Render Cleaning Cost UK 2026: Per Square Metre and Per House

Render cleaning is published at £5 to £8 per square metre by Checkatrade, with an average of £6.50, and at £6 to £12 per square metre by MyJobQuote. Those are the only two UK price authorities that price this job, and they disagree on the whole house figure too: Checkatrade puts a detached house at £600 to £1,100 and MyJobQuote puts it at £720 to £1,800. Two sources describing the same work, and the top of one is nowhere near the top of the other. Both are national market ranges rather than quotes, and neither is ours.

That is the short answer. Below is every band each source publishes, why the two disagree so sharply, what actually moves the number on your own wall, and what a render cleaning price usually does not include.

How much does render cleaning cost per square metre?

Render cleaning is £5 to £8 per square metre on Checkatrade, average £6.50, and £6 to £12 per square metre on MyJobQuote. The per square metre rate is the honest unit, because it is the only figure that survives being compared between two houses. Checkatrade's render cleaning cost guide states it was last updated in August 2026, and MyJobQuote's 2026 render cleaning price guide is the other one that publishes a rate. These are their figures, as published.

• Softwash render cleaning: Checkatrade publishes £5 to £8 per square metre, with an average of £6.50 per square metre.
• Render cleaning by area: MyJobQuote publishes £6 to £12 per square metre. It gives £9 per square metre as the average in its detail section and £8 per square metre in its at-a-glance summary, so both figures appear on the same page.
• Graffiti removal from render: Checkatrade publishes £11 to £20 per square metre, average £16, and prices it separately from a normal clean.
• Paint removal from render: Checkatrade publishes £24 to £40 per square metre, average £32.
• Cement removal from render: Checkatrade publishes £40 to £60 per square metre, average £50.
• Protective hydrophobic coating, applied after cleaning: MyJobQuote publishes around £20 per square metre, and lists it as an extra rather than part of a clean.

Checkatrade calls its own numbers ballpark averages and says costs vary by location. It also describes the method it is pricing: a low pressure washer and a mild detergent, to remove dirt without damaging the surface. Those last three specialist rates are separate services rather than parts of a standard clean, so a wall carrying graffiti or old masonry paint is not being priced at £6.50 per square metre by anybody.

What does it cost to clean the render on a semi-detached or detached house?

A whole detached house runs £600 to £1,100 on Checkatrade and £720 to £1,800 on MyJobQuote. Both sources also price the smaller property types, Checkatrade splitting the job two ways and MyJobQuote three.

• Terrace or semi-detached house: Checkatrade publishes £300 to £600 for the whole property, with an average of £400.
• Detached house: Checkatrade publishes £600 to £1,100 for the whole property, with an average of £850.
• Terraced house: MyJobQuote publishes £420 to £1,080 for the whole property, average £760.
• Semi-detached house: MyJobQuote publishes £600 to £1,680 for the whole property, average £1,140.
• Detached house: MyJobQuote publishes £720 to £1,800 for the whole property, average £1,260.
• Minor render repairs, such as small cracks, done before cleaning: MyJobQuote publishes £200 to £300.

MyJobQuote also gives a duration for the work, at one to two days, and says render should be recleaned every two to four years, and typically every two to three years on exposed walls. Neither source publishes a VAT position, a regional table or a London weighting for this job, so nobody can honestly tell you what the Surrey, Sussex or Kent version of these figures is.

Why the two sources are so far apart

We are not going to split the difference and hand you an averaged number, because an average of two ranges is a figure nobody publishes. The likeliest reading is that the two guides describe slightly different scopes. Checkatrade's high figure, £8 per square metre, describes what it calls a softwash: a low pressure washer and a mild detergent. MyJobQuote's process also covers a porosity test and a biocide treatment, and it charges any follow up application on heavily stained render on top rather than including it.

The whole-property numbers drift for a simpler reason. A detached house is not a fixed area. Checkatrade's £600 to £1,100 and MyJobQuote's £720 to £1,800 both describe a detached house, but a two storey detached with clear access and a three storey detached on a slope are not the same wall area. To sanity check a quote, take the per square metre range and multiply it by your own wall area. That is a better test than the house-type band.

One number you will see quoted that is not a render cleaning price: MyBuilder publishes no render cleaning guide at all. Its nearest published figure is £50 to £500 per job for pressure cleaning of exterior walls, on its general pressure cleaning price guide. That is pressure cleaning of walls, which is a different method from a render softwash, and it should never be presented as a render soft wash rate. Which? publishes no cost guide for this job in any form, checked across which.co.uk and trustedtraders.which.co.uk, so there is nothing to quote from it.

What moves the price on your wall, and does Surrey, Sussex or Kent change it?

Both sources list their own cost drivers, and they overlap almost exactly. Between them, this is what a quote is really responding to.

