exterior
Driveway cleaning and sealing
Cleaning a driveway costs £180 to £400 for a typical semi-detached property and £350 to £700 for a large one. Block paving needs re-sanding afterwards and tarmac should not be pressure washed at all, so the surface decides the method before anything else does.
What this covers
What it costs. Driveway cleaning costs £180 to £400 for a typical semi-detached property and £350 to £700 for a large one, or £2 to £5 a square metre. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Block paving, concrete, tarmac, resin and gravel edges
- Oil and tyre mark removal, which is separate work from the wash
- Weed and moss treatment at the joints
- Re-sanding block paving, which is part of the job rather than an extra
- Sealing, where the surface suits it
What is involved
Block paving is the common case and the one with a step people skip. Pressure strips the kiln-dried sand out of the joints along with the weeds, and paving without sand in the joints moves underfoot, sinks at the edges and weeds again within a season. Re-sanding is not an upsell, it is the second half of the job.
Tarmac is the surface to be careful with. It is bitumen holding stone together, and pressure lifts the stone out and leaves a scoured patch that never matches. Tarmac is cleaned chemically at low pressure or left alone.
Oil is separate work. A pressure washer spreads it into a wider, paler stain rather than removing it; what lifts it is a degreaser with dwell time, sometimes more than once, and old oil that has soaked into concrete may never come out completely. A firm that tells you that before starting is the one to use.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask what the drive is made of and what they will do differently because of it. Block paving, concrete, tarmac and resin are four answers.
Ask whether re-sanding is included on block paving, and whether the sand is kiln-dried.
Ask about oil before they arrive rather than after. It is a separate treatment and a separate price, and discovering that mid-job is how a fixed quote stops being fixed.
Common questions
Can you pressure wash tarmac?
You should not. Pressure lifts the stone out of the bitumen and leaves a scoured patch. Tarmac is cleaned chemically at low pressure.
Why does it need re-sanding?
Because the wash removes the jointing sand along with the dirt, and unsanded paving shifts, sinks at the edges and weeds within a season.