Deck Refinishing Cost Calculator

What deck refinishing covers, and what it cannot save

Refinishing is a surface job. It means cleaning the deck, stripping or sanding off the old coating, and putting down a new stain or sealer. It does not replace rotten boards, tighten a wobbly railing or repair a joist that has been soaking up water for a decade.

That split matters, because most of the money in a deck project goes to the parts you cannot see. Before you price a finish, walk the deck with a screwdriver and push the tip into the joists, the ledger board where the deck meets the house, and the bottom of each post. If the tip sinks in easily, the wood is soft, and a new coat of stain will peel off within two seasons.

Moisture is the reason. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook puts it plainly: decay fungi need wood moisture above the fiber saturation point, roughly 30 percent, and keeping wood dry is the main defense. A deck that stays wet because it sits in shade, has no gap between boards, or drains toward the house will keep rotting no matter what you put on the surface.

So the first question is not which finish to buy. It is whether the boards and frame are worth finishing at all. The three options below answer that question in order of cost.

Option 1: sand and re-stain the boards you have

This is the cheapest path and the one most homeowners picture when they say refinish. A pro power washes the deck, strips any failing coating, sands the surface, then applies a stain or sealer. Angi's 2026 cost data puts the range at $3 to $7 per square foot, with a national average of $980 and most jobs landing between $900 and $2,720.

Prep is where the hours go. A 200 square foot deck typically runs $600 to $1,400 with a pro, and $300 to $800 if you do the work yourself and already own a pressure washer. The table below shows where that money lands.

The arithmetic for a 240 square foot deck at the middle of the range: 240 x 4.50 = 1,080, and a 15 percent bump for fair condition gives 1,080 x 1.15 = 1,242. That is $5.18 per square foot. Fresh stain looks good for two to three years, which is the cycle the rest of this page builds on.

Option 2: replace the boards and keep the frame

When the surface is worn out but the structure is sound, you can pull the decking, keep the joists, and install new boards. Contractors call this resurfacing. Expect $15 to $50 per square foot depending on material, and pressure-treated decking itself costs $2 to $5 per square foot as material.

The bill includes tear-off, disposal, new boards and fasteners. It does not include new railing, which is priced by the linear foot, or repairs to joists discovered after the old boards come up. On a 240 square foot deck in fair shape, the model on this page uses $20 per square foot before the condition adjustment: 240 x 20 = 4,800, then 4,800 x 1.15 = 5,520, or $23.00 per square foot.

Angi's rule of thumb is worth memorizing: if more than 40 percent of the boards need replacing, a full replacement usually costs less over time than patching. A deck replacement averages $7,800 nationally, and a brand new deck runs $4,500 to $18,000, or $30 to $60 per square foot.

The upside of this option is that you keep a wood surface that can be sanded and re-stained later. The downside is that you pay the refinishing bill again in a few years, on top of the board bill you just paid.

Option 3: switch the surface to composite

Composite boards are a mix of wood fiber and plastic. They do not rot, they do not need staining, and they hold color longer than wood. The catch is the price. Angi's 2026 composite data puts materials at $5 to $18 per square foot, labor at $10 to $14, and the installed range at $15 to $32 per square foot. A standard 360 square foot deck lands between $5,400 and $11,500.

For a 240 square foot deck in fair shape, the model here uses $35 per square foot installed: 240 x 35 = 8,400, then 8,400 x 1.15 = 9,660, or $40.25 per square foot. That runs above the published installed range, which tops out near $32 a square foot, because the estimate carries tear-off, disposal and the condition bump.

Lifespan is the argument for the upgrade. InterNACHI's life expectancy chart lists composite decking at about 25 years against 10 to 15 years for pressure-treated pine, and most composite lines carry 25 to 50 year limited warranties on the board itself. What the warranty does not cover is the frame underneath, which is usually the same pressure-treated lumber that was there before.

Two limits are worth knowing. Composite cannot be sanded and re-stained, so a deep scratch or a burn from a dropped grill coal means replacing that board. And the surface runs hotter than wood in direct sun, which matters on a west-facing deck with no shade.

