Fencing profit margin benchmarks
The IRS reports what one-owner businesses filing Schedule C earn, by sector. Fencing falls under Specialty trade contractors. For tax year 2023, 2,521,516 returns reported $257.8 billion in receipts, $80.4 billion in cost of sales and $40.5 billion in net income less deficit (the table gives thousands of dollars):
| Benchmark | Value |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 68.8% |
| Net margin, owner pay included | 15.7% |
| Average receipts per return | $102,220 |
| Average net income per return | $16,054 |
The owner's own draw is not an expense on a Schedule C, so that net margin is mostly the owner's wage, not profit on top of it.
Where the money goes in fencing
Fencing is material heavy: posts, panels and concrete. Rocky ground and tear-outs add labor that was not quoted.
For a worked example, our fence cost calculator puts wood privacy fence, installed at $15.00 to $40 a foot, typical $28, and treats about 45% of that as labor. On the typical price, that is about $12.38 of labor and $15.13 of materials, equipment and everything else, before your overhead and profit.
Where fencing margin leaks, and how to win it back
- Tear-out and haul away left off
- Rocky digging
- Gates priced like a fence section
- Material price swings
- 811 delays
Ways fence companies raise margin: price tear-out and haul away as separate lines; price gates on their own; note rocky or root-filled ground on the estimate; lock in material prices with your supplier.
Check your fencing prices against the costs
The typical national prices from our sourced calculators are a check on whether your prices leave room for margin:
| Service | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Wood privacy fence, installed | $28 | $15.00 to $40 a foot |
| Vinyl fence, installed | $26 | $17.00 to $38 a foot |
| Chain link fence, installed | $19.75 | $8.00 to $28 a foot |
| Walk gate, installed | $225 | $150 to $400 a gate |
| Tear out and haul away old fence | $4.75 | $3.00 to $6.50 a foot |
| Fence wash | $0.35 | $0.30 to $0.40 a sq ft |
Work out the margin on each line of your menu, not just the big jobs. The usual fencing menu: wood privacy fence, installed; vinyl fence, installed; chain link fence, installed; walk gate, installed; post replacement; board and picket replacement; gate adjustment and hardware; tear out and haul away old fence; fence wash; fence staining.
Overhead comes out of the margin before profit. In fencing it includes general liability insurance, which Insureon's customers who are contractors as a group pay an average of $83 a month for; commercial auto at $270 a month on the same figures.
Work out your own margin
Put one recent fencing job into the calculator above, or switch it to "My margin for the year" to set your year next to the IRS benchmark. A 50% markup is a 33% margin; the markup calculator shows the rest.
Sources
- IRS Statistics of Income: Nonfarm sole proprietorships, Table 2, income statements by industrial sector, tax year 2023, checked October 9, 2026
- IRS: SOI tax stats, nonfarm sole proprietorship statistics, checked October 9, 2026
- Insureon: Insurance cost for contractors as a group, checked October 9, 2026
- Fixr, fence installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Thumbtack, fence installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Bob Vila, fence installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- HomeAdvisor, fence cost, checked October 8, 2026
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (state and national files), checked October 8, 2026
- US Census Bureau, 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to county relationship file, checked October 8, 2026
- Fixr, cost to pressure wash a house, checked October 8, 2026
- Fixr, cost to pressure wash a deck, checked October 8, 2026
- Fixr, cost to pressure wash a fence, checked October 8, 2026
- Fixr, roof cleaning cost, checked October 8, 2026
- HomeAdvisor, power washing cost, checked October 8, 2026
- HomeAdvisor, driveway pressure washing cost, checked October 8, 2026
- HomeAdvisor, roof cleaning cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Thumbtack, power washing prices, checked October 8, 2026
- Bob Vila, cost to pressure wash a house, checked October 8, 2026
- Today's Homeowner, pressure washing, checked October 8, 2026
- 811: What is 811, checked October 8, 2026
Last checked October 9, 2026. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and differ by state and city, so confirm with the agency named before you act.