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Black spots, green film, or a dull grey haze on boards that were sold to you as low maintenance? Mr-Suds Power Washing PROs cleans Trex, TimberTech, Azek, Fiberon and PVC decks across Greater Hartford using low pressure and composite-safe solutions, inside the guidance the board manufacturers publish. Free on-site estimate, no obligation.
Composite solved the part of deck ownership everyone hated. No sanding, no staining, no rot. What it did not solve is that your deck sits outdoors.
Pollen settles in April. Humidity holds moisture in the board grooves all summer. Leaves drop in October and sit wet for a week before anybody sweeps them off. None of that damages the board itself. But it builds a thin organic film on the surface, and that film is food. Mould and algae grow in it, not in the composite.
That is why a deck can be structurally perfect and still look terrible.
Connecticut makes it worse than average. Freeze-thaw winters keep boards damp for months. Shaded and north-facing decks in tree-canopy neighbourhoods barely dry out between rains. If your deck sits under a maple, you are on an accelerated schedule whether you like it or not.
The manufacturers know this. Read any of their care documents and you will find a twice-yearly cleaning recommendation sitting right there in the warranty terms.
Black spots on composite decking come from three different sources, and they are not equally removable. Surface mould feeding on pollen and organic film comes off with a composite-safe cleaner. Tannin staining from wet leaf litter usually lifts. Artillery fungus, spread from mulch beds, bonds into the surface and often cannot be fully removed.
The difference matters, so here is each one properly.
Soft-edged black or dark grey patches, worst in shade and in the board grooves. This is the most common cause by a wide margin, and it cleans up well.
Brown-black outlines where leaves sat. Wet oak and maple leach tannin into the surface film. Usually removable, though a stain left through two autumns takes more agitation.
Tiny hard black dots, roughly the size of a pinhead, scattered mostly on the lower boards and railings facing a mulch bed. The fungus fires spores several feet and they cement themselves on contact. There is no fungicide for it, and it resists normal cleaning.
We assess it on site, improve what can be improved, and tell you what will stay. Then we talk about the mulch, because stopping the source is the only real fix.
Green film is algae, and algae is slick when wet. On stair treads that turns into a genuine fall risk, especially on a deck people use in the dark. This is usually the fastest visible improvement we make.
Your boards have not faded. They are wearing a layer of biofilm and pollen residue that flattens the colour and hides the grain. Homeowners are frequently surprised how much colour comes back.
Autumn drop is the biggest annual event for a Hartford County deck. Leaves left over winter, pressed down by snow, do the most damage to appearance.
Grill splatter and spilled food. Worth knowing: most composite stain warranties expect prompt removal, so a grease mark left through a season is on the homeowner, not the manufacturer.
Not sure what is on your deck? Send us a photo and we will tell you what we are looking at.
This is the part almost nobody gets right, and it is the reason we ask what boards you have before we quote.
Composite decking is not one material. There are two broad groups, and they take opposite methods.
Trex Accents, Origins, Contours, Profiles and Brasilia, plus similar era boards from other makers. No protective shell, so the wood flour sits exposed at the surface, which is exactly why they grow mould so readily.
Manufacturer guidance for these boards is that a pressure washer should not be used at all. We clean them by hand: composite cleaner, dwell time, soft brush, gentle rinse.
Trex Transcend, Enhance, Select and Signature, plus PVC boards from Azek and TimberTech, and Fiberon’s capped ranges. These carry a bonded polymer shell.
They tolerate gentle pressure washing within the manufacturer’s stated ceiling, using a wide fan tip held at a safe standoff distance.
Get that backwards and you damage a deck. Which brings up the thing that makes composite different from wood.
On a cedar deck, a wand mark is an afternoon with a sander. On composite, the surface is the product. Fuzz it, etch it, or stripe it, and the only remedy is replacing the board, matching a colour that may no longer be manufactured.
So we identify the boards on the estimate visit, before anything gets sprayed. If you know the brand and rough install year, tell us. If not, we can usually tell from the profile and the grain embossing.
We look at the deck, work out what it is made of, check the shade and drainage, and give you a flat quote before any work is scheduled.
Furniture and grill moved off. Planters shifted. Nearby shrubs and lawn wetted down and covered where needed.
Loose debris off first, including the gaps between boards where wet leaf matter collects.
Applied at low pressure and given proper dwell time. The solution does the work, not the machine. That is the whole principle.
Soft bristle brush across the boards, with the grooves and board gaps detailed by hand. This step is why composite takes longer than wood.
Wide fan tip, low pressure, consistent standoff distance, working with the board direction. Complete rinse matters, because any solution left to dry on the surface leaves its own film.
Hand-detailed. Balusters take real time and they are the first thing a visitor sees.
We do not leave until you have looked at it and you are happy.
Turbo or pinpoint nozzles, bleach or acid-based cleaners, and sanding of any kind. Bleach can lighten composite surfaces unevenly, and once that happens there is no fixing it.
