No. It is a planning estimate built from published national ranges. No contractor has seen your site, your access, your soil or your slope, and all four move the price. Use it to know whether a quote is in the right neighbourhood, not to negotiate against.

Why is the range so wide?

Because the underlying data is. Installed wood fence spans roughly two to one across the United States depending on region and season. Narrowing that on the page would mean inventing precision the sources do not support.

Does it include removing an old fence?

Only if you ask for it. Removal is available as an option, and it carries the lowest confidence rating on the site — published sources for it disagree by nearly a factor of seven, mostly over disposal fees. Treat that line as a rough guide and get it quoted.

Not included, because we do not know your jurisdiction and will not guess. Many places require a permit for a fence over a certain height, and some regulate front-yard height separately. Your building department is the only reliable source.

Fence Ledger

Fence Cost Calculator

What a wood fence costs, as a range with its sources attached — and what to enter if you want a figure specific to your own supplier.

Units

Shape

Fence length

Height

Gates

Advanced options

These are typical values, not requirements. Post depth in particular is governed by your local frost line and building code — check before you dig.

Post spacing

Gate width

Picket gap

Hole diameter

Hole depth

Gravel base

Bag yield

Waste allowance

Posts

Sections

Pickets

336

Concrete

35 bags

Estimated cost

Materials only (DIY)

$1,400 – $3,600

Professionally installed

$3,950 – $8,850

National planning ranges compiled from published US construction cost guides, last checked September 2026 (confidence: medium-low). Prices vary sharply by region, season and contractor. These are estimates for planning, not quotes.

Sources: homeguide.com, calcsummit.com, angi.com, ergeon.com, homewyse.com

Shopping list

Bill of materials for this fence
Material	Size	Quantity
Posts	4x4	21
Rails incl. waste	2x4	63
Pickets incl. waste	1x6	336
Concrete mix		35bags
Gravel		8bags
Exterior screws		≈2,200
Walk gate kit		1

Why these numbers

How we got the section count

Run 1: 146 ft ÷ 8 ft = 18.25, rounded up to 19 sections

How we got the post count

3 posts are fixed by the shape itself
2 at the open ends
1 carrying a gate
18 line posts spaced between them
21 posts in total

How we got the picket count

Each picket covers 5.5 in plus a 0.25 in gap, so they repeat every 5.75 in
146 ft of fence needs 305 pickets
Plus 10% for offcuts, rounded up to 336

How we got the concrete

Each 10 in hole is 30 in deep, less 4 in of gravel base, leaving 26 in of concrete
The 4x4 post itself takes up part of that, so each hole needs the remainder
Across 21 posts
Divided by the 0.6 cu ft a bag yields: 34.91, so buy 35 bags

Why a range and not a price

Published sources for installed wood fence disagree by roughly two to one, and they are not wrong — regional labour rates, lumber prices and contractor availability genuinely differ that much. A single number would be easier to read and would be a fiction.

The ranges here come from three independent US cost guides that agree closely with one another, and the figure carries its sources and collection date on the page. One outlier source was excluded because its own text showed it averaging across cheaper fence styles rather than isolating privacy fence; that exclusion is recorded in the data rather than made quietly.

DIY versus installed

Labour is roughly half the cost of an installed wood fence, which is why the DIY figure looks so much better on paper. What the paper does not show is a hundred-odd post holes, each needing digging, setting plumb and bracing while the concrete goes off.

The honest way to read the two numbers is as a wage: divide the difference by the days it will take you. Many people do the panels themselves and pay someone with an auger to set the posts, which is where most of the labour actually is.

Getting a figure specific to you

National ranges cannot know what your merchant charges this week. Every material on the shopping list accepts your own unit price, and anything you enter takes precedence over our figures.

That is the version worth taking to a quote conversation: a full material list, priced at what your supplier actually charges, with the labour left as a range.

Common questions

Is this a quote?: No. It is a planning estimate built from published national ranges. No contractor has seen your site, your access, your soil or your slope, and all four move the price. Use it to know whether a quote is in the right neighbourhood, not to negotiate against.
Why is the range so wide?: Because the underlying data is. Installed wood fence spans roughly two to one across the United States depending on region and season. Narrowing that on the page would mean inventing precision the sources do not support.
Does it include removing an old fence?: Only if you ask for it. Removal is available as an option, and it carries the lowest confidence rating on the site — published sources for it disagree by nearly a factor of seven, mostly over disposal fees. Treat that line as a rough guide and get it quoted.
What about permits?: Not included, because we do not know your jurisdiction and will not guess. Many places require a permit for a fence over a certain height, and some regulate front-yard height separately. Your building department is the only reliable source.