Fence Restoration & Staining

Fence staining in St. Paul, Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs. Cleaned, brightened, stained and sealed — quoted by the linear foot so a long run stays a number you can plan around.

A privacy fence gone weathered grey-brown around a corner of a back yard, before restoration The same fence corner after cleaning and staining, finished in an even charcoal grey including the rails and post caps Before After

What's Covered

Cleaned, brightened, sealed

Most fences do not need stripping. What they need is the grey layer of oxidised wood and mildew taken off, the pH brought back with a brightener, and a penetrating stain put on before the sun gets to it again.

  • Cleaning — a wood-safe cleaner to lift mildew, algae and the dirt that has worked into the grain, then a controlled rinse.
  • Brightening — neutralises the cleaner and pulls the colour back out of greyed cedar. Skipping this is why some fences come out blotchy.
  • Spot sanding — rough patches, splintering pickets and anything a hand will run along.
  • Both sides where we can get to them — tell us up front if a neighbour's yard is involved so we can sort access before the day.
  • Stain and seal — including post caps, rails and the cut ends, which is where water gets in first.

Priced by the linear foot. Measure the run, or tell us the rough length and we will confirm on site.

What to Expect

Usually one to two days

A standard back-yard run is a single day. Long lots, corner lots and board-on-board fences with double the surface area take two.

Access and plants

Beds along the fence line get covered. If shrubs are grown into the pickets we will tell you what has to be cut back before we start.

Neighbours

If the good side faces their yard, we need permission to be on it. Worth a conversation the week before rather than the morning of.

Drying

Vertical surfaces shed water and dry faster than a deck. In good weather the fence is back to normal the next morning.

Mid-Job

One fence, one afternoon apart

Left of the post is where we started. Right of it is the same cedar, same age, same weather — cleaned, brightened and stained. Nothing was replaced.

A picket fence caught mid-job: the pickets left of the centre post are weathered grey-brown, the pickets to the right are finished in a deep red-brown stain

Fence Work

Two more, start to finish

Drag either one. Same fence, same boards — the difference is the cleaning and brightening that happen before any stain goes on.

Close-up of cedar fence boards gone silver-grey with mildew in the grain, before restoration The same cedar boards after cleaning and a solid grey stain, colour even across every board Before After

Weathered cedar, board by board

Solid stain over bare grain
A picket fence and cedar arbor gone dry and faded in full sun, before restoration The same picket fence and arbor after cleaning and staining, finished in a deep brown at sunset Before After

Picket fence and arbor

Cleaned, stained, sealed

Fence Questions

Before you book

Walk the fence line and count your steps, or measure along the ground from one end to the other. Do not measure both sides — a 100 foot fence is 100 linear feet even though we stain both faces.

A rough number is fine for the quote. We confirm it on site before any work starts and the price does not move unless the measurement was well off.

It changes the product and sometimes the timing. Pressure-treated pine is wetter than cedar out of the yard and has to dry before it will take stain. If yours went up this year, it may need to wait a season.

We do when we can get to it, and we would rather do both sides — a fence finished on one face only weathers unevenly and cups over time.

It needs access, so talk to your neighbour before the scheduled day. If access is not possible we will say so in the quote instead of surprising you with it later.

Yes, and it is worth doing them in the same season if you can. Different wood species take the same stain differently, so we sample on both surfaces before committing to a colour.

Free Quote

Get your fence quoted

Give us the rough linear footage and the wood type if you know it. Quote back within 24 hours.