Driveway Cleaning Cost UK: What To Pay In 2026

Checkatrade publishes driveway cleaning at £250 to £400, with a medium driveway around £350 and taking 6 to 7 hours. MyBuilder's driveway cleaning guide publishes the same £250 to £400 for a standard 40m2 driveway. MyJobQuote sits lower, at £100 to £350 with an average of £300.

That is the short answer. Below are the figures those three guides publish, including two MyBuilder pages that publish £8.50 to £15.50 per m2 on one page and £2 to £5 and £4 to £8 per m2 on the other, on the same subject on the same day.

How much does driveway cleaning cost in the UK?

Driveway cleaning is published at £250 to £400 by both Checkatrade and MyBuilder, and at £100 to £350 by MyJobQuote. Here is what each of the three published on their live pages on 30 August 2026, per job:

• Checkatrade: driveway cleaning costs usually range from £250 to £400, and a medium driveway typically costs around £350 and takes around 6 to 7 hours.
• Checkatrade by size: small driveway around £250 at 4 to 5 hours, medium around £350 at 6 to 7 hours, large around £400 at 7 to 8 hours.
• MyBuilder, driveway cleaning guide: the average cost of professional driveway cleaning in the UK is £250 to £400 for a standard 40m2 driveway.
• MyBuilder, driveway cleaning guide by size: small terraced or semi £150 to £250, medium standard detached £250 to £400, large double width or long £350 to £550, very large £500 to £700 plus.
• MyBuilder, driveway pressure washing guide: the average cost to pressure wash a driveway in the UK ranges from £100 to £400, depending on size, surface condition and whether any additional treatments are needed.
• MyJobQuote: the average cost to power wash a driveway is £300, and cleaning a driveway typically costs between £100 to £350.
• MyJobQuote by size: 30m2 driveway £100 to £160, 60m2 driveway £150 to £250, 90m2 driveway £225 to £350, cleaning only.

Read those side by side and the gap is obvious. MyJobQuote's large 90m2 driveway starts at £225, below Checkatrade's £250 for a small one, and its top end of £350 sits under Checkatrade's £400 for a large drive. That is not a mistake in either guide. They are describing different jobs under the same words, and neither states what condition, method or extras are inside the number. This is why comparing a quote against a single published range tells you very little on its own.

What is the price per square metre for driveway cleaning?

Checkatrade publishes driveway cleaning at around £8.50 to £15.50 per m2 and MyBuilder's driveway cleaning guide publishes the same band, but MyBuilder's own driveway pressure washing guide publishes £2 to £5 and £4 to £8 per m2. That makes the per square metre rate the least reliable figure on this page, even though it looks like the obvious number to hold a quote against. MyBuilder's cleaning guide wording is that driveway cleaning is priced at roughly £8.50 to £15.50 per m2 by most professional services, so on those two pages the guides agree.

Then MyBuilder's separate driveway pressure washing guide, updated on the same date and live on the same day, publishes rates running £2 to £5 per m2 for standard-condition driveways and £4 to £8 per m2 for larger or more heavily soiled areas. That is the same publisher, on the same subject, with a completely different family of rates. MyJobQuote publishes no headline per m2 rate for the clean at all, only £2 to £5 per m2 for weed or algae pre-treatment where that is charged separately.

There is no single per m2 range for driveway cleaning: the rate you find is either £8.50 to £15.50 per m2 on Checkatrade and MyBuilder's cleaning guide, or £2 to £5 and £4 to £8 per m2 on MyBuilder's pressure washing guide, depending which page you open. So a per square metre rate on its own proves nothing about whether a quote is fair. Ask what the rate includes instead: whether it covers weed treatment, re-sanding and sealing, or only the wash itself.

Which driveway surfaces cost most to clean, and what else makes a clean cost more?

Block paving is at or near the top of the range in both guides that price by surface. Beyond that they disagree. MyBuilder's driveway cleaning guide prices by surface on a 40m2 driveway:

• Block paving: £280 to £450, the most expensive surface in MyBuilder's table.
• Concrete: £250 to £400.
• Tarmac or asphalt: £200 to £350.
• Resin-bound: £200 to £350.
• Gravel: £100 to £200, the cheapest in the table.

MyJobQuote orders the same surfaces differently on typical 30 to 60m2 driveways in average condition: block paving £120 to £250 and resin £120 to £250 at the top, tarmac £100 to £220, and concrete £100 to £200 at the bottom, cleaning only. So concrete flips from second dearest in MyBuilder's table to cheapest in MyJobQuote's, and resin moves from near the bottom to joint top. Gravel appears only in MyBuilder's table: MyJobQuote publishes no gravel figure at all. Block paving at or near the top is the one thing both agree on.

Block paving costs more for a reason that has nothing to do with the cleaning itself. The joints are the weak point, and a driveway clean that strips the sand out and leaves it out is not a finished job. We wrote about that in detail in our guide to whether pressure washing damages block paving, and it is the single biggest thing to check before you accept a cheap block paving quote. MyBuilder puts a figure on the fix: block paving re-sanding, often needed after a deep clean to restabilise the joints, adds around £1.50 to £2.50 per m2, and its own advice is blunt, that for block paving you should always confirm whether re-sanding is included in the quote.

Surface is only one of the drivers. All three guides name broadly the same list, and the condition of the surface is the one that swings a quote hardest. MyJobQuote says a heavily stained driveway may increase the cost by around £50 to £100 due to the extra preparation and cleaning time involved. MyBuilder's pressure washing guide puts the same surcharge at £50 to £100 where heavy moss, widespread algae or weed growth needs chemical pre-treatment, and adds that oil stain removal or protective sealing treatments add roughly £50 to £200 to the total.

