The company worth hiring is the one that can tell you which surfaces on your property need soft washing versus straight pressure, carries real liability insurance they can show proof of, and gives you a written estimate before anything gets scheduled. Kentucky doesn’t issue a specialty trade license for pressure washing the way it does for plumbing or electrical work, so “licensed” here means a legitimate local business registration, not a competency exam most people assume it is. Knowing that difference alone filters out a good chunk of the fly-by-night operators in this business.
What “Licensed and Insured” Actually Means Here
This is worth clearing up because it trips a lot of homeowners up. There’s no state board that tests and certifies pressure washing contractors in Kentucky, unlike a trade such as electrical work where a license means someone passed an exam. Kentucky doesn’t run a general statewide business license at all; registration and any required licensing happen at the state entity level and again at the local city or county level. When a company says they’re “licensed,” what that typically means is a proper city or county business registration, which is a real and worthwhile thing to verify, just not the same guarantee a licensed electrician’s credential gives you.
Insurance is the piece that actually protects you. General liability coverage means if something gets damaged during a job, a cracked window, a chipped driveway, a piece of siding pulled loose, there’s a real policy behind the repair. Nobody’s left arguing over who pays. Any company should be able to produce proof of active coverage without hesitation. If they can’t, or get vague about it, that’s worth walking away from before anything gets scheduled.
Questions Worth Asking Before You Book
A few questions separate a company that knows the trade from one that just owns a pressure washer.
- Will you pressure wash my siding, or soft wash it? A company that answers “pressure wash” without asking about your siding material or its age either doesn’t know the difference or doesn’t care, and either one is a problem. We cover exactly why this matters on our soft washing versus pressure washing page.
- Can you show me proof of insurance? A legitimate company has this ready immediately, not “we’ll email it over.
- What happens to the runoff and cleaning solution? Lexington’s stormwater rules hold property owners responsible for what leaves a site through a storm drain, and a company with no answer here is a company that hasn’t thought about it, which we cover in more detail on our local rules and regulations page.
- What’s your process if something gets damaged? A company with real insurance and real experience answers this without getting defensive.
- Do you offer any kind of guarantee? Standing behind the work after the invoice is paid says something about how a company operates day to day.
Red Flags Worth Noticing
A quote that’s dramatically lower than every other estimate you got usually means something’s being cut, whether that’s insurance, proper chemical dilution, or the time actually spent on the job. A company that shows up and starts spraying without ever walking the property first, the kind of walk-around we cover on our what to expect page, is skipping the step where damage risk actually gets caught before it happens. Pressure alone as the answer to every surface, siding included, is one of the most common signs of a company that’s never lost a customer’s trust to a cracked panel or a stripped section of paint, because they haven’t been doing this long enough to have made that mistake yet.
What We’d Want You to Check About Us
We’re PWNA Power Washing 101 Certified, licensed and insured through a legitimate Lexington business registration, and back every job with a 30-day guarantee. We’re happy to walk you through our insurance coverage before anything gets scheduled, and our case studies show real jobs we’ve done around Lexington, not stock photos. None of that replaces doing your own homework, but it’s exactly the kind of thing this page tells you to ask about.
Common Questions