As part of a bigger job, I’m building a picket fence. Although I’m being paid on a time & materials basis, I’d like to work up as accurate an estimate I can, and it occurs to me that someone out there must have developed a pretty good system for this. Because of the obvious number of variables involved, I’m not really interested in a boardfoot or linear “price per” formula. I would like to know if anyone has worked out a way to anticipate man hours on things like setting posts (with concrete, hand mixed, in soil) and cutting pickets (in this case, two straight cuts per board – I’ll do them 3 at a time on a chopsaw). I’ve only built one picket fence before, and if I hadn’t been working for a friend and paid in beer, I would’ve paid more attention to the time it took. I do remember that the “assembly line” approach came in handy, especially in milling and finishing the pickets – we determined that the wood was dry enough to actually stain the rails and posts before installing the pickets (which were group-sanded and stained themselves). A jig for spacing and height (off the top rail) was essential, too.
I welcome any similar tips on this subject, but I’d really like to hear some thoughts on estimating time. Anyone?
Replies
make your best guess...then double it..I have done miles of bobbly wire, electric and welded wire..same holds true.
I bid an hour per post and 10 ft per hour not counting the obvious materials. I can beat both times but stuff happens and it can take me longer in rock or bad weather . Thats still on average a truthful time. You can add things like mixers and post hole diggers but they need to be paid . I can rent a post hole digger that is very nice and digs fast . If Ive got enough holes it pays . Same for mixer , although I have one.
Does the chop saw have a fence that you can do repeat cuts ? If its a big fence it changes things . I run a trailer with the materials, generator and chop saw on board with a table saw . Like a half acre yard or bigger . Bigger yards will accept a tractor and post hole digger and some you have to dig by hand for all the rocks .
Rocks make a big difference in my mental attitude .
Tim Mooney
My neighbor puts in miles of fencing around the county. He hand digs everything and gets 3-4 posts per hour in. These are heavy log posts in 18-24" holes done with a clamshell and we have plenty of rocks just under the surface.
I did the same around part of my place. 300 feet+/- and about 35 posts took one long day to dig and set (tamped rock, no 'crete') but we used an auger on a tractor except for about ten posts near the buried phone wire, which I hand dug for added torture. Oh yeah, call for a utility locate if there's anything buried anywhere nearby.
Any chance you can buy the pickets pre-cut and skip that part?
ya i was gonna say buy pre-cut too! my wife did a custom paint job in my daughters bedroom that features a picket fence. she used a picket that she got from a friend for the pattern. picket fences are not square on the top, they go up to a kind of spade from a deck of cards looking type of thing, and i am sure you can but them pre-cut, just not sure where. even if you don't want that pattern, you should be able to get them pre-cut somewhere, and pre-cut should save money.
But ah ,... I dont tell how long it takes .
Tim Mooney