Price the straight run per linear foot, then price every part of the job that is not a foot as its own line: corner and end posts, each gate, tear-out of the old fence, and any rock or slope. A single per-foot number is where fence bids leak, because the expensive parts of a fence are not spread evenly along it. On a 150-foot backyard job, tearing out the old fence at the $3 to $5 per foot that Barrier Boss lists is $450 to $750 by itself, and one double drive gate can cost more than that again. Fold those into "$38 a foot" and you have worked part of the job for free.
What goes into the per-foot price?
Only the repeating part of the fence. That is the line posts at a fixed spacing with their concrete, the rails and pickets or panels between them, and the labor to put them up on ordinary ground. Homewyse's September 2026 figure for a basic board fence is $32.36 to $52.49 per linear foot installed, and it assumes posts at 8 feet on center in holes up to 3 feet deep. It also leaves out permits and tax, and puts contractor overhead and markup at another 13 to 22% on top. Read the published number as a floor you check against, not a price you charge.
How do you count posts, concrete and lumber?
Measure each run separately with a wheel, walking the line where the fence will actually sit. Then do the counts per run, not for the total.
Posts per straight run at 8 feet on center are the run length divided by 8, rounded up, plus one. Corners are shared between two runs. Every gate opening adds two posts, because a gate splits a run and needs a post on each side.
Here is a typical backyard: 40 feet down each side and 70 feet across the back, 150 feet in all, 6-foot wood privacy, with a walk gate and a drive gate.
| Item | Count | How |
|---|---|---|
| Posts on the runs | 20 | 6 + 10 + 6, minus 2 shared corners |
| Gate posts | 4 | 2 per gate |
| Concrete, 50 lb fast-set | 72 bags | 3 per post (see below) |
| 2x4 rails, 8 ft | about 60 | 3 rails per bay, about 20 bays |
| Pickets, 5½ in | about 330 | 150 ft x 12 ÷ 5.5, before gate openings |
The concrete line is where the counting goes wrong. Quikrete's data sheet says two 50 lb bags set a 3-inch post in a 9-inch hole 30 inches deep, at 0.375 cubic feet a bag. A real 4x4 is 3½ inches, and most crews dig 10 inches. That hole holds about 1.15 cubic feet around the post, which is three bags, not two. Twenty-four posts at two bags is 48. At three it is 72. You will buy the extra 24 either way. The question is whether the customer pays for them.
Set posts below your local frost depth, whatever the rule of thumb says. Your building department publishes the number. In the northern states it can be deeper than the 30 inches above, and a deeper hole is more concrete and more digging on every post.
How do you work out labor per foot?
Divide what your crew costs for a day by the feet it finishes in a day on that kind of ground. That is the only labor number that is yours.
BLS put the median fence erector at $23.07 an hour in May 2025. Add 35% for payroll taxes and comp as a placeholder and a two-man crew costs about $498 for an eight-hour day.
| Site | Feet per crew day | Crew cost per foot |
|---|---|---|
| Flat, soft dirt, open access | 80 | $6.23 |
| Slope, racked or stepped | 60 | $8.30 |
| Rock, roots or clay | 45 | $11.07 |
The production numbers are illustrative. Time your own crew on three jobs and replace them.
FieldCamp publishes 4 to 6 hours per 100 linear feet for wood with a two-person crew. We think that is fast for a stick-built privacy fence from layout to last picket, because it leaves little room for the cure time before you hang gates on fresh posts. Treat it as the best day you will have, not the average one.
Then compare crew cost with the market. Barrier Boss puts wood privacy labor at $10 to $20 per foot. The gap between your $6 to $11 of crew cost and that price is the truck, the auger, the insurance, the office and your own pay. A fence contractor who bids labor at crew cost is not the cheap option. He is the one paying to build other people's fences.
How do you price gates?
Per gate, never per foot. A gate is two heavier posts set deeper, hinges, a latch, often a drop rod on a double gate, and an hour of fiddling to make it swing true and close on its own. Barrier Boss lists gates at $150 to $1,200 each installed, and the top of that range is a wide double drive gate, not a walk gate.
Write the gate posts up a size. A 4x4 hinge post on a 10-foot double gate will lean within a year, and the call-back to reset it is unpaid. Price 6x6 or steel posts on drive gates and say so on the estimate, so the customer sees why that line costs what it does.
What adders belong on a fence estimate?
The ones that change how long a hole takes. Barrier Boss puts rocky or clay soil at a 15 to 25% labor premium, difficult slopes at plus 25%, and tight access at 10 to 25%. Apply them only to the runs they affect. A yard with a steep 40-foot side and a flat back is a flat job with a sloped section.
| Adder | Published range | How to write it |
|---|---|---|
| Old fence tear-out and haul | $3-$5 per foot | Per foot, its own line |
| Rock, roots or clay | +15-25% labor | On the affected runs |
| Slope | +25% labor | On the affected runs |
| Tight access | +10-25% labor | Whole job, if no gate for the auger |
| Permit | $40-$150 | Pass-through |
| Survey | $250-$1,000 | By owner, or pass-through |
For rock you cannot see, write a per-hole price instead of guessing. "Includes standard digging. Holes requiring a rock bar, jackhammer or core drill at $X per hole." The customer accepts that sentence far more easily before the job than a surprise invoice after it.
Who is responsible for the property line and buried lines?
Put both in writing before a post goes in. Fences sit on boundaries, so a post a foot over the line is a neighbor's problem that becomes yours. The estimate should say the owner identifies the line, or include the survey as a line item.
811 is free and should be called a few business days before you dig. It only marks utility-owned lines. New York 811 tells homeowners that privately installed lines such as sprinkler systems and invisible pet fencing are theirs to have located. Those are exactly the lines you hit on a fence job. The irrigation main often runs along the property line, and the buried dog-fence wire usually follows the old fence it replaced. Add one sentence: "Repair of unmarked private lines, such as irrigation or pet fence wire, billed at time and material."
What this misses
The published ranges are national. Fence labor in Houston and in suburban Boston are different numbers, and none of the sources here break it down by metro.
The 35% burden is a placeholder. Use your own comp and payroll rates.
Vinyl, aluminum and chain link are different jobs. Post spacing follows the panel or the manufacturer, not 8 feet, and the concrete and production rates change with it. The method holds. The counts do not.
Pool barriers carry their own code. Height and self-latching gate hardware are set locally, so check before you price a pool gate like any other.
The labor method here is the same one in how to price labor as a contractor, and the property line and private-line sentences belong with the rest of what you exclude from an estimate. For a 30-foot repair that barely clears a day, set a minimum charge before you price it per foot. BidWalk puts the runs, the gates and the rock line on the estimate while you are still walking the fence line with the customer, so the drive gate gets priced as a gate.
