Smooth walls, ornate ceilings and exterior stucco. A three-year Red Seal apprenticeship with almost no tuition.
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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 specialist
$91,000
Job Bank's national median is $33 an hour, about $69,000 a year full time. Job Bank groups plasterers with drywall finishers under one code, so these figures cover both. Ornamental and heritage plasterers, and union commercial crews, sit at the top.
$20 to $26 an hour
First-year apprentice, a percentage of the journeyperson rate
Many plasterers start as drywall tapers or labourers on a finishing crew. Piecework (paid per square foot) is common in residential work, which rewards speed.
$30 to $44 an hour
About $62,000 to $91,000 a year at full-time hours
Commercial and institutional jobs with fire-rated and acoustic plaster pay more than housing. Heritage restoration of ornamental plaster is a small, well-paid specialty.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The apprenticeship is paid work, so there is no tuition year to find money for. The low end is an employer who covers the classroom level and a basic set of trowels, hawks and floats, plus the certification exam. The high end is paying for the classroom level yourself, buying a fuller kit including stilts, and the same exam. The Canada Apprentice Loan is interest free and Employment Insurance can cover you during classroom blocks, so most apprentices finish with no debt, though the federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant ended in 2025.
Most apprentices finish with no debt. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant ended in 2025, so check the Government of Canada apprenticeship page for current help.
Union pension and health plan
Plasterers on union commercial sites are usually covered by the plasterers' and cement masons' union or the painters' union.
Overtime at premium rates
Year-round work
Most plastering is indoors, so unlike masons or roofers you are not laid off every winter.
Owning the business
A van, tools and a good reputation are enough to run a small finishing company.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
One of the shorter apprenticeships in construction. Mostly on the job.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math and a shop class. Some provinces let you start through a high school apprenticeship program.
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
A drywall and plaster contractor, a stucco company or a union hiring hall. Starting as a taper's helper is the usual way in.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
The trade is called Drywall Finisher and Plasterer in Ontario, BC and the Atlantic provinces, and Plasterer in Quebec.
Work and study
About 3 years
About 5,400 hours in Ontario: roughly 4,920 on the job plus one in-school level of 480 hours.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. Add the Red Seal endorsement to work anywhere in Canada.
Math
Measuring areas, mixing ratios, estimating material.
Construction technology or shop
Any hands-on class.
Visual arts
Ornamental plaster is sculpture. Texture and finish are judged by eye.
Chemistry
Gypsum, lime and cement all set differently, and timing is everything.
Drywall Finisher and Plasterer has been a Red Seal trade since 2012, so a certified plasterer can work in any province without retesting. In Ontario it is a non-compulsory trade: you can work without a certificate, but union sites and bigger contractors want one and it raises your rate. Quebec regulates construction work through the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec), where the trade is simply called Plasterer.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Ornamental and heritage plaster
Cornices, medallions and restoring lath-and-plaster in old homes, theatres and churches. Rare skills, strong demand in older cities.
Stucco and EIFS (exterior insulation and finish systems)
Exterior wall finishes. Big in western Canada.
Fireproofing and acoustic spray
Commercial and industrial work with specialized equipment.
Red Seal endorsement
One extra exam, recognized across Canada.
Pre-apprenticeship program
A college semester in drywall and plaster gets you sponsored faster.
Driver's licence
You move between jobs with a van full of tools.
Working at heights and WHMIS (workplace hazardous materials training)
One-day courses employers expect.
Painting or drywall experience
The trades overlap, and many crews do all three.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Start at 7am. Mask and prep the room, mix a batch of plaster, then work fast because it sets in under an hour. Trowel a base coat, then a finish coat, working off stilts on ceilings. On a commercial job you might be spraying fireproofing or hanging a suspended plaster ceiling. On a heritage job you are repairing a cracked 1890s cornice by hand. Sand, clean tools, done by 3:30pm.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Before drywall took over in the 1950s, nearly every Canadian home had lath-and-plaster walls: thin wood strips covered in three coats of wet plaster. Repairing them properly is a skill most drywallers do not have.
Drywall Finisher and Plasterer is one of the newer Red Seal trades. It was designated in 2012, which means a certified plasterer's ticket now works in every province.
Once gypsum plaster is mixed with water, it starts to harden and cannot be stopped. Plasterers mix only what they can apply in the time they have, which is why the trade is as much about pace as skill.
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.