Patio and Deck Cleaning: Cost, Pressure, and Sealing

What patio and deck cleaning costs

For most homes in Northeast Connecticut, a patio or deck cleaning runs $150 to $400. That is the same range we publish for driveways and concrete, because the work is priced the same way: square footage first, then how bad the growth is, then access.

A small back patio or a set of deck stairs sits at the bottom of that range. A wraparound deck, a big paver patio with a fire pit area, or a slab that has not been touched in six years sits at the top. Sealing is separate. Paver sealing is $2.25 per square foot.

Booking the patio at the same visit as a house wash is where most people save real money, because we are already set up in your driveway.

Every surface wants a different pressure

This is the part that separates a good patio cleaning from an expensive mistake. Four common surfaces, four different approaches.

Paver patios and walkways

Pavers are tough, but the sand in the joints is not. Too much pressure blows the joint sand out, and once the joints are empty the pavers start to shift and weeds move in faster than before. The right approach is a controlled pressure through a surface cleaner, worked so the moss and weeds come out of the joints without stripping them bare, then re-sanding the joints afterward.

If your pavers have black spots that will not come off, that is usually lichen, and it needs a detergent dwell rather than more pressure. Rust stains from a grill or patio furniture legs need their own treatment too.

Stamped and colored concrete

Stamped concrete is the one people damage most often. It almost always has a decorative sealer on it, and high pressure strips that sealer in patches, so you end up with shiny areas next to dull ones and no way to fix it short of resealing the whole slab. Stamped concrete gets low pressure and a detergent, and it usually wants resealing every two to three years anyway.

Broom-finished concrete

Plain gray concrete is the only surface in this article that genuinely wants high pressure. A surface cleaner at 3,000 PSI or so, riding on the slab so every pass gets the same pressure, is what gets a driveway or patio evenly clean. A hand wand leaves stripes, which is why a badly cleaned driveway looks like a zebra. Same tool, same method as our driveway and concrete cleaning.

Wood decks

Pressure-treated pine and cedar are soft. Push a narrow tip into them and you tear out the soft growth between the grain lines, which leaves the boards furry. Furry wood looks fine for a week, then holds dirt worse than it did before and refuses to take stain evenly.

A wood deck should be cleaned with a wood-safe detergent that is allowed to sit and lift the gray, then rinsed at low pressure with a wide fan tip, moving with the grain, never across it. The cleaner does the work. The rinse just carries it away. Railings, spindles, and the underside of the handrail take longer than the deck floor on most jobs.

Composite decking

Composite is not maintenance-free, it is maintenance-different. Mold grows in the embossed grain pattern and in the shaded gap between boards, and most composite manufacturers cap the pressure you are allowed to use at around 1,500 PSI before the warranty is affected. Composite gets a soft wash: detergent, dwell time, gentle rinse. Pressure just polishes the surface unevenly and can leave permanent marks on the cap layer.

Why the green comes back

Patios and decks grow algae faster than siding for two reasons. They stay wet longer, because water sits on a horizontal surface instead of running off a vertical one, and they usually sit in the shade of the house or the tree line. In Northeast Connecticut, a north-facing patio under oak cover can go visibly green in a single damp summer.

Nothing stops that permanently. What helps is keeping leaf litter off it in the fall, trimming back whatever is dripping on it, and cleaning on a schedule instead of waiting until the whole slab is black. A yearly clean is a fraction of the work of a rescue job.

Sealing: when it is worth paying for

Paver sealing

Sealing pavers does three useful things. It locks the joint sand in place so weeds and ants have a much harder time, it keeps oil, leaf tannin, and barbecue grease from soaking into the stone, and it brings the color back on pavers that have faded gray.

Timing matters. Pavers have to be cleaned first, the joints re-sanded, and the whole surface has to be genuinely dry, usually 24 to 48 hours after cleaning with good weather on both sides of it. Sealing over trapped moisture is what causes the cloudy white haze you sometimes see on a sealed patio. Our paver sealing is $2.25 per square foot, and it is worth asking about at the same time you book the cleaning so the schedule lines up.

Deck stain and sealer

If you are planning to stain or seal a wood deck, the cleaning is the prep step, and skipping it is why so many stain jobs fail early. Stain needs bare, open, clean wood. It cannot bond through gray oxidized fiber, mildew, or an old failing coat. Let the deck dry for several days after cleaning before anything goes on it.

How often

• Paver patios and walkways: once a year, more under heavy tree cover
• Concrete: every one to two years
• Wood decks: once a year, and always before staining
• Composite: once a year, mostly for the mold in the grain

What a proper patio or deck cleaning includes

• The right pressure and the right detergent for the actual surface, decided on site
• Furniture, grills, and planters moved and put back
• Beds and shrubs along the edges wet down before and rinsed after
• Joints re-sanded on paver work where the sand has washed out
• An even finish with no wand stripes and no missed edges
• A walk around with you before we leave

Fences get the same treatment logic, and if yours backs onto the patio it is usually worth doing at the same time. That is our fence cleaning service.

Get a flat quote

Applewood Exterior Cleaning is owner-operated out of Pomfret Center, and one of the two of us is on every job, so the pressure decision is never left to somebody's first week. If something is not right, we come back within 30 days, and growth is covered by our 365-day guarantee.

Text 2 or 3 photos of your patio or deck to (860) 553-9326 and we will send a flat quote back, usually within the hour. More detail on the work itself is on our deck and patio cleaning page, and if you want the background on pressure settings, read soft washing vs pressure washing.