Deck Cleaning and Staining Prices Per Square Foot (2026 Contractor Guide)

Deck work pays better than flatwork, but it is also easier to underprice. A driveway is one surface and one pass. A deck is a wash, a dry-out period, maybe a strip or a sand, two coats of stain, and a railing that takes longer than the floor. This guide breaks deck jobs into those parts, shows the published rate for each, and builds a quote you can defend.

Deck cleaning and staining prices at a glance

These are national consumer-guide ranges. They tell you what homeowners have been told to expect, which matters when they compare your quote to a Google search.

Service	Published rate	Source
Pressure washing a deck	$0.30–$0.40 per sq ft	Fixr
Cleaning (chemical, no pressure wash)	$0.25–$0.50 per sq ft	Fixr
Power washing as stain prep	$0.50–$1.50 per sq ft	Bob Vila
Stripping old finish	$1–$3 per sq ft	Fixr
Sanding	$1–$4 per sq ft	Fixr
Staining with light sanding and sealing	$2–$5 per sq ft	Fixr
Staining (general range)	$2–$4 per sq ft	Bob Vila
Restaining	$4–$7 per sq ft	Bob Vila
Railings and posts	$4–$12 per linear ft	Fixr

A cost calculator that models two coats on clean wood plus prep and supplies estimates $2.96–$6.16 per square foot as a national average Homewyse. That lines up with the top half of the staining ranges above, which is where most real jobs land once you count prep.

Typical job totals

Totals are what the customer remembers. Fixr puts the national average to stain a deck at $750, with most jobs between $550 and $850 Fixr. Bob Vila reports $540 to $1,250 with a $775 average Bob Vila.

By size, Fixr's ranges look like this Fixr:

Deck size	Staining total
12 × 12 (144 sq ft)	$290–$720
10 × 20 (200 sq ft)	$400–$1,000
16 × 20 (320 sq ft)	$640–$1,600
20 × 20 (400 sq ft)	$800–$2,000

Washing alone is a much smaller ticket. Fixr lists $150–$200 for a 500 sq ft deck and $300–$400 for 1,000 sq ft Fixr. Contractor pricing guides list "deck cleaning" at $100–$250 Housecall Pro, and Jobber's table puts a deck or patio wash at $200–$240 Jobber.

That gap is the business case. A wash-only deck is a $150–$250 job. The same deck washed and stained is a $700–$1,500 job on the same driveway visit.

Price the deck in parts

One per-square-foot number for "deck staining" hides the work that actually varies. Quote each part as its own line.

1. Wash

Price the wash from floor square footage. Wood is softer than concrete and takes more care, so contractor guides list wood surfaces at $0.30–$0.55 per square foot versus $0.20–$0.40 for concrete Housecall Pro. Material matters a little: Fixr lists a 500 sq ft wood deck wash at $180–$200 and composite at $200–$220 Fixr.

Stairs and railings add time even on a wash. Bob Vila cites about $2.50 per linear foot of railing and $2.50 per stair for power washing Bob Vila.

2. Strip or sand (only if needed)

This is the line that swings the job. A deck with a failing solid stain or a film-forming sealer needs stripping ($1–$3 per sq ft) or sanding ($1–$4 per sq ft) before new stain will hold Fixr. On a 300 sq ft deck that is $300 to $1,200 of prep alone.

Ask for close-up photos of the boards before you quote. Peeling, gray fibers, or two different old colors mean a strip line. Never fold it into a flat staining rate, because the customer with a sound deck will think you are expensive and the one with a failing deck will cost you a weekend.

3. Stain the floor

Labor is published at $1.50–$3 per sq ft and materials at $0.50–$2 per sq ft Fixr. Bob Vila lists painter labor at $40–$70 per hour and puts a typical job at two to three days, partly because wood has to dry after washing Bob Vila.

4. Railings, stairs, and skirting

Railings and posts run $4–$12 per linear foot Fixr, or $4–$12.50 per linear foot Bob Vila. Spindles are slow. On many decks the railing takes as long as the floor, so a quote built only on floor square footage loses money.

