Fencing Costs

We have about 7,800 feet or 2,500 yards we need to get some three strand barb wire installed and one 12 foot gate.

I was wondering if any of y’all have any insights on the cost having some one come out and build it for us.

We are near Quanah Tex.

Any info is appreciated!

Thanks!

Having fence built recently, it all depends on materials.

Galvanized T-posts? How far apart? Wood posts in between? What kind of wood? Treated or cedar? What kind of barbed wire? Gaucho or regular? How many H braces? Built them of posts or pipe?

See... Lots of variables.

Given I gave several fence builders the same specs, one was thousands of dollars cheaper.

Get lots of quotes if you can.

I get fence bids for work somewhat regularly. In areas around san antonio/austin for 5 strand bids usually run around $5 a foot plus $1 a foot if clearing is needed. In rural areas prices are usually lower.

I had about 1100 feet of 4 strand barb wire fence put on my land in February. The job required about 4 hours of bull dozer work at $100 per hour and $100 dollars to transport the dozer to the work. There was a minimum of $500 charge for up to 5 hours dozer work so I paid the $500 total for the dozer work. I had about 6 heavy duty wooden H braces due to changes in direction of the fence so that was quite a bit of expense as I believe those were over $400 dollars each. I had T posts with a treated wooden post every fourth post with the wooden posts and braces concreted in. No gates were put in. In all the cost was around $6700.

I'm curious as to why only 3 wires on the fence?

That fence probably isn't going to stop much...

Too many variables to give an accurate answer,
removal of old fencing, clearing/dozer work, post spacing & type of posts, type of bracing & spacing ( H/double h singles, kickers, wood/metal /pipe etc) corner work, quality of wire used, if posts can be driven or some have to be drilled, water crossings, location etc ...

Turn key somewhere between $2.75 ~ $6.75 per foot depending on variables.

3 strand won't keep neighbors livestock out of your property.

Damn, guess it’s been a long tine since I priced fencing. Last I heard 8’ HF installed was about $22,000 a mile.... that’s $4.16 a foot.

You're right Rustler on neighbors stock. Especially when they run out of grass and you aren't grazing yours. The history or Texas ranching has a lot of hard feelings about grass, fence and water.

I believe in some counties it's your responsibility to keep neighbor's livestock off your land.

Yeah I know there is a ton of variables.

It’s a total of three sides. I should probably do 4 strand now hearing what y’all have said.

I’ll call some local places and see what I get for bids!

Your money & fence.
5 strand is usually considered minimum for live stock exclusion or containment.

I use 6 strand mostly, anywhere my fence borders a farm road or highway 7 strand.

I had some fence done two years ago at $4.70 a linear foot plus clearing and gates. It is a cross fence so originally was thinking of 4 strand, but price was only a little bit higher to do 5 strand. Clearing was $125 an hour and gates were a couple hundred each.

The wire is the cheapest part of the build. Use good quality heavy barb wire and at least 5 strands. Unless you are planning on selling the place.

What he said ^^^^^

I'm having a 5 strand fence installed and this is about what I've been quoted.

I would echo that you should get at least 3 bids as there is a difference. Make sure they specify how far apart the posts will be and how they will do the bracing. See if you can see any of their previous work.

Did a high fence last week labor was $2.25/foot material was $1.89

Did a Fence in July turn key was $3.50/foot

Around here, 5 and 6 wire varies between $2.75/ft and $5.00/ft between builders, and $200.00 each for corners and stretch braces. I do all my own, and Sheffield 1.33# posts and wire come out to about $1.12/ft with 12' spacings for seven wires. There is a guy in Decatur I talked to last week about doing some security chain link for with razor wore for my work place, and I asked him his rate on 6 wore barbed just to see what his going rate was, and it was $5.00/ft.

One of my neighbors in east Texas just put in 1100 feet of 4 strand for $3.50 a foot, not counting prep work.

That's pretty close to what my fence builder charges down here.

Put in over half a mile of 6 wire fence, and the final cost was $2.59 per LF.

Good fence too. Cedar posts and American T-Posts, w/ 6 wires.

Just ran 1/2 mile on my own. T post 3 every 50 feet or 150 at 2.25 Craigs list price Cedars 0ne every 50 feet at 4.00 x 50 Craigs list price barb wire tractor supply 4 strands high tension at 50,00 per roll or 8 rolls My labor and tractor. 10 corners at 17.00 gates 2 12 ft
Corners 170.00
T Posts 337,00
cedars 200.00
wire 400.00
clips 25.00
tie wire 50,00
2 gates 220.00

approx $1400,00 doing it on your own 0r .56 per foot took me about 70 hours I'm kinda slow now at 72 and couldn't handle the heat after 11 am so about 2 weeks.


