Average Cost Of Privacy Fence
What’s the average cost of privacy fence?
Disclaimer: The prices quoted here are not firm. They are averages used to give you an idea of what to expect. Call us if you want to know current pricing for your project.
After being in business for over 40 years, there’s one question that we’ve heard more than any other: “What’s an average fence cost?”
By then we usually have to clarify what they mean by average fence, and since this is Colorado, we arrive at the real question: “What’s the average cost of a cedar privacy fence?”
We’ve gone over the 4 factors that can affect fence installation costs before, but a lot of customers want to know the average cost per linear foot to build a fence.
This obviously varies due to fluctuations in the lumber market, but let’s work out an average cost of a privacy fence to get a starting point.
How To Calculate Average Price of Privacy Fence
Calculate the total amount of linear feet that your fence will be: This is pretty straight-forward. You just need to know the lengths of the 3 sides of your box (ie yard). To keep things simple let’s imagine you measure the 2 sides of your back yard and get 25 feet each and the back side of the yard comes to 50 feet. This would leave you needing 100 linear feet of fencing.
Calculate the number of posts you’ll need: When building a privacy fence you usually want to place a post every 8 feet. So take you 100 linear feet divide by 8 and you get 12.5 posts, and let’s round up to 13 posts.
Calculate number of 2×4’s: We recommend putting three 2×4’s down the length of your posts in order to have optimal support, although we get a lot of people that want to cut costs and only use two. You’re the boss here, but we’re going to calculate for three. You take each 8 foot section of your fence and you’ll have 13 of those times three 2×4’s down each section gives you 13×3= 39 (2×4’s)
Calculate number of pickets: Cedar pickets are sold in nominal dimensions of 1×4 or 1×6. The true dimensions of these after milling are 1 x 3.5 or 1 x 5.5. So now we take our 100 linear feet and multiply by 12 to get 1200 inches. Now divide that by 3.5 inches to 343 (1 x 4) pickets for your job.
In Conclusion, Average Price of Privacy Fence
And that’s that. Now you have your fence sorted out and you just need to dig the post holes, pour the cement and get to it!
Let’s calculate some average prices for these materials:
$1.55/mid-grade cedar picket: $1.55 x 343 pickets = $531.65 plus tax.
$11.99/post: $11.99 x 13 posts = $155.87 plus tax.
$5.99/2×4: $5.99 x 39 = $233.61 plus tax.
There you have it. Now you know how to calculate the average cost of a cedar privacy fence. Visit our cedar fencing page to get an idea of how to build it yourself or call us to get current fence quotes!
