Fence work prices by the linear foot, and a privacy fence quote lives or dies on two numbers: how many feet, and how tall. Punch the length into the calculator above, pick the height, and you have a defensible ballpark before the customer finishes describing the yard.
How wood privacy fence pricing works
The rate per linear foot carries everything: posts, rails, pickets, concrete, and the labor to set it all. The example rates above ($28 for 4 ft, $38 for 6 ft, $52 for 8 ft) are placeholders in a sensible range for installed pressure-treated privacy fence. Cedar runs higher, board-on-board runs higher, and your market sets the real number.
What moves a wood fence quote beyond the base rate:
- Height. Taller is not just more picket. An 8 ft fence needs longer posts, deeper holes, more concrete, and more wind load thinking. That’s why it isn’t priced as 6 ft plus a third.
- Tear-out. Pulling an old fence, breaking out post footings, and hauling it off is real labor and real dump fees. The example add-on uses $4 per linear foot.
- Digging conditions. Rock, roots, and hardpan turn a 10 minute post hole into an hour. If you know the soil is bad, price it going in, not after you’re committed.
- Gates. A gate is not 4 feet of fence. It’s hardware, a frame, and the one part of the fence the customer touches every day. Price gates each, separate from the run.
A fence-size sanity check
A typical suburban backyard runs somewhere around 150 linear feet of fence line. At the example 6 ft rate of $38 that’s $5,700 before tear-out or gates. If that number feels wrong for your area, that’s the point: the rates need to be yours.
Quote it with your own rates
This page runs example numbers. PriceDesk gives you this same calculator with your own rates per foot at your own heights, your gate prices, your add-ons, and your minimum job charge, on your phone. Set it up once, in about five minutes, and quote every fence in about ten seconds.
Want the pricing method? Read how to price a fence job.