Need a Fence Cleaning or a Replacement? Here’s How to Tell

Here's something that might surprise you - a lot of fences get torn out and replaced every year when they didn't need to be.

A homeowner looks at their gray, dirty or green-streaked fence and thinks it's done for. They get a quote for $3,000–$6,000 to replace it and say yes without ever knowing that what they were looking at was just dirt, algae and weathering on the outside. The fence itself was still perfectly fine.

That's a really expensive mistake!

But sometimes a fence really is past the possibility of saving. Fence cleaning would just waste money on something that's already rotting/rotted!

So how would you know which one you're dealing with?

What That Nasty Fence Is Usually Telling You

It's Turned Gray or Silver

A lot of homeowners see a gray fence and think it's dying. It's usually not.

Wood turns gray when sunlight breaks down the surface of it over time. It's basically just sun bleaching. It looks really bad but it doesn't mean the wood is rotting underneath.

A good fence cleaning can bring these fences back in a big way. We've cleaned fences in Holt, DeWitt ect, that homeowners were days away from getting torn out. After cleaning it they looked like a completely new fence.

Here’s a quick and easy way to check! Try to press your thumb or a pen into the wood near the bottom of the fence posts near where it enters the ground. If the post feels solid, you're probably just dealing with a dirty fence not a rotted one!

It Has Green, Black, or Brown Stains

This is algae, mold, or mildew and it's very common here in Mid-Michigan. Our weather creates perfect conditions for this stuff to grow on all outdoor surfaces.

The good news is that this is almost always a cleaning problem, not a needing-replacement problem. As long as it hasn't been building up for five or more years without cleaning, a proper wash will take care of it.

The Bottom of the Posts Look Black and Feel Soft

If the wood near the ground is dark, soft or feels squishy when you push on it, that's rot. Here's an easy check, grab the post and try to rock it back and forth. A tiny bit of movement is normal. But if it moves more than an inch or two, the post is rotting underground where you can't see it.

Cleaning won't fix that. But here's the thing - just because a post is bad doesn't mean the whole fence needs to go. The boards attached to it might be totally fine. Sometimes you just need a few posts replaced plus a cleaning, not a whole new fence.

What To Do Before You Call Anyone

Before you spend a dime, spend five minutes walking your fence and checking these things:

Push on the posts. If they feel solid and don't move much, your fence is almost certainly saveable. The posts are what hold everything up - if they're good, the fence is good.

Press on the bottom rail. That's the horizontal board running closest to the ground. If it feels firm, great. If your finger sinks in, that section is rotting.

Count the boards that are actually broken. There's a big difference. A fence that looks rough but is mostly solid probably just needs a fence cleaning and a few board swaps, not a full replacement.

Think about when it was last cleaned. If the answer is more than a few years ago or never there's a pretty good chance it just needs a deep cleaning. Years of built-up algae and grime can make a perfectly good fence look like it's on its death bed.

What About Vinyl Fences?

On the plus side, vinyl fences don't rot so they're an easier solution for them! Most of the time when a vinyl fence looks bad, it's just dirty and covered in algae, mold or oxidized.

The plus? Vinyl cleans up really well and the results are usually pretty night and day! Unless the vinyl panels are cracked or broken, cleaning is almost always the right move here.

The Short Answer

You probably need a replacement if:

• Multiple posts wobble badly when you push them

• More than a third of the boards are physically broken or missing

• The fence is leaning because the posts are failing underground

You probably just need a cleaning if:

• The fence looks gray, green or stained but feels sturdy when you touch it

• It's been a few years since it was cleaned last

• The posts feel firm and barely move

• The damage is mostly on the surface - staining, discoloration, buildup

What We Actually Do When We Clean a Fence

We don't just blast it with a pressure washer and call it a day. High pressure on wood can actually make things worse because it can raise the grain of the wood and push water deeper into it!

Instead we use what's called “soft washing”. That means low pressure plus a cleaning solution that actually kills the algae and mold at the root. The result lasts a lot longer because the growth is gone, not just temporarily knocked off the surface.

For wood fences that have gone gray, we can also apply a brightener after cleaning that brings the wood color back toward its original warm brown tone. It's a pretty satisfying transformation.

Not Sure? Start With a Cleaning.

If you're on the fence about it (sorry, I had to!), the smartest move is usually to get a fence cleaning done first. It costs a fraction of what replacement does, and in most cases the result will answer your question for you.

We've had homeowners completely change their minds after seeing what a good cleaning does to their fence. What looked like a done-for fence turned out to just be a very dirty one!

And if after cleaning it still looks structurally rough - at least now you know for sure. That's a much better spot to make a $4,000 decision from!