Pressure washing in Montgomery County, PA: condos, rentals and older homes
Updated · KeystoneProGuide editorial team
What should Montgomery County homeowners know before a pressure wash?
Montgomery County has 350,351 housing units by the Census Bureau's estimate, and more of them sit in shared buildings than is usual for Pennsylvania. The bureau counts 26.1 percent of the county's units in multi-unit structures, against 21.0 percent statewide. That matters for washing because Pennsylvania's home improvement law, and the question of who hires the company, both work differently for a unit in a shared building than for a detached house.
Does the state's contractor law cover a condo or a twin?
It covers some shared housing and not all. The Attorney General says the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act applies only to private residences, which it defines as single-family homes, buildings of not more than two units, and single units in a multifamily building, including condominiums and co-ops. A duplex is inside that definition, and so is a single condo unit; a building of three or more units, taken as a whole, is not.
What the law's guidance does not say is how it treats work on the common exterior of a condominium building. If your association hires the washing company, ask the association who signed the contract and what it covers.
Which Montgomery County homes face the lead paint rule?
Those built before 1978 whose painted surfaces will be washed. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires a paid company doing that work to be certified in lead-safe work practices, and its archived answer on washing says the work must be contained so that no dust or debris, including in the waste water, escapes.
The Census Bureau counts 16.0 percent of the county's housing as first built in 1939 or earlier. All of those homes are inside the rule's date, and so are many built later; the profile does not give a figure for 1978 itself. Only 8.1 percent of the county's homes date from 2010 or later. If you cannot find out when your house was built, the EPA says the safest course is to assume lead-based paint is present.
What about rented homes?
The Census Bureau puts 28.6 percent of the county's 335,505 occupied homes as rented. The EPA says its lead rule applies to landlords who disturb paint in pre-1978 housing, so a landlord who hires a company to wash a painted older rental needs a certified firm, and a tenant can ask whether one was used. Owner occupancy is 71.4 percent, a little above the state's 69.3 percent.
Where does the wash water go?
In Montgomery County, as elsewhere in the state's storm sewer program, a storm inlet is not a drain to a treatment plant. Penn State Extension says Pennsylvania's separate storm sewers carry water to local streams without treatment, and each municipality in the program must stop discharges of anything other than stormwater. No county-wide page on the subject was found for this guide, so ask your township or borough, and ask the company what it will do with water from old paint or chemicals.
What will it cost?
No survey prices Montgomery County separately. Angi and HomeAdvisor publish the same national range for a house, $213 to $449, and HomeAdvisor gives $400 to $1,400 for a two-story house. A unit in a shared building may be priced as part of a larger job, so ask how the price was worked out. The cost guide has the full ranges.
How do you check a company here?
No county consumer office for Montgomery County was found in the research for this guide, so the checks are the state's. Search the Attorney General's contractor search with the county set to Montgomery, and note that it offers "Pressure Washing" as a type of work, with a warning that the data is new. The Attorney General advises also checking references, getting more than one bid and looking for complaints with the Better Business Bureau.
What Pennsylvania requires explains registration and contracts. Businesses that serve the county are listed on the Montgomery County pressure washing page.
Sources
- 2020-2024 ACS 5-Year Narrative Profile: Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, U.S. Census Bureau
- 2020-2024 ACS 5-Year Narrative Profile: Pennsylvania, U.S. Census Bureau
- Frequently Asked Questions: Home Improvement Contractor Registration, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General
- Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- How do RRP requirements apply to pressure washing? What containment and other preparation are required?, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (January 2025 archived copy)
- Lead-Safe Renovations for DIYers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Home Improvement Contractor Search, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General
- Home Improvement Contractor Verification, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General
- What is an MS4?, Penn State Extension
- How Much Does It Cost to Pressure Wash a House? [2026 Data], Angi
- How Much Does Pressure Washing Cost? [2025 Data], HomeAdvisor