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Garden Fencing Calculator
Fencing feet, line posts, and total material cost for a rectangular garden or orchard fence by fence type.
Garden Fencing Calculator
Chlorova · updated for 2026
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Click “Calculate” to see your results.
This estimates the fencing and line posts for one clean rectangle and does not price corner braces, gates, a charger for electric wire, concrete for post holes, or the extra posts that gates and direction changes demand. Real fencing is sold in fixed roll lengths, so the running feet you buy round up past the perimeter, and rocky or sloped ground drives post counts and labor higher than a flat plan suggests. Treat the total as a material budget only, then confirm roll sizes and post spacing against the specific product you intend to install.
A fence is bought by the running foot, yet most orders go wrong because nobody adds up the perimeter, the posts, and what each one truly costs. This garden fencing calculator turns the length and width of your enclosure into the fencing feet, the line posts at your spacing, and a real material bill by fence type. Choose chicken wire, woven wire, electric deer fence, or deer mesh, enter the plot size, and you know the buy before you cut so much as a post hole.
Estimating a Fence in a Few Steps
- Pick the fence type first so the tool loads a realistic per-foot material price for that fence.
- Enter the full length and the width of the rectangular area you want to enclose securely.
- Set the spacing you plan to leave between each of the straight-run line posts.
- Enter what a single post plus all of its fixing hardware will realistically cost you.
- Read the total running feet of fencing that the whole enclosed perimeter actually needs.
- Check the rounded line-post count and the total square footage you are enclosing.
- Note how the cost splits between fencing and posts, then read the combined total.
How the Fence Bill Is Worked Out
The fencing you need is the perimeter, twice the length plus the width, and the enclosed area is simply length times width. Line posts come from dividing that same perimeter by your chosen post spacing, rounded up because a partial post still has to stand in the ground.
Cost splits into two honest parts: the fencing material is the perimeter times the per-foot price your fence type carries, and the posts are the rounded post count times the price you pay for one. The total is those two added together, so an expensive wire with wide post spacing can cost the same as cheap wire with crowded posts. The picker supplies only the per-foot rate and a note, which is why one perimeter quietly drives the fencing, the post count, and the whole bill at once.
Worked Example: A Twenty by Fifteen Chicken-Wire Plot
- You are planning to fence a rectangular vegetable plot twenty feet by fifteen feet.
- Chicken wire here carries the lightest per-foot material price of the four options.
- The full fenced perimeter works out to 2 × (20 + 15) = 70 running feet.
- The enclosed planting area is a plain 20 × 15 = 300 square feet.
- Posts spaced eight feet apart land on ceil(70 ÷ 8) = 9 total line posts.
- Fencing material then costs 70 × $1.20 = $84 for the bare wire.
- The nine line posts at twelve dollars each then add $108 to the bill.
- So the whole material estimate for the finished fence comes to about $192.
Typical Fencing by Type
Representative per-foot material prices and the job each fence suits, matching the rates the fence-type picker applies to your perimeter. Swap in your store's real price and the cost re-solves while the fencing feet stay the same.
| Fence type | Approx $ per ft | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken wire | $1–$2 | Poultry, rabbits, small pests |
| Woven wire | $2–$4 | Dogs, goats, sturdy field lines |
| Electric deer | $3–$6 | Deer on a budget, needs a charger |
| Deer mesh | $1–$3 | Tall light deer and bird netting |
Key Terms
- Running foot
- One linear foot of installed fence, the unit fencing is priced and bought by.
- Line post
- A post set along a straight run to hold the fence up, spaced by your chosen gap.
- Perimeter
- The total distance around the rectangle, twice length plus width, the fencing you buy.
- Corner brace
- A strongly anchored post at each turn that takes the wire's tension, priced apart here.
- Post spacing
- The gap between line posts, which sets how many posts a given perimeter needs.
Fencing That Actually Holds
- Corner and gate posts carry the real load, so budget sturdy braced corners separately from the line posts this tool counts.
- Wide post spacing cuts the post bill but lets cheap wire sag, so the saving can quietly buy you a drooping fence line.
- Electric fence is the cheapest honest deer stop per foot, yet the charger, insulators, and upkeep are real add-ons the material total omits.
- Buy fencing by the roll, not the exact foot, since rolls come in fixed lengths and the last partial run still needs a whole roll.
- Slope and rock change everything, because a hilly perimeter needs more posts and deeper holes than the flat geometry this calculator assumes.
Common Mistakes & Fixes
- Pricing only the wire and forgetting the posts, hardware, and concrete that often cost more.
- Using a curved plot's straight-line estimate, which undercounts the extra fencing a bend really needs.
- Spacing posts too far apart on light mesh, so the fence flaps and fails at the first deer.
- Leaving out gate and corner posts, then facing a short, saggy line on install day.
- Assuming flat ground, when slope and rock quietly raise both the post count and the labor.
When to Use This (and When Not To)
Use it at the planning stage of a simple rectangular enclosure, when you want the fencing feet, the line-post count, and a rough material bill before you buy. It sizes a straight four-sided fence, not a curved or multi-sided bed, so break an odd plot into rectangles and add each run. To price a live hedge instead of a wire barrier, use the hedge calculator, and to find the area you are protecting, the garden area calculator does the geometry alone.
Garden Fencing Calculator: Frequently Asked Questions
How many feet of fencing do I need?
Add up the perimeter, which for a rectangle is twice the length plus the width. A twenty by fifteen plot needs 2 × (20 + 15) = 70 running feet, and you then round up to the roll length the store actually sells fencing in.
How far apart should fence posts be?
Most garden fences set line posts every six to eight feet, with tighter spacing for light mesh and wider for rigid or electric wire. The calculator turns any spacing you enter into the post count, so you can test a cheap wire with crowded posts against a stiff one set far apart.
What is the cheapest fence for deer?
Electric high-tensile fence usually wins on material cost per foot, followed by deer mesh, while woven wire and chicken wire will not stop a deer at all. Remember the calculator prices the wire only, so add a charger, insulators, and corner braces to any electric run before you compare totals.
Does this include gates and corners?
No, the total here is the fencing material plus the line posts between your spacing, not the braced corner posts, gate posts, hardware, or concrete those need. Budget the corners and any gates as a separate line, since a rectangle with a gate needs several heavy posts the flat perimeter never counts.
Why does the post count round up?
Because a fence that needs nine and a half posts still requires ten whole ones standing in the ground. Rounding up also leaves a spare post or two for a gate, a broken corner, or a future repair, which is always worth having on site.
Can I use this for a non-rectangular yard?
Only by splitting the shape into rectangles, since each run assumes one clean four-sided perimeter with a single gate-free loop. Work out the fencing feet and posts for every rectangle, add them together, and subtract any shared interior fence you do not actually need to build.
Sources & Further Reading
- Installing and Pricing Field and Garden Fencing — University of Missouri Extension. Basis for the perimeter, post-spacing, and per-foot cost model used here.
- Fencing to Exclude Deer and Small Pests — Penn State Extension. Underpins the fence-type comparison and electric-deer guidance on this page.
- Post Spacing and Corner Bracing for Woven Wire — Iowa State University Extension. Source of the line-post and corner-brace cautions in this calculator.
Chlorova Gardening Team
Builds, checks and documents every tool we publish
Chlorova editorial review
Checked against extension-service publications
Formula verified against published references · Updated
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