Fence contractors: is your per-foot price actually covering the job? Free, no signup.
Presets load common US material + labor starting points. They are not industry standards. Set your own numbers.
Terrain adder covers slope, rock, tight access, or haul-off you cannot bill per foot.
Pick the fence type preset first: Cedar privacy, Chain link, Vinyl, or Ornamental aluminum. Each fills material cost per foot and labor per foot as editable starting points (cedar at $21 material plus $10 labor per foot is the default), and the note says these are common US starting points, not industry standards, so change them to your real numbers. Enter linear feet (150 default), then the gates card: gate count (2 default) and price per gate ($175 default). Old fence removal gets its own footage and per-foot cost inputs instead of being buried in labor, and the terrain or access adder covers slope, rock, tight access, or haul-off you cannot bill per foot. The material markup percent (10 default) applies to materials only, not labor. Results show a line-item breakdown: materials, markup, labor, gates, removal, terrain, and a true cost line, then a recommended total quote rounded up to the nearest $50 with the effective dollars per foot. The killer feature is the gut check: enter what you would have quoted and it fires LOSING MONEY below cost, WORKING TOO CHEAP under 15 percent margin, or PRICED FAIRLY.
Example only, not typical pricing. Cedar preset, 150 feet, 2 gates at $175, 10 percent markup, no removal or terrain: materials $3,150, markup $315, labor $1,500, gates $350, true cost $5,315, recommended quote $5,350, which is $35.43 per foot. A $5,000 gut quote fires LOSING MONEY, $315 under true cost. A $6,300 gut quote fires PRICED FAIRLY with $985 of margin, because 985 / 6,300 = 15.6 percent, clearing the 15 percent line.
**Why quote gates separately instead of folding them into the per-foot price?** Two jobs with the same footage can differ by several hundred dollars in gates alone. A flat per-foot price makes a 2-gate job subsidize a 4-gate job, so the tool keeps gates as their own line and the per-foot number stays honest.
**Should the material markup apply to labor too?** In this tool markup applies to materials only. Labor is priced by your own per-foot rate, which you should set from your real crew cost, not from a materials percentage.
**Is the terrain adder really necessary?** Yes, and it is the leak this tool was built for. Slope, rock, tight access, and haul-off do not scale with footage, so quoting one per-foot number across flat and sloped ground erases your margin on the hard jobs.
**What if the customer asks for a per-foot price?** The recommended quote comes with the effective dollars per foot underneath it, so you can talk per-foot numbers while your real quote still covers gates, removal, and terrain.
**How should I price tearing out an old fence?** Enter its footage and your per-foot removal cost in the demo fields, not in labor. Demo has different crew needs than install, and mixing them hides how cheap your real labor rate is.