Patio Cleaning Cost UK: The 2026 Price Guide

Checkatrade puts patio cleaning at £3 to £4.50 per square metre, MyJobQuote publishes £220 to £490 as its patio average, and MyBuilder puts it at £40 to £150 per patio. For a 30 square metre patio MyJobQuote publishes £320 to £370. Those three UK price authorities disagree sharply. All of those figures were read on 30 August 2026, and every one of them is a national market estimate rather than a quote for your patio.

That is the short answer. Below is what each source publishes, why the three are so far apart, what pushes a real patio job up or down, and how to tell whether a quote is reasonable. There is no price for our own work on this page, because we price each patio on what it actually needs, from photos or a site visit, and a made-up number here would only mislead you.

How much does patio cleaning cost per square metre, and per job?

Checkatrade prices patio cleaning by the square metre. Its cost guide, last updated May 2026, says patio cleaning services usually cost around £3 to £4.50 per m² depending on the surface material and the condition of the patio. Its own fast facts box on the same page states the band slightly differently, at £3 to £4 per m². It then breaks the rate down by surface, and the surface makes a real difference.

• Patio slabs: Checkatrade publishes £2 to £4.50 per m², with an average of £3 per m².
• Block paving: Checkatrade publishes £2.50 to £5.25 per m², with an average of £3.50 per m².
• Concrete: Checkatrade publishes £2 to £4.50 per m², with an average of £3 per m².
• Tarmac: Checkatrade publishes £2 to £4.50 per m², with an average of £3 per m².
• Timber decking: Checkatrade publishes £3 to £6 per m², with an average of £4.50 per m², the dearest surface on its list.

MyJobQuote prices the same job as a whole, by patio size, and says its numbers come from real quotes given by UK tradespeople to UK homeowners on its own platform. Its pressure washing cost page, dated 11 March 2026, publishes £220 to £490 as its patio average, three patio bands with the hours each takes, a rate of £9 to £18 per m², and roughly £55 to £70 per hour. A paragraph later the same page says £200 to £500. Both appear on the page.

• Patio of 15m²: MyJobQuote publishes £220 to £270, at 3 to 4 hours of work.
• Patio of 30m²: MyJobQuote publishes £320 to £370, at 4 to 6 hours of work.
• Patio of 45m²: MyJobQuote publishes £430 to £490, at 7 to 9 hours of work.
• Paths and walkways of 20m², often quoted alongside a patio: MyJobQuote publishes £100 to £180, or £5 to £10 per m².
• Decking of 20m², if your patio job includes boards: MyJobQuote publishes £240 to £300, or £12 to £16 per m².

MyBuilder is the outlier and it is not close. Its high pressure cleaning price guide, updated 21 August 2026, lists patio cleaning at £40 to £150 per job, varying with patio size and the extent of grime build-up. It also publishes a rate by the square foot, at £0.14 to £0.28 per square foot, working out at £14 to £28 for 100 square feet and £56 to £112 for 400 square feet. We have not converted that into a per square metre figure, because MyBuilder does not publish one and the arithmetic would be ours, not theirs.

One name that is missing from this page is Which?. The Which? patio article we read on 30 August 2026, its guide to the best pressure washers for cleaning cars, patios and driveways, tests pressure washer machines rather than the cost of hiring somebody, and publishes no price for patio cleaning as a service. A patio cleaning service price credited to Which? is not coming from that guide.

Why do the three price guides disagree?

The gap between MyBuilder's £40 to £150 and MyJobQuote's £430 to £490 for a 45m² patio is not a rounding error. Averaging them would produce a number nobody publishes, which is exactly the number you should not plan around.

The first reason is the unit. Checkatrade quotes a rate per square metre and MyJobQuote quotes a job total, so the two only meet once you know the area. Checkatrade publishes a rate per m² and a labour line of £250 to £350 per day, average £300 per day, but no job total, so the two cannot be lined up without arithmetic Checkatrade does not publish. Set the two published per square metre rates side by side and the gap is plain: Checkatrade's £3 to £4.50 against MyJobQuote's £9 to £18. MyJobQuote's labour line is higher too, at £40 to £80 per hour or £400 to £800 a day.

The second reason is what each band is measuring. MyBuilder's own page separates out the things that push a job past £150: special treatments such as algae removal at £50 or more, specialised equipment hire at £20 to £100 per day, and extra labour for stubborn stains or awkward angles at £20 to £50 per hour. The sources are describing different jobs and calling them by the same name.

What moves the price on a real patio?

Every factor below is stated by at least one of the three sources, named against it. None of it is guesswork on our part.

