Trades & materials
How many posts and bays do I need for a straight fence?
Divide straight run length by your chosen maximum centre spacing and round up. A non-empty run needs one more post than bays. Divide run length by bay count for spacing. Count gates, corners and supporting details separately.
Use the free calculator Get the business edition · €29
Worked example
With the example inputs below, the calculator returns these results.
Equal bays 10
- End-to-end centre-line length
- 17.5 m
- Chosen maximum centre spacing
- 1.8 m
Other results
- Posts including both ends
- 11
- Actual centre spacing (m)
- 1.75
Use your own figures
Prepare a simple takeoff and mark evenly spaced post centres. Open the worksheet, replace the example values, then copy or print the result.
Straight fence bays →