Pressure Washers

Set the machine aside for a second, because it is not the deciding factor. The deciding factor is whether you can lawfully handle the water. If you run the wand yourself, you are the person creating the discharge, and San Diego's guidance says the rules apply regardless of whether the work is done by the property owner, lessee, contractor or other persons². A contractor who has already solved containment and, where required, holds a sanitary sewer authorization is buying you that solution⁶. If nobody has solved it, buying a machine just moves the problem into your driveway.

No authoritative source publishes a recommended pressure by surface, and this guide will not invent one. What the regulations do specify is an outcome rather than a setting. Under the federal lead renovation rule, shrouded stripping machines must be run so that no visible dust or release of air occurs outside the containment³, and EPA requires the work area to be isolated so no dust or debris, including in the wastewater, leaves it⁴. Those are the tests that actually matter. Manufacturer instructions for your specific machine and surface are the right place for the setting itself.

Not freely, once the job is covered by the federal lead renovation rule. That rule prohibits machines designed to remove paint or other surface coatings through high speed operation, naming sanding, grinding, power planing, needle gun, abrasive blasting and sandblasting, on painted surfaces unless the machine has a shroud or containment system and a HEPA vacuum attachment collecting dust at the point of generation³. The same provision bans open flame burning or torching of painted surfaces outright, and permits heat guns only below 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit³.

Not the storm drain, in a great many places. Federal rule treats anything reaching a municipal storm sewer that is not composed entirely of storm water as an illicit discharge¹, and Portland City Code 17.39 prohibits pressure washing wash water there by name⁶. EPA's guidance names the acceptable outcomes as contain, treat or reuse⁵, and its lead program answer tells operators to dispose of pressure washing wastewater properly and check with the local water treatment authority⁴. The sanitary sewer is often the route, but Portland requires approval under Code 17.34 first⁶.

The discharge rules do not care whether money changed hands, so containment applies either way². Licensing does care. California exempts a project where the aggregate contract price for labor, materials and all other items is under $1,000 and no building permit is needed, raised to that level effective January 1, 2026⁸. Two carve-outs bite immediately for this trade: the exemption is lost if you advertise or display a sign suggesting you are a contractor, or if you employ anyone to help. Splitting one job into smaller contracts to stay under the line is also blocked⁸.