• Area: all three sources price on size. Checkatrade notes larger patios take longer and may trigger a higher minimum charge; MyJobQuote's whole patio table is built on square metres.
• Surface: Checkatrade prices block paving above slabs and concrete, and decking above everything else, and says natural stone, block paving, concrete, tarmac and timber decking may all need different cleaning methods.
• Condition: Checkatrade says heavy algae, moss, black spots, oil stains or ingrained dirt can increase the cost, and MyJobQuote says heavy grime, mould and moss can take longer or need a second visit at extra cost.
• Access: all three flag it. Checkatrade names awkward access, steps, long hose runs and limited water access; MyJobQuote and MyBuilder both say hard-to-reach areas can carry an additional charge.
• Water: Checkatrade says most patio cleaners use your outdoor tap, and that some bring their own water supply but this can cost extra.
• Season: MyBuilder alone says demand rises in spring and summer, which can push prices up, and that autumn and winter can bring discounts or promotions.
• Region: MyJobQuote is the only one of the three publishing regional numbers, and only for labour per hour.

None of the three publishes a Surrey, Sussex or Kent row, or any South East town-by-town table, so a page showing you one is not getting it from them.

What costs extra, and why is there a minimum charge on a small patio?

The headline bands above are for cleaning, and several common additions sit outside them. Sealing is normally bought with the clean rather than added on top of it. Checkatrade publishes a separate cleaning and sealing rate covering both jobs together: patio slabs £4 to £9 per m² (average £6.50), block paving £4 to £10 per m² (average £7) and concrete £4 to £9 per m² (average £6.50), against £2 to £5.25 per m² for cleaning those same three surfaces alone. MyBuilder is the only one of the three that prices sealant on its own, at around £5 to £17 per m². Sealing is a separate job that we do not sell, so this page has no reason to push you either way, and we have written up when it makes sense and when it does not in our guide on whether you should seal a patio or driveway after cleaning.

Stain work is the next addition. Checkatrade lists oil stain treatment and black spot or algae treatment as extras to budget for, and MyBuilder puts algae removal or anti-fungal applications at £50 or more. The smaller extras are easy to miss. Checkatrade lists furniture moving as a cost extra, and treats nearby paths, steps and decking as extras rather than as part of the patio area, so measure what you are actually asking for. MyJobQuote alone raises waste, saying local wastewater disposal regulations must be followed and may be subject to an additional fee.

On minimum charges, Checkatrade says there will likely be a minimum call-out cost, normally based on a minimum 30m² charge. That is Checkatrade's description of the trade generally and it is not our pricing. If your patio is small, ask up front whether a minimum applies before you compare quotes, because a tiny patio often will not cost proportionally less than a medium one.

Is my patio cleaning quote fair?

The published bands are only useful if you compare like with like, and most quotes are not directly comparable as written. Checkatrade sets out what a quote should cover, and it is a sensible list to hold any quote against.

• Area: the square metres being cleaned, agreed before anybody starts, so a per m² quote can be checked.
• Method: what is being used on the surface, since a lance, a rotary head and a chemical treatment are three different jobs.
• Stain treatment: whether black spot, algae or oil are priced in or priced as extras.
• Sealing: in or out, and at what rate per m². Checkatrade prices cleaning and sealing together, MyBuilder prices the sealant on its own, so check which of the two rates above your quote is describing.
• Minimum charge: whether one applies to your patio, and at what area.
• Water: whose water is being used, and whether an outdoor tap exists.
• VAT: Checkatrade lists total cost including VAT if applicable as a line to check. None of the three sources states whether its own figures include or exclude VAT, so ask, rather than assume.

Be careful with time-based comparisons too. MyJobQuote puts a 15m² patio at 3 to 4 hours and a 45m² patio at 7 to 9 hours, so hold any quote that promises far less than that against the published hours and ask what is being left out.

When is cleaning a patio not worth the money?

This is a pressure washing business telling you that a patio clean is sometimes the wrong purchase. If the slabs are lifting, rocking or cracked, cleaning makes the damage more visible, not less. If your patio is block paving and the joints are already empty, washing them out further is a real risk, which we cover in our guide on whether pressure washing damages block paving. Both are reasons to talk about the finished state before the price.

Black spot is the other honest caveat. Checkatrade lists black spot or algae treatment as an extra to budget for rather than part of a basic clean, and MyBuilder puts algae removal or anti-fungal applications at £50 or more. Checkatrade also says a patio with algae, weeds, black spots or oil stains takes longer to clean, and MyJobQuote says heavy grime, mould and moss can take longer or need a second visit at extra cost, so treat a same-day transformation promise on heavy black spot as a question to ask rather than a given. What actually works on it, and why it behaves the way it does, is set out in our guide to removing black spots and lichen from a patio or driveway.

If the patio is structurally sound and simply dirty, cleaning is the sensible next step, and cleaning it regularly stops the dirt reaching the state that needs the longest jobs in the tables above. For what the job itself involves, see our patio cleaning page, or ask us for a free, no-obligation quote and we will price your patio, from photos or a visit, rather than a national average.