Fence Cleaning That Brings the Wood Back

One side of your fence is green. The other side looks fine. You didn't do anything different to either one. That's Seattle — and it's fixable in an afternoon, without splintering the boards or blasting the pickets loose.

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check_circle From $140 — flat quote
check_circle Wood, cedar & vinyl
check_circle Green algae, moss & gray weathering
check_circle 10% off when booked with deck cleaning

location_on Seattle, WA Fence cleaning in Seattle — removing algae from a wood fence

bolt Fast Response

North side of the fence gone green? We've often got a slot this week.

Send your address and we'll check availability and send a quote — usually within 1–2 hours during business hours. Same-day and next-day slots open up often.

schedule Quote in 1–2 hrs
event_available Same-day & next-day slots
call Fast, no-pressure callback

Check Availability call +1 (206) 751-6136

Can You Pressure Wash a Fence?

Yes — but a fence is the least forgiving wood on your property, and here's why.

A deck board is thick, backed by a joist, and lying flat. A fence picket is thin, unsupported between rails, standing vertical, and usually cedar — one of the softest woods sold. Hit it with the pressure you'd use on a driveway and you won't clean it, you'll carve it: furrowed grain, feathered edges, and splinters that stay for years.

The other failure is subtler. Too much pressure at the wrong angle drives water into the end grain at the top of each picket and behind the rails. That water stays. Six months later you have rot starting exactly where nobody looks.

Done properly, fence cleaning uses low pressure, a wide fan tip, cleaning solution doing the work, and passes that always run with the grain and downward — never up under the boards.

If You'd Rather DIY

How to Wash a Fence

If your fence is short, sound, and you have a Saturday, this is a reasonable job to do yourself. Here's how, properly.

Without a pressure washer

Genuinely the safest method, and for a small fence it isn't much slower.

Wet the fence and the plants at its base with a garden hose.
Mix oxygen bleach (sodium percarbonate) with warm water — not chlorine bleach, which strips lignin and turns cedar a permanent dull tan.
Apply, let it dwell 15 minutes, don't let it dry on the wood.
Scrub with a stiff nylon brush, working with the grain.
Rinse from the top down.

With a pressure washer

check_circle 1,200–1,500 PSI, no more. That's a quarter of what concrete takes.
check_circle 40-degree fan tip — the white one. Never the zero-degree red tip.
check_circle Hold 12–18 inches back and keep the wand moving. Stopping burns a mark into the board instantly.
check_circle Work top to bottom, with the grain, and never spray upward under the boards.
check_circle Test on the back of a corner picket first. Every fence is different.

Where people ruin fences: chlorine bleach, the red tip, standing still, spraying uphill into the end grain, and starting at the front of the house instead of somewhere nobody will see the mistake.

Why the North Side Goes Green

Look at your fence from the yard. Now walk around it.

The north-facing side is green, mossy, maybe slick to the touch. The south side is dry, gray, and mostly clean. Same fence, same wood, same year.

The north face never sees direct sun, so it never fully dries between rains — and in Seattle, "between rains" is a narrow window for nine months. Algae only needs persistent moisture and shade. It gets both.

Meanwhile the south side is losing its color to UV, oxidizing to the silver-gray everyone assumes is dirt. It isn't; it's the surface fibers breaking down.

So one fence has two completely different problems. Green needs treatment. Gray needs cleaning. Pressure alone solves neither, which is why a fence you blasted last summer looked great in July and green again by November.

How Much Does Fence Cleaning Cost in Seattle?

A standalone fence visit has a $150 minimum. Most people book it alongside a deck or driveway, where it's the cheapest thing on the invoice.

Up to 100 linear ft, 6 ft tallfrom $140
100–200 linear ftfrom $255
Both sides+40%
Algae treatment (add-on)from $50
Deck + Fence bundle10% off both

What moves the price: linear feet, height, one side or both, wood vs vinyl, and how much green growth needs treatment rather than washing.

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Every Material, the Right Way

Wood, Cedar, and Vinyl

forest

Cedar

The Seattle default, and the softest. Lowest pressure of anything we clean. Goes silver-gray from UV; that gray comes off with cleaner, not force.

fence

Pressure-treated pine

Harder, more forgiving, but its water-repellent coating sheds cleaning solution — it needs longer dwell time to work at all.

window

Vinyl

Doesn't rot or splinter, so people assume anything goes. It doesn't: high pressure at a seam forces water inside the hollow panel, where it sits and grows mold you can see through the vinyl and cannot reach. Vinyl is a soft-wash job, not a pressure job.

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Composite & metal

Both fine, both mostly about the right cleaner rather than the right pressure.

Vinyl needs the same gentle method as siding — see our soft washing approach.

Fence + Deck: Same Wood, Same Visit

Your fence and your deck were almost certainly built from the same wood, in the same year, and they've weathered the same nine wet months together. They also need the same pressure, the same solution, and the same crew — who are, at that point, already standing in your backyard.

10% off both when booked together.

Book Deck + Fence See what deck cleaning covers →

Fence Cleaning FAQ

Can you pressure wash a fence? expand_more

Yes, at low pressure — 1,200 to 1,500 PSI with a wide fan tip. A fence picket is thin, vertical, unsupported, and usually cedar, which makes it the softest wood on most properties. Driveway pressure will carve the grain and leave splinters.

How do you wash a fence? expand_more

Wet it and the surrounding plants, apply an oxygen-bleach solution, let it dwell without drying, scrub or low-pressure rinse with the grain, then rinse top to bottom. Never chlorine bleach — it permanently discolors cedar.

How do you clean a wood fence without a pressure washer? expand_more

Oxygen bleach, warm water, a stiff nylon brush, and a garden hose. For a short fence it's the safest method and barely slower.

How much does fence cleaning cost in Seattle? expand_more

From $140 for up to 100 linear feet on one side. Both sides adds about 40%. Standalone visits have a $150 minimum, so most people add it to a deck or driveway booking.

Why is one side of my fence green and the other isn't? expand_more

The north-facing side never gets direct sun, so it never fully dries. Algae needs shade and persistent moisture, and in Seattle it has both for most of the year. Green needs treatment; the gray on the sunny side needs cleaning.

Will the green come back? expand_more

Without treatment, by the next wet season. Removing algae isn't the same as killing it — pressure takes off what you can see and leaves what you can't.

Can you clean a vinyl fence? expand_more

Yes, with soft washing. High pressure at the seams forces water inside the hollow panels, where mold grows visibly and unreachably.

Will cleaning remove the gray? expand_more

Yes. Gray is oxidized surface fiber, not dirt. It comes off with the right cleaner and no sanding.

Do you clean both sides? expand_more

If both are yours, yes. If the far side faces a neighbor's yard, we'll need their okay for access — we'll ask, not assume.

Go Look at the North Side

Seriously — walk around the fence. If one side is green and slick and the other is silver-gray, you're looking at two different problems, and neither of them gets better on its own. Send us a photo and the rough length; we'll send a flat quote, usually within 1–2 hours during business hours. If you have a deck too, mention it — the two together cost less than the two apart.

Send a Photo, Get a Quote Call +1 (206) 751-6136

Licensed & insured · Seattle & the Eastside · Low pressure, no splinters