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Straight answers
The questions people ask most about starting and running a painting business in Ontario. Answered straight, with links to the official sources.
It's the most accessible construction business there is — minimal tools, no licence, immediate income. That accessibility is also the catch: lots of competition at the bottom, and the most common failure is underpricing. The painters who do well treat pricing and prep as seriously as the painting, and many build toward crews or industrial coatings to escape the solo ceiling.
Residential repaint is the easy entry — homeowners, referrals, prep-heavy. Commercial/new-construction is spray-and-volume crew work for builders. Industrial coatings (the 404D world — blasting, epoxies, linings) is a different, certified, much higher-paid career. Most start residential; the ambitious move toward commercial volume or the industrial specialty.
This is where painters live or die. Price the prep honestly (it's most of the labour), account for materials and your overhead, and stop quoting "per room" guesses — measure, estimate the hours, and apply a real hourly target plus materials and margin. "Busy but broke" in painting is almost always an underpricing problem, not a volume problem.
Learn to spray — it's the biggest single productivity upgrade in the trade, roughly doubling your output and opening new-construction and commercial work you can't competitively bid by hand. Brush-and-roll still has its place (and detail/cut work always will), but a painter who can't spray is leaving money and whole markets on the table.
Cash jobs feel good early and trap you later: no track record, no growth, and no asset. Running a real business — incorporated, insured, invoicing — lets you take bigger and commercial work, build a crew, and eventually sell something. The painters who plateau are the ones who never made that switch.
If you want serious money from painting, yes. Industrial coatings — abrasive blasting, two-component epoxies and urethanes, immersion linings, fireproofing — pays dramatically more than decorative work and competes on certification (AMPP/NACE) rather than the lowest bid. It's harder, dirtier, and more technical, and it's a genuine career rather than a side hustle.
No provincial trade licence — painting is non-compulsory and one of the most accessible construction businesses to start. You need a municipal business licence, WSIB, and liability insurance. The Painter & Decorator certificates (404C/404D) are voluntary.
Painting has the lowest startup cost of the building trades: brushes, rollers, sprayers, ladders, and a vehicle. Add incorporation (~$400–$600), $1M–$2M CGL ($600–$1,500/year for residential), and WSIB. It is a common first construction business because you can start solo with little capital.
Industrial coatings (the 404D trade) covers protective coatings — abrasive blasting, epoxies, urethanes, fireproofing, and immersion-service linings on tanks, bridges, and process equipment. It requires AMPP/NACE/SSPC certifications and is a higher-skill, higher-margin niche than decorative painting.
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.