Deck Season-Ready Package
Handis deck season-ready package is the one-to-two-visit deck restoration that takes a Seattle-area deck from wet-winter sag to barbecue-ready inside the narrow May-to-June dry window — low-PSI wash with deck cleaner tuned to the board material, every popped screw walked back into the joist, every cut end inspected for rot, every joist hanger and lag bolt checked, and a single stain or seal coat applied against a 48-hour rain-free forecast. From $700 for a small cedar deck reset; up to $1,800 for a larger restoration with full hardware replacement and a stain coat. Composite decks get a low-PSI wash and an optional clear UV seal — never high-PSI pressure-wash, which voids most manufacturer warranties.
Service
What Does the Deck Season-Ready Package Include?
The deck season-ready package is a one-to-two-visit restoration that resets a Seattle deck for the four months of actual outdoor weather the PNW delivers. Visit one is the wash and walk — low-PSI cleaning, full board screwdown, hardware check, rot inspection. Visit two (the stain coat, if booked) is scheduled to a 48-hour rain-free forecast window so the stain actually cures instead of spotting. Every item on the standard package is on the list before the visit starts; any repair beyond the named scope is photographed, quoted at member labor rates, and only touched with your sign-off.
Full Deck Wash at the Right PSI for the Material
Cedar and pressure-treated decks get a low-to-medium PSI wash with deck-specific cleaner — high enough to lift the moss and the algae and the months of leaf tannin, low enough to leave the grain alone. Composite decking (Trex, TimberTech, Fiberon) gets a much lower PSI with a manufacturer-approved cleaner — most composite warranties void above the rated cleaning pressure. The tech adjusts on the spot based on board condition; a fresh-from-the-mill cedar deck gets less pressure than an eight-year-old weathered one.
Board Walk with Screwdown and Fastener Replace
The tech walks the whole deck on hands and knees and gets every popped screw back into the joist — the most common cause of a deck board working loose on a PNW deck is freeze-thaw cycling backing screws out a half-turn each winter. Corroded fasteners (the rusty heads on older galvanized screws) get pulled and replaced with stainless or coated deck screws sized to the original hole. Hidden-fastener systems (Cortex plugs, Camo) get the appropriate replacement plugs from the truck stock.
End-Grain Rot Inspection at Every Cut End
Cedar and pressure-treated boards rot at the cut ends first, where the end-grain wicks rain that never makes it past the surface of the rest of the board. The tech checks every visible end — board ends at the deck perimeter, stair tread ends, picture-frame mitre joints, post tops — for soft spots, dark staining, and visible decay. Soft boards get photographed and quoted for replacement; small areas of end-grain rot get treated with borate-based wood preservative on the visit.
Rail and Post Wobble Check Against Residential Code
Every rail gets a hand-shake test. Loose rail hardware tightens on the visit. Posts that wobble beyond what a tighten can fix get photographed and quoted for reset. Rail height (36 inches residential, 42 inches for raised decks above 30 inches per the current IRC), spindle gap (four inches maximum on a sphere test for newer builds, six inches on older code-grandfathered installs), and rail-to-post attachment all get checked. Code is informational on this visit; full code-compliance rework routes to a separate quote.
Hardware Inspection on Joist Hangers and Lag Bolts
The tech checks visible joist hangers, ledger-board lag bolts, and stair stringer fasteners for corrosion and back-out. Loose lag bolts get torqued on the visit; corroded hangers (the rust-through kind) get photographed and quoted for replacement. Ledger-board work that requires opening siding or rim joists routes to a licensed contractor — we name the issue and recommend who to call.
Stain or Seal Coat Inside a 48-Hour Dry Window
The optional stain or seal coat is scheduled against a 48-hour rain-free forecast — Seattle stain coats applied on the wrong week peel by August. Water-based stains need 24 hours walk-on dry, 48 hours for furniture, 72 hours to cure for rain exposure. Oil-based stains run longer. Cedar gets cedar-tone semi-transparent stain on most builds; composite gets a clear UV-resistant seal if booked. We hold flexible stain slots in May and June and call the date 72 hours out when the forecast firms — better to slip a week than apply a coat that fails.
How the Deck Season-Ready Package Works
Five steps every Handis deck season-ready visit runs through — schedule against the dry-window forecast, wash at the right PSI for the material, walk the boards and reset fasteners, inspect rails posts and hardware, apply the stain or seal coat inside the rain-free window and send the photo report.
Schedule Against the 48-Hour Rain-Free Forecast
Wash and walk visits book to fixed dates in May or June. Stain coats schedule to whatever 48-hour rain-free window the Seattle forecast offers — we hold flexible slots and call the date 72 hours out when the forecast firms. Better to slip a week than apply a coat that will peel by August.
Wash the Deck at the Right PSI for the Material
Cedar and pressure-treated boards get a low-to-medium PSI wash with deck-specific cleaner. Composite gets a much lower PSI with a manufacturer-approved cleaner — high-PSI on composite voids most warranties. The tech adjusts on the spot based on board age, material, and condition.
Walk the Boards and Reset Every Popped Fastener
Tech walks the whole deck on hands and knees, screwdrives every popped screw back into the joist, pulls and replaces corroded fasteners with stainless or coated deck screws, and handles hidden-fastener plugs (Cortex, Camo) from truck stock. Loose boards get re-secured; small splits get countersunk and stabilized.
Inspect Rails, Posts, End-Grain, and Hardware
Hand-shake test on every rail and post. Loose hardware tightens on the visit. End-grain checked at every cut end for rot; small areas get borate treatment on the spot. Joist hangers and ledger lag bolts checked for corrosion and back-out. Anything beyond visit scope is photographed and quoted at member labor rates.
