Wood fence calculator
Calculate posts, rails, pickets and concrete for a pressure-treated pine, cedar or redwood fence. Every formula shown, cost optional.
Fence calculator
Enter your specs. Every result updates live and shows its formula.
Overview
Wood is still the most common residential fence material in the US, and the material take-off is the same regardless of species: posts at your chosen spacing, rails per section based on height, and pickets sized to your board width and gap. This calculator defaults to cedar in a privacy style, a common combination, but pressure-treated pine, redwood, picket, shadowbox and board-on-board are all one dropdown away.
Board-on-board is handled with a smaller effective picket spacing to account for the overlap between boards, rather than treating it the same as a butted privacy fence, since that overlap changes the picket count meaningfully on a long run.
Common mistakes
- Using 8 foot post spacing on a tall privacy fence in a windy area without increasing post size; a 6x6 post is the safer default at 8 feet of height or above.
- Forgetting that board-on-board uses meaningfully more pickets per foot than a butted privacy fence, because each board overlaps its neighbor.
- Not adding a waste factor for cut ends and warped boards; 10 percent is a reasonable starting point for pickets and rails.
Related calculators
- Fence picket calculator Calculate exactly how many pickets you need from your fence run, picket width and gap, including a waste factor.
- Privacy fence calculator Calculate posts, rails and pickets for a solid privacy fence in any material, with a zero-gap board layout by default.
- Board on board fence calculator Calculate pickets for a board-on-board fence, which overlaps boards for full privacy from both sides, with the overlap built into the formula.
- Fence cost calculator Estimate total fence cost from run length, height and your local material and labor rates, with the budget math shown.
Related reading
In-depth guides
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between pressure-treated pine, cedar and redwood?
All three take the same post, rail and picket formulas; the difference is cost and expected lifespan, not the math. Pick your species in the material dropdown and the rest of the calculator behaves the same way.
How many rails does a 6 foot wood privacy fence need?
This calculator suggests 3 rails for a fence between 5 and 7 feet tall, 2 rails at 4 feet or under, and 4 rails at 8 feet or taller. The rail count field is editable if your design calls for something different.
What is board-on-board and why does it need more pickets?
Board-on-board overlaps each picket over part of the next one so there is no gap from any viewing angle. That overlap means the boards are spaced closer together than their own width, so the picket count is higher than a butted privacy fence covering the same run.
How deep should the posts be set?
A common rule of thumb is about one third of the total post length in the ground, so roughly 2 feet for an 8 foot post under a 6 foot fence. Where ground freezes, local practice is to go at least as deep as the frost line; see the post depth calculator for the detail.
How many bags of concrete does each post need?
It follows the hole volume, which comes from your hole diameter and depth. A typical 10 inch by 24 inch hole needs about 2.5 to 3 bags of 60 lb mix; the concrete bag calculator does that math for your exact hole. Treat the published bag yields as the starting point.
Does the wood species change the number of pickets?
No. Picket count comes from run length, board width and gap, not species. Cedar, pressure-treated pine and redwood boards of the same width and gap give the same count; only the price per board should change.
What is the difference between racking and stepping a fence on a slope?
Racking angles each panel to follow the ground continuously and suits a gentle, even slope. Stepping keeps each panel level and drops it at each post, which suits an uneven or steeper grade. Both change how the materials meet the ground, not the material quantity itself.
How much does a wood fence cost?
With materials alone, a wood privacy fence commonly lands between roughly $10 and $30 per linear foot in the US depending on species and region, and figure another chunk for labor if a contractor installs it. Enter your own local unit prices in the calculator for a total tied to your numbers, or use the fence cost page as a starting point.