Launch League

Skilled trades · Building & Making

Drywall installer: what the job actually is

Hanging, taping and finishing the boards that become the walls and ceilings of almost every interior.

Published Last reviewed How we research and correct this

Drywall installer: quick facts

Drywall installer salary in Ontario: the median pay is $35.48 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is moderate. The job usually needs a shorter college programme or apprenticeship, or over six months of on-the-job training.

Median pay in Ontario
$35.48 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$24.00 to $48.73 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Moderate
People working in it in Ontario
12,150
Usually needs
Usually a shorter college programme or apprenticeship, or over six months of on-the-job training

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 73102. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Putting up sheets of gypsum board on frames to make interior walls and ceilings, then filling the joins and screw heads until the surface looks like it was never joined at all.
  • Job Bank groups several jobs together here: plasterers, drywall installers and finishers, and lathers. This page is about the drywall side, and Job Bank reports one set of wage and outlook figures for the whole group, not for drywall alone.
  • The work is in two halves that are often done by different people. Installing means measuring, cutting, lifting and screwing the boards up. Finishing means tape, coats of compound, and sanding, and it is where the skill and the dust are.
  • A lot of the work is on new buildings and renovations, so you follow the framers and the electricians and you are followed by the painters. If the schedule slips upstream, you are squeezed.
  • On the Skilled Trades Ontario list the trade is called Drywall, Acoustic and Lathing Applicator, and it is a Red Seal trade under the name Lather (Interior Systems Mechanic).

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 6:30 — On site early, because the house will be freezing or boiling and the work goes better before that gets worse. Check what the framers left.
  2. 7:00 — Measure the wall, mark the board, score and snap it, or cut around an outlet. Measure twice because a short board is a wasted board.
  3. 8:00 — Lift, hold, screw. Ceilings first if you are working on stilts or with a lift. Your arms are already tired by nine.
  4. 10:00 — Break. White dust is on everything, including your sandwich.
  5. 10:15 — Start taping: a coat of compound, the tape pressed in, wiped flat, every join and corner.
  6. 12:00 — Lunch somewhere clean-ish. Somebody is arguing about whether the plumber left the bathroom wall open.
  7. 12:30 — Second coat on yesterday's tape, wider and thinner, feathered out so the edge disappears.
  8. 14:30 — Sand a finished room, wearing a respirator, with a light held sideways to find the ridges you missed.
  9. 15:30 — Clean the tools, sweep, close up windows, text the foreman what is ready for paint.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You like work where the result is a smooth, flat, finished surface and you can tell whether it is right by running your hand over it.
  • You do not mind lifting, reaching overhead and being on your feet, or on stilts, all day.
  • You are fine with a job that is mostly the same motion repeated, as long as you get faster and cleaner at it.
  • You like working in a crew where everybody in the building is waiting on the people ahead of them and behind them.
  • You want a trade you can start on a site without needing a big stack of tools.
You may hate this if
  • Dust bothers you. Sanding compound is fine white dust that gets everywhere and you wear a respirator to deal with it.
  • You do not like heavy, awkward things. Boards are large and unforgiving and you carry them up stairs.
  • You hate being rushed by other trades. The job is squeezed between framing and painting and deadlines land on you.
  • Your shoulders, neck or wrists are already a problem. Overhead work is hard on them.
  • You want variety. Rooms and finishes repeat a lot.
  • You dislike heights and ladders, because ceilings are part of the job.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. Get on a drywall crew as a helper or labourer

    Job Bank says completion of secondary school is usually required and lists a three- or four-year apprenticeship, or equivalent work experience with some coursework, as the usual route. Most people start by carrying boards, cleaning and learning to mud and tape for a drywall contractor.

  2. Register as an apprentice

    On Skilled Trades Ontario the trade is Drywall, Acoustic and Lathing Applicator, trade code 451A. It is non-compulsory, so you can work in it without a certificate. The apprenticeship is 5,400 hours: 4,800 hours on the job and 600 hours in school. The Skilled Trades Ontario page does not list formal entry requirements.

  3. Write the certifying exam

    Pass it and Skilled Trades Ontario issues a Certificate of Qualification. It does not need to be renewed and people in this non-compulsory trade are not on the Public Register. It is also a Red Seal trade under the name Lather (Interior Systems Mechanic).

  4. Choose where to specialise

    Installing, finishing, ceiling systems, acoustic work and running your own crew are different jobs. Pay and stress differ across them, so ask people on site which they would pick again.

