Home › Deck Staining
Wash it. Let it dry. Then stain it.
Three steps in that order, and the middle one is where most deck jobs go wrong. Decks, railings and fence around Conway and Greers Ferry Lake.
Staining typically runs $600–$3,500 depending on size and how much railing there is. Quoted before anything is booked.
The middle step
Stain does not stick to a wet board.
Washing a deck puts water into the wood, not just onto it. Timber is absorbent and a pressure wash drives moisture down into the fibres, where it has to come back out before anything is laid over the top.
Stain applied to a board that is still carrying that water sits on the surface instead of soaking in. It looks finished on the day. Then it lifts in sheets after one Arkansas summer, and the deck needs stripping rather than recoating — which is a much bigger job than the one that was paid for.
So the board gets checked before anything is applied. How long that takes depends entirely on the weather that week, which is why there is no number quoted for it on this page. A promised drying time is a promise to rush it.
How the job runs
Four stages, over more than one visit.
The wash
Wood at 500 to 1,200 PSI, worked along the grain. Growth, surface grey and any failing old coating come off here.
The wait
The board dries. This is a separate visit, not a coffee break, and the timing follows the weather rather than the schedule.
The check
The wood is tested before anything is opened. If it is not ready, it does not get stained that day.
The stain
Applied to clean dry wood, boards and railings both. Spindles are the slow part and the part that shows if it is skipped.
Lumber is expensive. Sealing a deck is cheaper than replacing boards, which is most of the argument for doing it at all.
Straight answers
Questions about staining.
Why can it not be stained the same day?
Because stain will not bond to wet wood. Washing drives water into the board, and it has to come back out before anything is applied. Rushing that is the single most common reason a stain job peels a year early.
How long does the wood need to dry?
It depends on the weather that week, so it gets checked rather than assumed. Humidity, sun and how exposed the deck is all change it. The board is tested before stain goes on — no fixed number is promised here because promising one is how it gets rushed.
What does staining cost?
Deck staining runs $600 to $3,500. Square footage, the amount of railing and spindle work, and the condition of the boards move it. Quoted before anything is booked.
Does the deck have to be washed first?
Yes, always. Stain applied over algae and surface grey seals the dirt in. The wash is not an upsell on this job, it is the first half of it.
Before and after this
What it connects to.
Where we wash
Towns this runs in.
Staining runs across Faulkner, Van Buren and Cleburne counties, with a lot of the deck work around the lake.
Start here
Send a photo of the boards.
A close shot of the worst run tells us whether it wants a wash, a stain, or both.
Or look through the photographs of finished jobs first.