How much does it cost to clean and stain a deck in Michigan?

How much does it cost to clean a deck in Michigan?

Deck cleaning in Macomb and Oakland County costs $1 to $2 per square foot of deck floor at Macomb Power Washing Solutions, with a starting price of $199. A 300-square-foot deck, about the size of a 15 by 20 foot platform off a back door, works out to about $300 to $600 for the cleaning. Railings, stairs and skirting are counted inside that rate, not billed as extras.

Deck cleaning is the first of up to three costs on a deck project. The second is staining, which is often booked once the wood has dried from the wash. The third, stripping or sanding, appears only when the old finish is peeling or the boards are rough. Each is priced on its own line, so knowing which ones your deck needs is most of the work of budgeting. Our deck cleaning page describes the wash itself.

How is deck cleaning priced per square foot?

Deck cleaning is priced per square foot because the floor area sets how much cleaning solution goes down, how long the dwell and brushing take, and how many passes the rinse needs. Measure length times width for each level and add the levels together. A two-level deck of 12 by 16 feet and 10 by 12 feet totals 312 square feet.

The spread between $1 and $2 per square foot comes from the condition of the wood. A deck washed last year with light pollen and dirt sits near the low end. A deck that has gone several seasons under maples, with green growth in the board gaps and gray oxidized fiber across the surface, needs a longer dwell and more detail work, and it prices toward the top. The $199 starting price, listed on our pricing page, covers small decks whose square footage would fall below it.

Bob Vila's deck staining cost guide lists power washing as deck prep at $0.50 to $1.50 per square foot nationally. Ask whether any per-square-foot figure counts the railings and stairs before setting it beside ours.

What do railings, stairs and skirting add to the price?

Railings, stairs and skirting add nothing to a deck cleaning price from Macomb Power Washing Solutions, because they are included in the per-square-foot rate. That matters because railings are slow work. Every baluster has four faces, the top rail collects green growth on its upper edge, and stair treads and risers hold dirt in their corners.

Staining is where railings show up as a separate charge. Bob Vila's guide puts the cost to stain deck railings at $4 to $12.50 per linear foot, on top of the floor price. A deck with 40 feet of railing could add $160 to $500 for the railing stain alone at those rates. Ask any stain contractor whether railings are inside or outside the per-square-foot number.

What does staining add after the cleaning?

Staining a deck adds about $2 to $4 per square foot, or $540 to $1,250 for a typical project with a national average near $775, according to Bob Vila's cost guide. Those are general national figures for labor and materials. Our deck cleaning price covers the wash, and staining is priced separately by whoever applies the stain.

Stain itself runs about $20 to $120 a gallon depending on the type, per the same guide, with transparent stains at about $20 to $60 and oil-based stains at about $35 to $120. The choice of stain also decides future costs. A penetrating stain soaks into the wood and wears away gradually, so it can be recoated after a cleaning. A solid, film-forming stain sits on the surface like paint, and when it fails it peels, which brings stripping into the next project. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Wood Handbook says deck finishes such as semitransparent stains seldom fail by cracking and peeling, while solid-color stains not specially formulated for decks "tend to fail by peeling."

The cleaning and the stain have to be scheduled with drying days between them. How many days to leave is covered in the wait before staining a freshly washed deck.

When does a deck need stripping or sanding instead of just cleaning?

A deck needs stripping when an old film-forming stain is peeling in patches, because new stain will not bond to a coat that is already letting go. Stripping costs about $1.50 to $3 per square foot nationally, per Bob Vila's guide. Sanding, which runs $1 to $4 per square foot, is needed when boards are fuzzy from past high-pressure washing or rough from weathering.

Michigan winters are hard on film-forming deck finishes. Snow sits on horizontal boards for weeks, and meltwater soaks the wood through repeated freeze-thaw cycles. A film over wood that keeps getting wet loses its grip. On a Macomb or Oakland County deck with solid stain, watch the board ends first. The Wood Handbook calls for sealing the end grain of deck boards and railings, and it notes that film-forming finishes on railings trap moisture when that end grain is left unsealed.

The same handbook gives a useful rule for stripping by pressure: "If high pressure is necessary to remove paint, the paint probably does not need to be removed prior to refinishing." Its reason is that a pressure stream cuts the soft earlywood of each annual ring and leaves the harder latewood standing as ridges that are hard to refinish, and its steps for chemical stripping end with sanding off the wood the stripper damaged. It also describes sodium hydroxide cleaners, which pulp the wood surface, as a last resort. A stripping bid should name its chemistry and include the sanding.

How do wood and composite decks differ in method and price?

Wood and composite decks are cleaned with different methods, and the price difference comes from what follows the cleaning. A wood deck usually goes on to staining, and sometimes stripping and sanding first. A composite deck is normally left unstained, so its project usually ends after the wash and rinse.

Pressure limits differ by material and are set by the manufacturers. On its Transcend, Enhance and Select lines, Trex permits a pressure washer rated no higher than 3,100 psi, fitted with a fan attachment and kept no closer than 8 inches to the decking. On early-generation Trex boards it does not recommend a pressure washer at all, and its care page says using one on those boards will void the warranty. For pressure-treated wood, the care guide on TreatedWood.com calls for the lowest pressure that cleans, a fan tip spreading 40 to 60 degrees, and a nozzle kept 16 to 20 inches off the boards unless the pressure is very low. Our composite deck guide covers the cleaning steps for Trex, TimberTech and AZEK.

What do deck cleaning and staining cost for common deck sizes?

A 12 by 16 foot deck costs about $199 to $384 to clean and about $384 to $768 to stain at national rates, and other sizes scale with the square footage. The cleaning column uses our rate of $1 to $2 per square foot with the $199 starting price. The staining column applies Bob Vila's national figure of $2 to $4 per square foot and is a planning number only.

Add stripping at $1.50 to $3 per square foot or sanding at $1 to $4 when the deck needs it. On a 240-square-foot deck with peeling solid stain, stripping alone could add $360 to $720 by the national figures, before the new stain goes on.

How do you get an accurate deck quote?

An accurate deck quote starts with measurements and photos. Send the length and width of each level, a photo of the floor, one of the railings and stairs, and a close-up of the worst boards. A close-up shows whether the finish is peeling, the wood is fuzzy or the growth is heavy, which is what moves a bid within its range.

Ask every bidder the same questions so the numbers line up:

• Is the price per square foot of floor, and are railings, stairs and skirting included?
• What pressure will touch the boards, and does it match the board maker's limit?
• Is stripping or sanding included, or quoted as its own line?
• Which stain, how many coats, and are railings priced separately?

You can request a deck number on our free estimate page, and Macomb Power Washing Solutions returns an itemized written quote within 24 hours at zero travel cost. The quote lists the cleaning on its own line, so a stain contractor's price can be added next to it without guessing what the wash covered.