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Units

Wood Fence Calculator

Pick any wood fence style to get boards, rails, posts, nails and concrete, and compare what each style needs per 100 feet.

New cedar privacy fence and gate along a backyard lawn
Units
Measure by
ft
corners

Where the fence turns.

Gates
4 ft gate
Wood privacy fence details
ft
ft

Center to center, at most.

Picket width
Post size
in

Follows the height. Go deeper if your frost line is lower.

Hole diameter: 10.5 in, three times the post width.

Enter a fence length, draw the line on the map, or add sides to see your materials.

Wood fence styles compared, per 100 ft

One straight 100 ft run with no gates, each style at its usual boards and post spacing, counted by the same engine as the calculator above. Boards, rails and nails include 10% for waste.

Fence height
StylePostsRailsBoardsNails or screwsConcrete bags
Wood privacy5 1/2 in boards14432441,63158
Picket3 1/2 in boards, 2 1/2 in gap14432291,54558
Board on board5 1/2 in boards, 1 in overlap14433011,97458
Shadow box5 1/2 in boards, 3 1/2 in gap14433152,06058
Horizontal5 1/2 in boards, 1/4 in gap, posts 6 ft apart18none24497375

Rails are 8 ft 2x4s. Horizontal boards fix straight to the posts, so that style needs no rails but more posts. Concrete is 50 lb bags of fast-setting mix.

How the wood fence calculator works

Every wood fence is posts, something to hold the boards, and the boards themselves. The calculator splits your fence line into sections no longer than your post spacing, with a post at every corner, end and gate. Then it counts boards per section with the rule for the style you pick:

StyleBoards per section
Privacysection ÷ board width
Picket(section + gap) ÷ (board width + gap)
Board on boardfirst layer (section + spacing) ÷ (board width + spacing), plus one board over each space
Shadow box2 × (section + gap) ÷ (board width + gap)
Horizontalrows × boards to span the section, with rows = height ÷ (board width + gap)

Each result is rounded up per section, and the sections are added together.

Boards = sum over all sections of boards per section, plus 10% for waste

Rails are 8 ft 2x4s, two per section up to 4 ft of height, three up to 6 ft and four above. Horizontal boards fix straight to the posts and need no rails. Nails are two per board at each rail. Boards, rails and nails carry the 10% waste allowance Inch Calculator recommends. Posts and concrete are counted exactly.

A worked example: 100 ft of 6 ft wood fence, five ways

The table under the calculator runs one straight 100 ft line with no gate through every style at the same height. At 6 ft:

StylePostsRailsBoardsNails or screwsConcrete bags
Privacy, 1x614432441,63158
Picket, 1x4, 2 1/2 in gap14432291,54558
Board on board, 1x6, 1 in overlap14433011,97458
Shadow box, 1x6, 3 1/2 in gap14433152,06058
Horizontal, 1x6, 1/4 in gap18none24497375

Take the privacy row. 100 ft at 8 ft spacing makes 13 sections of about 7.69 ft, which needs 14 posts. A 7.69 ft section is about 92.3 in, and 92.3 ÷ 5.5 = 16.8, so 17 boards. 13 × 17 = 221 boards, plus 10% is 244. Three rails per section is 39, or 43 with waste. The 42 in holes take 58 bags of 50 lb fast-setting concrete.

The horizontal row has more posts because the boards span post to post. FenceRail.com's guide keeps those posts no more than 6 ft apart.

Which wood fence uses the least lumber?

For a solid fence, a single layer privacy fence is the leanest. Board on board adds a second layer over the joints and takes about 23% more boards in the table above. Shadow box puts a layer on each side of the rails and uses the most boards. A picket fence at 6 ft still needs 229 pickets because 1x4s are narrow. At 4 ft, its usual height, it needs only two rails per section.

Change the height in the comparison and every column follows. Rails drop to two per section at 4 ft, and the holes get shallower, so the concrete drops too.

Cedar or pressure-treated pine?

The species does not change the count. Board width drives the numbers, and a cedar fence picket is sold at the same 5 1/2 in face as a 1x6. Stine Home + Yard, for example, lists a cedar dog ear picket at 5/8 by 5 1/2 in by 6 ft. ProWood lists a 1x6 at 3/4 by 5 1/2 in. Thickness changes the weight and the nail length, not the number of boards.

Price is where they differ. Fixr puts an installed cedar fence at $15 to $30 per linear foot and pine or spruce at $10 to $25. Fixr's range for wood fence materials alone is $5 to $15 per foot. The cost panel next to the material list uses that materials range. The wood fence cost calculator covers labor, gates and removal.

Where the defaults come from

  • Post spacing: 8 ft for wood, the common maximum Inch Calculator uses. America's Fence Store sets posts at 7 ft 10 in centers. Horizontal fences use 6 ft, from the FenceRail.com guide.
  • Rails: America's Fence Store uses three rails per bay on a 6 ft fence and two on a 4 ft fence.
  • Picket gap: America's Fence Store's 2 1/2 in for picket fences.
  • Board on board: America's Fence Store spaces the first layer 3 1/2 in apart. With 5 1/2 in boards that is a 1 in overlap on each edge.
  • Hole depth: half the height above ground plus 6 in of gravel, the upper end of Quikrete's rule of 1/3 to 1/2 of the above-ground length, and never less than 24 in.

Next steps for a wood fence