surface can take before you start removing the surface itself.
What the job involves
- Identify what the surface actually is, because that decides the method rather than the other way round.
- Soft wash — low pressure and a biocide — on anything porous, coated or brittle: render, roofs, painted masonry, soft stone.
- Controlled pressure on the surfaces that genuinely take it: concrete, block paving, flags, hard stone.
- Protect the planting, the drains and anything that does not want the runoff.
- Re-sand or re-point afterwards where the wash has taken jointing out, which on block paving it always will.
What it costs
£150–£500 for a typical drive, path or patio is the typical UK range for this work — large areas, soft washing and sealing sit above this. That is a guide to the market, not a quote: yours is free, fixed before we start, and based on your actual property.
What moves the price:
- area, and how much of it is detail work rather than open run
- the surface and how much care it needs — soft washing is slower than blasting
- how bad it has got, and whether there is oil, rust or paint on top of the algae
- whether it wants re-sanding or sealing afterwards
When to do it
Anything from spring to autumn. The surface wants a few dry days afterwards, which matters most for sealing, and hard frost stops the job because standing water freezes in the joints.
Different roofs and walls need different handling
Magnesian limestone. Magnesian limestone is soft and porous and it scours. Too much pressure leaves a permanently lighter, rougher patch that no amount of later work will blend back in, so limestone is a soft wash surface.
Millstone grit. Millstone grit is hard enough to take a working pressure, but a century and a half of industrial soiling sits deep in the grain rather than on top of it — that comes out with chemistry and patience, not with force.
Brick. Brick takes a moderate pressure across the face but the mortar joints do not, and a lance held on a soft joint will empty it. The pointing is what sets the limit.
Render. Render is a coating, so pressure removes it. Render is washed soft, always, and a hard jet on a silicone or through-coloured finish takes the colour with it.
Soft washing vs pressure washing goes into the numbers and the reasoning in more detail.
Where we do it
We work out of Harrogate across North and West Yorkshire. Every town below has its own page for this service:
Related work
patio cleaning, driveway cleaning and roof cleaning are the jobs most often booked alongside this one.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Is softwashing better than pressure washing?
They are different tools, not better and worse. Soft washing uses low pressure and a biocide to kill growth and let it weather off — right for roofs, render, painted walls and soft stone. Pressure washing removes what is on the surface mechanically — right for block paving, flags and concrete. Using the second where the first belongs is how surfaces get damaged.
When should you not power wash your house?
On render, on painted masonry, on soft limestone, on roofs, and anywhere the pointing is already loose. All of those are coatings or soft surfaces where pressure removes the material rather than the dirt. They want a soft wash instead — same result, no damage.
Do you pressure wash from top to bottom or bottom to top?
Wash downwards, so the dirt runs off surfaces you have not cleaned yet rather than back onto ones you have. On walls, wetting from the bottom up first stops the dry surface drawing dirty water in and streaking — but the cleaning pass itself runs down.
How much does pressure washing cost in the UK?
Typically £150 to £500 for a drive, path or patio, depending on area, surface and how bad it has got. Soft washing a render elevation or a roof sits above that because it is slower and uses treatment rather than force. Anything quoted without someone seeing the surface is a guess.
For exterior work across Harrogate and Yorkshire, please call 07788 585240