How Much Does It Cost to Jet Wash a Patio in the UK?

Most of the price guidance published on this subject is wrong in a way that is easy to demonstrate, so I am going to show you my actual numbers, work through four real patio sizes, and then take apart the figures the big directories publish.

The short answer

For a straightforward patio clean in 2026 you should expect to pay between £4 and £6 a square metre, with a minimum charge of somewhere between £120 and £180.

My own rate is £4.50 a square metre for concrete slabs and standard paving, £5 for natural stone, with a £150 minimum. Those are on my price list and they do not change depending on what car is on your drive.

The minimum charge matters more than the rate

This is the part that catches people out, and almost nobody explains it up front.

A patio clean has a fixed cost before I have cleaned a single square metre. Loading, driving, setting up, running out hose, and then packing down and cleaning the machine afterwards. That is roughly an hour and a half of my day whether the patio is 12 square metres or 60.

So below a certain size, you are not buying a rate at all. You are buying a minimum.

At £4.50 a square metre and a £150 minimum, the crossover is 33 square metres. Below that, the minimum is what you pay.

That means a 15 square metre patio and a 30 square metre patio cost the same. Which sounds unfair until you realise the alternative is a rate high enough to make small jobs viable, which would then be charged to everybody.

The practical advice: if your patio is under about 33 square metres, look for other jobs to add. The path down the side, the steps, the bin store area. You are already paying for my morning, and additional square metres are genuinely cheap once I am set up.

Four worked examples

Using my published rates, patio cleaning at £4.50 a square metre with a £150 minimum.

A 15 square metre courtyard. Two seats, a table, a bit of space round the edge. The arithmetic says £67.50. You pay £150, because that is the minimum. About two hours on site.

A 25 square metre rear patio. The most common size I quote. Arithmetic says £112.50. You pay £150. Around three hours including re-sanding the joints.

A 40 square metre patio. Now you are past the crossover. Forty times £4.50 is £180, and that is what you pay. Most of a working day once edges and re-sanding are included.

A 60 square metre patio and path. Full width of the house plus the side return. Sixty times £4.50 is £270. A full day.

Add the moss and algae treatment at £1.50 a square metre if you want the regrowth slowed, which on a shaded or coastal patio is usually worth it. On the 40 square metre example that is another £60.

Now the part where the published guidance falls apart

Search for patio cleaning costs and you will find the large directory sites quoting £8.50 to £15.50 a square metre.

That is roughly double to triple what any working sole trader I know actually charges, and the same pages contain the evidence that it cannot be right.

Those pages typically also state that a tradesman charges £10 to £25 an hour for this work, and they give an example job of around £350 for a patio taking six to seven hours.

Take those numbers seriously for a moment. £350 divided by six and a half hours is £54 an hour. That is not £10 to £25 an hour. The same page has given you two figures that are impossible together.

One of them is wrong, and it is not hard to work out which. £54 an hour for one person with a petrol washer, before fuel, before the van, before insurance and before the hour and a half of setup and packdown that never appears on the invoice, is a very good day. £10 to £25 an hour is below what the work is worth once you account for equipment.

The reality is in between and it is closer to the lower figure than to £54. On a 40 square metre patio at my rate I am earning £180 for around six hours including travel, which is roughly £30 an hour before costs. That is a sensible living and it is nothing like £54.

Why the directory figures are inflated is not a mystery. Those sites make money on lead generation, and a higher published price makes every quote a customer receives look like a bargain.

What changes the price legitimately

A handful of things genuinely cost more, and a decent quote will say which apply.

Natural stone takes longer, because it needs lower pressure and a wider fan, so more passes. That is the 50p difference between my two rates.

Thick moss needs scraping before any water goes on. On a badly overgrown patio that can add an hour, and I will tell you at the quote stage if I think it will.

Awkward access adds time. If the van cannot get within about 30 metres, or everything has to come through a house, that is real.

Very small jobs cost the minimum, as above.

What should not change the price

A day rate. If somebody quotes you a day rate rather than a price for the job, they are being paid to work slowly. Ask for a fixed price.

