A fence estimator earns its keep on the count, not the price. A run is sold by the linear foot but built from posts at a spacing, panels or pickets between them, gates hung one at a time and labor by the foot, and an estimator that prices the whole thing as one number per foot hides the count the customer will query and the crew will need on site. This page walks what a fence estimator has to carry for a fencing estimate, works an example run through it, and points at the free fence estimate tool on this site, which derives the posts from the spacing, prices materials at your cost with your markup, counts gates each, adds labor per foot and any removal, and ends on the total with the price per foot beside it. No account, and no figure on it is anything but yours.
Posts from the spacing, and everything hangs off them
Run divided by spacing plus one is the post count, and it is the first number a crew checks against the site. On the worked example a 160 foot run at 8 foot spacing sets 21 posts. The estimator derives the count rather than asking for it, so the materials line is built from a figure that matches the ground, and a change to the spacing changes the posts, the concrete and the price together instead of leaving the estimate carrying last week's count. Enter your own run and spacing and the tool returns your own count.
Materials at your cost, marked up on their own line
Posts at your cost per post set in concrete, plus the material between them at your cost per linear foot, marked up by the percentage you choose: on the example that is $30 a post and $14 a foot at 15%, which prices the materials at $3,300.50 for the run. The markup pays for the supplier trip and the split post you replace under your own warranty, and it belongs on materials, visibly, rather than smeared across the labor rate where nobody can see what it covers.
Gates counted each, labor per foot, removal on its own line
A gate is a frame, hinges, a latch and the hour it takes to hang straight, and none of that scales with the run, so the estimator prices gates each at your installed price: two gates at $350 is $700 on the example. Labor is your rate per linear foot, $12 on the example for $1,920, and taking out and hauling off the old fence is its own line at its own price so a customer who keeps the old fence sees exactly what it saves. The example prices at $5,920.50, which the tool shows as $37.00 per linear foot.
A fence installation calculator the crew and the customer can both read
The customer reads the estimate for the price per foot and the gates; the crew reads it for the post count and the material per foot. The free fence estimate tool prints both on one page. TakeoffDeck Pro keeps every estimate against the customer and the job it was priced for, so the callback six months on starts from the count that was quoted and not from memory. This page publishes no market rate for fencing: every figure on the tool is the contractor's own.
Questions people ask about fence estimator
How does a fence estimator work out the number of posts?
Run length divided by post spacing, plus one for the end post. A 160 foot run at 8 foot spacing is 21 posts. Corners and gate posts are added to that count as the crew lays out the job; the tool derives the line posts and takes gates as a count.
Should a fencing estimate show the price per foot or the total?
Both. The customer compares fences by the foot; the crew builds them from the count. The tool ends on the total with the price per linear foot beside it, worked from the same lines.
Is the fence estimate tool free?
Yes, with no account: enter the run, the spacing, your costs, your markup, the gates, your labor rate and any removal, and it works the estimate on the page. TakeoffDeck Pro saves and brands every estimate against the customer.