How Much Does House Washing Cost? (2026 Guide)

What a house wash costs in Northeast CT and RI

Most homes in our service area land between $389 and $575 for a full exterior house wash. Here is how our published pricing starts, before we ever look at your specific house.

• Single-story cape or ranch: from $389
• Two-story colonial: $475 to $575
• Larger homes and anything taller than two stories: $550 and up

Those prices cover the whole house. Every side, not just the two walls people see from the road. If a quote comes in far under that range, the first question to ask is how many sides are included.

What actually moves the price

Two houses that look the same size on a listing can quote a hundred dollars apart. These are the things that move the number, roughly in order of how much they matter.

Size and number of stories

Wall area is the base of every quote. A 1,400 square foot ranch has a lot less siding than a 2,600 square foot colonial, and the colonial also has a second story. Height is its own cost. Everything above the first floor is done from a ladder or a long pole, and both are slower and more careful work than standing on the lawn with a wand.

Siding type

Vinyl is the easiest surface we wash and it prices at the bottom of the range. Painted clapboard needs a gentler mix and a patient rinse so nothing lifts chalking or failing paint. Cedar shake holds moisture in the grain, so it grows more and it takes more dwell time and more rinsing. Brick and stucco are porous and hold algae down in the surface rather than on top of it. Fiber cement washes well, but the seams, corner boards, and trim take detail work. Siding is usually the reason your neighbour's identical footprint quoted lower than yours.

How much growth is on the walls

A house washed last spring is a light detergent pass and a rinse. A house that has not been touched in eight years, with a shaded north wall carrying green algae and black mildew worked into the seams, needs a stronger mix, a second pass in places, and more time on site. Growth is the most common reason a quote lands at the top of a range instead of the bottom.

Access and landscaping

Mature foundation plantings, a deck hanging over the back wall, a fenced dog run, a steep grade behind the house, tight lot lines with a neighbour's driveway six feet away, all of it slows the job down. It also means more prep. We wet every bed down before the first drop of detergent goes on the wall and rinse it all again when we are done. That protection is part of doing the job properly, not an upsell, but it is time and time shows up in a quote.

What else you book at the same visit

Bundling is where the real savings are. The truck is already in your driveway and the ladders and hoses are already out. Adding gutter cleaning at $175 to $325, exterior window cleaning at $8 per pane with a $200 minimum, or a driveway and concrete cleaning at $150 to $400 costs less on one trip than it does on three.

Why a flat quote from photos works

Text 2 or 3 photos of your house to (860) 553-9326 and you will usually have a flat price back within the hour. Not a range. Not an hourly rate. Not a starting-at number that grows once somebody is standing in your yard.

Photos work because almost everything that drives the price is visible in them. Number of stories, siding type, how green the shaded side has gone, how much landscaping sits against the foundation. We are not guessing from an address and a square footage figure off the assessor's card.

A flat quote also puts the risk where it belongs. If the job takes an hour longer than we thought, that is our problem, not a line item on your invoice. Hourly pricing works the other way around.

What to send in the photos

• One from the street showing the front and one side together
• One of the shaded side, usually north or whichever side the trees are on, because that is where the growth is worst
• A close-up of the dirtiest section of siding you can find

What a suspiciously cheap quote usually means

You will see $149 whole-house wash flyers. Somebody has to make that math work, and it is usually one of these.

• It is a pressure wash, not a soft wash. High pressure on vinyl forces water behind the panels and into the wall cavity, and it does not kill the algae, it just knocks the top layer off so the green is back in a season.
• Only the front and one side are included. Read the quote.
• Straight bleach with no surfactant and no rinse. It runs off onto your beds, burns hostas and hydrangeas, and streaks the siding where it dried before anyone rinsed it.
• No insurance. Ask for a certificate of insurance. We carry general liability and workers comp and send a COI before work starts, and any legitimate company can do the same in a few minutes.
• The price goes up on the day. The cheap number gets you on the schedule, then the job turns out to be bigger than the flyer allowed for.

The cost of a cheap wash is never the wash. It is water sitting in a wall cavity, a row of dead shrubs, or a bleach stripe down the siding that does not come out.

What is included and what is quoted separately

With Applewood, the house wash price covers:

• Every side of the house, top to bottom
• A soft wash with biodegradable, plant-safe detergents at low pressure
• Landscaping wet down before we start and rinsed again after
• Soffits, fascia, and the outside faces of the gutters
• Trim, shutters, and downspouts
• A walk around the property with you before we leave, so anything you are not happy with gets handled while we are still there

Quoted separately because they are separate jobs:

• Cleaning debris out of the inside of the gutters
• Window glass
• Roof soft washing for black algae streaks
• Decks, fences, patios, and concrete
• Heavy black tiger striping on gutter faces, which needs its own brightening treatment rather than a house wash detergent

How often a New England house needs washing

Once a year keeps most homes around here clean. Shaded lots, homes near water, and north-facing walls grow algae faster and do better on a 9 to 12 month cycle. A wide open sunny lot can often stretch to 18 months.

Washing on a schedule is also cheaper than washing on rescue. Algae that has had five years to work into the siding takes more product and more time than a year's worth of film, and it is priced accordingly.

Is it worth doing yourself?

A rented pressure washer pointed at vinyl siding is one of the most common ways homeowners put water inside their own walls. High pressure drives water up under the laps and through the weep holes, and it does nothing at all to the algae growing under the surface. What you are paying a pro for is the right detergent at the right dilution, low pressure that cannot damage anything, plant protection, and insurance if something goes sideways.

If you want the longer explanation of why pressure is the wrong tool for siding, we wrote that up separately in soft washing vs. pressure washing.

What you get from us either way

Applewood is owner-operated. There are two of us, we grew up in Pomfret, and one of us is on every single job, so there is no crew showing up without an owner. We walk the property with you before we leave, and if something is not right we come back inside 30 days. Growth is covered by our 365-day guarantee, so if the algae comes back within the year, so do we.

Get a flat quote

Applewood Exterior Cleaning soft washes homes across Northeast Connecticut, Worcester and Middlesex counties in Massachusetts, and all five Rhode Island counties. You can see the full list on our service areas page.

Text 2 or 3 photos of your house to (860) 553-9326 and we will send a flat quote back, usually within the hour. Or read more about our house washing service first.