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For fence builders: by the foot, post by post

Wood privacy, picket, chain link, vinyl, a farm fence or a single gate: a fence grows by the linear foot and is built one post at a time. TailGateBid carries the footage, the gates and the tear-out as lines on a quote your customer signs on their phone.

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The work

New fence and replacement fence: wood privacy and picket, chain link, vinyl, ornamental metal, split rail and farm fence. Gates, from a walk gate to a double drive gate. Repairs: a leaning post, a section the wind took down. And where an old fence stands, taking it down and hauling it away.

How a fence is measured

  1. Measure each straight run in feet, corner to corner, leaving the gate openings out. The runs added together are the linear feet.
  2. Divide each run by how far apart you set your posts, and round up. Those are the sections in that run.
  3. The line has one more post than it has sections, and one more again for each gate, which needs a post on both sides.
  4. Every post is a hole. QUIKRETE's guide to setting posts makes the hole 3 times as wide as the post, and one third to one half as deep as the post stands above the ground: at least 2 feet for a 6 foot fence.
  5. Before the first hole, 811. It is the free national before-you-dig service, and its own site says to contact it a few business days before any digging, fences included: Common Ground Alliance, 811 Before You Dig.

An example with made-up numbers, not a going rate

Say the fence runs 50 feet down one side, 30 across the back and 50 up the other side, with 1 walk gate, and say you set a post every 8 feet. That is 130 feet of fence in 18 sections, and 20 posts to dig, set and pay for.

A fence quote, worked through

Sample

Sample Fence Co.

Back yard privacy fence, 6 feet tall

  • Old chain link fence taken down and hauled awayQty 1 load$275.00
  • Posts, rails, pickets and concreteQty 130 feet$2,210.00
  • Labor to set the posts and build the fenceQty 130 feet$1,820.00
  • Walk gate, built and hung, with hardwareQty 1$325.00
Subtotal
$4,630.00
Sales tax (7.25%)
$183.79
Total
$4,813.79

Deposit due on approval: $481.38

Before you ask for a deposit on work at a home, check what your state or province allows.

Only you see this part. Your customer never does.

What it costs you
$3,080.00
What is left for you
$1,550.00

You keep about $33 of every $100

A sample with made-up prices, not a going rate. Materials and labor are both charged by the foot, so the quote grows with the fence, and the gate and the old fence are lines of their own. Tax is charged on the two lines ticked as taxed: 7.25% of $2,535.00 is $183.79. A 10% deposit of $481.38 is due on approval. From your side, at these made-up costs, you keep about $33 of every $100.

What TailGateBid does for a fence company

  • Options and extras on one quote

    Cedar or pressure-treated pine? Put each on the quote as an option with its own price, and your customer picks one. A second gate or a coat of stain can be an add-on they tick before they sign, on their own phone. How quotes work.

  • A draft from a few photos

    Bid Partner is the AI tool in TailGateBid. Photos of the yard and a sentence or two about the fence the customer wants go in. A priced draft quote comes out, built on your rates. A price that is Bid Partner's own and not yours is marked "Typical"; correct it once and it is your price on every quote after. It is a draft. You press Send, or nothing goes out.

  • Changes after the posts are in

    The customer wants twenty more feet, or a wider gate? It goes on a change order they approve by link before you build it, and it is added to the final invoice. The job itself is made the day the quote is approved, ready for a date on the schedule.

  • A fence company website

    A website comes with every account, hosted at no extra cost: the kinds of fence you build, in your words; a before and after of a fence line, shown once that customer has agreed; reviews you have approved; and a request-a-quote form that takes photos of the yard. See what is on it.

Pricing the foot

What a foot of fence should sell for is your number, not ours. The job price calculator takes your hours, what an hour costs you and your materials, and shows what each price leaves you. It can give the answer for each foot.

Then put the price on paper: what goes on an estimate, in order, with one filled in.

This page is about one trade. TailGateBid works the same way for any other, and Bid Partner is built to price a job in any of them: how it works for your trade.

Sources

Related

Walk the line, count the posts and send the quote.

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30 days free. No card needed.