How Much to Charge to Stain a Deck: Price It From Your Own Hours

How do you work out what to charge to stain a deck?

Charge your break-even for the whole job divided by one minus your target margin. Break-even is loaded labour for both visits, plus stain, cleaner and sundries, plus a share of your yearly overhead. The price per square foot comes out at the end.

I'm not a contractor - I build the pricing math. This page shows the arithmetic that turns your own hours and stain cost into a price; every input is an assumption you replace.

1. Stain area = deck boards + railing equivalent area + stairs.
2. Hours = everything on the clock across both visits: drive, setup, washing, both coats, cleanup.
3. Labour = hours × people × loaded rate (wage × (1 + burden %)).
4. Materials = stain gallons × price per gallon + cleaner or stripper + sundries.
5. Break-even = labour + materials + hours × people × overhead per sellable hour.
6. Price = break-even ÷ (1 − target margin).

The same method prices interior walls in the painting price per square foot guide. A deck adds railings, a second trip and stain coverage on bare wood.

How do you measure a deck for staining, railings and stairs included?

Measure the floor, then add the railings and stairs as their own areas. On a typical attached deck the railings can add almost as much stain area as the boards.

Deck boards: length × width. A 16 × 20 deck is 320 sq ft.

Railings: a railing has no floor area, so convert it. Measure the linear feet, then multiply by an equivalent area per foot. I use 6 sq ft per linear foot as the assumption: a railing about 3 ft high, stained on both faces (3 × 2 = 6). I do not subtract the gaps, because baluster edges and slower brushwork take that back. Change the 6 for taller, solid or cable railings. For a 16 × 20 deck attached to the house on a 20 ft side, the open sides are 16 + 20 + 16 = 52 ft, minus a 4 ft stair opening = 48 ft. 48 × 6 = 288 sq ft.

Stairs: treads plus risers plus stringers. For 4 steps on a 4 ft wide stair, I assume 1.5 sq ft of tread and riser per foot of width (4 × 4 × 1.5 = 24 sq ft) plus 8 sq ft for the two stringers, so 32 sq ft.

Look at the 12 × 12 row. The floor is 144 sq ft but the stain area is 368, more than double. Quote that deck on floor area alone and most of the work is missing from the price.

How much should I charge to stain a 16x20 deck? (try the calculator)

On the assumptions below, a 16 × 20 deck with railings and stairs prices at $1,587.69 at a 35% margin. Change the hours and stain cost to your own and the price moves with them.

The calculator starts on this example. The production rate of 40 sq ft an hour is not a brushing speed. It is the whole job, both visits, divided into the stain area: 640 sq ft ÷ 16 hours. The 16 hours are assumptions; time your own jobs and replace them.

The working: 16 hours at a loaded $32.50 (a $25 wage plus 30% burden) is $520.00 of labour. Overhead of $14,520 a year over 1 person × 220 billed days × 8 hours is $8.25 an hour, so $132.00 on this job. Add $380 of materials and break-even is $1,032.00. Divided by 0.65, the price is $1,587.69, which leaves $555.69 of profit.

How much stain does a deck need, and what does it cost?

Gallons = stain area × coats ÷ coverage per gallon, rounded up. The coverage figure is the one to get right, and it comes from the label on the product you use, not from this page.

Weathered wood soaks up more than a painted wall, and coverage varies by product and wood. The examples here assume 200 sq ft per gallon per coat and $45 a gallon. Both are placeholders: read the coverage off your can and use your supplier's price.

The $40 of cleaner and $25 of sundries (pads, brushes, tape, plastic) are flat assumptions for every size. If you strip old stain instead of cleaning, replace the $40 with what the stripper and neutralizer cost on that job, and add the extra hours. Stain is the smaller cost on every row: on the 16 × 20 deck, materials are $380 against $520.00 of labour.

Deck staining price table: 12x12, 16x20 and 20x20

Price rises with the deck, but not in a straight line, because the 4 hours of driving, setup and pack-up across two visits are the same on a small deck as on a large one.

To scale the hours, I split the 16 × 20 job in two: 4 fixed hours (two visits × 1 hour driving, 0.5 setup, 0.5 pack-up) and 12 hours of washing and staining for 640 sq ft. That is 1.875 hours per 100 sq ft of stain area. A 12 × 12 takes 4 + 368 × 0.01875 = 10.9 hours; a 20 × 20 takes 4 + 768 × 0.01875 = 18.4 hours. Same person, same rates, same 35% margin.

On identical rates, the 12 × 12 costs $7.36 per floor sq ft and the 20 × 20 costs $4.52, so no single per-square-foot figure fits both. Per stain sq ft the spread is narrower, $2.88 to $2.35, which is why stain area is the number to price from.

How much should I charge for labor to stain a deck?

Charge for labour at your loaded rate plus overhead, divided by one minus margin, for every hour of both visits. On the assumptions here that is $62.69 per hour on the clock.

The working: a $25 wage plus 30% burden is $32.50 an hour. Overhead of $14,520 spread over 1,760 sellable hours (220 days × 8) is $8.25 an hour. Together, $40.75 an hour before materials. Divide by 0.65 and each hour has to bill $62.69. The labor burden calculator builds the 30% line by line.

