Down the line
Stand at one end post and shoot the full run. One frame shows grade and what is growing or parked in the way, but it does not prove length. Exact quotes still use a direct measurement or site confirmation.
Trades / Fencing
Quoting and job management software for fencing businesses
Fence work prices off the run, the gates, and what the ground does in between. Mason asks the customer for those three, in that order, and builds the quote from your per-foot rates — or hands you the job when the line itself is the question.
Join the waitlistIntake
What fencing customers get asked.
Every one of these can be answered by walking the line, counting, or holding a tape. None of them ask a homeowner to know fence spacing or do a takeoff.
- 01
About how long is the run? Count steps for a rough intake, or use a tape or dimensioned plot plan for a direct measurement.
Feet of fence is the base unit. A step count can start a range, but an exact quote needs a direct measurement or site confirmation.
- 02
How many corners, and how many ends?
Corner, end and gate posts are braced differently and cost more than line posts. A hundred feet with five corners is not a hundred feet.
- 03
How many gates, and does a mower or a truck need to fit through one?
A walk gate and a drive gate are different posts, different hardware and different hours. Gates are the most expensive feet on the job.
- 04
Standing at one end, can you see the other end, and does the ground fall away anywhere?
Grade decides stepped panels or racked panels, taller posts on the low side, and how much material gets cut.
- 05
Is an old fence coming out, and are the old posts set in concrete?
Tear-out is its own line. Posts in concrete are a different day than posts in dirt.
- 06
What sits within a couple of feet of the line — A/C pad, deck, retaining wall, tree, meter, sprinkler heads?
Anything in the way turns machine digging into hand digging on those holes.
- 07
How wide is the narrowest gap the crew has to get through to reach the back yard? Put a tape on it.
A 30-inch side gate means posts, concrete and the auger go through by hand, or a section of fence comes out first.
- 08
What height, and which material?
Your rate sheet already prices these. The customer picks from what you sell, not from a catalog somebody else wrote.
- 09
Is there already a fence on that side, and is it yours or the neighbor's?
It does not settle the property line, but it tells you whether a second household is part of the conversation before a crew shows up.
Photo tasks
The photos that matter for fencing.
On a fence job the camera is doing measurement work. Each shot answers a question your estimator would otherwise ask on the phone, twice.
Every corner, every end
One photo per corner. Corners are where post count, bracing and panel cuts get decided, and they are the easiest thing to miscount over the phone.
The gate opening, both sides
Photograph what the gate swings into. A gate over falling ground has to swing uphill, get trimmed short, or move somewhere else.
The bottom of the old fence
Close enough to see whether the old posts appear to be in concrete and what is visible at grade. A photo cannot show how much post or concrete is below ground, so uncertain tear-out comes back for site confirmation.
The path to the back
Shoot the narrowest point with a tape in the frame. That measurement decides whether equipment reaches the work or the crew does.
The ground the posts go in
Grass, gravel, exposed rock, tree roots, or a slab. Rock and roots are per-hole money, and they never show up in a wide shot.
Flags, meters and heads
Locate flags, the gas meter, irrigation heads and any dog-fence wire. Anything the crew digs around belongs in a photo before it becomes a surprise on install day.
Rate sheet
How fencing quotes get priced.
Mason reads the rate sheet you already use and asks the customer for the numbers that sheet needs. More on that in how quoting works.
The units you actually sell
Fence prices in linear feet by material and height, and very little else does. Gates price per gate with their hardware. Posts follow your spacing, with corner, end and gate posts called out apart from line posts. Tear-out and haul-off price in feet. A short run hits your minimum, because a two-hour job still ties up a truck and a crew.
What the site moves
Grade adds panels, taller posts on the low side and cut time. Rock or hardpan turns a five-minute hole into a twenty-minute hole, which is why most sheets carry a per-hole adder instead of a bigger per-foot number. Footing depth follows your frost line. Narrow access means concrete arrives by wheelbarrow. Old posts in concrete price by the post, not by the foot.
