Install hardwood, laminate, vinyl and carpet in homes and offices. A 3 to 4 year paid apprenticeship and a fast route to your own business.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Journeyperson
$55,000
1st-year apprentice
$35,000
Commercial, union or own crew
$80,000
Commercial installers on office towers and hospitals, and installers running their own small crew, sit at the top. Big-box store subcontract work on houses sits near the bottom.
$18 to $22 an hour
First-year apprentice or helper
Many people start as a helper carrying material and pulling up old flooring. The rate climbs each year as you are trusted with the finished product.
$30 to $40 an hour
Journeyperson rate, or the equivalent on piecework
Much residential flooring is paid by the square foot. A clean, fast hardwood installer with their own tools can beat the hourly rate. Carpet pays less per foot than hardwood but goes down faster.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
This is a paid apprenticeship, so there is no tuition to find and you earn while you learn. The low end is two in-school blocks at the cheaper rate, a basic set of hand tools and knee pads, and the Certificate of Qualification exam at about one hundred fifty dollars, while the high end is three blocks at the higher rate with a fuller tool kit. Employers supply the big tools while you are an apprentice, and the Canada Apprentice Loan is interest free up to four thousand dollars per school block, with EI (Employment Insurance) available while you are in class. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025, so check the Government of Canada apprenticeship page for what is currently open.
Employers supply the big tools while you are an apprentice. 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 on commercial work
The carpenters' union represents floor layers on commercial and institutional jobs in several cities.
Indoor, year-round work
Floors go in after the building is closed up, so winter is busy.
Cheap to go self-employed
A van, a nailer and a saw. Flooring stores hand out install jobs to reliable subcontractors.
Steady renovation demand
Every home gets new floors eventually, not just new builds.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A paid apprenticeship: mostly on the job, with college blocks.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12. Math and shop classes help. Ontario students can start early through OYAP (the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program).
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
A flooring store, a flooring contractor or a union hall that will register you as an apprentice.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With your provincial trades authority: Skilled Trades Ontario, Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training, or SkilledTradesBC.
Work and study
3 to 4 years
About 6,000 hours in Ontario: 5,400 on the job plus 600 hours in class, roughly three and a half years. Other provinces set their own hours.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. Add the interprovincial Red Seal endorsement to work in any province.
Math
Square footage, waste percentages, staggered layouts and pricing a job.
Shop or technology classes
Saws, nailers and measuring are daily tools.
Physical education
You are on your knees and lifting rolls of carpet all day. Fitness is part of the job.
In Ontario, floor covering installer is a voluntary trade. You do not need a licence to install flooring for pay, and many installers never certify. The Certificate of Qualification and the Red Seal endorsement are proof of training that commercial employers and unions look for. Alberta and BC also treat it as voluntary. The Red Seal is recognized in every province.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Hardwood: solid, engineered and site-finished
The most skilled and best-paid flooring work. Sanding and finishing on site is its own specialty.
Commercial sheet vinyl and rubber
Hospitals, schools and labs need heat-welded seams. Fewer people can do it well.
Stairs and custom work
Stair treads, borders and inlays pay far more per hour than open floor.
Manufacturer certifications
Big flooring brands run short courses. Some warranties only apply if a certified installer did the job.
Pre-apprenticeship or flooring program
A short college program that gets you sponsored faster.
Driver's licence and a van
Almost required once you subcontract for flooring stores.
Customer manners
You work inside people's homes, around their furniture and pets.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Load the van at 7. Pull up the old carpet, scrape the subfloor, fix squeaks and check it is flat. Snap a line and start laying: hardwood goes down board by board with a nailer, vinyl plank clicks together, carpet gets kicked and stretched to the walls. Cut around vents, doors and closets. Trim, transitions, vacuum. A bedroom in a morning, a whole main floor in a long day.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Floorcovering Installer is one of the Red Seal trades. A certified installer can work in any province without re-testing.
Click-together vinyl plank went from rare to the most common new flooring in Canadian homes in about a decade. It is waterproof, fast to lay and cheap, which changed what installers get paid per foot.
Carpet used to be stretched by slamming a tool with your knee, hundreds of times a day. Power stretchers now do the work, and good employers insist on them because the old way wrecked installers' knees.
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.