PICKETPILOT FIELD GUIDE

Pickets, rails and panels are different shopping lists

A nominal board name is not a coverage measurement. Pick the construction approach before turning fence footage into purchase quantities.

Use actual width

For face-mounted pickets, enter the actual board width in inches and the planned gap. A nominal six-inch picket may have an actual width such as 5.5 inches; confirm the specific product rather than relying on its name.

The model uses round up [(bay span in inches + gap) ÷ (actual picket width + gap)]. This convention starts and ends with a board and allows the last board to be trimmed. An 8-foot span with 5.5-inch boards and no gap gives 18 pickets.

Understand where the rounding happens

The selected maximum bay length splits each run into an equal number of equal-length bays. Pickets round up independently in every bay. Then the entered spare percentage is applied to the combined count and rounded up again.

This is conservative area coverage, not a cut plan. It does not share offcuts between bays, model overlapping or shadowbox boards, subtract post faces for infill construction, or set expansion gaps. Change the inputs only after confirming the intended construction details.

Rails and prefabricated panels

Rails equal the number of fence bays times your selected rails per bay. Each rail must be long enough for its bay and compatible with its attachment method. The worksheet reports the longest bay; it does not propose splices or certify structural spacing.

Prefabricated panels have their own actual width, bracket allowances and cutting restrictions. PicketPilot’s main worksheet is for site-built picket quantities, not panel ordering. For a panel fence, obtain the panel system’s bay and post schedule rather than combining a panel count with the picket list.

Home Depot’s fencing planning tool offers another product-oriented planning reference.