Hang, tape and finish the walls inside almost every building. Fast to enter, often paid by the sheet.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Journeyperson
$69,000
1st-year apprentice
$48,000
Union or fast piecework
$91,000
Union crews on condo towers and office fit-outs earn at the top. On residential piecework, pay depends on speed: a fast boarder or taper can beat the hourly rate, a slow one falls below it.
$23 to $27 an hour
First-year apprentice, a set percentage of the journeyperson rate
Many start as a helper carrying sheets and screwing off boards. Residential crews often pay by the sheet or square foot instead of by the hour.
$33 to $44 an hour
About $69,000 to $91,000 a year at full-time hours
Piecework is the big variable. Experienced tapers on high-end work and installers of steel stud and acoustic ceilings on commercial jobs earn the most.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
An apprenticeship is paid work, so there is no tuition year to fund. The low end is two in school blocks at the cheap end of provincial fees, a starter tool kit, and the certificate of qualification exam. The high end is three blocks in a more expensive province, a fuller kit including stilts and a sander, and the same exam. The Canada Apprentice Loan lends up to $4,000 per block with no interest and Employment Insurance can cover you while you are in class, so very few people finish this trade in debt.
Cheap to enter and almost never leaves anyone in debt. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025, so check the Government of Canada apprenticeship page for what is open now.
Union pension and health plan
Installers are usually in the carpenters' union and tapers in the painters' union. Both run pension, health and dental plans.
Indoor, year-round work
Drywall goes in after the building is closed in, so winter matters less than for outdoor trades.
Overtime near move-in dates
Easy to go independent
A van and a few tools is a business. Many drywallers work for themselves on renovations.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Two related trades: installers (boarders) and finishers (tapers). Many people learn both.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 helps but some employers will take you without it. Math and shop are useful.
Find a sponsor
Weeks
A drywall contractor, a general contractor or the union hall. Showing up as a helper is the usual way in.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With Skilled Trades Ontario, Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training, or your province's trades body. In Ontario the installer trade is Drywall, Acoustic and Lathing Applicator; the taper trade is Drywall Finisher and Plasterer.
Work and study
3 years
About 5,400 hours in Ontario for either trade: roughly 4,800 to 4,900 on the job plus 480 to 600 hours in class, in two or three levels.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. The Red Seal trades are Lather (Interior Systems Mechanic) for installers and Drywall Finisher and Plasterer for tapers.
Math
Counting sheets, square footage and quoting jobs.
Construction technology or shop
Tool habits and reading a plan.
Physical education
A sheet of drywall weighs over 20 kilograms and you lift hundreds a week.
Business
Useful early if you go independent, which many do.
Drywall installing and finishing are not compulsory trades in Ontario, Alberta or BC. A lot of residential drywallers have no certificate at all. Certification matters on union and commercial jobs, where it is expected and pays more. Quebec regulates construction work through the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec). The Red Seal endorsement transfers between provinces.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Red Seal endorsement
One extra exam, recognised across Canada.
Steel stud framing and acoustic ceilings
The interior systems side of the trade. Commercial, union and better paid than boarding houses.
Level 5 and high-end finishing
Perfectly smooth walls for galleries, condos and lobbies. Slow, skilled and well paid.
Plastering and stucco
Older skills that are still in demand for restoration and exterior work.
Fire and sound rated assemblies
Knowing the rules for rated walls opens up institutional work like hospitals and schools.
WHMIS (workplace hazardous materials training)
Drywall dust and joint compound are covered by it. A one-day course.
Driver's licence and a vehicle
Jobs move often and you carry your own tools.
Stilt and lift training
Tapers work on stilts. Commercial installers use scissor lifts, which need a ticket.
Speed with care
Piecework rewards fast work, but a bad joint shows through the paint forever.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
On site by 7am. Installers measure, cut and screw sheets to the studs, ceilings first, room after room, dozens of sheets a day. Tapers come next: tape every joint, coat it, let it dry, coat again, then sand. A respirator and a lot of dust. On commercial work, add steel stud framing and drop ceilings. Done by 3:30pm, or later on piecework if you want the money.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Drywall is a sheet of gypsum plaster between two layers of paper. Nova Scotia has long been Canada's biggest gypsum producer, and much of it ships to drywall plants in the eastern US.
Before the Second World War, walls were wet plaster over wooden lath, which took days to apply and dry. Drywall went up in hours, and by the 1950s it had taken over. The Lather trade name is a leftover from those days.
Under a low light from a window, every bump and ridge in a joint shows through paint. A great taper makes a wall look like one flat piece. A bad one shows up on every sunny afternoon for the life of the house.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.