Fence Board Chart: Pickets Needed by Length & Width

What does 200 pickets mean?

It means a 100-foot fence line needs 200 boards when each picket is 6 inches wide and they sit edge to edge: 100 feet is 1,200 inches, and 1,200 ÷ 6 is 200. The pitch is the whole story in miniature — width plus gap is the distance each picket covers, so a 1-inch gap makes the pitch 7 inches and drops the count to 172, and a 2-inch gap makes it 8 inches and drops it to 150. The part people get wrong is dividing feet by inches without converting: 100 ÷ 6 is 17, which is wrong by a factor of twelve, and the fix is converting the length to inches first.

Three things to check before you trust the number

Is the length really 100 feet? Gates, corners and slopes all change the measured run: a gate opening that uses different boards should come off the length, and a sloped run measured along the slope is longer than its level footprint. The 200-foot branch needs 400 pickets and the 50-foot branch needs 100 — the count scales exactly with length, so a length error is a picket error in proportion.

Is the gap really 0? A privacy fence has no gap, but a spaced picket fence does, and the gap is where the savings hide: the 1-inch branch needs 172 pickets and the 2-inch branch needs 150, which is 28 and 50 fewer boards than the solid fence. Measure a real gap between two fitted pickets rather than guessing it.

Have you allowed for waste and spares? This chart gives the exact count for the run, not the order quantity: boards split, warp and arrive damaged, and a fence with no spare pickets is a fence you cannot repair. Add about 10% for waste on a long run, and keep a few spares from the same batch so the colour matches.

Worked example

On the defaults: 100 feet of fence, 6-inch pickets, no gap.

1. Pitch: 6 + 0 is 6 inches.
2. Length in inches: 100 × 12 is 1,200 inches.
3. Pickets: 1,200 ÷ 6 is 200 pickets.

And the other way: the fence length needing exactly 240 pickets at 6 inches and no gap is 120 feet, the picket width needing exactly 200 pickets over 100 feet with no gap is 6 inches, and the gap needing exactly 150 pickets over 100 feet at 6 inches is 2 inches.

Fence picket lookup: length × width at no gap, plus gaps at 100 ft

Every branch, checked

• 200 feet of fence, 6-inch pickets, no gap: 200 feet of fence, 6-inch pickets, no gap: 400 pickets (6-inch pitch).
• 50 feet of fence, 6-inch pickets, no gap: 50 feet of fence, 6-inch pickets, no gap: 100 pickets (6-inch pitch).
• 100 feet of fence, 4-inch pickets, no gap: 100 feet of fence, 4-inch pickets, no gap: 300 pickets (4-inch pitch).
• 100 feet of fence, 8-inch pickets, no gap: 100 feet of fence, 8-inch pickets, no gap: 150 pickets (8-inch pitch).
• 100 feet of fence, 6-inch pickets, 1-inch gap: 100 feet of fence, 6-inch pickets, 1-inch gap: 172 pickets (7-inch pitch).
• 100 feet of fence, 6-inch pickets, 2-inch gap: 100 feet of fence, 6-inch pickets, 2-inch gap: 150 pickets (8-inch pitch).

The reverses, worked backwards

• Fence length needing exactly 240 pickets at 6 inches, no gap: 120 ft — at 120 ft the figures are 240 pickets (6-inch pitch).; at the lower neighbor the figures are 238 pickets (6-inch pitch).; at the upper neighbor the figures are 242 pickets (6-inch pitch)..
• Picket width needing exactly 200 pickets over 100 feet, no gap: 6 inches — at 6 inches the figures are 200 pickets (6-inch pitch).; at the lower neighbor the figures are 219 pickets (5.50-inch pitch).; at the upper neighbor the figures are 185 pickets (6.50-inch pitch)..
• Gap needing exactly 150 pickets over 100 feet at 6 inches: 2 inches — at 2 inches the figures are 150 pickets (8-inch pitch).; at the lower neighbor the figures are 160 pickets (7.50-inch pitch).; at the upper neighbor the figures are 142 pickets (8.50-inch pitch)..

What the defaults assume

The defaults are 100 feet of fence, 6-inch pickets and no gap, so the headline is a solid privacy fence of a common size. The model is one division with a round-up: length in inches divided by pitch, rounded up to a whole picket, because a partial picket is still a board you must buy. The length reverse is checked at 1 foot either side, because 1 foot at 6 inches is 2 pickets; the width reverse is checked at 0.5 inches either side; the gap reverse is checked at 0.5 inches either side. The model does not include posts, rails, gates, waste or spares — posts sit between picket runs and rails run behind them, so count those separately and add about 10% waste to the picket order.

Output · formula · meaning

Who uses this

• A homeowner pricing a fence — 100 feet at 6 inches is 200 pickets, before waste and spares.
• A builder quoting a spaced picket fence — the lookup table gives pickets for four lengths and three widths, plus the gap rows.
• Someone choosing a picket width — the 4-inch branch needs 300 pickets and the 8-inch branch needs 150 for the same fence.
• A buyer checking a supplier quote — the reverses give the length, width or gap behind any quoted picket count.

Accuracy & limitations

Figures are the model’s own arithmetic on the numbers you type, computed from unrounded values and displayed rounded HALF_UP to 2dp, with picket counts rounded up to whole boards. The main limitation is the run itself, not the arithmetic: gates, corners, slopes and post spacing change the measured length, and this chart counts pickets only — posts, rails, fasteners and waste are separate. This page is a calculation tool, not a building quote.

Cite this calculator

A 100-foot fence with 6-inch pickets needs 200 pickets. Source: Bright Side Kit, https://brightoolbox.com/fence-board-chart/, accessed 28 October 2026.

Frequently asked questions