How Many Clips Per Kilometre of Fence? (With the Working)
Share
Budget 2,000 to 3,000 clips per kilometre on a standard hinged joint run with 4 metre post spacing. A box of 10,000 gets you roughly 3 to 4 kilometres. If you're doing exclusion fencing with an apron along the bottom, halve that and order double.
That's the short answer. But your fence isn't the average fence, and clips are the one thing you don't want to run short of when you're two hours from town. So here's the actual sum, and you can do it on the back of a cigarette packet in about thirty seconds.
The sum
Clips per kilometre = line wires you're clipping x posts per kilometre.
Two numbers. That's it. Everything else is an add-on.
Step 1. Posts per kilometre
Divide 1,000 by your post spacing in metres.
| Post spacing | Sum | Posts per km |
|---|---|---|
| 3m | 1000 ÷ 3 | 334 |
| 4m | 1000 ÷ 4 | 250 |
| 5m | 1000 ÷ 5 | 200 |
| 6m | 1000 ÷ 6 | 167 |
Four metres is the common spacing on Australian farm fence. You'll tighten to three on hilly country or where you've got cattle leaning on it, and stretch to five or six on flat firm ground with good strainers and droppers between.
Step 2. Line wires in your mesh
The mesh code tells you, and the first number is the one you want.
7/90/30 means 7 line wires, 900mm high, 300mm vertical spacing at the base.
So 7/90/30 is seven wires. 8/90/15 is eight. 13/190/15 fixed knot exclusion mesh is thirteen. Cattle mesh like 8/115/15 is eight.
Now the important bit. You might not clip every wire. Plenty of blokes clip every second wire on the middle of a run and every wire at the ends, corners and anywhere stock press on it. If you're clipping every second wire on a seven wire mesh, your number is four, not seven, because you clip top and bottom regardless.
Step 3. Multiply
| Job | Sum | Clips per km |
|---|---|---|
| 7/90/30, 4m posts, every wire | 7 x 250 | 1,750 |
| 7/90/30, 4m posts, every second wire | 4 x 250 | 1,000 |
| 7/90/30, 5m posts, every wire | 7 x 200 | 1,400 |
| 7/90/30, 3m posts, every wire | 7 x 334 | 2,338 |
| 8/90/15, 4m posts, every wire | 8 x 250 | 2,000 |
| 8/115/15, 4m posts, every wire | 8 x 250 | 2,000 |
| 13/190/15 fixed knot, 4m posts, every wire | 13 x 250 | 3,250 |
A note on that last row. Fixed knot mesh carries a lot of its own tension and a lot of contractors tie or staple it at the post rather than clipping every single wire. Treat 3,250 as the ceiling, not the expectation. There's more on that in our guide to clipping fixed knot fence.
Step 4. The bit everyone forgets
Those numbers are mesh to post only. Most jobs clip a lot more than that.
| What you're also clipping | Sum | Clips per km |
|---|---|---|
| Mesh to a plain top wire, one every metre | 1000 ÷ 1 | 1,000 |
| Mesh to a plain top wire, one every 500mm | 1000 ÷ 0.5 | 2,000 |
| Top and bottom plain wire, both at 500mm | 2 x 2,000 | 4,000 |
| Exclusion apron clipped to mesh every 300mm | 1000 ÷ 0.3 | 3,334 |
| Joining two rolls of mesh end to end | one clip per wire per join | small, but count your joins |
That apron row is why exclusion fencing eats clips. You're effectively building two fences and joining them along their whole length.
A full worked example
Here's one end to end so you can see every number.
The job. 1.7km of 7/90/30 hinged joint, 4 metre steel pickets, clipped to a plain top wire at one metre spacing, every mesh wire clipped at every post. No apron.
- Posts per km: 1000 ÷ 4 = 250
- Mesh to post: 7 wires x 250 posts = 1,750 per km
- Top wire: 1000 ÷ 1 = 1,000 per km
- Subtotal: 1,750 + 1,000 = 2,750 per km
- Total run: 2,750 x 1.7 = 4,675 clips
- Add 10% for drops, misfires, redos and the ones the dog eats: 4,675 x 1.1 = 5,143
- Boxes of 10,000 needed: one box, with a bit over half left
That 10% allowance isn't padding. You'll drop a strip in the grass, you'll pull a few that sat crooked, and you'll always clip something at the end you hadn't planned on. Better to have half a box on the shelf than to stop.
