How to bid a chain link fence job

Chain link is the fence most installers bid fastest and price worst. It looks simple, the material is cheap, and the temptation is to quote a round per-foot number off the top of your head. Then you get to the job and discover eleven terminal posts, forty feet of it on a grade, and a drive gate the customer "assumed" was included. Here is how to bid a chain link fence job so the number you give is the number that pays.

Step 1: walk it and measure the runs, not the perimeter

Measure each straight run separately, not the lot perimeter. You need the runs because posts, fabric, and top rail all get counted per run, and because every corner is a terminal post that costs more than a line post.

Write down, for each run: length in feet, height, and what happens at each end (corner, end, or gate). That list is your entire material takeoff.

Step 2: count terminal posts before anything else

This is where chain link bids go wrong. There are two kinds of posts:

• Line posts: the ordinary ones in the middle of a run, every 10 feet.
• Terminal posts: ends, corners, and both sides of every gate. They are bigger diameter, set deeper, take more concrete, and each one needs tension bands, a tension bar, and a rail end.

A simple rectangular yard has four corners plus a gate, so that is four corner posts plus two gate posts: six terminal posts before you have counted a single line post. On an irregular lot it can easily be ten or twelve. Terminal hardware is the single most underestimated line in chain link bidding.

Rule of thumb: line posts = ceil(run length / 10) - 1 per run, plus a terminal post at each run end.

Step 3: price the material honestly

For a 4 ft galvanized residential job, your per-foot material typically covers:

• Fabric (the mesh), sold by the roll in 50 ft lengths
• Top rail, in 21 ft sticks with a swage on one end
• Line posts and terminal posts
• Concrete, two to three bags per post, more for terminals
• Tension bands, brace bands, rail ends, tension bars, tie wires, caps

Tie wires and caps feel trivial and are not: on a 200 ft job you are tying the fabric to the top rail and every line post at roughly 12 to 24 inch spacing. Buy them as a line item, not out of your pocket.

Installed, most residential galvanized chain link lands around $16 to $22 per foot at 4 ft, and vinyl-coated runs a few dollars more. Those are starting points; your local material cost and labor market decide the real number.

Step 4: price labor for the ground, not the drawing

The same 200 feet is a very different day depending on:

• Soil. Auger-friendly loam versus caliche or rock. Rocky soil means a breaker and roughly double the time per hole; charge a per-post surcharge, not a vague bump.
• Slope. Chain link follows grade better than panel fence, but a steep run still slows you down and eats fabric.
• Access. If the truck cannot get near the line, every post and every roll is carried.
• Tear-out. Removing old chain link is faster than removing wood, but you still have concrete footings to dig or break, and a dump fee.

Price tear-out per linear foot and haul-away as a flat line, so the customer sees what removal actually costs.

Step 5: price gates as their own lines

Never bury gates in the per-foot rate. A 4 ft chain link walk gate runs about $250 installed; a 12 ft double drive gate about $650. Those numbers include the bigger gate posts, the deeper footings, the hardware, and the fussy time getting the gate square and latching. This is the same discipline that applies to every fence type, and it is the number one margin leak in the trade, which is why we wrote a whole post on pricing gates so they stop losing you money.

Step 6: add markup and check the bottom line

Materials markup covers the money you float, the waste, the returns, and the extra trip to the supply house. Twenty percent on materials is a common floor. Labor should already carry your hourly rate, so do not double-mark it.

Then sanity check: divide your total by the linear feet. If your all-in number is $9 a foot on a 4 ft chain link job with two gates, something is missing. Usually it is terminal hardware or the gates.

A worked chain link bid

260 feet of 4 ft galvanized, one 12 ft double drive gate, flat ground, no tear-out:

• Fence run: 260 ft at your installed rate
• Terminal posts: counted from the run list, not guessed
• Double drive gate, chain link 12 ft: $650 installed
• Markup on materials: 20 percent

The gate alone is worth more than 30 feet of fence. Break it out and the customer understands the number; bury it and you are working the gate for free.

Why the fast bidders win

Chain link customers shop hard and decide fast. The installer who measures the runs, counts terminals, and hands over an itemized number the same afternoon beats the one who promises to "work something up." That is exactly the gap PicketQuote closes: your chain link rates, terminal counts, and gate prices live in your price book, so a walk of the property becomes a complete, itemized bid before you leave the driveway.

For the full picture on rates across every fence type, start with our fence cost guide.