The factors the guides list are worth knowing before you ring anyone, because they are the things a decent quote will ask you about:

• Size: the single biggest driver in every guide, because a bigger area is more hours, more water and more machine time.
• Condition: Checkatrade notes that a driveway with heavy moss, weeds, oil stains or loose jointing will usually take longer than a lightly marked surface. MyBuilder makes the same point, that an annually cleaned drive is quick while one that has not been touched in five years is considerably more work.
• Material: block paving, concrete and other surfaces need different techniques, and block paving carries the re-sanding question with it.
• Access: Checkatrade lists awkward parking, water access or drainage as things that lengthen a job. MyBuilder adds vehicles, gates, restricted access, overhanging trees and planting close to the driveway edge.
• Extras: weed treatment, oil stain removal, re-sanding and sealing are commonly priced as add-ons rather than included in a base price.

MyBuilder's point about a five-year gap cuts both ways, because a drive cleaned regularly is the quick job, which is the subject of our guide on how often to clean a driveway or patio.

How much does it cost to clean and seal a driveway?

Sealing is the biggest add-on in every guide and it is a separate job, not part of a clean. Checkatrade publishes driveway sealing at £5 per m2 to £17 per m2 with an average of £8 per m2, and says power washing and sealing a medium-sized driveway typically costs around £700. MyBuilder publishes cleaning and sealing combined at £400 to £700 for a standard driveway, with a sealant cost of £5 to £8 per m2 including labour, and sealing only, after an existing clean, at £150 to £400 on a 40m2 drive. MyJobQuote publishes resealing after cleaning at around £250 to £650. Sealing is not something we sell, so those figures are here for comparison only, and whether it is worth doing at all is a separate question we cover in our guide on sealing a patio or driveway after cleaning.

Do driveway cleaning prices include VAT, and does region change them?

Region is published three different ways in the UK guides and none of them is a Surrey, Sussex or Kent figure. Checkatrade says homeowners in London can expect to pay around £45 more for the overall job than those in the North. MyJobQuote says if you live in London you can expect to pay around £50 to £100 more for the overall job than in the North of the UK. MyBuilder says London and the South East typically run 15 to 25 per cent higher than the national average, with the North of England, Wales and Scotland at the lower end. Checkatrade and MyJobQuote both price the gap as London against the North, not the South East. MyBuilder is the only one of the three to name the South East, at 15 to 25 per cent above the national average. None of them publishes a Surrey, Sussex or Kent figure, and we do not publish one either. This page is written from Horley in Surrey, covering Surrey, Sussex and Kent.

VAT is the gap nobody fills. None of the three guides states whether its figures include VAT. Checkatrade mentions it only as a line to check on a quote, listing total cost including VAT if applicable among the things a quote should show. So take every figure on this page as a number of unstated VAT treatment, and ask each quote you receive whether VAT is in it. On waste, MyBuilder says most residential jobs do not involve a separate disposal cost but that it is worth confirming on larger or more intensive cleans, while Checkatrade names waste or debris removal only as a line a quote should show.

Is it cheaper to clean a driveway yourself?

Sometimes, and it is worth saying so plainly on a page published by a pressure washing business. MyBuilder's driveway cleaning guide puts pressure washer hire at around £40 to £80 per day for a 150 to 200 bar machine, and MyJobQuote puts hiring a commercial pressure washer at around £20 to £150 per day. MyBuilder's pressure washing guide reckons renting a machine and doing the job yourself typically costs £50 to £200 for a standard residential driveway, covering machine hire at usually £30 to £60 per day, detergent and your time. MyJobQuote estimates DIY could save around £50 to £150 in labour compared with hiring a professional.

So on a small concrete or tarmac drive with light surface dirt, hiring a machine for a day is a genuinely reasonable decision. Where it stops being reasonable is on block paving that needs re-sanding afterwards, on soft natural stone, on anything with black spot lichen that water alone will not touch, and on a drive big enough that the published timings apply. Checkatrade puts a medium driveway at 6 to 7 hours and a large one at 7 to 8 hours, and MyBuilder's pressure washing guide puts a 40 to 50m2 drive at around 5 to 6 hours, so a hire day is not the generous window it sounds like.

How do you tell whether a driveway cleaning quote is fair?

Given how far the published figures spread, the useful test is not the number. It is what the number covers. Checkatrade publishes two lists worth holding a quote against, one of what a quote should include and one of questions to ask, and the points from those two lists that matter most when comparing quotes are:

• Whether you are being charged per m2, per hour or per job, so you can compare quotes on the same basis.
• Whether weed removal or treatment and moss and algae removal are in the price or added later.
• Whether resanding the joints is included, which matters most on block paving.
• Whether sealing is included, if you want it, or quoted separately.
• Water access, and who is supplying it.
• Waste or debris removal.
• The total cost, including VAT if applicable.

Two more things worth knowing before you compare quotes. MyBuilder notes that some contractors charge a one-off deep clean rate first and a lower maintenance price for later visits, so an expensive first quote is not automatically a bad one. And MyBuilder's pressure washing guide is honest that cleaning will not fix deep cracks, sunken sections or joint failure, so if that is what your driveway actually has, no cleaning quote at any price solves it.

Every figure on this page is a national market range published by Checkatrade, MyBuilder or MyJobQuote, read on their live pages on 30 August 2026, and none of them is our price. Which? is not among them: the Which? page checked, Best patio cleaners 2026, reviews patio cleaning products rather than pricing the job of hiring someone, so nothing here is attributed to it. Driveways vary too much to price from a range. If you want a real number for your driveway across Surrey, Sussex and Kent, our driveway cleaning page explains how we approach the job and you can ask for a free, no-obligation driveway cleaning quote.