The rules
- Feet and whole cents. Dimensions are in feet. Money is held in whole US cents, so adding line items never drifts by a fraction of a cent.
- A run’s length includes its gates. You measure the full line, gate openings and all.
- Fence footage is the length minus the gates. A gate is priced once at your gate rate, not as fence.
- Each span rounds up on its own. A gate splits a run into separate spans. Each span is divided by the panel width and rounded up to whole panels, so two short spans can need more panels than one long one.
- Each span has one more post than panels. Posts sit at every panel boundary, including both ends of the span.
- Runs share a post only where they meet. When two runs end at the same coordinates, that corner is one post. Runs that merely come close do not share one.
- Impossible input is rejected. A missing, non-finite, zero or negative dimension, or a gate wider than its run, produces an error rather than a guessed number.
- Prices are yours. Fencekind supplies no prices. Every rate, extra and tax rate in an estimate is one you entered.
A run with gates, worked out
A 100 ft run with two 4-foot gates and 8-foot panels. The gates come off the footage, and the two outer spans and the middle span each round up on their own.
| Run length, including gates | 100 ft |
|---|---|
| Fence footage after two gates | 92 ft |
| Spans: width (panels) | 23 ft (3) + 46 ft (6) + 23 ft (3) |
| Panels · posts | 12 · 15 |
A corner and a price, worked out
The corner layout used across Fencekind is a 30-foot run joined to a 20-foot run with one 4-foot gate. With sample rates of $30 per fence foot and $400 per gate, the arithmetic is below. They are sample rates, not a price list.
| Run lengths, including the gate | 50 ft |
|---|---|
| Fence footage after the gate | 46 ft |
| Panels · posts (one shared corner post) | 7 · 9 |
| Sample estimate before tax | $1,780.00 |
Pictures are not measurements
A yard photo concept is a picture made by an outside AI service. It can change other details in the scene, and it is never used to set a dimension, a panel count or a price. When an AI service proposes a fence specification, the proposal is validated first, and the geometry, quantities and arithmetic are still produced by the rules above. If a dimension is uncertain, you are asked to confirm it. If the AI service is unavailable, Fencekind says so instead of showing a made-up result.
What these numbers do not cover
- They are planning arithmetic, not a survey, a permit check or a customer quote.
- A materials list shows counts, not product choices. Post sizes, concrete, brackets, hardware and local requirements need review by your installer and supplier.
- Sample rates and fictional layouts on this site are labeled as examples.
See the rules in use
Try the fence calculator, read how fence posts and fence panels are counted, or see how gate openings change footage. For the product behind them, read about Fencekind or the fence estimating software page.