Fence Estimate Template (Free, Printable)

What Goes on a Fence Estimate?

A fence estimate lists the fence spec, the takeoff, the price and the terms. The spec says what the client is buying: material, style, height, total linear feet, post spacing and every gate with its width. The line items carry tear-out, posts, concrete, rails, pickets or panels, hardware, gates and labor. The terms cover what is included, what is not, the deposit and how long the price is good for.

• Tear-out and haul-off of the old fence, per linear foot
• Posts counted by run: line, corner, end and gate posts
• Post concrete in bags, from the hole size
• Rails, pickets or panels, with waste on pickets
• Gates as their own lines: frame, hardware, hanging
• Labor, per linear foot or from crew hours
• Permit if your city requires one, passed through at cost
• Exclusions: survey, sprinkler lines, rock beyond an allowance, stain

The spec block matters more than most contractors think. Two bids for "a 6 ft wood fence" can be for completely different fences. Spelling out post size, spacing, rail count and picket type is how the client compares your bid to the cheaper one fairly.

How to Do the Fence Takeoff

Count posts run by run, not from the total footage. Each straight run needs (run length ÷ post spacing) sections, and one more post than it has sections. Corners are shared between two runs, so count them once. Every gate opening needs a post on each side.

• Rails: sections × rails per section (the example below uses 3)
• Pickets: fence inches ÷ picket width. A nominal 1x6 picket is 5.5 in wide, so 1 lf takes about 2.2 pickets butted tight. Add an allowance for culls and cuts (the example below uses 5%)
• Concrete: hole volume minus the post, times the number of holes, divided by bag yield. Quikrete lists a 60 lb bag of Concrete Mix at about 0.45 cu ft and an 80 lb bag at about 0.60 cu ft

Hole depth is set by your local code and frost line, not by habit. Check before you price the concrete, because a deeper hole changes the bag count on every post. Our post hole concrete calculator does the per-hole math, and the fence calculator gives a quick post, rail and picket count to check your takeoff against. For the full estimating walkthrough, see how to estimate fence installation.

Before anyone digs, call 811. It is the free national call-before-you-dig service, and the utilities need a few business days to mark their lines.

What Fence Work Costs in 2026

Installed wood fence runs about $15 to $35 per linear foot according to Fixr, with wood materials at $5 to $15 per foot and labor at $10 to $20 per foot. Use these ranges to sanity-check your bid, not to set it. Your own supplier prices and crew hours are what the line items should carry.

• Gates: Fixr lists $40 to $200 for a standard gate, $50 to $400 installed, and $1,000 to $6,000 for a driveway gate fully installed
• Old fence removal: $600 to $800 for most fences of 100 to 200 linear feet (Fixr), $350 to $600 for basic removal (Inch Calculator)
• Permits: $30 to $200 where required (Inch Calculator). Not every city requires one, so check with yours
• Land survey for a boundary fence: $400 to $1,000 (Fixr)

Prices vary by region. Labor rates, lumber prices and permit rules change from one county to the next, so price from your local supplier and your own crew, and tell clients to get more than one bid on the same spec. The fence installation cost calculator adjusts a per-foot range by ZIP code if you want a second check.

Markup vs Margin on a Fence Bid

Markup is a percentage of your cost. Margin is a percentage of the price. They are not the same number, and mixing them up is an easy way for a fence bid to come in thin. To hit a target margin, divide your cost by (1 minus the margin).

• Want 25% margin? Price = cost ÷ 0.75, which is a 33.3% markup
• Want 30% margin? Price = cost ÷ 0.70, which is a 42.9% markup
• A 25% markup only gets you a 20% margin

To reproduce the worked example below in the template, type 33.33 in the markup box (it shows $5,717.86, a few cents under the $5,718 from dividing by 0.75). The template shows the margin next to the markup you type, so you can see what you are actually keeping. The contractor markup calculator works it either direction. Markup has to cover overhead (truck, insurance, office, the hours spent bidding) before any of it is profit.

Worked Example: 164 ft Wood Privacy Fence

A 6 ft wood privacy fence with one 4 ft walk gate comes to $5,718 in this example, about $34.87 per linear foot all in. The yard has a 96 ft back run and two side runs of 32 ft and 36 ft. The 36 ft side holds the gate, so there are 164 lf in total and 160 lf of fence. The old fence being torn out is also 160 lf.

Takeoff (posts 8 ft on center):

• Back run: 96 ÷ 8 = 12 sections, 13 posts (both corners)
• Left run: 32 ÷ 8 = 4 sections, 4 new posts (corner already counted)
• Right run: 4 sections plus the gate, 5 new posts (two are gate posts)
• Posts: 22. Rails: 20 sections × 3 = 60
• Pickets: 160 × 12 = 1,920 in ÷ 5.5 = 349.1, so 350. Plus 5% = 368
• Concrete: 10 in hole, 24 in deep = 1.09 cu ft, minus the 4x4 (0.17 cu ft) = 0.92 cu ft. 22 holes = 20.3 cu ft ÷ 0.45 = 45.0 bags, so order 46 sixty-pound bags. This assumes 4x4 gate posts; heavier gate posts leave the two gate holes needing a little less

The $9 per foot lumber line is a blended allowance. In a real bid, price the counted 22 posts, 60 rails, 368 pickets and the fasteners from your supplier's quote and divide by 160 to check it; Fixr puts wood fence material at $5 to $15 per linear foot.

The fence itself (lumber, concrete and labor, marked up) comes to $4,421.33, or $27.63 per foot, inside Fixr's $15 to $35 range for wood. If you had added a flat 25% markup instead, the price before the permit would be $5,220 and your margin 20%, which leaves $348 on the table on one small fence.

On the client copy, show each line at its marked-up price so the lines add up to the total: lumber $1,920, concrete $368, labor $2,133.33, tear-out $746.67, gate $400, permit $150. In California the deposit could be no more than $571.80 here, because the state caps it at $1,000 or 10% of the contract, whichever is less.

Where Fence Bids Go Wrong

Fence bids usually go wrong below ground. I have been burned underbidding jobs where hidden work blew up once we got into it, and a fence line is all hidden work until the auger goes in. Rock, roots, old concrete footings and buried lines all hide under a nice-looking yard.

• Pricing from total footage instead of counting posts per run, which misses corners and gate posts
• No allowance for rock or old footings. Put a digging allowance on the bid and say how anything past it gets priced
• Gates folded into the per-foot price. A gate has its own frame, hardware and hanging time
• Slope ignored. Stepped or racked panels on a grade take more cutting and more time
• Property line assumed. Write down who marks the line, and that a survey is not included unless it is listed
• No 811 ticket. Write the ticket number on the estimate so everyone knows it was called in

Bidding is not just materials and labor, either. How busy you are, how the client is to work with, and how far the job is from your yard all belong in the price.

Sending the Bid and Following Up

Send the estimate the same day you walk the fence line if you can, while the measurements and sketch are fresh, then follow up. A lot of jobs are won on the second or third follow-up, not the first estimate. Most contractors send a bid and never chase it, so the one who follows up stands out. The hard part is remembering when you are on a job site all day.

That is why EstimationPro follows up for you, and I use it on my own remodeling jobs. When you send an estimate from EstimationPro, the client gets a reminder at 24 hours if they have not opened it, another 48 hours after they open it if they have not responded, and a final one at 7 days. It builds the line items from your photos, voice notes or typed notes, and it is free to try with 3 estimates and no credit card, then $79 or $149 a month.