A barbed wire fence costs $3,980 to install, depending on fence size and the number of barbs. Most spend between $1,611 and $6,422.
A barbed wire fence costs $3,980 on average to install, with most homeowners spending between $1,611 and $6,422. Length is the most significant factor when determining cost, but barbed wire type, labor rates, and landscaping can all alter your final project price. If you have a big piece of property—say an acre or more—you can expect to pay up to $14,000.
One of the biggest factors influencing fence installation costs when installing a barbed wire fence is how long it is. On average, a barbed wire fence’s cost per linear foot ranges from $0.05 to $0.15 per linear foot (for materials excluding labor). Each roll of barbed wire is 1,320 feet long, so you’re looking at spending between $60 to $220 per roll.
| Barbed Wire Fence Length | Cost Range |
|---|---|
| 100 | $300–$600 |
| 150 | $400–$900 |
| 200 | $600–$1,200 |
| 300 | $900–$1,800 |
| 500 | $1,500–$3,000 |
| 800 | $2,400–$4,000 |
| 1,200 | $3,600–$7,200 |
| 1,700 | $5,100–$10,200 |
| 2,500 | $7,500–$15,000 |
| 3,000 | $9,000–$18,000 |
Many people will add barbed wire around their entire property, so for round numbers like one acre, five acres, or even 200 acres, it becomes easier to price the job because you won't need to measure your property line as accurately.
| Acres | Barbed Wire Cost |
|---|---|
| 0.25 | $875–$1,750 |
| 0.5 | $1,750–$3,550 |
| 1 | $3,550–$7,100 |
| 5 | $17,750–$35,500 |
| Type of Barbed Wire | Cost Per Linear Foot |
|---|---|
| Livestock wire | $0.07–$0.09 |
| Security wire | $0.09–$0.14 |
| Razor wire | $1–$4 |
There are three types of barbed wire fences. The first is livestock barbed wire fencing. You’ve probably seen this type as you drive past pastures and farms—it’s one of the most popular types of farm fencing. The second type is security barbed wire which goes on top of fencing or chain link, and the third is razor wire. Let’s take a look at the types of wire fences you can choose for your yard.
The second type is security barbed wire which goes on top of fencing or chain link, and the third is razor wire.
Livestock barbed wire is most commonly seen if you're outside of a city. This wire holds cattle and other livestock and is also installed to prevent wandering animals from entering a property. Note that barbed wire is not used for horses because they frequently rub against it, causing injury.
Livestock barbed wire is also a relatively inexpensive way to mark your property line, and while it's easy to jump over or dig underneath, it's still an effective deterrent to those who may wander onto your land. This type of barbed wire costs $50 to $110 per roll, or between $0.07 and $0.09 per linear foot.
Security wire fencing normally goes on top of a chain link or livestock barbed wire fence. Because its primary use is to deter trespassers, there are many more barbs spaced much closer than with livestock wire. The metal is of higher density, so that it's not simple to cut. This type of wire is more expensive than livestock wire, and a roll will cost between $95 and $180. This equates to $0.09 to $0.14 per linear foot.
Razor security wire comes in strands of 50 to 60 feet per roll, with each roll costing $30 to $45. Razor wire is different than the other two above because razor wire is designed to inflict damage, which is why it's commonly seen in prisons and in protecting secure facilities. Razor wire is seldom seen in a residential context unless it's absolutely required.
If you hire a local fence company, you’ll pay for their labor and expertise at about $40 to $110 per hour. The large price variance is due to the different types of contractors needed for various equipment depending on your project. Knowing who to hire to build a fence on your property can be challenging if you’ve never installed a fence before, so here are the most common contractors you’ll need to install a barbed wire fence and their associated costs.
Hiring a land surveyor pro to survey land costs between $800 and $5,500 depending on the size and condition of your land. It’s a good idea to hire a local land surveyor to inspect the layout of your land and determine the best perimeters for your fence if you’ve never installed one and have a large amount of land.
