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Chain Link Fence Calculator Guide
Posts, fabric, rail and fittings — with terminal posts counted properly, because that's where the parts list goes wrong.
Line posts just hold the fabric up. Thin, cheap, every 10ft or less.
Terminal posts — ends, corners, gates — take the tension. Thicker, deeper, braced, and roughly twice the price.
Confusing the two is why fences lean.
Terminal Posts Are the Whole Structure
Chain link fabric is stretched, hard, between terminal posts. All that tension lands on the ends and corners — line posts in between are essentially just holding the mesh off the ground.
That's why terminal posts are a bigger diameter, set deeper, and often braced back along the run. Use a line post as an end post and it will lean inward within a year, because it was never designed to resist a pull.
Every Run Needs Two Ends
This is the counting mistake. A single 200ft run needs 2 terminal posts. Three runs of 200ft total need 6 — even though the fence is the same length.
Corners count as terminals too, because the pull changes direction there. So does every gate post. Add them up before ordering: the difference between 2 and 6 terminal posts is real money, and they're the expensive ones.
Set the Depth, Not the Height
Terminal posts want roughly a third of their above-ground height in the ground, and more in soft soil. In a freezing climate they must go below the frost line or the ground will lift them out over a few winters.
Line posts can be shallower. Getting this wrong is invisible for a year and then obvious forever.
Stretch It Properly or Don't Bother
The single thing that separates a fence that looks right from one that looks sad is tension. Fabric hung loose sags between posts, and no amount of tie wires fixes it afterwards.
You need a come-along and a stretcher bar. Pull it until the diamonds visibly tighten, then tie it off. This is the step people skip because it needs a tool they don't own, and it's the step that shows.
Top Rail Is What Keeps It Straight
The top rail runs continuously through the line post caps and ties the whole run together. It's what stops the fence waving in plan view and what makes it resist someone leaning on it.
Rail comes in long sticks that swage together end to end — buy by total length, not per bay, since it's continuous. It's optional in the sense that the fence stands without it, and not optional in the sense that you want the fence to still look like that in five years.
Related: wood fence calculator, vinyl fence calculator, fence post depth calculator.
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