Redwood Fence Calculator

California Redwood carries natural resistance to decay, insects and fire along with a distinctive deep red color and tight grain, which is why it sits at the premium end of the wood fencing species this site covers. The post, rail and picket math behind this page is identical to the general wood fence calculator; what changes with redwood is grade selection, since Construction Heart holds up best for posts and any ground contact while Construction Common, with some lighter sapwood streaks, is the more economical choice for above-ground pickets.

Redwood and cedar are the two natural rot-resistant species on this site and get compared constantly: both need stainless or hot-dipped galvanized fasteners to avoid staining, both benefit from a gravel drainage layer under any post set in concrete, and both cost meaningfully more than pressure-treated pine for a similar service life. The deciding factor is usually regional availability and price rather than performance, since the two perform similarly once installed correctly.

Redwood works in any of the styles this site covers, not just a plain butted layout. Board-on-board overlaps boards for full privacy from both sides at the cost of roughly a quarter more lumber than a butted run, while shadowbox alternates boards with a small gap instead, trading some screening for airflow and a lower board count. The board-on-board vs shadowbox vs solid privacy fence comparison applies the same way to redwood as to any other species, since the style decision is independent of what the boards are made from.

Left unfinished, redwood weathers to a silver grey within a year or two as sunlight oxidizes its tannins, so the fence stain calculator is worth running alongside the lumber order if keeping the natural color is the goal. The fence post calculator covers post spacing and count on its own, and how much does a wood fence cost gives a starting budget range before local redwood pricing is entered here directly. The fence materials guide and fence maintenance guide go deeper on species comparison and long-term care.

Ground-contact applications, meaning any redwood post set directly in soil or concrete, call for a higher grade than above-ground pickets, since sapwood lacks the heartwood's natural rot resistance. Using a lower grade below grade than the application calls for is one of the more common and most consequential mistakes on a redwood job, since it undermines the species' main advantage right at the point where moisture exposure is highest.

End grain on any cut redwood post or rail is more vulnerable to moisture intake than the milled faces, so sealing a field cut before installation is a small step that meaningfully extends the life of that piece, particularly on posts cut to length on site. Combined with stainless or hot-dipped galvanized fasteners throughout, these details protect the premium a redwood job costs over pressure-treated pine, rather than leaving that investment exposed at the cut ends.

Redwood is also available in a range of widths beyond the common 1x6 picket, including wider dimension boards sometimes used for a more contemporary horizontal plank look rather than a traditional vertical picket fence. A horizontal layout changes which dimension counts as the run length and which counts as board width in the underlying formula, so it is worth confirming which orientation a given project is using before entering numbers here.

Sourcing is also a bigger factor for redwood than for the other species this site covers, since true old-growth or wide dimensional redwood is less available than it once was and some regions see it priced and stocked very differently than others. Checking with a local supplier on actual available grades and widths before finalizing a design, rather than assuming the grades referenced generally here are stocked everywhere, avoids a design that cannot actually be sourced as specified.

Redwood also responds differently to different finish types than cedar or pine: a penetrating oil finish tends to suit redwood's tight grain better than a film-forming finish like paint or solid-color stain, which can trap moisture against the wood and peel more readily on redwood's dense surface than on a more porous species. That is a maintenance consideration rather than something that changes the lumber order, but it is worth factoring into the finish choice made alongside the material take-off.

Because redwood is harvested from a more limited geographic range than cedar or pine, availability can shift from season to season at a given supplier, and a project planned around a specific grade or width is worth confirming as in-stock before finalizing a design, rather than assuming the same grade will always be available on short notice the way a more widely milled species typically is.

A simple moisture meter reading on a few boards before installation is a low-cost way to confirm a redwood delivery has dried to a reasonable range, rather than relying on appearance alone, which can be misleading on a dense, tight-grained species like redwood.