The Fence Pre-Installation Document Pack: Site Plan, Post Schedule, Gate Sheet, and Material List
A fence pre-installation document pack is four documents. A site plan showing the runs and their fixed points. A post schedule listing every post with its type and position. A gate sheet specifying each opening in full. And a material list rolled up from the other three. Together they let a dealer quote accurately, a supplier pick a complete order, and an installer start work without spending the first morning rediscovering the site. Each document has a small set of required fields, and this article covers all four plus how the pack moves through a real project.
At a glance
Document | What it shows | Who uses it first | The mistake it prevents |
|---|---|---|---|
Site plan | Runs, lengths, and fixed points on the property | The installer, for staking | Wrong-length runs and forgotten obstacles |
Post schedule | Every post by ID, type, position, and height | The supplier, for picking | Missed corner and gate posts in the order |
Gate sheet | Each opening's gate model, swing, handing, and hardware | The dealer, for quoting | A wrong-handed gate or an opening that doesn't fit its frame |
Material list | The complete order, derived from the other three | The dealer and supplier | An incomplete first delivery and a stalled crew |
What belongs on the site plan?
The site plan is a dimensioned sketch, and dimensioned is the operative word. A rough drawing with real measurements beats a beautiful rendering with none.
Five fields make it complete.
Property lines. Where the boundaries actually run, from your survey or plat, since the fence's legal position depends on them.
Run lengths. Each straight section measured on the ground, node to node, not estimated from an aerial photo.
Fixed points. Corners, slope breaks, and gate openings marked where they'll really sit, because these anchor everything else.
Obstacles and utilities. Trees, boulders, drainage paths, and a note confirming utility lines were located before anyone digs.
A fixed reference. A north arrow or a named landmark, so two people reading the plan orient it the same way.
Draw it in an afternoon with a tape measure and graph paper. The plan doesn't need to impress anyone. It needs to let a stranger stake your fence without calling you.
What is a post schedule and what fields does it need?
The post schedule is one line per post, and its job is catching count errors before they become ordering errors. A fence line that looks like fifteen posts from the porch is often seventeen once corners and gate posts are counted properly, and the schedule is where that gets discovered on paper.
Each line carries six fields. A post ID, so every other document can point at this exact post. The type, line, corner, end, or gate. The position along its run, measured from a node. The post height. A footing note recording the planned depth and set. And the panel span on each side of the post, which is what confirms the spacing math actually closed.
The IDs are what turn four separate papers into one system. When the gate sheet says opening G1 sits between posts P7 and P8, and the material list orders two gate-duty posts against those IDs, nothing depends on memory, and any question on site resolves by looking it up.
What goes on the gate sheet?
Gates generate more installation-day problems than any other fence component, and almost all of them trace back to information that existed before the order and didn't get written down. The gate sheet is where it gets written down, one block per opening.
Each block carries the opening ID and the post IDs flanking it, the gate model with its frame dimensions, the swing direction and handing observed from the approach side, the hardware and lock specification, and the opening width taken from the manufacturer's installation documentation rather than estimated.
A worked example shows how short the block can be when the gate is a documented product. For a Modern Yard welded aluminum frame such as the 71 inch by 42 inch door frame, the frame dimensions come off the product page, the opening width comes from the frame's installation manual, the hinges are aluminum, packaged in the same box as the frame and installed on-site, and the lock line is a checkbox rather than a drilling plan because the frame arrives pre-drilled for the system's lock. Every field is a lookup. On a field-built gate, every one of those fields is a decision someone has to make and record, which is exactly why the sheet exists.
How does the material list roll up from the other three documents?
The material list is derived, never drafted from memory. Posts come off the post schedule, counted by type. Panels and infill come off the site plan, run by run, using the spans the schedule confirmed. Gates, hardware, and locks come off the gate sheet, opening by opening. Then add the consumables, concrete, fasteners, and caps, against the counts above.
Deriving the list this way means its accuracy is inherited. If the three source documents are right, the list is right, and if the list looks wrong, one of the sources is where you look.
There's a practical reason this roll-up is faster inside a matched system. When posts, rails, infill, gate frames, and the lock are designed to combine, the derived list maps to a short set of cataloged items instead of a long scavenger hunt across suppliers, and a short cataloged list is something a dealer can price quickly. A completed material list is also exactly what Modern Yard's quick quote page is built to receive, which turns the document directly into a number.
Please note. The list's job is completeness on the first delivery. A crew stopped for a missing box of brackets costs more than the brackets ever did, so the consumables lines deserve the same care as the posts.
How does the pack move through a real project?
The pack earns its keep at three handoffs, and each party reads a different document first.
The dealer reads the gate sheet and the material list, because those two carry every priced item and every spec that affects price. A quote built against them is a quote that survives contact with the site.
The supplier reads the material list against the post schedule, picking by type and count. The IDs let the picker confirm the two gate-duty posts are in the order without interpreting anyone's intentions.
The installer reads the site plan first and stakes from it, then works with the post schedule in hand, post by post, and opens the gate sheet when the openings get set. A crew with the pack starts installing on arrival. A crew without it starts measuring, and you're paying for the measuring twice.
What keeps the pack accurate when the plan changes?
Plans change, and the pack survives changes through three habits rather than through software.
Propagate every change. A gate that moves ten feet changes the post schedule, probably two run lengths on the site plan, and at least three lines of the material list, so a change isn't finished until all four documents agree again.
Keep one current version. Date each revision and mark the old ones dead, because two versions in circulation is worse than none.
And quote what you install. The version the dealer priced is the version the crew builds, and if reality forces a change after quoting, the quote gets revisited before the concrete does. Before any version goes out for pricing, check the component dimensions it assumes against the manufacturer's published engineering drawings, which Modern Yard maintains on its technical drawings page, and confirm the execution steps you've planned match the current manuals on the installation guides page.
Build the pack before you build the fence
Draw the site plan with real measurements, write the post schedule until the count closes, fill a gate sheet block for every opening, and derive the material list from the three of them. The pack takes an evening for most residential projects, and it's the cheapest insurance a fence can carry. Every party downstream works faster from your documents than from your driveway.
FAQ
What should a fence site plan include?
Property lines, measured run lengths, the fixed points where corners, slope changes, and gates will sit, obstacles and a utility-locate note, and a reference direction. Dimensions matter more than drawing quality.
What is a fence post schedule?
A table with one line per post, recording its ID, type, position, height, footing note, and the panel span on each side. Its purpose is making the post count and spacing checkable on paper before anything is ordered.
What information does an installer need about a gate before quoting?
The gate model and frame dimensions, the documented opening width, swing direction and handing, and the hardware and lock specification. With those recorded, a quote reflects the actual gate rather than an assumption about it.
How do I make a fence material list?
Derive it. Count posts by type from the post schedule, take panels and infill from the site plan's runs, take gates, hardware, and locks from the gate sheet, then add concrete, fasteners, and caps against those counts. Don't draft any line from memory.
Do I need drawings to get a fence quote?
You'll get a faster and firmer quote with them. A dealer pricing against a material list and gate sheet is pricing real items, while a dealer pricing against a verbal description is padding for the unknowns, and you pay for the padding either way.
Who is responsible for the fence layout plan, the owner or the installer?
Either can produce it, and the answer belongs in your agreement before work starts. What matters is that one current version exists, that it carries real measurements, and that the person who stakes the fence is working from it.