Fence Estimate Template

What goes on a fence estimate

A homeowner pricing a fence usually has two or three estimates side by side, and compares them on a handful of facts: how many feet, how tall, what material, how many gates and how the posts go in. Those are the job specs under the header. With them on the page, the customer can line your number up against the others. Without them, the cheapest estimate looks like the same fence.

The line items follow the order the crew builds in:

• Removal and layout: tearing out the old fence and its footings, haul-off, and stringing the line from the survey pins after the 811 locate.
• Posts and framing: line posts, upsized gate posts, the concrete to set them, rails and a kickboard.
• Pickets, panels and gates: pickets or panels by the foot, each gate with its hardware, the permit and final cleanup.

Upgrades the customer might want, such as a cap board or stain, go in the optional-items table, priced but outside the total.

How to take off a fence

Start from a sketch of the line with every corner, end and gate marked, then split it into straight runs from one terminal post to the next. A run’s sections are its length divided by your post spacing, rounded up, and its line posts are the sections minus one. End, corner and gate posts are added once each. Counting “sections plus one” on every run counts each corner twice.

Rails are sections times rails per section. Pickets per run are the run length in inches divided by the picket width plus the gap, rounded up; a 1×6 is 5½ inches wide. Concrete comes from the hole: π × (diameter ÷ 2)² × the concrete depth, less the post, divided by 1,728 for cubic feet, then divided by the bag’s yield. An 80-lb bag yields about 0.60 cubic feet, but check the bag.

Hole diameter drives concrete more than anything else: a 12-inch hole takes about half again the concrete of a 10-inch hole at the same depth. Depth is set by frost, soil and your local code, not by the template, so it is an input. The Fence Takeoff sheet runs the whole calculation for up to ten runs and four gates, with every spacing, width and yield editable. For one straight run, the free fence calculator does the same math in your browser, prices it with your own rates and adds each run to a running estimate.

Pricing a fence line by line

Price gate posts separately from line posts. They carry the gate’s weight and swing, so they are usually a size up and set deeper, and the price should show it. Price pickets or panels by the foot of fence, so a customer who shortens a run can see what it saves. Build every unit price from cost on the Unit Price Builder: material, labor hours at your loaded rate and consumables, then overhead, then profit as a margin on price rather than a markup. A 15% markup on cost is only a 13% margin.

The completed example tears out an old wood fence outside Columbus, Ohio and builds 180 LF of 6-foot cedar privacy fence on pressure-treated posts, with a 4-foot walk gate and a 10-foot double drive gate. Removal and layout come to $1,470, posts and framing to $4,546.60, and pickets, gates and the permit to $4,733. That is $10,749.60, or about $59.72 per foot of fence line all-in. The fence alone, without removal, gates and the permit, is about $45.39 per foot. There is no tax line because the contractor pays tax on materials and includes it in the prices. The 35% deposit is $3,762.36.

Property lines, 811 and rock

Three things on a fence job can’t be seen when you write the estimate, and each one needs a sentence in the terms.

• The property line. The owner identifies the line and the pins, and the estimate says where the fence sits relative to it: 2 inches inside in the example. If nobody can find the pins, recommend a survey before you dig.
• Utilities. Request an 811 locate before digging. It marks public lines, not the owner’s sprinkler pipe, pet-fence wire or landscape lighting, so the terms ask the owner to mark those.
• Rock and old footings. Price a hole that stops the auger per hole, with photos: $65 in the example.

Anything that changes after the estimate is signed, such as an added gate, a run moved for the HOA or a slope that needs stepped sections, gets written up as a change order and signed before the work is done. When the fence is finished, bill the balance on an invoice that references the estimate number and lists the approved changes.

Estimate, quote or proposal?

For most residential fences, this customer-facing estimate is the whole sale: specs, a price, terms and a signature. If the customer only needs a fixed price on one page without the phase breakdown, a construction quote does that. On commercial fencing bid to a GC or property owner against drawings and specs, build your cost on the construction estimate worksheet and send a bid proposal with inclusions, exclusions and alternates instead.

Common mistakes on fence estimates

• Counting one extra post per run. Corners are shared, so “sections plus one” double-counts them.
• Pricing gate posts like line posts. They carry the gate; upsize them, set them deeper and price that.
• One concrete figure per post regardless of hole size. A 12-inch hole takes about half again the concrete of a 10-inch one.
• No property-line language. When a neighbor objects, the company that set the fence gets the first call.
• No price for rock. Without a per-hole price in writing, rock becomes a negotiation in the yard.