Apply the Stain or Seal Coat and Send the Photo Report
If the stain coat is booked, the second visit lands inside the rain-free window — single coat of cedar-tone semi-transparent on most cedar builds, clear UV seal on composite if booked. Same-day dated photo report with before-and-after shots, the fastener count, any add-ons quoted for follow-up. Nothing beyond visit scope is touched without your sign-off.
Deck Season-Ready Package Pricing
Final pricing depends on deck square footage, material (cedar, pressure-treated, composite), height off grade, and whether a stain or seal coat is booked. Hardware replacement, board replacement, and rail rebuilds price separately. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Tell us the deck size, the material, and whether you want stain. We will quote the package.
Why Seattle Homeowners Book Handis for the Deck Season-Ready Package
Deck restoration in Seattle fails the same way most years — a generic spring pressure-wash gets done at too high a PSI, the wood grain raises, the stain gets rolled on against a forecast nobody actually checked, and by August the coat is peeling along the south rail. Our deck visit was built backward from the four most common Seattle deck failures — fastener back-out from freeze-thaw, end-grain rot at the cut ends, north-side board cupping from chronic shade-moisture, and stain failure from the wrong dry window. The tech who walks your deck has done a thousand of these and knows what the season is about to do.
PSI matched to the deck material, not a single setting
Cedar gets a different pressure than pressure-treated; pressure-treated gets a different pressure than composite. Composite especially — Trex, TimberTech, and Fiberon all void the manufacturer warranty above the rated cleaning pressure (typically 1,500 PSI fan tip at twelve inches). The tech sets the wand to the material on the spot. Generic deck-wash crews run one PSI for the whole job and damage the composite deck before they have finished cleaning it.
Stain coat scheduled to a real forecast, not a calendar
The stain coat goes on against a 48-hour rain-free window from the Seattle forecast — we hold flexible slots in May and June and call the date 72 hours out when the forecast firms. A stain coat applied the wrong week peels by August; one applied to the right window stays clean through October. Booking the stain on a fixed calendar date is the most common reason DIY deck stains fail in the PNW.
Fastener replacement carried on the truck for the standard sizes
Stainless and coated deck screws in the standard sizes for cedar (#8 x 2-1/2 inch, #10 x 3 inch), pressure-treated (HDG ceramic-coated 3 inch), and composite hidden-fastener systems (Cortex, Camo) ride on the truck. When the tech finds corroded fasteners during the walk, the swap happens on the visit at member labor rates. No second trip for a different screw size, no plumber call for a popped joist hanger.
Honest scope — handyman work only, contractor handoff when needed
Deck visit work covers handyman scope only. Full structural rebuild, joist replacement, ledger-board work that requires opening siding, footing replacement, rail systems that need code-compliance rework on grandfathered installs, and any work requiring a permit route to a licensed Washington L&I contractor — we name the issue in the photo report and recommend who to call, then come back for the finish work after their rough-in if you want us in the loop.
Insured, background-checked, 30-day workmanship guarantee
Every Handis handyman carries liability insurance and has cleared a background screening before the first job. The 30-day workmanship guarantee applies to any work done during the deck visit — if a screw we set backs out, a fastener we replaced loosens, a stain coat we applied lifts, a rail we tightened wobbles, we come back and fix it at no extra charge. Guarantee covers our work, not pre-existing structural conditions and not weather damage from a storm outside the visit window.
Estimate
Tell us the deck size in square feet, the material (cedar, pressure-treated, composite, brand if known), the height off grade, and whether you want a stain or seal coat booked in the same package. We send back a clear estimate for the visit.
Customer Reviews
Recent deck season-ready package reviews from verified Seattle-area customers.
1997 cedar deck off the back of our Wedgwood house, maybe 280 sq ft. Handis tech washed it at low PSI on the first visit, screwdriven 41 popped screws back into the joists, replaced 6 rusted ones with stainless, flagged two stair-tread ends with end-grain rot for follow-up. Came back the next week and rolled a cedar-tone stain coat in the 48-hour window the forecast called. Deck still looks fresh in September.
Composite Trex deck off our Sammamish house. Previous handyman pressure-washed it at full power last year and left fuzzy patches everywhere. Handis tech showed up with a low-PSI wand and a Trex-approved cleaner, did the whole deck without raising a single fiber, then applied a clear UV seal because the south rail was starting to bleach. Boards have not faded a shade since.
Big two-tier pressure-treated deck on our Redmond house, maybe 650 sq ft total. The full restoration package — wash, full board walk with hardware replacement budget, stain coat scheduled to a forecast window. Two visits a week apart. They replaced 12 corroded joist-hanger nails and a wobbly post top on the visit. Most thorough deck work we have ever paid for.
1962 split-level in Bellevue with a cedar deck that had not been touched in years. Tech walked the whole thing on his hands and knees, treated end-grain rot at four board ends with borate, replaced 11 screws, and recommended a fascia board for follow-up before staining. We scheduled the stain visit two weeks later. Deck went from gray-and-mossy to looking like furniture.
Smaller deck off our Capitol Hill craftsman, maybe 180 sq ft. Just the reset package, no stain — we wanted to do the stain ourselves later. Tech washed, screwed everything down, tightened the rail hardware, sent a photo report with one popped board flagged. Saved us a full weekend of just figuring out where the loose screws were before any DIY could start.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about the Handis deck season-ready package — pricing, materials, stain timing, code, and what routes to a licensed contractor.