Pressure Washing · Service

Fence cleaning, and the side you do not own

Priced by the foot, done twice over, and mostly edges. Get matched with crews who quote both faces honestly, know vinyl from cedar, and will say when your fence needs a carpenter rather than a wash.

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In short

What is fence cleaning?

Fence cleaning removes algae, mildew, mud splash and general weathering film from a boundary or garden fence, usually as preparation before staining or simply to stop the run of it looking derelict. Two things separate it from any other exterior cleaning job: it is quoted by linear foot rather than area, and it has two faces — one of which frequently stands on ground belonging to somebody else. Both facts should be settled before anybody quotes.

Triggers

Signs you need fence cleaning

One face of the fence has gone green and the opposite face is still clean — the shaded side has grown algae the sunny side has not
A dark tide-line of soil splash and grass staining runs along the bottom rail and the base of every picket
The vinyl panels have developed a dull, chalky film that wipes off grey on your hand
Rust bloom is spreading from the fixings, the post caps or the base of metal panels and railings
Black spotting is concentrated where a shrub, hedge or climbing plant presses against the boards
You are about to stain, paint or sell, and the fence is the single most visibly tired thing on the property line

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The job

How fence cleaning actually works

Walk the run and settle access on both faces

The crew walks the full length, notes the material and condition panel by panel, and — critically — establishes whether the far side can be reached. Cleaning one face of a fence and leaving the other is a legitimate scope decision, but it has to be a decision, not a surprise.

Watch for: A price quoted for "the fence" without anyone saying how many faces it covers. This is the defining ambiguity of the job, and it is where almost every fence-cleaning dispute starts.
Cut back and pull off what is touching the panels

Climbing plants, leaning shrubs, trellis, ivy and anything screwed to the boards come away from the fence before work starts. Growth pressed against a panel is exactly why that panel is the worst on the run, and cleaning around it achieves nothing.

Watch for: Ivy simply washed over. The board underneath stays wet, stays green and is often already rotting behind the growth — which you want to find out about now.
Clean by material, not by run

Timber is chemical and gentle, the same discipline any soft substrate needs. Vinyl and coated aluminium take a cleaner and a rinse. Bare or rusting metal needs the rust addressed separately, because water alone accelerates it. Mixed fences — timber panels between masonry piers, say — get treated as two jobs.

Watch for: One setting walked down the whole line regardless of what it hits. On a fence this is unusually visible, because you end up with a hundred feet of consistent finish and a few feet of damage in plain view.
Work the details and the ground line deliberately

Pickets, rails, lattice, post caps and gate hardware are where the hours are. The bottom few inches, where soil splash and mower throw accumulate, usually need the most attention and are the most commonly skipped.

Watch for: Water driven into the ground at the base of the posts. Softening the soil around a post that is already borderline is a real way to end a cleaning visit with a leaning fence.
Rinse both faces and check the gates

Residue is rinsed off the panels and off whatever is planted along the line. Gates are opened, closed and checked — hinges, latches and drop bolts collect grit during the work and are the part of a fence you notice immediately if it stops working.

Watch for: A crew that never opens the gate. It is the one moving part of the whole structure and the one most likely to have been knocked out of adjustment.

Money

What does fence cleaning cost?

Fences are usually quoted per linear foot, and the number of faces cleaned is the biggest single variable in that price. Height, picket and lattice detail, gates and how much vegetation has to be pulled clear all move it. The Cost Guide explains how the pieces are counted.

See the full fence cleaning cost guide — by material, size and region →

Exterior cleaning tools → Measure the run, the height and the number of gates before you take quotes.

Straight answer

When fence cleaning is the wrong call

Everyone else ranking for this is paid when you say yes. Here's when you shouldn't.

The posts are the problem. If panels lean, wobble or have dropped, the posts are rotting or moving at ground level. Washing puts more water exactly where the failure is. Get the posts assessed and repaired, then clean what is worth cleaning.
It is a shared boundary and you have not spoken to the neighbour. Working on the far face means access to their ground, overspray onto their planting, and a wet fence they did not ask for. It is a two-minute conversation that prevents an expensive one.
The fence is at the end of its life. Split pickets, boards you can push a screwdriver into, and rails failing at the fixings do not improve with cleaning. Money spent washing a fence that needs replacing next season is money removed from the replacement.
You want vinyl to look new again. Chalking on older vinyl is degradation of the surface itself. It cleans off, and the surface underneath is still the surface it had degraded to. Expect it to look properly clean, not to look recent.
It is a wrought iron or painted metal fence with active rust. Washing rust exposes more bare metal and then leaves it wet. Rust removal and re-coating is the actual service; cleaning without it makes next year worse.
You are cleaning it to hide something before selling. A clean fence with rotten posts is found in about four seconds by any inspector who leans on it. Fix, then clean, and the cleaning is worth something.

