How to hire a water blaster in Wellington (without getting a bad job)
The 7 questions to ask before booking a Wellington water blaster, and what the right answers sound like. Pick a contractor who won't strip your paint.
Hiring a Wellington water blaster comes down to 7 questions.
The answers tell you whether they know the difference between soft wash and high pressure. Get these wrong and you're paying for a paint job 18 months later. No licensing exists for water blasters in NZ, anyone can buy a pressure washer and start quoting. These 7 questions sort the careful contractor from the paint stripper.
- 7questions to ask before you book
- $0licensing barrier in NZ
- 18 mountil paint damage shows up
- $10k+typical repaint after a bad job
Ready for a contractor who passes those 7 questions? Send your address or ring 0274 055 110, James will answer them himself, no call centre.
There’s no licensing for water blasters in NZ, anyone can buy a pressure washer, print business cards, and start quoting. That makes Wellington’s water-blasting market wildly variable in quality. The honest contractor and the cheap-quote stripper of paint can look identical at the quote stage.
These seven questions sort them.
1. “Will you use high pressure on the house itself?”
Right answer: “No, soft wash for painted surfaces. High pressure only on concrete and hard surfaces.”
Wrong answer: “We use high pressure on everything,” or vague hand-waving about pressure not mattering.
This is the single most important question. Most paint damage in Wellington comes from contractors who use the same high-pressure approach on weatherboard that they use on driveways.
2. “What’s your standard PSI for the house, and for the driveway?”
Right answer: “200–500 PSI on the house with chemistry; 2,500+ on the driveway.”
Wrong answer: “Our machine does 4,000 PSI, we just adjust it,” (no, they don’t, in practice, on every job, every time).
The honest contractor knows their own pressure ranges. The dodgy one doesn’t.
3. “What chemistry do you use on the house wash?”
Right answer: Some variant of “biodegradable soft-wash detergent, plant-safe, pet-safe at applied concentration.”
Wrong answer: “We just use water,” or “bleach” (sodium hypochlorite straight is harsh on plants and joinery, proper soft-wash detergents are a controlled mix).
4. “Have you done [my specific suburb] before? What about [my specific surface]?”
Right answer: Concrete examples, “Yeah, we’ve done Karori villas, soft wash, takes 4–5 hours,” or “Coloured-press concrete on Khandallah driveways, lower pressure, colour-safe detergent.”
Wrong answer: “We do everything everywhere,” (true experience is specific).
5. “What about insurance, public liability?”
Right answer: Yes, with cover details on request.
Wrong answer: Hesitation, “we don’t really need it for residential,” or “the customer’s insurance covers it” (it doesn’t).
6. “Will I get before-and-after photos?”
Right answer: “Yes, every job, emailed when complete.”
Wrong answer: “You can take them yourself,” or “if you ask” (the contractor who refuses to document their own work is hiding something).
7. “What happens if it rains on the day?”
Right answer: “We reschedule if it’s heavy. Light drizzle is fine, soft wash chemistry actually rinses better in damp conditions.”
Wrong answer: “Doesn’t matter,” or “we’d just power through” (a contractor who’ll work in heavy rain doesn’t care about the result).
Red flags beyond the seven questions
A few things that don’t fit cleanly into a question but tell you a lot:
- No website or social presence. 25 years in this trade and not a single review online? Suspicious.
- Cash-only, no GST, no written quote. Working off the books = no accountability if something goes wrong.
- "Special price today only" pressure. Honest contractors quote a fair price and let you decide.
- Won't quote until they see the property. For complex jobs, yes; for a basic single-storey house wash, photos should be enough for a written quote.
- "We can be there in an hour." Good contractors are usually booked at least a few days out.
What a good Wellington contractor looks like in practice
What "right" looks like: Written quote within 24 hours, specific method per surface, biodegradable chemistry, public liability, before-and-after photos by default, weather-aware scheduling, and a track record you can find (reviews, Facebook, NoCowboys).
The seven questions plus the red-flag check filter most of the Wellington market down to a handful of contractors worth booking. From there, it comes down to availability and price within reason.
Get a quote from us, we’ll happily answer all seven questions before you ask.
James, Clear Water Blasting. 25 years on the tools, owner-operated.
Written by James · Clear Water Blasting Services
Owner-operated since 2001 from Johnsonville. James does every quote and every job himself across Wellington, the Hutt, Kapiti, Porirua and the Wairarapa.
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