The hour count matters more than the rate. Forgetting the second drive alone (1 hour) prices the 16 × 20 deck at $1,525.00 instead of $1,587.69, which is $62.69 gone on one job. The wash day is a real visit too; the pressure washing pricing guide prices that step on its own if you sell washing as a separate job.

How do you price a reseal versus a first stain?

A reseal is a different job with fewer hours and less stain, so price it from its own inputs rather than discounting the first-stain price.

Take the same 16 × 20 deck already in good shape. Assume one maintenance coat instead of two, and a lighter wash with no stripping. Washing drops from 3 hours to 2, the second coat (3.5 hours) disappears, and the stain falls to 640 ÷ 200 = 3.2, so 4 gallons, $180. With $65 of cleaner and sundries, materials are $245. Hours: 4 fixed + 2 washing + 5.5 one coat = 11.5.

The reseal prices at $1,097.88 against $1,587.69 for the first stain. A deck that must be stripped goes the other way: stripper cost and more hours on visit 1. Price each case from its own hours.

What are the common mistakes when quoting a deck stain job?

The three mistakes that sink a deck quote are pricing from someone else's per-square-foot figure, leaving out the railings and the second trip, and adding margin as markup.

• A per-square-foot number from a forum. It carries someone else's wage, stain and drive. As the price table shows, the same rates give $7.36 per floor sq ft on a small deck and $4.52 on a large one. Work out your own price, then divide by the area as a check.
• Floor only, one trip. Quote the 16 × 20 on its 320 sq ft of boards and you lose the 6 hours and 3 gallons the railings and stairs take. That quote comes to $1,003.85, which is $583.84 short of $1,587.69. Forget the second drive as well and the gap grows.
• Markup instead of margin. Adding 35% to the $1,032.00 break-even gives $1,393.20 and keeps only 25.93%. Dividing by 0.65 gives $1,587.69. The gap is $194.49 a deck, or $20,227.20 a year at two decks a week. The markup vs margin calculator has the full conversion chart.

Can a painting estimate spreadsheet price a deck stain job?

Yes, if you enter the deck as surfaces. The painting estimate spreadsheet ($14.99, Excel and Google Sheets) has no deck or stain mode, but its Job Pricer takes up to 12 rooms or surfaces, each with square feet, labour hours and a primer switch.

To use it for a deck, enter one row each for the deck boards, the railings (as equivalent area, the 288 sq ft worked out above) and the stairs, with the hours for each. In My Rates, type your stain price per gallon where the paint price goes and your stain coverage where the coverage rate goes (the sheet's default is 350 sq ft per gallon, which is a wall figure, so change it). Put the second visit's drive in the drive time and miles lines. It then returns gallons, stain cost, labour, overhead, break-even, the price at your margin, the same figure as a markup and price per square foot. The minimum job price is one of the rates you set in My Rates.

One part does not apply. The sheet's market check compares your price with a $2 to $6 per floor sq ft band, and that band is for interior painting. Ignore it on a deck.

For a single quick number, the free painting estimate calculator does one job in your browser: total the hours for both visits first, since it takes hours rather than area.

What should go in your deck staining price sheet?

A deck price sheet is a short list of your own numbers that turns a measurement into a price.

• Railing conversion: sq ft per linear foot for each railing style you see.
• Stair allowance per step and per foot of width.
• Fixed hours per visit: drive, setup, pack-up. Count two visits.
• Hours per 100 sq ft for washing, stripping, first coat and second coat, timed on your own jobs.
• Stain coverage and price per gallon for each product you use.
• Minimum job price, worked out like the 12 × 12 row, not rounded down.

The formulas below build that sheet. Layout: B2 = deck floor sq ft, B3 = railing linear ft, B4 = sq ft per railing foot, B5 = stair sq ft, B6 = coats, B7 = coverage per gallon, B8 = hours, B9 = loaded rate, B10 = overhead per hour, B11 = materials, B12 = break-even, B13 = margin %, B14 = minimum job price, B15 = price.

If you would rather not build and test it yourself, the painting estimate spreadsheet already does the labour, overhead, break-even and margin maths; you supply the stain rates and the hours.

Step-by-step: How Much to Charge to Stain a Deck: Price It From Your Own Hours

1. Measure the deck, railings and stairs. Measure floor length × width, railing linear feet and the stair treads, risers and stringers.
2. Convert railings to area. Multiply railing linear feet by an equivalent area per foot, such as 6 sq ft for a 3 ft railing stained on both faces.
3. Count hours for both visits. Add drive, setup, washing or stripping, each coat and cleanup across the wash day and the stain day.
4. Work out stain and materials. Gallons = stain area × coats ÷ label coverage, rounded up, times price per gallon, plus cleaner or stripper and sundries.
5. Find break-even. Add hours × loaded labour rate, materials, and hours × overhead per sellable hour.
6. Divide by one minus margin. Price = break-even ÷ (1 − margin). Quote the higher of that and your minimum job price.

Related guides