How we price drone exterior cleaning

Commercial drone exterior cleaning is $0.12–$0.25 per square foot, fixed price after a free site survey, with no minimum charge at any size. Bigger jobs get lower rates: the range eases to $0.12–$0.20 at 40,000 sq ft and up, and on very large projects the rate can reach $0.09 per sq ft at 150,000 sq ft. Small residential roofs, up to 3,000 sq ft, run $0.25–$0.35 per sq ft, also with no minimum, and most single-family homes land $500–$1,200. Solar arrays are $1–$3 per panel. Parking garages are the one exception: on structures of 100,000 sq ft and up the deck is a flat $0.06 per sq ft, with walls, columns and ceilings at $0.06–$0.08. Rates shown are our published national rates. Every job is a fixed price after a free site survey.

Because a published rate is something a customer can check. Every fixed-price national competitor we researched keeps its pricing off the page and quotes case by case with no reference point. We would rather stand behind a number, explain exactly what moves it, and let the site survey confirm it than ask you to trust an unpublished estimate.

Six factors, in roughly this order of weight: total square footage (bigger jobs get lower rates), height and the number of staging positions a building needs, substrate or surface type, soiling level, site access and logistics for the ground rig, and scheduling (business hours versus after-hours or weekend work).

Correct, on any job, commercial or residential, at any size. The higher rate at the small end of each band already covers mobilization, so there is no separate flat minimum layered on top of the per-square-foot price.

Traditional access methods carry their own cost before anyone cleans anything: engineering and permits, rental or erection of the rig, and an insurance load driven by people working at height. Drone cleaning removes the access equipment entirely, so the published rate typically lands 30–60% below scaffolding, swing-stage or boom-lift work on the same building.

Yes: recurring visits run 20–30% below the one-off price, per visit, for every service. Portfolios of several properties under one owner or manager are a separate, alternative discount, 20–30% below single-building rates. The two do not stack, a portfolio client gets portfolio pricing or the maintenance discount, whichever applies, not both.

No. The site survey and the resulting quote are both free. You receive a fixed-price proposal and a scope of work before anything is scheduled, and once you sign, the price does not move except for a genuine change in scope.

$0.12–$0.25 and every other published rate on this page are our published national rates. Crews and equipment mobilize anywhere in the United States, with travel built into a fixed quote after a free site survey. Every job is a fixed price after a free site survey, using the same model and the same equipment everywhere.

An FAA Part 107 certified pilot, the Lucid Bots Sherpa drone and ground rig, on-site pure-water filtration, biodegradable soft-wash chemistry, site setup, $2M liability coverage plus dedicated UAS aviation liability, and 4K before-and-after documentation. Nothing on that list is billed as a separate line item.

Convert every bid to the same unit before comparing totals. Rope access crews often quote per drop (one vertical descent on one elevation) and swing-stage or BMU operators often quote per day; neither tells you the total cost until you know how many drops or days the job needs. Per square foot is the unit that scales directly with the building, which is why we quote that way.