How to Price Fence Repair: Posts, Panels and Gate Hinges

Here is how to price fence repair so a small job still pays. A repair is not a fence priced per linear foot; it is a trip, a short list of parts and a few hours. So the quote is a trip charge plus one line per repair: a post, a run of pickets, a gate. Price each from your yard's list and your own timing.

What fence repair cost is made of: the trip, the parts, the hours

Three things go into every repair price. The trip costs the same for one picket or a whole gate, so it is its own line and the customer sees why a small job has a floor. The parts come from your yard's list. The hours are yours to time, with the federal data as the floor: O*NET's summary for fence erectors, with Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data for 2025, lists a median of $23.07 an hour, and the occupation's tasks include "Construct and repair barriers, retaining walls, trellises, and other types of fences, walls, and gates." Your loaded rate sits above the median once burden, the truck and overhead are on it.

Price each repair in the unit that fits: per item for a post or a hinge set, per picket for a run, flat for a gate rebuild. A customer who sees four lines can drop one and approve the rest. When the job turns into a new fence, pricing fence installation per linear foot takes over.

How to price a job to replace fence pickets and panels

Pickets are the cheapest part and the quickest repair. HEP Sales, a lumber yard in Waterloo, New York, lists a 1 x 6 x 6 Southern Pine No. 2 pressure treated dog-ear fence board at $3.99 each on October 18, 2026, and a 2 x 4 x 8 Southern Pine No. 1 pressure treated rail at $6.59. Count the pickets that are split, rotted at the bottom or missing, and put a per picket line on the quote with the count.

• Replace a rail that is rotted at the post or that the fasteners pulled through; the new rail carries the pickets, so price it first.
• A whole panel between two posts is a rails-and-pickets line, not a new fence; count pickets by the section width over the picket width plus the gap.

One warning from the Forest Products Laboratory's guide to protecting wood fences: horizontal rails need more decay protection than vertical boards, and "Keep boards off the ground." A picket that touches soil will go again; trim the new one clear of the grade.

How to price a job to replace a fence post

A post is a dig, and the dig is most of the price. The post itself is cheap: the same yard lists a 4 x 4 x 8 Southern Pine No. 2 pressure treated post at $13.39. Check the end tag: YellaWood's page on ground contact lumber lists fence posts among the uses for its ground contact grade, treated with more preservative than above ground lumber, and says the end use is noted at the top of the tag.

1. 1Step 1: Call 811. 811 Before You Dig calls itself "the free national before-you-dig service", names fence installation among the jobs that need it, and says to contact 811 "a few business days before you begin any digging".
2. 2Step 2: Dig out the old post and its footing: cut the rails free, rock the stub out with a bar or a jack, lift the old concrete.
3. 3Step 3: Size the hole to Quikrete's rule: a diameter "3 times the width of the post", about 12 inches for a 4 inch post, and a depth of one third to one half of the height above ground, at least 2 feet for a 6 foot fence.
4. 4Step 4: Add about 6 inches of gravel, set the post plumb against the rails, pour the dry fast-setting mix to 3 to 4 inches below grade and soak it with about a gallon of water per 50 lb bag.
5. 5Step 5: The mix sets hard in 20 to 40 minutes; Quikrete says to wait about 4 hours before building on the post or loading it, so hang the rails last.

Price the concrete by the bag. Quikrete's quantity calculator takes the hole depth for fixed post and hole pairings (a 4 inch post in a 12 inch hole is one row) and gives the number of 50 lb bags. Klem's, a hardware store in Spencer, Massachusetts, lists the 50 lb bag at $12.99 on October 18, 2026. Dig time doubles in clay, roots or a footing that will not come out; say so on the quote.

How to price a job to fix a sagging gate

A gate drags on the latch side for one of three reasons, each with its own part and price: the frame has racked, the hinges have worn or pulled their screws, or the hinge post has leaned. Lift the latch side by hand. If the gate squares up and the post stays put, the frame or the hinges are the fix; if the post moves, the post is.

The anti-sag kit runs a cable from the top hinge corner to the bottom latch corner and the turnbuckle pulls the frame square; it is the cheapest fix. New hinges fix a gate whose screws have chewed out the wood; use longer screws into sound wood. Paul B Hardware's page for the gate caster says fasteners are not included, so add the bolts to the line.

When the frame is past a cable, rebuild it: two new rails and a diagonal brace from the bottom hinge corner to the top latch corner, the old boards screwed back on if sound. Price that flat as a gate rebuild line. A gate that has had all three fixes is a new gate; fence gate pricing in the installation guide covers that line.

Leaning fence repair: straighten the post or replace it

A leaning run is a post problem. Push each post at the top. One that moves in the ground but is sound at the grade line can be straightened: dig beside the footing, pull it plumb, brace it, and pour fast-setting mix in the gap; Quikrete's page says the mix is poured dry, soaked with water, and sets hard in approximately 20 to 40 minutes. One that is soft at the grade line is a replacement, and a run of them is a new fence.

Posts fail at the ground because that is where the wood stays wet. The Forest Products Laboratory guide recommends a preservative treatment for posts, "preferably a pressure treatment for below ground use", and YellaWood says its ground contact lumber "provides twice the protection against rot, fungal decay, and termite attack." Specify ground contact posts.

Matching new wood to an old fence

A new picket is pale beside a gray fence, and the customer will ask. New wood weathers toward the rest over its first seasons; to match it now, stain the whole run, not the one board. YellaWood's staining page says to stain pressure treated wood "within six weeks after construction" so long as it is dry enough, checked with a sprinkle test (water that beads up means wait and test again; water that soaks in means it is ready), and to clean the wood first. So matching is a second visit and a second line, per linear foot; pricing fence staining per linear foot has the arithmetic.

A worked repair quote

Writing the repair quote so it gets approved

Ask for photos before the visit: the post at the grade line, the gate from the latch side, the run from one end. Put every repair on its own line with its count, the trip charge above them, and name the parts so the quote reads like a bill of materials. Add a line that dig time is priced for normal soil, with roots, rock or a stubborn footing billed by the hour, and one that new wood looks new until it weathers or is stained.

In MakeHay, a request form on your site takes the customer's photos and the job site address, and a request with an address can start a draft quote in one tap. Quote lines carry your units, per item for the post and the hinges, per linear ft for the stain, flat for the trip, and the customer approves and signs online from a link. An approved quote becomes an invoice in one click.

The customer sees the trip charge and each repair as its own line before approving.