Where this comes from: Skilled Trades Ontario: Drywall, Acoustic and Lathing Applicator (451A) · Job Bank: Plasterers, drywall installers and finishers and lathers, requirements in Ontario · Ontario: Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program

The money

Drywall installer salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$24.00
Low (hourly)
$35.48
Median (hourly)
$48.73
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 73102. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Drywall installer wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Moderate3 out of 5 stars

  • Employment growth will lead to a moderate number of new positions.
  • Not many positions will become available due to retirements.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

What is changing in this work

  • Construction activity is expected to be favourable across Ontario over the forecast period, supporting opportunities in this occupation
  • Steady demand for new housing to meet population growth and general home remodelling and renovation needs
  • Infrastructure investments in transit, health care, and other public spaces

Who hires for it

  • Construction companies such as building finishing contractors
12,150
people work in this job in Ontario
less than 5%
are women (48% across all jobs)
44%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Plasterers, drywall installers and finishers and lathers job prospects in Ontario (NOC 73102). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Take construction or shop courses. Learning to measure, cut and fasten accurately is most of the entry skill.
  • Ask about OYAP through your guidance office. Ontario's page says students need to be at least 15 and have 14 credits, and the placement earns co-op credit.
  • Help with a real basement or garage renovation, with the owner's permission, and ask the person doing the finishing to show you how they judge a flat joint.
  • Look at a recently finished wall in a school or a house with a light held sideways. Learn to see ridges. Once you can see them you cannot stop.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Find out if you can do dusty, repetitive, overhead work

About 75 minutes
  1. Watch a start-to-finish video of a room being taped and finished, in real time if you can find one. Write down which stage you would not want to do.
  2. Hold your arms straight up in front of and above your head for as long as you can, holding something light like a book in each hand. Stop when it hurts. Do it again later in the evening. Note how it felt.
  3. Do one fiddly, repetitive, physical job for 25 minutes without your phone: sweeping and wiping a whole room carefully, or sanding a flat piece of scrap wood until it feels smooth to your palm. Notice whether the time went fast.
  4. Phone or visit a local drywall supply counter and ask one question: how do new people usually start on a crew? You are asking, not applying.

What it tells you. If the overhead task was bearable and you liked the smooth-finish work, drywall is worth a day on a crew, and a helper job is the next step. If the arm test was miserable or the repetitive job felt like punishment, that is a real answer about daily life in this trade, and a cheaper one than learning it after you have bought stilts.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “What do you do about the dust, and what does your body feel like at the end of a week?”
  2. “Which do you prefer, hanging or finishing, and why?”
  3. “Who gets the blame when a wall shows ridges in the paint, and how do you avoid it?”
  4. “What did you wish you had known in your first year on a crew?”
  5. “Is the money in this trade better working for a company or going out on your own?”
  6. “If you were starting now, would you do the apprenticeship or just learn on site?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Yes. Job Bank reports that a large share of people in this group are self-employed compared with the average job, and a small crew can take drywall subcontracts from builders and renovators. The catch is that you depend on the builders' schedules, you are paid when they pay, and a bad finish means you redo it for free. The quoting and invoicing side is what the business pages on this site cover.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a drywall installer make in Ontario?

The median pay for a drywall installer in Ontario is $35.48 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $24.00 to $48.73 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a drywall installer in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as moderate for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment growth will lead to a moderate number of new positions. Not many positions will become available due to retirements. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a drywall installer in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a shorter college programme or apprenticeship, or over six months of on-the-job training. The usual route in Ontario, in order: Get on a drywall crew as a helper or labourer; Register as an apprentice; Write the certifying exam.

Where does a drywall installer work in Ontario?

Construction companies such as building finishing contractors. (Job Bank.)

How many people work as a drywall installer in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 12,150 people working in this job in Ontario. Less than 5% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Where people come from

Which programs lead here?

In the 2021 Census, this job is one of the 12 most common for graduates of these programs. Each page shows what else they do, and which of those jobs have openings.

Skilled trades hub: kids, teens and adults The highest-paying skilled trades OYAP: start in high school SHSM: the Specialist High Skills Major Women in the skilled trades What can you do with your degree?

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

Start from yourself, not from the job.

Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.

Try Future Finder — freeAll jobs

Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

If this appeals, look at these too

painter carpenter construction labourer home renovation manager construction manager

Read next

Apprenticeships in Ontario OYAP in Ontario Highest-paying trades All careers guides

Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.