How we rank Rochester pressure washing and soft washing companies

Every pressure washing and soft washing operator in this directory gets a single composite score — the Roc Score — derived from a transparent, seven-factor formula. We built it specifically to handle a trade where the barrier to entry is a used pressure washer and a pickup truck: raw star rating alone rewards the loudest Facebook page, not the operator who'll actually show up in April and not force water behind your siding.

The formula

score = (w1 × googleRating) + (w2 × googleReviewCount)
      + (w3 × yelpRating)   + (w4 × yelpReviewCount)
      + (w5 × bbbAccredited) + (w6 × reviewRecency)
      + (w7 × serviceAreaOverlap)

Where:
  w1 = 0.30   Google star rating, normalized 0–5 → 0–1
  w2 = 0.20   Google review count, log-normalized (caps out near 500 reviews)
  w3 = 0.10   Yelp star rating, normalized 0–5 → 0–1
  w4 = 0.10   Yelp review count, log-normalized (same curve as Google)
  w5 = 0.05   BBB accreditation — 1 if accredited, 0 if not
  w6 = 0.10   Review recency — 1.0 (≤30 days), 0.7 (≤90), 0.3 (≤365), 0 (older)
  w7 = 0.15   Service-area overlap with our tracked Rochester suburbs

Result is clamped to 0–1, multiplied by 100, rounded to an integer.
Formula version 2026-05-16-v1 · src/lib/scoring/roc-score.ts

Three of those seven weights exist because of quirks specific to pressure washing. Review recency (10%)matters more here than in a year-round trade — Rochester's pressure-washing season runs April through October, so an operator's Google reviews cluster in a six-month window and then go quiet all winter. A last review from August 2024 tells you less by February 2026 than a plumber's does, because the operator may have simply stopped taking on residential work, changed crews, or closed. BBB accreditation (5%) is a small weight but a deliberate one: pressure washing has no New York State trade license the way electrical or plumbing work does, so a current BBB file or certificate of insurance is one of the few paper trails that exists outside of Google reviews. Service-area overlap (15%)reflects how this trade is actually run around here — most Rochester operators work fixed weekly routes (our own Hilton and Spencerport coverage rides the same Thursday western route, for example), so a business that genuinely covers your suburb on a repeatable schedule scores higher than one that lists "all of Rochester" on their website but rarely responds west of I-390.

Worked example

Business A has the most Google reviews and the highest star average of the three, yet it ranks last. No Yelp presence, no BBB file, and a last review from before last season's soft-wash window drag it down — exactly the profile of an operator who did good work a couple of years ago and may or may not still be actively booking Rochester jobs. Business C wins with a lower star average than either A or B because it's verified across two review platforms, has a BBB file, has been reviewed recently, and covers most of our tracked service area on a regular route. That ordering is the point of the formula: a 4.5-star operator who's active, verifiable, and actually shows up in your suburb should outrank a 4.6-star operator you can't confirm is still in business.

Data sources

• Google Business Profile — primary source for review count + average stars + service area
• Yelp — secondary review signal where present
• BBB.org — accreditation status + complaint history (public records only)
• NY State business registry — verifies legal entity name + active status
• Certificates of insurance — pressure washing and soft washing aren't state-licensed trades in New York, so a current general-liability certificate is one of the only independent paper trails we have outside of review platforms; we ask every listed operator for one
• Business's own website — for service offerings + pricing where published

We update business data weekly during the April–October pressure-washing season and monthly in the off-season, when review volume and route activity both slow down. If you see something stale, email connormeador@gmail.com.

What we DON'T do

• Pay-for-placement — no business pays to rank higher
• Reciprocal-link schemes — no "link to us, we'll link to you"
• Scraped review text — we link to original sources, we don't republish
• Fabricated certifications — including "licensed and bonded" language or biodegradable soft-wash chemical claims we can't verify against insurance records or the manufacturer's own safety data sheet
• AI-generated "sample of their work" images tied to specific businesses