How the customer gets an answer
A directly measured run, in a material you stock, with site conditions the photos show clearly or your team confirms, can come back as an exact quote from your prices. A step count, a photo-derived length, or anything softer comes back as a price range, a note that your team is reviewing it, or a request for an on-site look. Mason does not invent a rate you never set.
Honest limits
What a fence photo cannot price.
These come back to your office every time. A quoting tool that claims otherwise is writing checks your crew has to cash on install day.
Where the line actually is
No photo says whether the fence goes on the line, a foot inside it, or on the neighbor's dirt. That answer comes from a plat, a survey, or a conversation between two households.
What is underground
Locates cover public utilities. The irrigation main, the low-voltage lighting, the gas run out to the grill and the line somebody trenched to a shed all sit past the meter, unmarked, until an auger finds them.
The approvals
HOA architectural review and local setback rules can decide height, style and which way the finished face points. That is a paperwork clock, not a price, and it is the most common reason a signed fence job sits.
Why a fence failed
A leaning section looks the same whether the post rotted, the footing heaved, or a car found it. Repairs need your eyes, so Mason routes them to you instead of guessing.
Illustrative example
140 feet of six-foot cedar privacy, four corners, one walk gate, old chain link coming out. The photos show a 34-inch side gate and ground that drops away across the back run. Mason prices the feet, the gate and the tear-out from that company's own sheet, adds their stepped-panel line for the drop, and notes the 34-inch access so the crew brings the hand auger. The neighbor's fence on the north line goes to the office as a question, not as a price.
The calendar
Coming soonWhat fencing jobs need on the calendar.
Booking fence work is not about open slots. It is about locates, concrete and approvals lining up in the right order. Scheduling is on the way; quoting and follow-up ship today.
01
Locates before shovels
Utility locates come back on their own clock, usually a few working days. The dig date follows the locate, not the customer's weekend.
02
Post day, then panel day
Posts get set and plumbed, the concrete sets, then rails and pickets go on. Fast-set gets plenty of crews through both in a day — a heavy drive gate still does not get hung on green concrete.
03
The weather that actually stops you
Rain is workable until the holes hold water. Frozen ground stops an auger cold, and frost depth changes how deep the hole has to be in the first place.
04
Where the material lands
Panels, posts and concrete get dropped before day one. Somebody has to pick the spot, because a pallet in the driveway is a week of the customer parking on the street.
05
Two on the line, three on tear-out
A residential run moves with two. Demo day wants a third body and a trailer, and the transfer station closes when it closes.
06
Approvals you do not control
Permit review and HOA architectural approval run on their own calendar and can decide height, style, and which way the finished face points. Booking a crew before the answer comes back is how a week goes empty.
07
The season
The phone starts the week the ground thaws — new dogs, new pools, new neighbors — and the list stacks up faster than the crews clear it.
Plenty of fence crews pour the flatwork and come back for the planting too. If that is your shop, read the concrete and landscaping pages — posts go in before the concrete, and the concrete cures before anybody plants.
01Can it quote a fence when nobody knows where the line is?
No, and it will not pretend to. The customer gets a range or a note that your team is reviewing the job, with the measurements and photos already collected so your call is a short one.
02What happens on a sloped yard?
Mason asks whether the ground falls away and asks for the photo that shows it from the side. If you price stepped and racked runs differently, it quotes them the way you priced them. A drop steep enough to change post heights goes to your review instead.
03Do fence repairs work the same way?
No. Repair pricing depends on why the fence failed, and a photo of a leaning panel does not say whether the post rotted, the footing heaved, or somebody backed into it. Repairs come to you with the customer's photos and address attached.
04Does it handle gates and hardware?
Gates come across as their own lines, with the width the customer measured and a photo of what the gate swings into. If you sell three gate builds, the customer sees your three.