Your pro can also pinpoint the best tree removal and other obstacle removal services for preparing your land for installing the barbed wire fence. Below are some of the types of surveys a surveyor may conduct:
Fence land survey: $1,000 to $3,200
Boundary surveys: $1,200 to $5,500
Topographic survey: $2,000 to $6,500
Landscaping costs range from $1,200 to $6,100 based on the project's scope. This amounts to around $4.50 to $12 per square foot, but professional landscapers typically charge between $50 and $100 per hour for labor. Depending on how you want your outdoor space to look, you may also want to hire a landscape designer or architect. A landscaper for your fence project can help tear down unnecessary parts of your property and rebuild it to suit your goals.
Landscaping companies near you may offer any of the following services, so keep these prices in mind as you budget:
Landscape design: $50 to $150 per hour
Landscape architecture: $70 to $100 per hour
Yard leveling: $1,000 to $3,300
The cost of barbed wire fencing differs by location, with cost of living and yard size being the biggest factors. For example, New England homes typically have larger lots compared to other regions, so expect prices to reflect the increase in materials for building a fence. Similarly, homes in rural locations have a lower cost by size for larger properties but may require more materials to enclose those larger properties.
Meanwhile, cities with smaller and more compact homes, like ones in New York City, may have smaller starting costs due to smaller yard sizes—even if labor costs are higher due to the cost of living.
To give you an idea of how much wire fence costs vary by location, below is a breakdown of different barbed wire fence costs by cities across the U.S.
| City | Average Cost Range |
|---|---|
| Austin, Texas | $2,800–$5,200 |
| Boston, Massachusetts | $2,800–$6,200 |
| Chicago, Illinois | $2,600–$5,200 |
| Denver, Colorado | $2,400–$4,700 |
| Miami, Florida | $2,700–$5,500 |
| Minneapolis, Minnesota | $2,500–$4,900 |
| Nashville, Tennessee | $2,700–$5,200 |
| New York City, New York | $2,600–$5,600 |
| Portland, Maine | $4,200–$8,300 |
| San Francisco, California | $2,700–$5,900 |
| Seattle, Washington | $2,800–$5,800 |
| St. Louis, Missouri | $3,400–$7,200 |
Fence installation costs vary by material, the number of people on the job, and how big the job is. The more square footage of barbed wire fencing you need, the more materials you’ll need, including wooden posts and clips. Barbed wire fences are simple and less than the cost of an electric fence. You also need to consider the strength of the wire you’re willing to splurge on.
The more strands on the fence, the more wire you need. Most barbed wire fences have three to five strands per fence. The more strands you have, the less likely anything will get onto the property.
When you buy barbed wire, there are two choices—two or four barbs. Four barbs will cost more (around 10% to 20% more), but they are far more effective than wire with two barbs. This is because with four barbs, there's a lower chance of an animal or intruder hitting a flat spot in the wire where the barbs won’t contact their skin. A two-prong roll costs around $90, and a four-prong roll costs around $110.
Coating determines the fence’s lifespan. Commercial galvanized wire lasts between three months to one year before rusting. Paying extra for a class one or class three galvanized coating (where the higher the class, the more resistant it is to rusting) ensures that your fence lasts longer and saves you from having to pay for fence repairs down the road.
The barbed wire’s gauge and tensile type influence the price, too. The lower the gauge, the higher the strength of the wire.
The longer your fence, the more posts and clips you’ll need to support it. Wooden posts are heavier and you can use staples or clips to secure the fencing, but it’ll cost more. Steel posts are less expensive but aren’t as heavy and may require you to use more posts and clips to secure the fencing. Ideally, you’ll want to use a mixture of both.
For some types of property, you can't simply install a barbed wire fence on the existing land. for example, land with a significant grade, uneven ground that will not support posts, water features that need to be filled or drained—like a swamp or flooded area—and any trees or stumps that need removing will all increase the cost of a barbed wire installation. Landscaping starts at $50 to $100 an hour and can increase up to $200 or $300 an hour when special equipment is required.
The cost of fence removal is something you can’t overlook. There’s a possibility you can reuse old fence posts and save some money both during installation and removal, but that’s a best-case scenario. Fence removal costs between $300 and $750. Since barbed wire is often a large project over acreage, consider that fence removal averages between $3 and $7 per linear foot.
If you hire a local fence company, you’ll pay for their labor and expertise at about $40 to $110 per hour. The large variance in price range is due to different types of contractors having access to various equipment that you may or may not need for your project. It's difficult to determine exactly what you need without experience, so even though you might pay what feels like a lot for skilled labor, you're paying for years of knowledge and familiarity with equipment.