Vague extras discovered on the day. Re-sanding in particular should be included on block paving, not presented as an upgrade once the drive is clean and you are pleased with it.

A discount for cash. It usually means the invoice is not going anywhere, which also means no record if something goes wrong.

Getting a genuine quote

Two or three photographs from different angles and a rough size. Pace the length and pace the width and multiply. A pace is close enough to a metre for a quote, and I would rather have a rough figure and good photographs than a precise measurement and no pictures.

Any tradesman who can see photographs and knows the surface can price a patio without driving to look at it. Insisting on a visit for a straightforward job is either a sales call or a sign they are not confident enough to commit to a number.

One honest caveat

These are my prices in East Sussex in 2026. Rates in central London are higher. Rates in parts of the north are lower. What should be the same everywhere is the structure: a published rate per square metre, a stated minimum, and a fixed price in writing before anybody starts.

If you cannot get those three things out of a quote, that tells you something useful on its own.

What the add-ons cost

Most quotes have a main figure and then two or three things that may or may not be included. Here is what each is worth.

Moss and algae treatment, £1.50 a square metre. A biocide applied after cleaning that kills the residual population in the surface rather than just removing what you can see. On a 30 square metre patio that is £45. On anything shaded, north-facing or coastal it typically buys an extra year before you need the job doing again, which makes it the best value item on my list.

Re-sanding, included on block paving. If a quote for block paving does not mention kiln-dried sand, it is not a cheaper quote, it is a different job. Expect to see it stated.

Sealing, £5.50 to £12 a square metre. Always a separate visit. Covered in its own post because the answer depends heavily on what your paving is made of.

Steps, usually folded in. I will do steps as part of a larger job at the standard rate, and on their own below the minimum, because a slippery step is the thing on a property most likely to hurt somebody.

Furniture moving. Should not be a charge. If there is a great deal of it, say so when you get the quote.

Regional variation

These are East Sussex prices in 2026.

London and the immediate commuter belt run 30% to 60% higher, mostly because access, parking and congestion charges eat the day.

The north of England and much of Wales and Scotland run 15% to 25% lower.

What should not vary by region is the structure of the quote. A published square metre rate, a stated minimum, and a fixed total in writing before anybody starts. If you cannot get those three things, the price is not really the issue.

Doing it yourself

Worth being straight about, because for some patios it is the right answer.

A domestic electric pressure washer costs £120 to £250. A rotary surface cleaner attachment is another £40 to £90 and it is the single item that most improves the result, because it fixes the nozzle height and stops the striping.

For a 20 square metre concrete patio, hiring costs £150 and buying the kit costs around £250 and does the job for the next decade. If you are physically able and you have somewhere to store it, the arithmetic favours buying.

Where it stops favouring DIY: natural stone, where the pressure judgement genuinely matters and the damage is permanent; block paving, where you also need to buy and correctly apply kiln-dried sand; anything above about 40 square metres, where you are looking at two full days of quite hard physical work; and anywhere at height.

The most common expensive mistake is a domestic machine with a turbo nozzle on Indian sandstone. That is a £200 machine causing several thousand pounds of permanent damage in an afternoon.

The hidden costs of a cheap quote

Three things a very low quote is usually leaving out.

The sand. Covered above, and by far the most common.

The rinse. A proper job ends with clean water over the whole area and the slurry directed to a drain. Skipping it leaves a grey film that dries back onto the surface, which is why some cleaned patios look flat and dusty a week later.

Insurance. A pressure washer can break a window, damage render, or push water into a wall. Ask whether they carry public liability cover. It is a fair question and anybody working properly will not mind it.

What to ask before you book

Four questions cover almost everything.

Is this a fixed price or a day rate?

Does it include re-sanding with kiln-dried sand, if the surface is block paving?

What pressure and what nozzle will you use on my surface, if the surface is natural stone?

Are you insured?

The answers, and how comfortable somebody is giving them, will tell you more than the number at the bottom of the quote.