Stockade Fence Calculator

A stockade fence sets closely spaced vertical pickets with pointed tops, built with zero gap for complete visual privacy, a style that traces back to historic defensive fortifications and today reads as a solid, clean-lined residential fence. In material terms it is close to a butted privacy fence: same zero-gap picket formula, same post and rail structure, with the pointed top and typically a 6 foot height as the defining details rather than anything that changes the underlying take-off.

Spruce, white pine and pressure-treated southern yellow pine are the most common stockade materials, chosen mainly for affordability and how easily they mill into pointed tips. Pressure-treated pine is the budget-friendly default for ground-contact posts on a stockade build, while cedar is the step up for anyone who wants the natural rot resistance and tighter grain without the chemical treatment.

Because stockade is a solid, zero-gap fence, it catches wind the way any tall privacy style does, which is why 3 horizontal rails per section is standard at 6 feet and tighter post spacing, commonly 6 feet rather than 8, is worth considering in open or windy sites. The fence rail calculator and fence post calculator are the places to fine-tune both numbers independently of the picket style, since rail and post counts here follow the same height-based formulas as every other wood style on this site.

Stockade differs from an open picket fence mainly in height and gap: picket fencing runs shorter with a visible gap for a decorative boundary look, while stockade runs taller and fully closed for privacy and a more defensive-looking line. How to install a wood privacy fence and the wood fence installation guide cover the build sequence, how many pickets for 100 feet of fence covers the zero-gap picket math stockade shares with privacy fencing, and the fence materials guide compares stockade's common species against the others covered on the wood fence calculators hub.

Pre-assembled stockade panels install faster than building the fence picket by picket on site, but stick-building allows the fence to be racked smoothly to follow sloped terrain without the stepped gaps that pre-made panels can leave on uneven ground. That tradeoff between installation speed and how well the fence follows the grade is worth weighing against the property's actual terrain before choosing a method, since it does not show up in the material count itself.

Because the pointed pickets run with zero gap and sit flush with their neighbors, any misalignment along the post string line shows up as a visible zigzag across the whole run, more so than on a style with a gap that can hide minor variation. In windy areas, a solid stockade fence catches wind load the same way a solid privacy fence does, which is why tighter post spacing and larger corner posts are worth considering on an exposed site rather than defaulting to the widest spacing the style allows.

Stockade fencing is also sometimes built with a scalloped top instead of individually pointed pickets, where the tops are cut in a shallow curve across several boards rather than each picket ending in its own point. That variation changes the top profile and the cutting labor involved but not the underlying picket, rail or post counts, which still follow the same zero-gap formula this calculator uses.

Because the style reads as a solid, uniform wall once built, small inconsistencies in picket height along the top are more visible on stockade than on a style with varied top profiles or a visible gap that already breaks up the sightline, which is part of why careful layout and consistent picket length matter more here than on some other wood styles.

The pointed top itself is more than decorative: the angled cut sheds rainwater off the end grain rather than letting it pool on a flat top, which is one of the practical reasons the style persisted long after its original defensive purpose became irrelevant. A flat-top picket on the same fence would be more exposed to standing moisture at the most vulnerable part of the board, the end grain.

A consistent picket length cut before installation, rather than trimming each picket to height after it is nailed up, is the more reliable way to keep the pointed tops level across a long stockade run, since on-site trimming compounds small errors from post to post.

Gate openings on a stockade run are handled the same way as on any other zero-gap wood style: the gate width comes out of the run before the picket count is computed, and two gate posts plus a hardware set are added on top of the line and corner posts the rest of the run needs. Because stockade pickets are cut tight with no gap, a gate opening that is measured even slightly wrong tends to show up as a visible mismatch in picket alignment on either side of the gate, more so than it would on a style with some gap to absorb a small error.