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Straight answers
The questions people ask most about starting and running a glazing business in Ontario. Answered straight, with links to the official sources.
Storefront and residential glazing is varied, customer-facing, lower-risk, and the realistic path to owning your own business. High-rise curtain wall is engineered, heights-heavy, and higher-paid, but it's harder to break into ownership and demands real comfort working off the side of a building. Many glaziers do storefront/residential as a career and a business; high-rise is for those who want the danger premium.
For most people, yes — you're working off swing stages and rigging, handling large, heavy, expensive glass at height. The safety systems are serious and it becomes routine for those who do it, but it genuinely demands a head for heights, and it's not a lane to push yourself into if heights aren't for you. The pay premium exists for a reason.
The IUPAT glaziers' union route generally pays more with a pension and is strong on commercial and high-rise work. Non-union is more common on residential and storefront and is the more flexible base for starting your own glazing business. The usual trade-off: union for top compensation, non-union for flexibility and the owner-operator path.
On the storefront and residential side, yes — shopfronts, windows, doors, shower glass, and railings are accessible work to own, needing tools, a vehicle, glass-supply relationships, and insurance. High-rise curtain wall is much harder to own (engineering, capital, and bonding), so most independent glazing businesses live in the residential and commercial storefront space.
It's a solid, varied trade with a clear ownership path on the storefront/residential side and a high-pay specialty on the high-rise side. The work spans craft (custom and architectural glass) and production (storefront and curtain wall), so there's room to find your lane. Like most trades, the body and the heights push veterans toward estimating, supervision, or ownership over time.
Curtain wall is the engineered, non-structural glass-and-metal skin hung on the outside of a building — the continuous glazed facade you see on office towers. It's a manufacturer-system, shop-drawing-driven world that sits between glazing and building-envelope engineering, and installing it is the high-rise glazier's specialty.
No — Architectural Glass & Metal Technician (424A) is a voluntary trade. You incorporate, carry insurance and WSIB, and certify on the curtain wall and storefront systems you install. Manufacturer certification, not a provincial licence, is what gates the high-value commercial work.
A sole proprietorship is cheaper and simpler to start, but you are personally liable for the business's debts and claims. Incorporating creates a separate legal entity that limits personal liability, can reduce tax once you are profitable, and reads as more credible to larger clients. Most contractors incorporate once they have employees, real revenue, or work on others' property.
Yes — construction is a mandatory WSIB sector in Ontario. Even independent operators and partners with no employees generally must register, and clients and general contractors will require a valid WSIB clearance certificate before you can work on their site.
You must register for and charge HST once your revenue exceeds $30,000 over four consecutive quarters. Many contractors register before that threshold so they can claim input tax credits on tools, materials, and vehicles from day one.
Ontario's Construction Act sets the rules: a 10% holdback on most contracts, prompt-payment timelines (you must be paid within set periods after a proper invoice), and an adjudication process for disputes. Understanding holdback, lien rights, and prompt payment is essential to protecting your cash flow.