Used this process and Craigs list for all my fencing at over 2 1/2 miles

I wouldn’t do anything less than a 5 wire and if a paved main road runs on a side that side woukd get a 6 wire.
Price should run you about 2.50 a foot.

In the State of Texas it depends on what county you are in. In some Counties a fence is meant to keep things inside the fence and in others a fence is meant to keep things outside the fence.
And there is State statutes on the subject.

I heard a great interview on the subject a few months ago, really interesting. If I can get the link I'll add it.

Help me out a little....what is the point of the cedar every so many feet? Is that used as a tensioning device, or an "anchor if a wire gets cut it can easily be re-applied to the cedar and then run to the cut area? Missing the purpose of the cedar...

Makes the fence more ridged and harder to tear up.

A fence with only T-posts can be torn up real easy by bulls fighting, car driving through the fence, etc. With stout cedar posts, only the breached area is torn up.

Without the wooden posts, the T-posts lay over easily, and a long section of fence can be ruined easily.

makes sense. Is the same accomplished with a H bar or metal post every so many feet? I see that a lot more common than cedar

Good info

You don't need an H brace except for long straight stretches where you need to stretch and tie off the wire to the brace, then keep going down the line and stretch that wire from the H Brace further down.

Gates and corners get H braces too. The purpose is to keep from pulling a single post over when you stretch wire.

If you look at my photo above you can see T-posts spaced between the cedar posts. It's the cedar posts that give the fence real strength, and nowadays the T-posts are used much like cedar stays were in the old days. (Just to tie on the wires and keep the fence ridged in between the cedar posts.)

A cedar stay wasn't sunk in the ground. They were just set on the ground, and tied to the wires.

Whats the expected longevity of a cedar post? Is it much cheaper than using a round metal post sunk in the ground?

Just trying to educate myself for the future when i need to replace fence

Just about everyone has their own preferred method of fence building.
Me, I won't use wood anywhere in a fence other than for stays in a water crossing to attach cattle panels. I use steel pipe 2 7/8" minimum usually 4" steel pipe for all h braces, tension posts, kickers & corners 2 3/8" for cross & kicker bracing.

2 7/8" or 4" steel pipe every 100' all pipe is driven not hole dug/augered, usually that means there is more pipe below grade than above, T posts every 10' ~ 14' depending, double kicker used on every H brace & triple kickers on each corner.
The pipe every 100' adds a great deal of rigidity and way to properly repair or replace 100' sections if fence gets damaged.

May sound over built, fence work is one of my least favorite things to do, when I'm done I consider it for a lifetime.

Rancher here in W TX where we mule deer hunt told me the past weekend their new fence, 5 strand, t posts, cedar posts cost them $13,000 per mile.

Guess I am the odd duck in the bunch. Depending what I am fencing, I use 13-48-6 High Tensile with a 4 point barb wire on the bottom and at least 2 on the top. T's are 1.33's and corners, H braces, A Braces, line posts are pipe. Pipe is set at least 3 feet in concrete for line posts and 5 feet for all others. It's hell digging in flint rock but when they are set, they are set.

After that I add an electric wire set out about 10" from the fence. Bulls hit that hot wire and it changes their mind.

Was this around Inez?

No you can't and your "suggestion" is pretty tough considering most of rural Texas is a fence out state.

Welcome and go where you can be useful.

3/4 wire fence is a waste of money and will be nothing but trouble as it ages. The standard is 5 wire for interior and 6 wires for the perimeter. I would never put anything less than 6 along a public road just for liability purposes.alone. If one of my bulls gets on the highway and causes a multiple fatality wreck, my well maintained 6 wire fence would probably save my butt. 3 wire? Kiss it goodby.!

There is a sawmill that advertises on Craigslist and they have different size and lengths of cedar posts,cheaper. I don't know what your situation is but if you have good grass why not lease part of it for grazing ?.

This company has cedar posts and they are in Ingram,Tx.

http://hillcountrycedarposts.com/index.html

The County where my land is (Montague) happens to be fence in. It was decided by a County vote. As I read the law, open range means fence in and be responsible for your own stock. No land owner should be forced to defend his property lines.

I believe open range in Texas Law means you are under no obligation to fence your animals in. But if you don't want other folks animals on your property, you have to fence them out.

It may have county control and requirements by county, or even by area. I know of some areas within one county that is closed range, and not far from it, it's open range.

https://tscra.org/openrange/