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Trade Playbook
Deck and fence is the classic "I'll start with a truck and a saw" first business — and the questions are about turning that into real money: pre-selling a season, the permit-and-structural reality (decks collapse and make news), pressure-treated vs composite economics, and how to survive the seasonality without starving over winter.
Where it starts
$18–24/hr
Helper / labourer
Where it tops out
$60k–130k
Deck/fence business owner
Ontario figures for deck & fence, from the first day on site to the top of the trade. Approximate, and worth checking against current collective agreement rates and job postings in your region.
| Stage | Pay | What is going on at this stage |
|---|---|---|
| Helper / labourer | $18–24/hr | |
| Skilled deck/fence builder | $26–38/hr | |
| Deck/fence business owner | $60k–130k | Seasonal and volume-dependent; composite and design-build raise the ceiling. |
Two deck builders with the same ticket can be twenty dollars an hour apart because they picked different work.
Pressure-treated and composite decks — higher-ticket, permit-and-structural work sold directly to homeowners.
Best for: People who want bigger, designed projects.
Composite decks with pergolas, lighting, and built-ins — the premium, designed end.
Best for: Builders moving upmarket.
Every figure above is what deck builders get paid. It is not what you charge once you run a deck and fence business. Your rate has to carry the hours you are not on the tools, the truck, the tools themselves, WSIB, insurance, the quote you wrote and lost, and the holdback sitting in someone else's account for 60 days. Contractors who set their rate off their old hourly wage are the ones who work every weekend and still cannot say whether the year was profitable.
The step from paid by the hour to paid by the jobMove upmarket into composite and outdoor-living design-build (where the margins are), add fences and pergolas to fill the calendar, or grow crews. Pair with a winter business (interior reno, snow) to flatten seasonality. A deck business with a strong portfolio and a referral base is a solid, ownable operation — and a natural stepping stone toward general renovation.
Wage data, union rate sheets, and the places deck builders talk about money openly.
The rates above are the market. The live feed is the market this week: which builders and contractors just pulled a permit or won a contract in Ontario, what they are about to need, and who to call.
Carpenter Jobs in Ontario: Who Is Hiring Right NowAEC Stack handles incorporation, WSIB, insurance certificates, quoting, invoicing, and chasing the money, so a deck and fence business runs like one with an office behind it.
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