Fence staining cost guide, St. Catharines 2026.

Illustrative local ranges so you know roughly what to expect before anyone visits. Confirm scope and a flat price with a licensed local contractor before any work begins.

Pricing a fence staining job in St. Catharines or Niagara? Here is what the numbers usually look like.

These are illustrative typical-Niagara ranges for 2026, based on publicly available market information. The actual price for a given job depends on fence height, how many sides, the wood condition, and the stain type. Confirm scope and a firm flat price with a licensed local contractor before any work starts.

Per-linear-foot ranges

Service	What it covers	Per lin ft (one side)
Cleaning and brightening	Soft-wash, algae treatment, wood brightener	$3 to $6
Re-stain (previously stained)	Light clean plus fresh even coat	$6 to $9
Clean and stain (weathered wood)	Full prep, then back-brushed stain and seal	$7 to $12
Solid stain (vs semi-transparent)	Maximum coverage on tired or patched wood	Add $1 to $2

These per-foot rates are for one side of the fence. Doing both faces of a privacy fence roughly doubles the number above, though not always exactly 2x since access and setup are shared between the two.

Deck, pergola, and add-on pricing

Add-on	Notes	Price
Deck staining	With the fence, same visit	From $3.50 / sq ft
Pergola or arbour	Quoted by size, bundled	From $250
Gates and gazebos	Both faces, hardware protected	Quoted per project

A worked example. A typical 100-foot, six-foot cedar privacy fence gone grey needs the full clean-and-stain treatment, complete prep, then back-brushed stain and seal. One side, at the $7 to $12 per-linear-foot rate above, runs $700 to $1,200. Most privacy fences get stained on both faces, which works out to somewhat less than double that single-side figure since the crew's setup and access are shared rather than duplicated, so a two-sided job on this fence commonly lands around $1,300 to $2,200 depending on condition and stain. Adding a small deck the same day saves a second trip charge against doing it separately. These are illustrative Niagara-market ranges; confirm with a licensed local contractor.

What changes the price

Fence height. A four-foot picket fence has less surface area per linear foot than a six-foot privacy fence; the per-foot rate reflects which.
How many sides. Doing both faces of a privacy fence is more material and labour than one side.
Wood condition. A heavily mildewed or algae-covered fence needs more treatment time, which can push toward the higher end of the range.
Stain type. Semi-transparent and solid stains are priced differently; a penetrating oil formula for cedar may also be priced differently from a water-based product.

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Hiring a fence staining contractor in Niagara

Before booking, confirm the contractor carries liability insurance and WSIB coverage. Ask whether the prep step (cleaning and brightening the wood before staining) is included in the quote. A contractor who quotes staining directly over grey or mildewed wood without discussing prep is worth asking about, because skipped prep is the main reason fence stain fails early.

Ask for the quote in writing as a per-linear-foot or flat rate with prep included, so you know the whole number before work begins. If the fence also has a deck or pergola, ask whether bundling them in one visit reduces the total, since the mobilization cost is the same either way.

For cedar fences in the Niagara region, ask whether the stain is a penetrating oil formula or a surface-film product. Penetrating stains seal from inside the wood and hold through freeze-thaw cycling; surface-film products can lift off in patches after a hard winter. The right contractor will explain the distinction without being asked.