Worked example: 240 square feet in fair shape

Put the three options side by side on a deck that most homeowners would call tired but solid: 240 square feet, a few soft boards near the stairs, no structural rot. The condition bump of 15 percent covers extra sanding, a bit of board replacement and slower prep.

The refinishing number is easy to check against published data. Angi's range is $3 to $7 per square foot, so a 240 square foot job should land between 240 x 3 = 720 and 240 x 7 = 1,680. The $1,242 estimate sits in the middle of that band, which is where a fair-condition deck belongs.

Do the same check on the composite number. At $15 to $32 per square foot installed, a 240 square foot deck should run 3,600 to 7,680 for the basic case. The $9,660 estimate is above that band because it includes tear-off, disposal and the 15 percent condition bump. If a bid comes in near $4,000 for the same scope, ask what is missing, because the boards alone can run $1,200 to $4,300 at that size.

The 10-year math on all three options

A finish is not a one-time purchase. Stain breaks down under sun and water, and the deck needs another coat every two to three years. Build that into the comparison and the ranking can change.

The arithmetic: 1,242 x 4 = 4,968 for the refinish path, 5,520 + 3 x 1,242 = 9,246 for new boards, and 9,660 + 5 x 96 = 10,140 for composite. The wash figure comes from Angi's $0.40 per square foot cleaning rate: 240 x 0.40 = 96, done every other year.

Ten years is too short a window for composite to pay back. Stretch the horizon to 15 years and the picture flips: 1,242 x 5 = 6,210 for refinishing, 5,520 + 4 x 1,242 = 10,488 for new boards, and 9,660 + 7 x 96 = 10,332 for composite, which puts composite $156 ahead of a second wood surface. The crossover lands around year 13 in this model.

On a smaller deck the gap narrows in dollar terms but the order holds. At 120 square feet in good shape: 540 for a refinish, 2,400 for new boards, 4,200 for composite. Over 10 years those become 2,160, 4,020 and 4,440.

DIY or hire a pro

Refinishing is one of the few deck jobs a homeowner can do well. Board replacement is a step harder. Composite installation is not a beginner job, because hidden fasteners, joist spacing and board expansion all have to be right or the warranty is void.

On the DIY side, the tools are modest: a pressure washer or a rental, a random orbit sander or a floor sander rental at $40 to $70 a day, a brush or pad, and the stain itself. Materials for a 240 square foot deck run about $1.50 per square foot, or $360, against $1,242 for a pro. Angi puts the full DIY range at $300 to $800 for a 200 square foot deck.

What you buy with the labor difference is time and risk. A pro crew finishes a deck in a day or two. Doing it yourself takes two to three days of work, plus drying time between washing and staining. A pressure washer held too close gouges soft wood, and stain applied to damp boards traps moisture and peels. The Wood Handbook chapter on finishing makes the same point: most finish failures start with water getting behind the coating, not with the coating itself.

Hiring also buys insurance and disposal. If a ladder goes through a railing or a sander cuts a board, a licensed contractor carries the cost. The savings are largest on small jobs: on a 200 square foot deck, the DIY range is $300 to $800 against $600 to $1,400 for a pro.

What moves the price up or down

Two decks of the same size can carry sharply different bills. The size table below is a starting point, not a quote.

Height and access add labor. A second story deck or one with a narrow side yard means carrying equipment up stairs and working around a railing, and crews price that in. Railing is usually billed by the linear foot and is not part of a square foot rate.

Hidden damage is the biggest swing. A soft joist or a rotted ledger turns a $1,200 finish into a repair project, and the average deck repair runs about $2,000. Older decks may also carry lead paint, which requires testing and special handling before sanding.

Climate sets the re-coat clock. A deck in full sun and heavy snow needs a new coat every two years, while a shaded deck in a mild climate can stretch to three or four. Local rules matter too: some associations require approval for a color change, and some towns require a permit when more than a small share of the decking is replaced.