Pressure washing insurance for a cleaner adding the service

A client with a spotless kitchen asks if you can do the driveway, the deck and the back of the house too. You own a mop and a vacuum, not a pressure washer, but the money is good and the client is already yours. The insurance question is different from anything in the house, because a mop doesn't crack vinyl siding.

Your current policy was written around wet floors and held vases, as the general liability page lays out. Exterior work adds things it never priced, and what follows is how the carriers describe them. Everything was read on October 1, 2026.

Spray damage to things next to your work is the easy part

The carriers agree on the easy part. Insureon says general liability can cover accidental damage to a client's property, including damaging siding, windows or fixtures with high-pressure spray, and a customer who trips on a hose. Simply Business's example is vinyl siding where the pressure setting slips and cracks several wall panels. NEXT's is a glass table that shatters while being moved before a deck cleaning. The Hartford offers misdirected spray that cracks a window and a client who slips on wet pavement.

Most of those are things that were next to your work, or in its way. Simply Business's siding is the surface being washed, and its page still puts it under general liability. The harder cases are paint and concrete.

The surface you were hired to wash

Insureon's pressure washing page lists a "your work" exclusion: some policies won't cover damage to the surface you were hired to clean, with stripping paint and damaging concrete as its examples. Simply Business's carpet and window cleaning pages put "damage to your work" in the list of what general liability doesn't cover; its pressure washing page doesn't carry that list. Thimble says on its pressure washing page that many insurers take customer property out of general liability as a business risk, and sells it back as a sublimited Customer Property Protection coverage. We read a Wayback copy of that page from June 16, 2026, because the live page blocked our reader.

The carriers sort the same kinds of damage differently:

Source	Situation	Where the page puts it
Insureon	Siding, windows or fixtures damaged by spray	General liability
Insureon	Stripped paint, damaged concrete on the surface you were hired to clean	May fall under a "your work" exclusion
Simply Business	Vinyl siding cracked by the pressure setting	General liability
ERGO NEXT	Glass table broken during deck prep	General liability
ERGO NEXT	Client says your washing chipped the paint	Errors and omissions (professional liability)
Thimble	Lawn décor you weren't hired to clean, damaged by high pressure	General liability
Thimble	Property you're working on	Customer Property Protection, a sublimited add-on

Insureon and Simply Business both name siding as covered. NEXT sends chipped paint on the same house to professional liability. Sort the table by what got damaged and a pattern shows that none of these pages states: damage to things you weren't washing sits under general liability on every page, while the exclusions, the add-ons and professional liability turn up when the thing you were washing is damaged. Simply Business's cracked siding is the exception. Carpet cleaners face the same split with the rug, which the carpet cleaning insurance page and the care, custody and control guide take up.

MoneyGeek models professional liability for pressure washers, which it describes as covering claims that your technique caused etched glass, stripped paint or ruined wood, at $57 a month.

Runoff is the part a house cleaner has no history with

This is the part a house cleaner has no history with. Insureon says damage from cleaning chemicals or runoff is often excluded and that you may need pollution liability coverage. NEXT's own example of a professional liability claim is being accused of causing water damage to a client's home. Gaslamp's pressure washing page lists contractors pollution liability as a separate product beside general liability, workers' comp and equipment cover.

MoneyGeek describes that pollution policy as the one for chemical runoff and detergent discharge into storm drains, the things it says general liability excludes, and models it at $52 a month. It also says bleach-based roof treatments, heavy degreasers and rust removers raise your pollution exposure. Those are MoneyGeek's modeled figures and its own analysis, not an insurer's rate.

In an April 2026 thread on the Pressure Washing Resource forum, one member says a pollution exclusion gives a carrier an easy way to deny runoff and loosened-material claims, and another says overspray was treated as a pollutant on their policy. Those are one member's view of the clause and another's account of their own policy, not carrier statements, but they show the question to ask. Whether detergent on a neighbor's car or runoff into a flowerbed counts as a pollutant is a matter of your form's wording.

Ladders, roofs and what the carriers call higher risk

The Hartford lists roof, siding and deck cleaning specialists beside driveway and concrete cleaners as people who may need the policy. Insureon's video transcript on its pressure washing page says workers' comp is especially important for roof washing and window cleaning, where falls and injuries can occur more often.

Gaslamp is the one page we read that ties the work to tiers. Its Standard tier is for sole proprietors and smaller residential work, with driveways, decks, patios and fences as examples. The Plus tier adds endorsements for "higher-risk areas." The Advantage tier is the one it lists for parking lots, fleet cleaning and multi-story work. All three show general liability limits of up to $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate. Its quote form also lists "Roof cleaning (without using high pressure)" as its own type of work, separate from pressure washing. Gaslamp's page doesn't say what any tier excludes, so the exclusions are a question for the quote.

Roofs, two-story siding and anything else that needs a ladder bring in height, which the window cleaning insurance page takes up for price and terms.

Equipment, trailer and truck

Your machine, hoses and surface cleaners are worth more than a vacuum. Insureon describes inland marine as the policy for pressure washing equipment in transit or stored off-site, and The Hartford's pressure washing page, in its business owner's policy section, lists washers, surface cleaners, chemical injectors, water tanks and generators as the equipment its commercial property cover can protect. NEXT's tools and equipment limit is $3,000 on its Basic tier, $5,000 on Pro and $10,000 on Pro Plus. Compare those with what a washer, trailer and rig cost you to replace.

NEXT's lowest tier also shows a general liability limit of $300,000 per occurrence, against $1 million on Pro. The certificate of insurance guide shows what limits an HOA and a university put into their vendor contracts. A van or truck means commercial auto. Insureon's median for pressure washing owners is $262 a month, more than anything else on the list.

Published prices, and whose they are

Source	General liability	Other lines	What the figure describes
Insureon	$73 a month ($879 a year)	BOP $142, workers' comp $147, auto $262, umbrella $76, bond $9	Median of policies for pressure washing owners applying through Insureon; page updated September 8, 2026
The Hartford	$810 a year (about $68 a month)	BOP $1,687 a year, workers' comp $1,032 a year	Average paid by its small business customers; the page says it doesn't offer this policy online
Simply Business	From $41.67 a month	Workers' comp from $38.91, equipment from $20.83	A 10th percentile of its policies sold July to December 2025, per its footnote
MoneyGeek	BOP $74 a month	With auto $269; with workers' comp $371; with cyber and pollution $505	Modeled bundles for a one to four employee business at standard limits

NEXT, Thimble and Gaslamp publish no pressure washing premium on the pages we read.

The Hartford's three figures are identical on its carpet cleaning and window cleaning pages, so treat them as small business averages rather than pressure washing prices. Simply Business's "from" is the cheapest 10 percent, so it will always look low. Insureon's $73 and MoneyGeek's modeled $74 BOP are the closest thing to a typical starting bill, and neither includes the lines this trade adds. MoneyGeek's pollution ($52) and professional liability ($57) lines are each most of the price of its entire BOP. Insureon's house cleaning median for general liability is $51, and the cost page lines the trades up.

Questions to ask before you add the service

1. "Does the policy list pressure washing as an operation, and is anything about it excluded?"
2. "Is there a pollution exclusion, and does it reach detergent runoff, overspray or chemical mist?"
3. "If I crack siding or windows, which policy pays? If I strip paint or etch the surface I'm washing, which policy pays?"
4. "Is there a limit on height or roof work, and does a second storey change the tier or the price?"
5. "What does the tools and equipment limit say about my washer and trailer, and what is the deductible?"

Ask for the answers in writing, then send the policy to the client who asked. The coverage page shows where each policy sits in the order to buy them.