Fence cost calculator

A fence quote is easy to accept and hard to judge. Knowing what the work costs across Texas is what turns a number into a decision.

Six things move a fence quote, and length moves it most

Material sets the rate and feet set the total. Everything below changes the number after that, and a bid that mentions none of them has not looked at your yard.

• Length, before anything else

  Feet times a rate is most of the number. A hundred feet of cedar and three hundred feet of cedar are the same fence at three times the price, which is why a quote that has not measured your line is a guess.

• Height

  Eight feet is not a third more than six. It takes wider boards, a heavier rail, longer posts and deeper concrete, so the jump is closer to half again on wood.

• Material and picket grade

  Pine and cedar are different fences at different prices, and inside cedar the grade moves it again. #1, #2 and #3 are real distinctions in knots and straightness. A quote that does not name the grade has left itself room.

• Gates

  A walk gate is hardware, a post pair and a brace. A driveway gate is a separate job with its own posts, its own operator and its own power, and it belongs on the same quote so the posts go in once.

• Tear-out and haul-off

  The old fence and its concrete footings have to leave the property. On a replacement that work is in the price here, and a bid that leaves it out is not cheaper, it is shorter.

• The lot itself

  Slope takes more posts. Live oaks on the line take hand digging and care not to kill the tree. Irrigation lines have to be found first. Around Austin the auger hits rock, which adds real money to a hole.

Six questions that make two bids comparable

Most fence bids are one page and a total. The difference between them is usually in what the cheaper one left out, and these are the six places to look for it.

• Does it name the picket grade

  Lumber yards grade their boards, and the price follows the grade. A quote that says cedar and nothing else can arrive as anything. Ours names #1, #2 or #3 in writing.

• Does it include tear-out and haul-off

  Ask directly, and get it in the line item rather than the conversation. Two bids are not comparable when one of them ends with a pile of old fence in your driveway.

• How deep do the posts go, and in what

  Post depth and concrete decide how long a fence stands, and they are the easiest place to save money you cannot see. Ask for the depth and ask whether the post sits in concrete.

• Who handles the permit

  In Houston a wood fence under eight feet needs no permit at all. The contractor should file any permit the job does need, and the quote should say so.

• What the warranty covers, and for how long

  Ours is one year on craftsmanship. That is a narrower promise than lifetime language, and it is one a company can keep. Across more than twenty thousand jobs last year not one customer needed it.

• How long the price holds

  Lumber moves. A quote carrying no date can change on you after the crew goes on the schedule.

The cheapest fence and the least expensive fence are rarely the same fence

Price is the easiest thing to compare and the least reliable on its own. The customer we meet most often is replacing a fence that should not have failed this early, and they already paid once for doing it the cheap way.

• The cheapest bid is usually a guess at your yard

  A number given over the phone or stepped off from the street has not seen the slope, the trees or the irrigation. It goes up once the crew arrives and finds them.

• A date that holds is worth money

  Most fence companies run one to three crews, so a crew out sick quietly becomes your problem. There are more than a hundred here, and twenty five to thirty in Houston alone.

• Callbacks cost you the time, not the contractor

  Rework means another day at home waiting. The craftsmanship warranty ran a year across more than twenty thousand jobs last year and nobody used it.

• A fence is a twenty year purchase

  A wood fence put in properly should give about twenty years in Texas. Two hundred dollars saved on the install is worth very little against a fence that fails at eight.

The same cedar fence, for less

Master Halco sells fence to crews all over America, and nobody buys more of it than Johnson. The 2026 Largest Volume Customer awards for the Southwest Region and for the World sit on that buying power, and it comes back on the picket line of the quote.

That is the whole argument on price. Same cedar, same grade, same crew standard, a smaller number, because the wood costs us less than it costs a three-crew shop. Twenty thousand jobs last year is what buys that rate.