Wood Fence Cost Calculator

Wood fence cost calculator estimates on this page use the full cost calculators hub pricing engine, broken out by the four common wood styles. If you specifically want a solid-board, no-gap fence, the privacy fence cost calculator narrows in on that one style with a wood-vs-vinyl comparison.

How the Wood Fence Cost Calculator Prices a Project

This wood fence cost calculator starts from published material and labor rates for each style and grade, then layers on gates, removal, and your state's index. See how wood stacks up against other materials in our fence materials comparison before you commit to a style.

Wood Fence Cost by Style (6 ft, Installed)

Picket costs the least because its 2.5-in gaps use less lumber overall than any other style for the same length of fence. Board-on-board and horizontal cost more — board-on-board because overlapping boards use roughly 20% more lumber than privacy for full coverage, and horizontal because precise, gap-free fastening between boards takes more skilled labor per foot.

Wood Fence Cost by Grade (Privacy Style, 6 ft)

Pressure-treated pine is the budget choice and typically lasts 15-20 years; cedar costs roughly 20% more but resists rot naturally and can last 20-30 years, which often closes the price gap over the life of the fence.

What Drives the Price

Style and grade matter most, but height and gates add up fast too — an 8-ft privacy fence runs about 20% more per foot than the same fence at 6 feet, since taller sections need bigger posts and deeper footings. If you're still working out how much lumber you need before pricing labor, the wood fence calculator turns your length, height, and style into an exact post, rail, and board count.

Putting it together: a 150-ft, 6-ft wood privacy fence at mid-tier pricing runs about $5,550 for materials and labor. Removing an old fence first adds another $450-1,200 for the same run, so a full tear-out-and-replace project typically lands between $6,000 and $6,750 before gates or permits are added.

Labor vs Materials

Wood fence labor typically runs 30-40% of the installed total, a bit lower than premium materials because lumber itself carries real cost — cedar and pressure-treated boards aren't cheap even before a crew touches them. On a $5,550 mid-tier 150-ft privacy fence, that puts materials around $3,450 and labor around $2,100.

Gates, Removal, Permits

A wood walk gate costs $180-650 installed depending on grade; a drive gate runs $400-1,900. Removing an existing fence adds the standard $3-8 per linear foot, and permits, where required, run $40-200. Wood is one of the more permit-sensitive materials since many municipalities cap front-yard fence height and require permits above 6 feet — see our fence height and permits guide before you finalize plans.

DIY vs Hiring

DIY wood fence installation saves roughly 30-40%, the labor share above, but wood is more labor-intensive to DIY well than chain link or vinyl — each board gets individually measured, cut, and fastened, and a crooked line shows immediately on a picket or privacy fence. Budget a full weekend per 100 feet if you're doing it solo, longer with helpers only on weekends. Renting a power auger for post holes and a pneumatic nailer for boards cuts the labor time significantly versus hand tools, and both are common weekend rental items at most equipment yards.

Lifespan and Long-Term Cost

Standard-grade wood privacy fencing typically lasts 15-25 years, and cedar stretches that to 20-30 years with proper sealing. At a $5,550 mid-tier installed total for 150 feet, standard-grade wood works out to roughly $278 per year of service over a 20-year midpoint lifespan. Cedar's higher upfront cost, around $6,600 mid-tier for the same run, still lands close to $264 per year over its longer 25-year midpoint life — meaning the "premium" material is actually about as cheap per year as the standard-grade option once you account for how much longer it lasts.

Regional Differences

CalcFence applies your state's labor-cost index to your full project total. On a 150-ft, 6-ft wood privacy fence with a $5,550 national mid-tier total, the highest-cost states run 16-28% above it: Hawaii ($7,080), Alaska ($6,800), New York ($6,660), California ($6,520), and Massachusetts ($6,440). The lowest-cost states run 5-8% below: Mississippi ($5,130), Arkansas ($5,190), Alabama and West Virginia ($5,220 each), and South Carolina ($5,270). Wood's grade-driven price range means the same percentage swing translates into a bigger dollar shift on a premium cedar job than on a budget pressure-treated one.

Get Quotes

Wood pricing varies more by grade than almost any other material, so confirm exactly which lumber grade a quote assumes before comparing bids. Get 2-3 quotes specifying the same grade and style so you're comparing apples to apples, and check the fence cost per foot table if you want to weigh wood against vinyl, aluminum, or chain link before committing. These figures reflect 2026 published cost-guide and retail lumber pricing — confirm current board prices locally, since lumber costs shift with supply more than most other fence materials.

Wood Privacy Fence Cost by Length

Installed cost of wood privacy fence (materials and labor) at the national average, before gates, removal, or permits. Bold is the mid estimate; the range below it is low to high.

Wood Privacy Fence Cost by State

Installed cost of 150 ft of 6-ft wood privacy fence in every state, with the state multiplier applied, before gates, removal, or permits.

Sources and Methodology

Every price on this page comes from one dataset compiled from published 2026 sources: national cost guides (Angi, HomeGuide, Homewyse, Fixr, Ergeon), fence supplier pricing, Iowa State University Extension livestock-fencing budgets, and Home Depot retail prices used to sanity-check material costs.

• Low, mid, high: where sources disagreed, low is the lowest credible figure, mid is the median of the credible figures, and high is the highest credible figure. Clear outliers are excluded.
• Installed cost is material cost per foot plus labor cost per foot, times fence length. Material rates are published separately for 4, 5, 6, and 8 ft; labor is scaled by height (4 ft ×0.80, 5 ft ×0.90, 6 ft ×1.00, 8 ft ×1.35).
• State multiplier = 0.5 + 0.5 × (state construction cost index ÷ 100), using the BuildCost 2026 Construction Cost Index (CC BY 4.0) and RSMeans for Washington, D.C. It is a general construction index, not a fence-specific wage, so treat state figures as directional.
• Gates, removal, and permits are priced per gate, per foot of old fence, and per permit, and added on top in the calculator.

Dataset version 2026-09. Sources accessed September 6, 2026. Page last updated September 22, 2026. Spot an outdated number? Tell us and we will re-check it.