If you'd rather not do the arithmetic, the clip calculator does the same sum and tells you how many boxes to order.
How far does a box of 10,000 go?
Divide 10,000 by your clips per km.
| Fence type | Clips per km | Km per 10,000 box |
|---|---|---|
| Hinged joint, every second wire, no top wire | 1,000 | 10.0 |
| Hinged joint, every wire, no top wire | 1,750 | 5.7 |
| Hinged joint, every wire plus top wire at 1m | 2,750 | 3.6 |
| Hinged joint, every wire plus top and bottom at 500mm | 5,750 | 1.7 |
| Exclusion with apron at 300mm | 6,000 plus | under 1.7 |
So "a box does 3 to 4 kilometres" is true for the most common job and badly wrong for exclusion work. Work out your own row before you order.
One sense check from the real world. A contractor reported getting through a bit over 5,000 clips on 1.7km of hinged joint, which works out around 2,940 per kilometre. That's a single unverified report rather than a test, but it lands right in the middle of the sum above, which is reassuring.
What this means for what you order
Clips come in boxes of 10,000 C24, and they don't go off. A box sitting in the shed is not a problem. A job stopped at 4pm on a Friday because you're 600 clips short is a problem.
Our rule at the counter is to order one more box than the sum says for anything over 2km, and to round up to a whole box for anything under. If you're running a cordless gun, order the clips at the same time as the gun, because clips aren't in the kit and there's nothing more annoying than the gun turning up and sitting there.
Same goes if you're weighing up the gun in the first place. The clip count is half the cost picture, and we've laid out the other half in clip gun vs hand pliers.
Things that change the number
Steel versus timber posts. Clipping mesh to a steel picket usually means one clip per wire. On timber you might be stapling instead, which drops your clip count right down and puts it back on staples.
Netting and light mesh. Small aperture netting has more wires and you'll clip more per post, but you may not need a clip on every one.
How much pressure the fence sees. A boundary fence with cattle on one side and a road on the other gets clipped harder than an internal paddock divide. Nobody's ever regretted the extra clips on a boundary.
Joins. Every roll join is a full vertical line of clips, one per wire. On 7/90/30 that's seven clips per join. With 50 metre rolls over 1.7km you've got about 33 joins, so 33 x 7 = 231 clips. Small in the scheme of it, but it's real.
Repairs and tie-backs. If you're clipping the apron back, wiring a strainer assembly or tidying up old fence as you go, add for it.
FAQ
How many clips per kilometre for hinged joint fence?
Around 1,750 if you're clipping all seven wires at 4 metre post spacing. Around 2,750 once you add a plain top wire at one metre spacing. Budget 2,000 to 3,000 per kilometre and you'll be close.
How many kilometres does a box of 10,000 clips do?
Roughly 3 to 4km of standard hinged joint. Under 2km on exclusion fencing with an apron. Divide 10,000 by your own clips-per-km figure and you'll have it exactly.
Do I clip every wire or every second wire?
Every wire on boundaries, corners, gateways and anywhere stock lean. Every second wire is common through the middle of a straight internal run, and you still clip top and bottom. Whichever you choose, use that number of wires in the sum.
How many clips does exclusion fencing need?
A lot more, because the apron is the killer. An apron clipped to the mesh every 300mm adds about 3,334 clips per kilometre on its own, before you've clipped anything to a post. See our exclusion fencing clip guide.
Are C24 clips all the same, or do I need the gun's own brand?
C24 is an industry size, not a proprietary one. 16 gauge wire, 24mm crown. Any C24 clip fits any C24 gun, so you're not locked in to one supplier. More detail in our C24 clips explained piece.
Can you just work it out for me?
Yes. Send through your mesh code, your post spacing, how many kilometres you're doing and whether there's an apron, and we'll do the sum and tell you how many boxes. Give us a buzz on 0431 183 421 or email farmandacreco@gmail.com.
If you're still deciding on the gun itself, the cordless clip gun kit and the rest of the range sit in fencing clip guns.