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Wood gets 500 to 1,200 PSI, and there is a reason for the ceiling.
Decks, railings, privacy fence and dock boards around Conway and Greers Ferry Lake. Wood is the softest thing on a property that still wants real pressure, so the setting sits well below what concrete takes.
Decks typically run $300–$2,000. Quoted before anything is booked.
What too much pressure does
Furring is permanent. Dirt is not.
A board is not uniform. It is alternating bands of dense winter growth and soft summer growth, and pressure finds the soft bands first. Push a wand at a deck the way you would at a driveway and the soft growth tears out from between the grain lines.
The result is called furring, and it is a one-way trip. The surface goes fuzzy, splinters stand up where bare feet go, and the raised fibres hold dirt better than the smooth board ever did — so the deck gets dirty faster from then on. A stain applied over furred wood soaks in unevenly and blotches.
Kept at 500 to 1,200 PSI and worked along the grain rather than across it, none of that happens. It is slower. That is the trade.
What gets covered
Wood on the property, not just the deck floor.
Deck boards
The flat surface, worked along the grain. Where boards have cupped, the low side holds water and always comes up dirtiest.
Railings and spindles
Slow work, because every spindle has four sides and the growth sits on the shaded one. This is usually the part other people skip.
Privacy and yard fence
Fence goes green on the side that faces away from the sun, so one face of a run can look years older than the other.
Dock and lake structures
Anything sitting over water stays damp underneath and grows accordingly. Common around Greers Ferry.
Straight answers
Questions about wood.
Why so much less pressure than a driveway?
Because wood is soft and concrete is not. Wood runs at 500 to 1,200 PSI. Take a board up to driveway pressure and you tear the soft summer growth out from between the grain lines, which leaves a furred, fuzzy surface that then holds dirt worse than before.
What does deck cleaning cost?
Decks run $300 to $2,000. Size, height, the state of the boards and whether there is railing and spindle work to get into all move it. Quoted before anything is booked.
Will it make old wood look new?
It will make it look clean, not new. Grey weathering goes deeper than the surface on older boards. A wash takes off the growth and the surface grey; it does not undo years of sun.
Do I need to stain it afterwards?
Not necessarily, but this is the moment if you are going to. Stain wants clean, dry wood, and the wash is the clean half. See deck staining.
Usually the same visit
What gets booked with it.
Deck Staining
The obvious next step, if the boards are going to be sealed. Staining runs $600 to $3,500.
Deck Staining →Concrete Cleaning
The patio the deck usually steps down onto, at 3,000 to 4,000 PSI.
Concrete Cleaning →House Washing
The wall the deck is attached to, soft washed at about 100 PSI.
House Washing →Where we wash
Towns this runs in.
Deck and fence work runs across Faulkner, Van Buren and Cleburne counties, with a lot of it around Greers Ferry Lake.
Start here
Send a photo of the deck.
A shot down the length of the boards tells us most of what we need to price it.
Or look through the photographs of finished jobs first.