The fence
One row per run — front vs back, or wood vs chain-link. Pick a material to start from common figures, then replace every cost and hour with numbers from your last invoice and your last timed job.
Site and tear-out
Your costs
Payroll burden covers employer taxes, workers’ compensation, liability insurance, and paid time off. Underestimating it — or bidding rocky dirt at a flat per-foot number — is the usual reason a fence job that looked profitable was not.
Hand the customer a proposal
The price above is for you. This is the page you print or save as a PDF and give to the customer — your details, their details, the scope, the deposit split, and a line for them to sign. Your business details are saved on this device so you only type them once; the customer’s details are never saved.
Everything on the printed page is text you typed or a number this calculator worked out. It contains no warranty, lien, or cancellation wording — those depend on your jurisdiction and your contract, and this tool is not the place to invent them.
Your bid
- Labor hours
- Loaded labor cost
- Material & tear-out
- Permits & extras
- Overhead
- Total cost
- Profit
- Price per linear foot
- Effective hourly rate
- Walk-away price
- Posts on this job
Where the money goes
Transparent arithmetic from your own inputs. The starting material and hour figures are common ballpark numbers, not a price book, a benchmark, or a guarantee — replace them with your invoices and your timed crews.
Common questions
What does this fence estimate include?
Each run’s material and posts by length and post spacing, with extra terminal posts at corners and gates, gate material and labor, concrete per post, tear-out of an existing fence, harder digging or a sloped yard, and overhead and margin on top.
How does difficult digging or a sloped yard change the price?
Rocky or clay soil and a mild or steep slope multiply the labor hours on posts and tear-out. Concrete and panels cost the same regardless of ground condition, so only the crew-time estimate changes, not the material pricing.
Why do gates change the post count, not just add a gate price?
A line post next to a gate has to become a heavier terminal post to carry the hinge or latch, and a short run mostly taken up by a gate may need an extra terminal altogether. The calculator upgrades and adds posts automatically so the total reflects that instead of undercounting them.
Does the tool know local frost depth, property lines, or permit requirements?
No. Post spacing, concrete per post, and any permit-adjacent cost are numbers you supply yourself, and there is no frost-depth table, property-line check, or permit lookup built in. Confirm those with your local building department and a survey before you dig.
Is my data uploaded anywhere?
No account and no network requests — everything runs in your browser. The only thing saved between visits is your business and contact details for the printed proposal, and you can clear those with “Forget my business details.”
What’s the difference between the total cost and the price shown?
Total cost is materials, posts, gates, tear-out, and labor plus overhead — the walk-away number. The price shown applies your target margin on top, so it is what you’d charge to hit that margin rather than just cover your costs.