Northwest Arkansas is hard on decks. Oak and hickory drop tannin-heavy leaves through fall, spring pollen coats every flat surface, and humid summers feed mold on the shaded side of the house. If your property backs up to tree cover (most of Springdale), your deck stays damp longer than the front of the home and shows it faster.
Arkan Softwash is the local soft wash specialist for wood, composite, painted, and pool decks across Springdale, Rogers, and Tontitown. We do not pressure-blast wood. Our two-stage chemistry on bare wood (an alkaline cleaner followed by an oxalic acid brightener) restores the boards instead of just rinsing the surface dirt off. We are veteran-owned, fully licensed and insured, and Plant and Property Protection Certified through Spray Wash Academy.
Send photos or call 479-877-5399 for a real number on your deck. Estimates are free, and you get a 30-minute heads-up call and text before we pull into your driveway.
Each material gets the chemistry designed for it.
Call us or email us right away when possible, asking about material, size, condition, prior finish, and accessibility so we know what we are looking at.
About half of our estimates come from photos you send us; the other half we do in person when something cannot be confirmed remotely. Either way, the quote arrives by both text and email so you have a record of what was promised.
Once you approve the estimate, we schedule the job. On the morning of the appointment, we send a text and place a call 30 minutes before our crew arrives so you can bring pets inside and close windows.
Before any chemistry comes out, we walk the property with you and flag anything unusual: loose boards, exposed nails, soft spots, or siding that does not want to stay put. Plants around the deck get neutralized, plastic sheeting goes over stained doors and brass accents, and pet areas get heavy dilution. We also take before photos of the deck and any flagged areas for your file.
For bare wood, we pre-wet, apply the two-stage chemistry (alkaline cleaner, then oxalic acid brightener), and rinse from 12 to 24 inches off the surface. For composite and painted decks, we run the sodium hypochlorite soft wash with the apple-fragrance surfactant, dwell, rinse, and neutralize. Detergents do the work; the pace is steady, not aggressive.
If you are staining or sealing, we add screw resets and sand handrails and walking surfaces with a wire cup wheel for adhesion. If your deck has existing sealer that needs to come off, we apply a sodium hydroxide stripper, neutralize the wood, and wait for it to drop below 12% moisture before any new stain is applied.
After the deck is rinsed, we go back over the landscape and runoff areas with neutralizer one more time. We take after photos, then invite you back out for a final walk-around. Anything that does not look right gets addressed on the spot.
The invoice goes out by text and email right after the walk-around, followed by a thank-you message and a Google review request. If anything surfaces later, the satisfaction guarantee kicks in.
If you have any issue with the work, we address it right away. We would rather drive back than have you sit with a result you are not happy with. What is not covered is anything structural: rotted boards, loose railings, soft spots, and any condition flagged during the walkthrough are not part of the cleaning warranty because they are not cleaning issues. The work is backed by full licensing and insurance, Plant and Property Protection certification through Spray Wash Academy, and formal training on every chemical we use. Roof cleaning carries a two-year written guarantee on regrowth; deck cleaning falls under our general satisfaction guarantee, but if something is wrong with our work, we come back and make it right.
No. Our rinse nozzle is held 12 to 24 inches off the wood, and we let detergents do the cleaning instead of pressure. The wand marks you have seen on neighbors’ decks come from pressure-blasting, which is the opposite of what we do.
Our minimum for deck cleaning is $200. From there, your quote depends on square footage, wood type, height, accessibility, age of the wood, how dirty it is, and whether it has been stained, sealed, or painted. If you want clean-and-stain together, that combined service starts at $500.
Most deck cleanings run 2 to 3 hours, averaging around 2.5 hours of active work. Staining itself takes about the same time, but the wood must drop below 12% moisture before stain can be applied, which usually makes clean-and-stain a multi-day project.
We are direct about this: improperly used cleaning chemicals can damage landscaping. That is why we neutralize the landscape around your deck before and after the cleaning, use Agent Pink (a bleach neutralizer) on plants and delicate surfaces, and heavily dilute any runoff in pet areas. We are Plant and Property Protection Certified through Spray Wash Academy.
Yes, and the chemistry changes based on the finish. Painted decks and previously stained decks are cleaned more like composite, with a sodium hypochlorite soft wash. Bare wood gets the full two-stage process with an alkaline cleaner followed by an oxalic acid brightener.
Yes. We apply a sodium hydroxide stripper, neutralize the wood, and let it dry below 12% moisture before staining or sealing. This is a more involved service than a standard clean and is quoted as its own line.
If the deck has serious rot or structural damage, we will tell you straight up. Cleaning will not fix what is wrong, and in some cases the deck is not safe to clean at all. We would rather see you put your money toward replacing the decking than into a service that will not solve the problem.
Yes. Our combined clean-and-stain service starts at $500. We use a deep-penetrating oil-based stain applied in two even coats. We do prefer staining fences over decks because decks involve more prep, but we handle both.
It depends on tree cover, shade, foot traffic, and whether the deck is sealed. Properties under heavy tree cover (most of Springdale, Rogers, and Tontitown) generally need cleaning more often than open-lot homes. We can give you a specific recommendation after looking at your deck.
We offer a satisfaction guarantee: if you have any issue at all with our work, we address it right away. We do not currently offer a time-bound written warranty on deck cleaning specifically. That structure is what we use on roof cleaning, which carries a two-year written guarantee.
Yes. Our multi-service discount kicks in when you bundle: the more services on the estimate, the lower the per-service cost. The discount is customized to your property, not a fixed percentage. Common pairings are deck cleaning with house washing, fence cleaning, or concrete cleaning.
If you want a deck that looks restored instead of just rinsed, Arkan Softwash is the call. Our minimum for deck cleaning is $200, and most quotes are built to the specific property based on the photos or walkthrough you provide. Call 479-877-5399 or send a few photos of your deck and we will get a real number back to you.
