Can You Get Your Driveway or Patio Cleaned During a Hosepipe Ban?

Yes, in the Thames Water and Affinity Water areas, and in South East Water's area outside Sussex, as long as a cleaning business does it for you. They exempt cleaning paths, patios and other outdoor surfaces when it is done as a service to customers in the course of a business. Since 9 October 2026 South East Water's Sussex supply area is different: commercial hosepipe cleaning is banned there too. For most households, doing it yourself with a mains-fed pressure washer is banned there. SES Water has no ban at all.

Last checked on 29 September 2026. South East Water's Sussex change of 9 October 2026 was added on 13 October 2026. Bans start, change and lift at short notice, and each water company writes its own rules, so read the ban notice from the company that supplies your water before you book a clean or get the pressure washer out. This is a plain-English reading of the published rules, not legal advice.

Is there a hosepipe ban where you live?

The Environment Agency's weekly drought report, updated on 25 September 2026, lists ten water companies in England with a temporary use ban in all or part of their area. This is where five South East companies stood when we checked on 29 September 2026:

• Thames Water: a ban across its whole supply area, in force from 00:01 on 23 July 2026.
• South East Water: a ban across its whole company area, according to the Environment Agency. Its notice for the Sussex and West region took effect at 00:01 on 25 July 2026. From 9 October 2026 its Sussex supply area allows a hosepipe only for health, safety or welfare reasons.
• Affinity Water: a ban across its Central region, in force from 00:01 on 17 July 2026. That region includes Surrey postcodes such as GU1 to GU5, GU21 to GU25 and KT10 to KT16.
• SES Water: no ban. Its website said on 29 September 2026 that it was not planning to introduce one at this stage.
• Southern Water: a ban in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight only. The Environment Agency lists no Southern Water ban in Sussex or Kent.

The company that matters is the one that supplies your water, and it is named on your water bill. Thames Water says its wastewater-only customers are not affected, and South East Water and Affinity Water both say their bans cover everyone they supply, including customers served by another retailer. Each company has a hosepipe ban page on its own website, and some let you check by postcode.

What does a hosepipe ban stop?

The list is fixed by law. Section 76 of the Water Industry Act 1991 says only eleven uses of water can be banned, and three of them are cleaning: walls or windows of domestic premises, paths or patios, and other artificial outdoor surfaces, each using a hosepipe. The Water Use (Temporary Bans) Order 2010 defines an artificial outdoor surface to include any area outdoors paved or laid with hard or artificial material, timber decking, and the roof of any domestic premises. So a block-paved or concrete driveway, a patio, decking and a house roof are all inside a ban.

A pressure washer counts. The Act says a hosepipe includes anything designed, adapted or used to serve the same purpose as one. South East Water's notice says anything connected to the mains supply is a hosepipe, together with anything attached to it like pressure washers. Thames Water's ban page says you must not use a hosepipe, sprinkler or pressure washer to clean patios, driveways, paths, walls, windows or outdoor surfaces.

Breaking a ban is a criminal offence. Section 76 sets the maximum penalty at a level 3 fine on summary conviction, and the South East Water and Affinity Water notices both put that at £1,000.

Why can a cleaner do it when you cannot?

Not because the law exempts businesses. It does not. The paths, patios and outdoor surfaces categories apply whoever holds the hose, and the only carve-out the 2010 Order makes for them is cleaning for health or safety reasons. What lets a cleaner work is section 76A of the same Act, which lets each water company make its ban subject to exceptions, set by class of user or in any other way. Thames Water, South East Water and Affinity Water have all used that power for cleaning done as a service to customers.

• Thames Water: its legal notice exempts using a hosepipe to clean walls and windows of domestic premises, paths or patios, or other outdoor artificial surfaces, 'where this is done as a service to customers in the course of a business'. Its FAQs say commercial services for customers can still be done using a hose or jet washer.
• South East Water: its notice gives the same exception for paths, patios and other artificial outdoor surfaces, where this is done as a service to customers in the course of a business. Its FAQs say that is the only exemption for this cleaning apart from unavoidable health and safety. That still applies in Kent, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire, but not in its Sussex supply area: from 9 October 2026 South East Water says commercial hosepipe cleaning of windows, walls, paths, patios and outdoor artificial surfaces is prohibited there.
• Affinity Water: its notice says a hosepipe can be used to clean the paths, patios and artificial outdoor surfaces of domestic premises where this is done by a business as a service to customers.

Two things follow. First, the answer is only as good as the notice for your address, because each company writes its own terms. Southern Water's published guidance for its Hampshire and Isle of Wight ban, for example, exempts commercial window cleaners but does not expressly exempt a business cleaning your drive or patio. Second, a company can change its terms. South East Water said it was granting these business exemptions 'at this stage', and removed them in Sussex from 9 October 2026. South East Water and Affinity Water both say they may question anyone's use of an exemption if they receive reports of a hosepipe in use.

Can you do it yourself with stored water?

With rainwater, yes. With mains water in a tank, no. A ban only reaches water supplied by the water company. South East Water's notice says a hosepipe connected to a water butt or other recycled water storage system is not restricted, and Thames Water's FAQs say you can still use water that is not from the mains.

What does not work is filling a tank or a bowser from the outside tap and pumping it through a pressure washer. The 2010 Order says using a hosepipe includes filling a container with mains water by hosepipe and then applying it, and drawing mains water through a hosepipe from a container. The Order treats mains water supplied before a ban started differently, but that is a narrow point, and we would not rely on a tank nobody can show was filled before the ban date.

There is also the health or safety carve-out. The companies read it narrowly: South East Water describes it as unavoidable health and safety, and Affinity Water's notes on cleaning walls and windows say the grounds for it are considered to be rare, perhaps linked to accidents and incidents. A drive that looks tired is not a safety case.

Should you wait until the ban lifts?

The companies that allow it would still rather you did, if the job can wait. South East Water's Kent FAQs say that although cleaning as a service to customers is exempt, if you can wait until cooler weather and demand for water falls, that would really help. Thames Water's FAQs encourage low water use kit, such as a low water use pressure washer, where a business is using a customer's hosepipe. If the job cannot wait, a professional clean is within the published rules in the Thames Water and Affinity Water areas, and in South East Water's area outside Sussex.

What to check before you book a clean during a ban

• Which company supplies the water at this address, from your bill, and whether it has a ban in force today.
• Whether that company's notice exempts cleaning done as a service to customers. Thames Water and Affinity Water say yes, and so does South East Water outside Sussex. Southern Water's published guidance does not say so.
• Whose water the cleaner will use. A cleaner working from your outside tap is using your mains supply, so the job relies on the business exemption.
• Whether the notice has changed. Exemptions granted 'at this stage' can be withdrawn, as South East Water did in Sussex from 9 October 2026, so check again close to the day.

We clean driveways, patios and roofs from Horley across Surrey, Sussex and Kent. Tell us your postcode and the water company on your bill when you ask for a free quote.