• Wall area: a bungalow and a three storey house at the same rate are wildly different totals.
• Height and access: Checkatrade lists property height and site access as drivers. MyJobQuote lists access difficulty and prices scaffolding separately, at £65 for a small access tower and from £600 for full exterior scaffolding. Anything a pole cannot reach costs more before a drop of solution is applied.
• Render type: MyJobQuote names lime, K Rend, monocouche, silicone and acrylic as a price factor, because they do not all take the same treatment.
• How bad the growth is: both sources price severity of algae, moss and staining. MyJobQuote is explicit that heavily stained render may need more than one treatment application, which is an extra visit, not a discount.
• Which way the wall faces: MyJobQuote lists shaded and north facing walls, coastal exposure and rainfall as location factors. In practice a north facing elevation under trees is the one that goes green first and comes back soonest.
• What else gets done on the same visit: MyJobQuote names soffits, fascias and protective treatments as extras added to the job.

Notice what is not on either list. Neither authority publishes a price that varies by county, so there is no published Surrey rate, Sussex rate or Kent rate for this job. Any quote presented to you as a standard county figure is that company's own pricing, not a market benchmark.

What the price leaves out, and how to compare two quotes

This is where two quotes that look hundreds of pounds apart turn out to be the same money. Both sources are clear that a render cleaning price is for cleaning only. Protective sealant and biocide coatings are priced separately by Checkatrade, and MyJobQuote publishes around £20 per square metre for a hydrophobic coating. Scaffolding and cherry picker hire are excluded by both. Render repairs found during the clean are extra on both, at MyJobQuote's £200 to £300 for minor cracks. Follow up treatments where staining is heavy are charged on top, and exterior painting is a separate job entirely, which MyJobQuote puts at £1,500 to £7,700.

We do not do rendering or render patching, so if a crack turns up behind the algae we will tell you and you will need a renderer. We do not seal paving either. Both are worth knowing before you compare a cleaning price against a quote that quietly bundles a coating into it.

The published ranges only help if you can tell whether two quotes cover the same work. These are the questions that separate them.

• Ask for the price per square metre, not just the job total, and check it against the two published ranges above.
• Ask whether a biocide is being applied or the wall is only being rinsed, because a rinse moves the algae rather than killing it.
• Ask whether a second treatment is included if heavy staining does not clear, since MyJobQuote lists follow up treatments as a separate charge.
• Ask whether access equipment is inside the price or on top, and get that in writing before the day.
• Ask whether any protective coating is included and what it costs on its own.
• Ask for a test patch on one section before a whole elevation is done.

Why this is a soft wash price and not a jet wash price

Both price authorities describe the method they are costing, and it is the same one. Checkatrade describes the job it is pricing as a softwash, a low pressure washer with a mild detergent to remove dirt without damaging the surface, and warns that the wrong chemical or pressure setting can strip a protective coating or damage the surface. MyJobQuote is blunter: high-pressure jets of water can easily strip the surface away, so soft washing is recommended for most render types. The manufacturers are less absolute than that, and it is worth knowing before you read a quote. K Rend's own maintenance page permits a pressure washer on render, with clean water and a mild detergent, set to fan application rather than high power. So the honest position is yes within limits, not never, and the manufacturer by manufacturer case with the data sheet figures behind it is set out in can you jet wash render?. What the price guides are pricing is the low pressure method, which is what our soft washing page describes.

Is render cleaning worth the money?

Sometimes the honest answer is not yet, and this is a cleaning company saying so. Render cleaning is a cosmetic job. K Rend's aftercare guide says the presence of algae will not adversely affect the long term performance of the render, so if somebody tells you the green is eating your wall, that is not a worry the manufacturer shares. Buy it because you want the house to look right, not because you have been frightened into it.

Two things are worth doing before you spend anything. First, look up. If one dark green stripe runs down an otherwise clean wall, that is usually a gutter overflowing in the same spot, and cleaning the wall without fixing the cause means the stripe comes back. Our gutter clearing page covers that side of it. Second, be realistic about the timescale, because a soft wash keeps working after the van leaves and some staining fades over the following weeks rather than on the day. The same is true of black spotting on paving, which we cover in how do you remove black spots and lichen from a patio or driveway?

On frequency, MyJobQuote's published guidance is every two to four years, and typically every two to three years on exposed walls. Set against Checkatrade's £300 to £600 for a terrace or semi, that is the real running cost of a rendered house, and it is a fairer way to think about the number than a one-off total.

We quote free across Surrey, Sussex and Kent, we will do a test patch, and if a wall does not need doing we will say so. What we will not do is publish a headline price for your house on a page, because the two authorities that price this job nationally are hundreds of pounds apart on a detached house, and no honest number exists until somebody has looked at your wall.