You will also need to obtain the proper fence-building permits as your local municipality requires. While some projects aren’t clear on whether or not you need them, barbed wire fencing requires them. The cost of permits will vary on location but expect to pay between $50 and $900 for a permit.
To calculate how much square footage of barbed wire you’ll need for your fence, take the number of strands and multiply it by the linear feet your fence will cover. Then divide the feet you need by 1,320 (the number of feet per roll).
Say you'll need 2,000 feet of barbed wire for your land, and you want three strands total. You'll need 6,000 feet worth of barbed wire to complete the task. Divide 6,000 by 1,320. For this project, you would need five rolls (rounded up) of barbed wire fencing, which would cost between $300 and $550 for this project.
If cost is the most important factor, you can save a good amount of money by installing the fence yourself. A normal barbed wire fence installation for a three-strand, 1,320-linear-foot fence will take around 30 to 50 hours, bringing the total labor cost to between $1,200 and $5,500.
But because barbed wire fencing has some seriously sharp edges and requires quite a bit of elbow grease, we don’t recommend installing a barbed wire fence yourself—even if you know how to install barbed wire fences. It’s best to hire a local fence installer. They can do the job efficiently and spare you the pain of a run-in with any rogue barbs.
If you’re on the fence about repairing vs. replacing your fence, you have several ways to help you decide which is best. If your fence damage is isolated to one location—say a tree fell on it—then you probably don’t need to replace your entire fence and can get away with small repairs.
At the same time, barbed wire fences may be challenging to repair due to how taut the wires need to be to hold the tension. In many cases, it may be easier to replace the entire strand of wire. Likewise, a rusty barbed wire fence with many broken wires and posts should be replaced.
If you’d rather save money and just replace the parts that need replacing, ask your pro for a quote and see if the cost to repair your fence makes sense. Most fence repair costs fall around $600 on average, but it can range from $300 to $950 depending on the severity of damage and material type. Any repair that takes up more than 50% of a replacement cost typically isn’t worth the investment.
With any fencing project, saving money can make a huge difference in how much you spend to complete the project. Fortunately, there are several tips you can try to lower the cost of a barbed wire fence installation, including the following:
Use existing posts if they’re in good condition.
Use a combination of steel and wood posts to save on the higher cost of wooden posts.
Clear the land yourself to prepare for the installation.
Demolish your old fence yourself.
If you have experience installing barbed wire fences, DIY it.
Clean up debris yourself.
Decrease the perimeter of your fence to save on materials and time spent installing the fence.
Choose a thinner wire gauge to lower costs.
Livestock wire costs the least and can therefore help lower costs.
Opt for three or four strands of barbed wire instead of five.
Invest in a lower-class fence coating to save on upfront costs, or invest in a higher-class coating to save on long-term costs depending on your goals.
Home is the most important place on earth, which is why Angi has helped more than 150 million homeowners transform their houses into homes they adore. To help homeowners with their next project, Angi provides readers with the most accurate cost data and upholds strict editorial standards. We survey real Angi customers about their project costs to develop the pricing data you see, so you can make the best decisions for you and your home. We pair this data with research from reputable sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, academic journals, market studies, and interviews with industry experts—all to ensure our prices reflect real-world projects.
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You’ll need a hand-operated winch tool to tighten the barbed wire. Don’t tighten too hard, as overtightening can lead to breakage, and there’s nothing scarier than a metal whip flying at your face.
The bottom strand should sit between 12 to 15 inches from the ground. If you have a problem with small critters, you can aim for 8 inches. Three-strand fences should be 16 to 19 inches apart, four-strand fences should be 10 to 12 inches apart, and five-strand fences should be 8 and 10 inches apart.
We’re going to be totally honest here: you should avoid barbed wire fencing in suburban areas. There are better fencing options that look nicer and take away any danger that could occur to yourself or others. Barbed wire fencing should be used in rural areas and only when safe for local people and animals.
Whether your goal is keeping in livestock or deterring intruders, motion sensor lights should be next on your list after installing a barbed wire fence. These lights don’t have to be big; there are many solar-powered models that can fit on top of your fence posts. Depending on the size of your property, you may also want to consider home security cameras to monitor the perimeter.
