Equal-bay layout, style-aware picket counts & full hardware takeoff
Fence Run Layout
Include gate openings in this total they’re subtracted automatically below.
Bay lengths are auto-adjusted so every section is equal no odd short section at the end.
Fence Style
Board-on-board uses two overlapping layers — picket count is automatically increased ~30% to cover both layers.
Terrain
No terrain adjustment needed on level ground.
Posts & Concrete
Post length uses the standard rule of thumb: bury 1/3 of total post length, plus a 6″ gravel base below the post.
Gate Package (optional)
Openings over 5 ft are auto-treated as double (two-leaf) gates for hinge, latch & brace counts.
Cost Estimate
Please enter a valid total fence length first.
Total Pickets Needed
–pickets
Enter your fence details and calculate to see results.
Fastener Takeoff
Gate Hardware
Real-World Purchasing Equivalents
Project Inputs
Estimates are approximate and based on standard fence-building rules of thumb. Post length, concrete, hardware and gate takeoffs assume typical residential construction always confirm quantities, post embedment depth, and local frost-line requirements with your building code and supplier before ordering.
Building a fence material list usually means a lot of manual math. QuickTonnage does it in six steps instead.
Every wood fence comes down to the same three questions: how many pickets, how many posts, and how many rails. Here's roughly what to expect.
Pickets depend on your fence length, picket width, and gap. As a rough example, a 100-foot fence built with standard 5.5″ pickets and a 1/8″ gap needs somewhere around 210 pickets before adding a waste allowance.
Posts are simpler, take your total fence length, divide by your post spacing, and add one. An 8-ft spacing on a 100-foot run works out to 13 sections, which means 14 posts.
Rails depend on fence height. A 4-ft fence typically uses 2 rails per section, a 6-ft privacy fence uses 3, and an 8-ft fence uses 4. That same 100-foot, 6-ft-tall fence needs 39 rails.
These are the exact numbers QuickTonnage's wood fence calculator works out for you automatically — along with post-hole concrete, fasteners, and gate hardware, so you're not doing separate math for each one.
For a standard 5.5″-wide dog-ear picket with a 1/8″ gap, expect roughly 210 pickets for 100 feet of fence, before adding a waste allowance for cuts and damaged boards.
Divide your total fence length by your post spacing (usually 6 or 8 feet), then add one. A 100-foot fence at 8-foot spacing needs 14 posts.
For a standard picket fence, 1/8″ is typical. Privacy fences are often installed with little to no gap, while board-on-board styles use an intentional overlap instead of a gap.
It depends on post size and hole depth, not a flat number a wider hole or a taller post needs more concrete. QuickTonnage calculates this from your actual post length and post size instead of a rule-of-thumb guess.
Three rails per section is standard for a 6-foot privacy fence top, middle, and bottom.
Standard dog-ear pickets are usually 5.5″ wide, though 3.5″ and 7.25″ widths are also common. Board-on-board and shadowbox styles use the same widths but need more pickets to cover the same run.