Stain cost and coverage math

Material cost is easy to estimate once you know coverage. Read the can, not a blog.

• TWP 100 Series, a semi-transparent oil stain, lists $47.99–$57.99 per gallon and coverage of "100-200 square feet" per gallon in a two-coat wet-on-wet system TWP.
• Retail pricing for other contractor stains runs from $53.99 to $83.95 per gallon, or roughly $240 to $345 per 5-gallon pail Deck Stain Help.
• Cleaner and brightener are separate products at about $40 per gallon each at the same retailer Deck Stain Help.

Coverage math for a 400 sq ft floor at 150 sq ft per gallon: 400 ÷ 150 = 2.7, so buy 3 gallons. Railings add more, and rough or weathered wood drinks stain, which is why the label gives a range. At $55 a gallon, the floor stain is about $165. That is under $0.50 per sq ft, which is why material is the smallest part of a staining quote and labor is the largest.

How to measure a deck for a quote

You need three numbers: floor square footage, railing linear feet, and stair count.

Floor area. Length times width for rectangles; split L-shaped and multi-level decks into rectangles and add them. Most decks are visible from satellite imagery, so you can trace the outline before you call the customer back. Our free Lawn Size Calculator measures any outlined area, and covered decks or decks under trees are the exception where you need the homeowner's numbers or a photo with a tape measure.

Railing length. Measure the open perimeter, the sides not against the house. The Fence Length Calculator traces a line from imagery and gives linear feet, which works the same way for a railing.

Stairs. Ask. Stair count does not show from above.

For more on quoting from imagery and photos, see how to quote a pressure washing job without a site visit.

A worked deck quote

A customer has a 16 × 20 wood deck (320 sq ft), 52 linear feet of railing, and one set of 5 stairs. The old semi-transparent stain is faded but not peeling. Floor, wash, and railing rates are chosen from inside the published ranges above. No national per-stair staining rate is published, so the stair price is an example of a rate you set from your own time per step.

Line	Math	Price
Wash and brighten	320 sq ft × $0.40	$128
Stain floor, 2 coats	320 sq ft × $2.50	$800
Stain railings	52 ft × $6.00	$312
Stain stairs	5 × $15	$75
Total		$1,315

Check it against the market. Fixr's 16 × 20 staining range is $640–$1,600 Fixr, so $1,315 sits in the upper middle, which is fair for a job that includes the railing and stairs on separate lines.

Now check it against your costs. Use the method in Jobber's pricing example: labor plus overhead plus materials, divided by (1 – target margin) Jobber. If this job takes two people 9 hours total at $35 per hour loaded, that is $630 of labor. Add about 4 gallons of stain at $55 ($220) and $30 of cleaner, and your direct cost is $880. At $1,315 you keep $435, a 33% margin before overhead. If the numbers do not work in your market, raise the railing rate first; it is the line customers question least.

Sell the restain on the first visit

Fixr and Inch Calculator both put the restain interval at about every two to three years Fixr, Inch Calculator. Bob Vila lists annual deck maintenance at $100–$300 Bob Vila.

That gives you two follow-up offers: an annual wash, and a maintenance coat in year two or three. A maintenance coat on a deck you stained yourself needs less prep, so it can be priced lower than a first-time job and still earn more per hour. Put the date on the customer's record the day you finish.

If you also quote driveways and patios on the same property, the companion guide on pressure washing prices per square foot has the flatwork rates.

Sources

• Fixr – Cost to Stain a Deck
• Fixr – Pressure Wash Deck Cost
• Bob Vila – How Much Does It Cost to Stain a Deck?
• Bob Vila – How Much Does It Cost to Power Wash a Deck?
• Homewyse – Cost to Stain Deck
• Inch Calculator – Cost to Paint or Stain a Deck
• Housecall Pro – Pressure Washing Pricing Guide
• Jobber – How to Price Pressure Washing Jobs
• TWP – TWP 100 Series 1 Gallon
• Deck Stain Help – Cost to Stain a Wood Deck