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Fence cost calculator
What fence jobs cost in your state, and the posts, panels and bags of concrete your own length needs.
Built by Radif Partners · How prices are built · Editorial policy
Fence in the United States, hired out
$4,400
Most jobs between $2,200 and $7,670 (middle half of reported prices)
| National median (homeowners’ reports) | $4,397 |
| Regional level (Census division) | +0.0% |
| State labor adjustment | +0.0% |
| Typical price in the United States | $4,400 |
| Panels (8 ft wide) | 19 |
| Posts | 20 |
| 80 lb concrete bags (full holes) | 30 |
Fence erectors: national mean $24.29 an hour. Range from homeowners who hired a professional (2021 to 2023, American Housing Survey 2023), in August 2026 dollars; permits, tear-off of unusual materials, structural repairs and local surcharges vary job to job. How this is calculated.
A fence installed by a professional cost $4,400 at the national median, and half of the jobs cost between $2,200 and $7,670, based on the 1,117 fence jobs that owners reported in the 2023 American Housing Survey, in August 2026 dollars. The survey does not record length or material, so that range describes the typical residential fence project rather than a price per foot. The calculator adds what the survey cannot: for your length it counts 8-foot panels, posts and 80-pound bags of concrete, so you can price materials at your store. A 150-foot run with posts set 30 inches deep needs 19 panels, 20 posts and about 30 bags. Owners who built their own fence reported a median of $1,087, a reminder that labor is most of the gap.
Two numbers: the job price and the material list
The Census survey gives the price of the whole job as owners paid it: design, digging, posts, panels or pickets, gates, hauling soil away and the installer's margin. It is the right benchmark for a quote. The take-off underneath answers a different question, which is what you would have to buy to build the same fence. It follows the layout of panel fences: one post at each end and one between each pair of panels, so posts equal panels plus one for a straight run. Corners and gates add posts.
| Fence length | Panels | Posts | 80 lb bags (4x4 posts, 30 in deep) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 ft | 7 | 8 | 12 |
| 100 ft | 13 | 14 | 21 |
| 150 ft | 19 | 20 | 30 |
| 200 ft | 25 | 26 | 38 |
| 300 ft | 38 | 39 | 57 |
Hole sizes follow one vinyl fence maker's guide, 8 inches across for 4x4 posts and 10 inches for 5x5, dug to the frost line with gravel at the bottom (Barrette installation guide). Your county's frost depth sets how deep the holes go; the calculator lets you type it. Bag yields come from the Quikrete data sheet.
Who installs fences, and what they earn
BLS counts fence erectors as a separate occupation: 24,480 of them in May 2025, with a mean wage of $24.29 an hour. Their employers fall under "all other specialty trade contractors" in the Economic Census, where materials took 33.2% of the value of work and payroll plus benefits 29.8%. BLS did not publish a fence erector wage for District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Maryland and Vermont; there the national wage is used.
State estimates run from $3,480 in Oregon to $5,810 in Connecticut. Owners in the New England and Middle Atlantic states reported the highest fence medians of the survey's nine divisions.
Before the first post goes in
Call 811 a few days before digging so that utilities mark buried lines; the service is free nationwide. Check the property line on your survey plat rather than trusting an old fence, and read your homeowners association's rules on height, style and which side faces out. Many cities require a permit above a set height, often for front-yard fences in particular.
Making a quote comparable
Ask each installer for the length they measured, the material and its grade, post size and spacing, hole depth, number of gates and whether old fence removal is included. With those, the price per foot of two quotes can be compared, and the total checked against the survey range for your state. Gates deserve their own line: a wide drive gate with heavy hinges and a stronger post can cost as much as several sections of plain fence.
Removal of an old fence is often quoted per foot and can surprise owners who assumed it was included. The same goes for rocky or root-filled ground, where each hole takes longer, and for slopes that require stepped or racked panels instead of the standard straight ones. None of these appear in a statistic, so describe your yard honestly when you ask for a price.