How To Clean (Pressure Wash Or Bleach) Your Cedar Fence

There are two primary reasons to clean your cedar fence:

1. Leaving it dirty will cause the wood to deteriorate faster
2. Cleaning it will restore its natural beauty

A cedar fence will take on a grayish appearance over time. Nobody wants this, of course. After all, one of the major appeals of a cedar fence is the aesthetic: the rich, natural texture and coloring that blends so well with your landscaping.

This gloomy gray tinge is also a sign that your fence needs some maintenance. There’s no way around this; cedar fences come with some cost-of-ownership. To keep your fence looking sharp and maximize its life, you need to clean it periodically.

There are two ways to do this. You can spray on a bleach solution and scrub your fence thoroughly, or use a pressure-washer.

Pressure-washing

If you’ve never used a pressure-washer before, we recommend getting comfortable with it before using it on your cedar fence. You can try it out on the driveway or sidewalk. Even if you have experience with pressure-washing, we still recommend using it on an old piece of plywood to get used to how it affects wood. If you hold the wand too close to the wood, the water will gouge it. The same goes if you have the PSI setting too high.

Start with a 20°nozzle tip and a PSI setting somewhere in the range of 850 to 2000. There’s no shame in starting at the lowest setting and carefully moving the wand closer to see how the wood handles it. You can also start on a discrete area of the fence that’s not in plain view, just in case you damage the wood a little. If you’re not getting good results, just turn the PSI up a little bit at a time.

As you clean, make sure to move the wand along the grain of each board. Keep in mind that pressure-washing the fence is not a quick job. Depending on the size of your fence, it may take a whole day or more.

The video below will show the process in action, and give you a good idea of what the fence should look like after it’s been pressure-washed.

Bleaching

Bleaching and scrubbing your fence will require a little more physical effort on your part. This is almost as simple as it sounds. Spray on an oxygen bleach solution, let it soak, work it in with a brush, and then rinse it off.

Pick up some oxygen bleach(not chlorine bleach)and mix it with water according to the ratio on the instructions. Make sure you apply the solution when the fence is not in direct sun, as the sun can enhance the bleaching effect. Also make sure to wear the proper protective gear: safety glasses, gloves ,and of course old clothes that you don’t mind getting bleached.

The bleach will need to soak in for about 30 minutes, then you can scrub it into the wood vigorously with a brush. Finally, rinse the fence clean.

We recommend trying the whole process on a small sample of fence, first, so you know how it will turnout before you do the whole thing.

What else you can do to keep your fence fresh

Sealing your fence is an absolute must to protect the wood. Note that sealing and staining are two different things. Stain alters the color of the wood and enhances the grain. In this way, staining can help the fence appear fresh. But stain doesn’t protect the wood. That’s what sealer is for. Applying new sealer as it’s needed will help your fence maintain its beauty over the years.

For other suggestions on how to care for your cedar fence and keep it looking sharp, see this article

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If you need a cedar fence built in the Monroe and Snohomish area, you can contact Trackwest by filling out one of our contact form here.