First-year plastering apprentice tool list

The day one kit

This is the gear most bosses expect an apprentice to front up with in the first weeks. All of it fits in one bucket or small bag.

• •Utility knife plus a box of spare blades (blunt blades tear paper faces)
• •8 metre tape measure, pencil and a chalk line
• •Keyhole saw for power point and downlight cutouts
• •Broadknives: start with roughly 100mm and 150mm, add wider later
• •Hawk, and a basic stainless finishing trowel
• •Sanding block and a pole sander with mesh sheets
• •P2 respirator, safety glasses, gloves and steel cap boots
• •White Card, because no card means no site

Dry versus solid changes the list

Wall and ceiling lining apprentices lean on knives, a T square for sheet cutting, corner tools and a screw gun. Solid plastering apprentices need floats (steel, plastic, sponge), a darby or straight edge, a scratcher and buckets for mixing. Do not buy the other side's kit until you know where you are working: a rendering float is dead weight in a sheeting van.

Budget, good and premium

Budget hardware store knives and hawks will get you through the first months while you learn what you like. Mid range trade brands are the sweet spot for the tools you use every hour: broadknives, finishing trowel, snips. Premium stainless trowels and European finishing tools are lovely, but a first year does not need a 200 dollar trowel to sand walls, and expensive gear grows legs on site. Upgrade one tool at a time as your stopping improves.

What the employer usually supplies

Consumables and big ticket items are normally the business's problem, not yours: plasterboard, compound, tape and screws, panel lifters, trestles and planks, lasers, collated screw guns, extraction sanders, mixing drills and vehicles. Stilts and elevated work platforms come with training rules, so they are supervised employer territory anyway. If a boss expects you to supply machines out of a first year wage, that is a red flag worth asking questions about.

What not to buy yet

• •Stilts: learn platforms and trestles first, and check what your state and employer allow for apprentices
• •Automatic taping tools (bazookas and boxes): brilliant, expensive, and pointless until your hand stopping is solid
• •A full battery platform: one drill is plenty until you know which system your crew runs
• •Projection or rendering machines: employer gear, full stop
• •Anything from a checkout impulse rack: buy tools when the job in front of you needs them

Allowances and tax

Under the Building and Construction General On-site Award, employees who supply their own tools are generally entitled to a tool allowance, and apprentices get a proportion of it, so check your payslip and confirm your exact entitlement on the Fair Work Pay Calculator. Come tax time, tools and protective gear you personally paid for and use for work are generally claimable, with items over 300 dollars depreciated rather than claimed outright, so keep every receipt. The ATO's guidance for construction workers covers the details, and some states also run apprentice tool rebate schemes worth searching for by state name.