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Trade Playbook
Finish carpentry is the trade for people who hate the framing grind and love the craft — and the questions reflect that: how to break in if you didn't apprentice, the patience-and-precision personality fit, how a phone full of crisp miters becomes your whole marketing, and whether the lower-volume, higher-skill work actually pays (for a good one with a reputation, yes).
Where it starts
$18–24/hr
Helper / rough-finish
Where it tops out
Higher
Custom millwork / built-ins specialist
Ontario figures for finish carpentry & trim, 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 / rough-finish | $18–24/hr | |
| Finish carpenter | $28–40/hr | Skill and speed on trim, doors, and stairs. |
| Skilled finish carpenter (own business) | $60k–110k | Premium hourly or per-opening rates once you have a reputation. |
| Custom millwork / built-ins specialist | Higher | Architectural installation for designers and high-end builders. |
Two finish carpenters with the same ticket can be twenty dollars an hour apart because they picked different work.
Stair building and railings — a high-skill, high-value niche many finish carpenters specialize into.
Best for: Precise craftspeople who want a specialty.
Every figure above is what finish carpenters get paid. It is not what you charge once you run a finish carpentry 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 jobSpecialize upward into custom built-ins, stairs, or architectural millwork installation (and the designer/builder relationships that pay premium rates), move into a cabinet/millwork shop, or run a small finish crew. The craft reputation compounds — finish carpenters get more valuable and better-paid as their portfolio and referral network grow, with far less body wear than framing.
Wage data, union rate sheets, and the places finish carpenters 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 finish carpentry business runs like one with an office behind it.
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