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About this tool
Calculate posts, bays, panels, wire strands and post-hole concrete for a garden fence of any length.
A fence take-off is a chain of three counts — bays, then posts, then the concrete under them — and this calculator runs all three from one length. It divides the run (minus gate openings) by your maximum post spacing, rounds bays up and re-spreads the spacing evenly so the last bay is not a stub, then sizes each post hole by the standard fencing rule of burying one third of the above-ground height with a 600 mm minimum, in a hole three times the post's width.
Open Garden Fence Material Calculator on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Enter the values you already know.
Fine-tune the options to match your scenario.
Read the result and use it in your planning or reporting.
Rounds bays up and re-spreads them evenly, so you never finish a run on an awkward 40 cm bay.
Computes hole volume less the post itself, then converts to cement bags at a 1:2:4 nominal mix.
End and corner posts carry side load and need bracing — they are listed apart from line posts.
Between 1.8 m and 3 m centre to centre depending on the fence. Prefab panels fix the spacing at the panel width, usually 1.83 m; picket and close-board runs at 2.4 m; post-and-rail at up to 2.7 m; and strained wire or chain link at up to 3 m. Wider spacing sags, and a taller fence needs the posts closer because of wind load.
Bury about one third of the above-ground height, with 600 mm as the practical minimum. A 1.2 m fence therefore takes a 600 mm hole and a 1.8 m post; a 1.8 m fence takes a 600 mm hole by the same rule but is usually set deeper, around 750 mm, because wind load rises steeply with height.
About 35–40 litres for a 100 mm post in a 300 mm hole 600 mm deep, once the post's own volume is subtracted. Ten such posts come to roughly 0.36 m³ of concrete, which is around three 50 kg bags of cement in a 1:2:4 mix plus sand and aggregate.
One more than the number of bays for an open run, and exactly the same as the number of bays for a closed loop that returns to its start. Adding a gate opens the loop, so a gated perimeter needs the extra post too — the two gate posts are the run's end posts.
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