Not a certification, not an endorsement, just the actual care documents from the board makers. Different boards, different method, and we work below the stated pressure ceilings rather than up against them.
We hold Connecticut Home Improvement Contractor registration with the Department of Consumer Protection and carry general liability cover. Ask for proof of either. Any contractor who hesitates on that question has told you something.
Every review earned on a Greater Hartford property.
Ten minutes from most of the decks we clean. Not a franchise routing your call through a call centre in another state.
You get the number before we start, and that is the number.
If something needs another pass, it gets another pass while we are still there.
Every season I get called out to a composite deck that a rented pressure washer already fuzzed. The homeowner did nothing careless. They just used the nozzle the rental counter handed them, and that nozzle was built for concrete. Composite does not forgive that. Honestly, half of what you pay for here is knowing what not to point at your deck.
Most Greater Hartford composite decks land between $175 and $400, working out to roughly $0.45 to $0.75 per square foot. Composite sits at the upper end of deck cleaning pricing for one reason: the hand-detailing and the composite-specific solutions take longer than blasting a wood deck.
What moves the number:
You will not get an accurate figure from a phone call and a guess. We come out, measure, look at the boards, and give you a flat quote in writing. Free, and there is no pressure attached to it.
We clean composite and PVC decks throughout Hartford County, including Hartford, Newington, West Hartford, Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, Glastonbury, East Hartford, Farmington and Berlin.
The pattern is geographic. Backyards on the older tree-canopy streets of West Hartford and Glastonbury green up fastest, since a deck under mature maples gets a couple of hours of direct sun at best and stays damp through the shoulder seasons. Newer open-lot developments in Rocky Hill and Berlin go longer between cleans. If you have searched composite deck cleaning near me and found nothing but national DIY articles, that is because almost nobody local treats this as its own service. We do.
Not sure whether we reach you? Call and ask. If a neighbour has already searched deck cleaning near me and found us, chances are you are inside the area.
Composite is one surface on a property with many. We also handle wood deck and patio washing for pressure-treated and cedar decks, house washing in Hartford, soft washing services for siding and delicate surfaces, fence cleaning, pool deck cleaning, and roof cleaning for moss and black streaking.
“Both came out looking like new.”
who had the exterior and the deck done in one visit
“Roman takes pride in his work. Price was reasonable.”
on a multi-surface visit
Rated 5.0 on Google by Greater Hartford homeowners.
Sometimes, depending on the boards. Capped composite and PVC decking tolerate gentle pressure washing with a wide fan tip held at distance. Early-generation uncapped composite should not be pressure washed at all under manufacturer guidance, and we clean those by hand with a soft brush instead.
Board makers publish their own ceilings and they vary by product line, so the correct figure is whatever your manufacturer states. We work well below that ceiling using a wide fan tip and a consistent standoff distance. Check the Trex care and cleaning guidance for your specific boards.
Cleaning correctly does not. What causes problems is excessive pressure, narrow or turbo nozzles held close to the boards, harsh chemicals, and sanding. We work inside published manufacturer guidance rather than against it, which is precisely why we identify your board type before choosing a method.
Usually one of three things. Surface mould growing in the organic film, tannin staining from wet leaf litter, or artillery fungus blown across from nearby mulch beds. The first two clean up well. Artillery fungus bonds hard to the surface and often cannot be removed completely.
We do not use it. Bleach and acid-based cleaners can lighten composite surfaces unevenly, and unlike wood a bleached or etched composite board cannot be sanded back. We use composite-appropriate solutions with proper dwell time and hand agitation, which lifts the growth without altering the board colour.
Twice a year is the schedule most manufacturers publish in their care documents, typically spring and autumn. Shaded decks under tree cover in Greater Hartford often need it. Decks in open sun with good airflow can usually stretch to one thorough clean a year.
No. The surface is the finished product, and on capped boards it is a bonded shell that cannot be restored once it is broken. A scarred or fuzzed composite board has to be replaced, and matching an older colour is frequently impossible. That is the whole argument for careful method.
Most Greater Hartford composite decks fall between $175 and $400, roughly $0.45 to $0.75 per square foot. Railings, stairs, multi-level layouts and heavy soiling push it up, since those areas are hand-detailed. We give a flat written quote after a free on-site look.
Your deck is not worn out. It is dirty, and the two look identical from the kitchen window. One careful visit usually brings back the colour you paid for, without the risk of a rental machine you cannot undo.
Call Mr-Suds Power Washing PROs for a free on-site estimate, or send a photo of the boards and we will tell you what we are seeing before we ever come out.
Mr-Suds Power Washing PROs
130 Dewey Ave, Newington, CT 06111
Phone: (860) 263-9031
Serving Hartford, Newington, West Hartford, Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, Glastonbury, East Hartford, Farmington and Berlin.