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Trade Playbook
Renovation is the most-started construction business in Ontario and the one with the most landmines — not in the work, but in the clients, the change orders, and getting paid the final 10%. The r/HomeImprovement horror stories are about your future customers; the r/Contractor ones are about surviving them. The trade is the easy part.
Where it starts
$18–24/hr
Helper / labourer on a reno crew
Where it tops out
$100k–250k+
Established reno company (crew + subs)
Ontario figures for residential renovation, 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 on a reno crew | $18–24/hr | |
| Skilled renovator (employed) | $25–35/hr | Multi-trade competence — framing through finish. |
| Solo renovator (own business) | $60k–120k | Volatile, and pricing discipline decides whether you keep it. |
| Established reno company (crew + subs) | $100k–250k+ | Owner income — profit, not salary, and lumpy. |
Every figure above is what renovation contractors get paid. It is not what you charge once you run a home renovation 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 jobScale into a full GC/reno company, specialize upward (high-end kitchens and baths, or design-build), or sell. The renovator who IS the business owns a demanding job; the one with a crew, systems, a brand, and a backlog owns a sellable asset. The difference is whether the phone still rings — and the work still happens — when you take a week off.
Wage data, union rate sheets, and the places renovation contractors 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 home renovation business runs like one with an office behind it.
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