Straight answer

Can I do this myself?

Fences are the most common place people first use a pressure washer, because it feels like a low-stakes surface. It is not — timber pickets are thin, and a narrow tip held close will cut visible channels into a board in a single pass, along the whole run, before you notice the pattern.

Reasonable to DIY

Pulling ivy, trellis and leaning shrubs off the panels, which is most of the useful work on a neglected fence
Washing vinyl or coated metal panels with a bucket, a soft brush and a garden hose
Applying a proprietary fence or timber cleaner per its label and brushing the panels down

Call a licensed pro

Long runs, where hand-cleaning stops being realistic and consistency across the whole line matters
Any fence you intend to stain afterwards, where preparation quality decides how long the finish lasts
Rust treatment on metal fencing and railings, which is a coatings job rather than a cleaning one
Boundary fences where the far side needs to be worked from a neighbour's ground

Before you sign

What to check when hiring for fence cleaning

Does this price cover one face or both?

Ask it first, get it written on the quote, and the most common dispute in this service disappears. Two faces is close to two jobs.
How are you measuring — linear feet, and at what height?

A six-foot fence and a four-foot fence at the same length are different amounts of work. Establishing the basis of the measurement makes competing quotes comparable.
Who moves the plants and the trellis off the fence?

If it is you, that is real work and you want to know before the crew arrives. If it is them, it is hours, and it should be in the price rather than discovered on the day.
What is your approach on my particular material, and have you looked at it up close?

Cedar, pressure-treated pine, vinyl and coated aluminium are four different answers. One answer for all four means one method for all four.
Are the gates included, and will you check they still work afterwards?

Gates are the hardware-heavy part of a fence and the part you use daily. They are also routinely left out of a per-foot measurement.
What are you doing about the bottom six inches?

That band holds the mud splash and the worst growth, and it is the giveaway between a thorough job and a fast pass at eye level.
If you find rot while you are working, what happens?

Cleaning uncovers what growth was hiding. You want an agreement that they stop and tell you rather than washing over a soft board and saying nothing.

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Local pros

Fence Cleaning near you

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Related work

Often done at the same time

Deck Cleaning

The same timber discipline, laid flat

House Washing

Usually booked in the same visit

Soft Washing

What is actually growing on the shaded face

Fence Repair

If posts move or boards are soft, start here

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FAQ

Fence Cleaning — questions people ask

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Do I have to clean my neighbour's side of the fence?

You do not have to, and plenty of jobs are quoted for one face only. What matters is that everyone knows that is what was bought. Practically, if the far side is the shaded one it will be the dirtier one, and a fence that is clean on your side and green on theirs looks odd from every angle except yours. Where the fence is genuinely shared, talk to the neighbour before booking — access, overspray and their planting are all involved whether or not the far face is in scope.

Will cleaning bring the colour back to a weathered wood fence?

It brings back the wood's cleaned state, not its original colour. Cleaning takes off the biological growth and the dirt film; the underlying weathered tone of the timber is a change in the wood surface itself and stays put. If colour is what you are after, the sequence is clean, then a brightening step, then a pigmented stain — and the cleaning is simply the first stage of that longer job rather than a substitute for it.

Can a vinyl fence be pressure washed?

Vinyl handles washing better than timber, but it is not indestructible and the panels are thin and hollow. The realistic risks are forcing water and grit into the joints between rails and posts, marking the surface with a narrow tip held close, and driving dirt under the caps where you cannot rinse it back out. A cleaner, a brush and a moderate rinse do the job. If you still have the manufacturer's care instructions for the fence, they override anything a general guide says.

Why is only one side of my fence green?

Because algae grows where it stays damp, and the two faces of a fence get very different amounts of sun and airflow. The north- or east-facing side, or the side backed by a hedge, dries slowly after every dew and every rain, and that is enough. It is a useful diagnostic: growth that follows shade is biological and responds to cleaning, while staining that follows something physical — a downpipe, a mower run, a leaking tap — has a cause you should fix rather than repeatedly wash.

Is fence cleaning worth doing at all, or should I just replace it?

The test is structural, not cosmetic. Push on a few posts and try to push a screwdriver into the base of two or three boards. If the structure is sound and the fence merely looks dreadful, cleaning is one of the highest-impact things you can buy per foot. If posts move or timber is soft, cleaning buys appearance on a fence that is going to be pulled out anyway, and the money is better held back for the replacement.