Pick a fence type, enter the footage, and get a material list — posts, rails, pickets or wire, concrete and gate hardware — in seconds. Quantities only, no sign-up. Built by a fence contractor.
This free calculator gives you quantities. FenceDraft Pro prices the same job from your own costs, draws it on a satellite map with property lines, and turns it into a signed proposal with the deposit collected online — then runs the pull sheet and crew sheet off the same estimate.
Built by a fence contractor, for fence contractors.
Choose your fence type and height, enter the total length in feet, then set how many open ends, corners and gates the run has. Two ends and no corners is a plain straight fence. Hit Calculate materials and you get a quantity list you can take to the yard. It is an estimate — verify against your site and local code before ordering.
For a straight run, posts ≈ (fence length ÷ post spacing) + 1, plus a heavier post at each corner and one on each side of every gate. The spacing the calculator uses by default, by fence type:
Counts pickets per foot (with 10% waste), horizontal rails per section, line/end/corner posts set in concrete, picket and rail fasteners, and gate hardware. Switch to board-on-board or horizontal and the picket math follows.
Counts line, terminal and gate posts, chain-link fabric by the 50-foot roll, tension bars, tension and brace bands, loop and dome caps, tie wires, tension wire and concrete — residential (Sch 20) or commercial (Sch 40), galvanized or black.
Counts pre-welded panels by panel width, line/corner/gate posts, post caps and bracket hardware, so you can size an aluminum or steel ornamental run fast.
Counts driven T-posts on your spacing, T-post clips, H-brace assemblies at every corner, end and gate (posts, horizontals and kickers), gate posts set in concrete, and barbed or woven wire by the 1,320-foot (quarter-mile) roll.
Counts cedar line posts, cedar H-brace posts and cross braces at each corner, end and gate, cedar stays by the bay, and wire by the roll — the classic South Texas cedar-and-wire look.
Counts cedar line posts and cedar H-brace assemblies, each post set in a 10-inch hole, with concrete figured by the hole size.
Counts pipe line and corner posts, the top rail and any additional rails by the foot, gate posts, and concrete for each set post — the ranch-entrance pipe look.
Counts square-tube line and corner posts, rails by the foot, gate posts, and concrete per post for a welded steel-rail fence.
Counts line, corner and end posts (auto-selected for 2-rail or 3-rail), the split rails per section with waste, and concrete per post.
For a straight run, the number of posts is about (fence length ÷ post spacing) + 1 — then add a heavier post at every corner and one on each side of every gate. For example a 200-foot wood fence on 8-foot spacing is 25 sections, so 26 posts before corners and gates.
Typical post spacing by fence type: wood privacy 8 ft, chain link 10 ft, pipe rail and steel rail 10 ft, cedar post 10 ft, ranch driven T-posts 10 ft (adjustable 10–25 ft), King Ranch up to 18 ft between H-braces, and split rail about 9–10 ft. Ornamental iron is spaced one panel width apart (usually 8 ft).
On 8-foot spacing (wood privacy) a 200-foot run is 25 sections, so 26 posts plus any corner and gate posts. On 10-foot spacing (chain link, pipe/steel rail) it is 20 sections, so 21 posts before corners and gates.
This calculator sets posts 24 inches deep and sizes the ready-mix by the hole: about a 6-inch hole for a line post, 8 inches for an end or corner post, and 10 inches for a gate post, at 0.6 cubic feet per 80-lb bag. That usually works out to one to two bags per line post, with more for gate posts.
For a standard 1×6 picket (5½-inch actual face) set tight, figure about 2.2 pickets per linear foot. Board-on-board roughly doubles that. The calculator adds 10% for waste.
One square acre is 43,560 square feet — about 209 feet per side, so roughly 835 feet of fence around it. Five acres is about 1,870 feet and ten acres about 2,640 feet, if the parcel is square. Measure your actual perimeter and enter the total feet.
On chain link, a tension bar threads through the fabric and bolts to each terminal post to hold the mesh taut. The calculator counts 2 for a straight run, 2 more at every corner, and 1 at each gate post.
Yes. Corners and gate openings take heavier terminal and gate posts set in concrete, and every gate gets a post on each side. Enter your corner count and gate counts and the calculator adds those posts and their hardware.
Bring a job you’ve already bid. We’ll run it in FenceDraft so you can compare the counts and the price against yours.
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