A grey deck is not a dead deck. Most of what you are looking at is a thin oxidised surface layer and mildew — and both come off.
📞 Call or Text (804) 571-7226 — most quotes go out the same day.
A grey deck is not a dead deck
Sunlight breaks down the surface cellulose of exposed wood, and Richmond humidity grows mildew in the grain. Together they read as uniform grey. Cleaning removes both and returns the wood to something close to its original tone.
What cleaning cannot fix is physical damage: splintering, cupping, cracked boards, and deep gouges. Those need sanding or replacement, and we will tell you which you are looking at before we quote rather than after.
Wood vs. composite
Different pressures, different chemistry. The fuzzed, furry, over-pressured deck is the single most common DIY casualty in this trade — once wood fibres are torn open they stay open, and the deck absorbs water faster forever after.
We avoid it with wide fan tips, controlled standoff distance, and sodium percarbonate wood cleaners that do the lifting chemically. Composite gets lower pressure again and a cleaner formulated not to haze the cap layer.
Stain prep
Cleaning is only half of a proper stain prep. After washing we brighten with an oxalic acid solution, which neutralises the cleaner, reopens the grain and evens out the tone so stain absorbs uniformly instead of blotching.
Then the wood needs to dry. Forty-eight hours minimum in good weather, longer in Richmond humidity. Staining a deck that is still damp underneath is how a $600 stain job fails in eighteen months.
Fences
The shaded side of a pine privacy fence always goes green first — often dramatically, so that one face looks a completely different colour from the other. Clay splash collects along the bottom rail. Both clean up well. We wash fences to keep, and we wash fences to prepare for stain; the process differs slightly between the two, so tell us which you are doing.
Common questions
What pressure do you use on cedar?
Well under 1,000 PSI, with a wide fan and chemistry doing the work. Cedar and pine are soft and mark easily.
How long after cleaning before I can stain?
Forty-eight hours minimum, and longer if the weather is humid or the deck is shaded. We will tell you honestly when it is ready.
Does cleaning scratch composite?
Not at the pressure and tip we use. Older composite that has begun to chalk may look slightly different afterward simply because it is finally clean.
Will the mildew be back next year?
Some, in a shaded spot. A sealed deck holds much longer than a bare one, which is the main argument for staining after cleaning rather than just cleaning.
📞 Call or Text (804) 571-7226 — most quotes go out the same day.