How this instrument works
Linear foot pricing is used for anything sold or installed along a single running length rather than across an area: fence panels along a property line, baseboard or crown molding along a wall, deck railing, gutter, or dimensional lumber measured by length. Dividing a job's total price by its total length in feet gives the per-foot rate, which is the number that lets you compare two quotes fairly even when the jobs themselves are different lengths.
That per-foot rate is the practical value of this calculator for anyone collecting contractor quotes. A bid with a high total price isn't necessarily expensive, and a low total isn't necessarily a bargain — a longer fence line or a bigger trim job naturally costs more in total even at a perfectly ordinary per-foot rate. Converting every quote to price per linear foot puts jobs of different sizes on the same footing and makes it obvious when one bid's rate is unusually high or low relative to the others.
It's worth not confusing linear feet with board feet, a separate lumber-industry measure that accounts for a board's thickness and width as well as its length, used specifically for pricing rough or specialty lumber by volume. This calculator handles the simpler running-length rate — total price over total length — which is what most fencing, trim, railing and finish-lumber quotes are actually priced by.
- Enter Total price, $ — the job's full quoted or paid price.
- Enter Length, linear feet — the total running length involved, such as total feet of fence line or trim.
- Read Price per linear foot, $ — the total price divided by the length.
- Use the result to compare multiple contractor quotes of different total lengths on an apples-to-apples per-foot basis, rather than comparing headline totals alone.
Worked example — 100 linear feet of fencing for $1,200
Enter 1,200 for Total price, $ and 100 for Length, linear feet — 100 linear feet of installed cedar privacy fencing billed at $1,200 total, a commonly cited fencing-contractor example. Price per linear foot comes to $1,200 / 100 = $12.00 per linear foot.
A smaller 50 linear-foot countertop trim job billed at $600 total works out to the identical $12.00 per linear foot — the same rate despite a much smaller job — while a larger 250 linear-foot fencing job billed at $3,500 works out to $14.00 per linear foot, a noticeably higher rate worth asking the contractor about even though its total price looks proportionally reasonable at first glance.
Questions
Is price per linear foot the same as price per square foot?
No. Price per linear foot measures cost along a single running length — like the total feet of fence line or trim — while price per square foot measures cost across an area, such as flooring or siding. A material or job priced by linear foot generally has a fixed width or profile already accounted for in the rate, so the two units aren't interchangeable and shouldn't be compared directly.
What's the difference between linear feet and board feet?
Linear feet is a simple length measurement, ignoring thickness or width — 10 linear feet of 2x4 and 10 linear feet of 2x10 are both '10 linear feet.' Board feet is a lumber-industry volume measure that accounts for thickness and width along with length, used specifically for pricing rough or specialty lumber, and the two aren't the same number for the same piece of wood unless its cross-section happens to work out to exactly 1 square foot.
Why do longer jobs sometimes have a lower price per linear foot?
Fixed costs like mobilization, equipment setup, permits, and a contractor's minimum job charge get spread across more total feet on a longer job, which can pull the per-foot rate down even though the total price is higher. This is a normal pattern in contracting and is one reason a very short job's per-foot rate often looks disproportionately expensive compared to a larger one.
What's a typical price per linear foot for a fence?
It varies widely by material, fence height, region and labor market, so there's no single reliable national number — a basic chain-link fence and a tall custom cedar privacy fence can differ by several times their per-foot rate. Comparing your own quote's per-foot rate against a few other local bids for the same material and height is more useful than comparing it to an unrelated national average.
Does the quoted price per linear foot include both materials and labor?
Usually, but not always — some contractors quote an all-in per-foot rate covering materials, labor, and disposal, while others separate materials from installation labor. Always confirm exactly what a quoted per-foot rate includes before comparing it against another bid, since a materials-only rate will look artificially cheap next to an all-in one.