Crew hours per foot of privacy fence, over two trips
The example's 0.36 crew hours a foot covers tearing out the old fence and loading it, laying out the line, digging and setting posts in concrete on day one, then rails, screwed pickets and the gate on day two once the concrete has set. It also carries the second drive out, the yard run and the trip to the dump.
That two-day pattern is why fence labour runs higher per foot than it looks from the street. If the holes hit rock and old footings and the job takes 0.45 hours a foot, the same 150 ft goes from $7,538.25 to $8,429.25, or $56.20 a foot. Bid it at the soft-ground number and the rock is free.
Posts, concrete, rails and pickets at $16.49 a foot
The materials box is the whole list divided by the length. On the example that is 21 treated posts set in concrete, 45 rails, 360 cedar pickets, rail brackets, screws, the gate hinges and latch, and marking paint. With the 25% markup, $16.49 a foot becomes $20.61.
The picket choice moves this number most. Cedar costs more than treated pine, and a taller fence or a board-on-board style uses more pickets per foot. Recount the list for the style you are bidding instead of reusing the cedar number.
A 300 ft backyard run and a 16 ft section
Dump fees, the permit and tool wear total $220 and come with every job. On long runs they spread thin. On short sections they do not:
| Fence | Crew hours | Price | Per foot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 ft section | 5.76 | $1,039.92 | $64.99 |
| 150 ft, example | 54 | $7,538.25 | $50.26 |
| 300 ft | 108 | $14,812.50 | $49.38 |
The 16 ft section also still needs two trips for the concrete to set, which the per-foot hours do not show. Raise its hours, and keep the $450 minimum for the smallest repairs.
What the fence spreadsheet adds to reach $8,775
A fence crew's $55 an hour is the example company's figure, built from crew pay, the truck and trailer and insurance. Swap in yours from the hourly rate calculator, or follow how the example arrives at $55.27 on the fencing hourly rate page.
The spreadsheet then charges the truck, trailer and post-hole auger by their own running hours, adds waste on lumber, a small cushion and a markup on the dump fees and permit, and lists each material from a price list. It prints a customer quote with your terms for hard holes and gates nobody mentioned, and logs whether the fence made money. That is why its version of the same job comes to $8,775 instead of $7,538.25. The fence pricing guide walks through that quote.