A fence estimate template that counts posts, not just footage.
Linear feet is where a fence quote starts. Corners, gates, slope, and what is in the ground are where the money goes.
Get the fence estimate template
A working spreadsheet, not a picture of one. The totals, overhead, and margin are live formulas. We email it over, so no download to lose track of.
One email with the template attached. We will not pass your address on.
Fencing is the trade where a flat per-linear-foot rate is most tempting and most dangerous. It quotes easily on the phone and it is quietly wrong on any yard that is not flat, clear, and rectangular. Which is most yards.
The template
| Section | Line item | Unit | What decides it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Layout | Total run | Linear feet | Measured along the line |
| Layout | Line posts | Count | Spacing, usually 6-8 ft |
| Layout | Corner and end posts | Count | Heavier, deeper, slower to set |
| Layout | Gate posts | Count | Reinforced pairs |
| Layout | Post depth | Inches | Frost line and local code |
| Material | Panels or pickets | Panels or count | Style and species |
| Material | Rails | Linear feet | Rail count per section |
| Material | Posts | Count | Material and dimension |
| Material | Concrete | Bags | Per post, by depth and diameter |
| Material | Hardware and fasteners | Lot | Style |
| Gates | Single gate | Each | Width and hardware, quoted per gate |
| Gates | Double or drive gate | Each | Drop rod, reinforced posts |
| Ground | Slope treatment | Linear feet | Stepped or racked |
| Ground | Rock or hard digging | Per post | Contingency, stated as such |
| Ground | Root and obstruction work | Hours | Trees along the line |
| Ground | Utility locate | Lot | Legally required, has lead time |
| Removal | Old fence removal | Linear feet | Posts in concrete cost more |
| Removal | Disposal | Load | Volume and footing weight |
| Totals | Job cost, overhead, profit | Sum, percent, percent | Three separate lines |
Posts, not ribbon
Post count drives digging labor, concrete, and a large share of material. A yard with five corners costs more than a straight run of the same footage, because corner, end, and gate posts carry more load, often go deeper, and take longer to set square. A per-foot rate hides all of that.
Slope is the adjustment most quotes miss
On sloped ground you are choosing between stepping the fence, which keeps each panel level and leaves gaps at the bottom, and racking it to follow the grade, which needs racking-capable panels or stick-built construction with every picket cut individually. The second is a great deal more labor.
A photo of the grade tells you more than any description a customer gives on the phone, where "a little uneven" covers everything from a gentle fall to a bank you will be cutting steps into. More in how to estimate a fencing job.
Two lines that protect you
Rock is genuinely unknowable before you dig. Rather than absorbing it, put a stated per-post contingency on the sheet so the conversation happens before the auger stops at post seven of thirty.
Property lines are a legal risk, not a construction one, and moving a fence built a foot over costs whoever built it. Where the boundary is uncertain, write that a survey is the customer's responsibility and that the quote assumes the line as marked. That sentence costs nothing and has saved a lot of fencing contractors.
Quoting from a walked and photographed line beats quoting from a total scribbled on a business card, particularly on the yards that were hardest to build.