Drywall and plaster production manager job description
A drywall and plaster production manager sets how every crew works: crew sizes for each building, piece rates, and the standards for adhesive, joints and plaster base. They lead the project managers. They also trace each callback to a cause, so the fix becomes a rule instead of another trip.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, drywall and insulation contractors · BLS, May 2025
Oversee all aspects of drywall and plaster production including hanging, finishing, and plaster application to ensure high-quality results and adherence to building codes. Manage and coordinate teams to maximize efficiency, quality control, and safety on each project. Contribute to continuous process improvement initiatives, fostering a culture of excellence and precision in home services.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Supervise daily drywall and plaster production activities with emphasis on quality and safety.
Ensure all work complies with applicable building codes, regulations, and quality standards.
Coordinate scheduling, resource allocation, and workflow for efficient project execution.
Collaborate with team members and subcontractors to maintain seamless project operations.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Conduct on-site inspections of work in progress to verify proper technique and code compliance.
Facilitate daily team meetings to communicate project goals, updates, and safety protocols.
Track material usage and coordinate timely reordering to avoid production delays.
Interact with customers to provide status updates and address any quality concerns.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
On-time project completion rate: 95% or higher.
Quality assurance pass rate: >98% compliance with industry standards.
Customer satisfaction rating: >4.8 stars.
Safety incident rate: Maintain a rate of <3% per project.
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Minimum of 5 years’ experience in drywall, plaster, or construction management.
Proven leadership and team management skills.
Strong knowledge of building codes and construction standards.
Excellent problem-solving abilities and effective communication skills.
6. Preferred Experience
Experience in production management within the home services or construction industry.
Familiarity with lean production methods and continuous improvement practices.
Prior exposure to budget management and workforce scheduling.
Background in collaborating with cross-functional teams and external agencies.
7. Physical Requirements
Ability to lift up to 50 lbs in a dynamic work environment.
Frequent exposure to onsite conditions including varying temperatures and noise levels.
Capable of maneuvering in confined spaces common to construction sites.
Endurance to perform physical tasks such as climbing, bending, and manual handling.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Typical work hours from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM with occasional extended shifts.
Occasional travel required to different job sites within the region.
On-call duties may be expected during critical project milestones.
Work is performed in a blend of office and active construction site environments.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Salary range: $70,000 - $90,000 USD per annum, commensurate with experience.
Performance bonus potential based on project delivery and quality metrics.
Health, Dental, and Vision insurance provided.
401(k) with company match and additional fringe benefits.
10. Company Culture and Overview
At [INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE], we nurture a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous growth.
Our team-driven environment emphasizes professional development and open communication.
We lead by example, ensuring every team member has the opportunity to contribute and advance their career.
Join us to be part of a forward-thinking company where success is shared and excellence is celebrated.
11. How to Apply
If you meet the above criteria and want to be part of a growth-oriented company focused on customer satisfaction, please send your resume to [INSERT EMAIL HERE] or apply online at [INSERT WEBSITE LINK HERE].
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
The crews know how to hang and finish. This manager decides the rules they work under, and most of those rules come from tracing a callback back to its cause.
Rework can't simply come out of a check
When a builder back-charges for bad finishing, it's tempting to pass the bill to the crew. Kentucky, for example, bars employers from taking losses from defective or faulty work, or from damage to property, out of wages. The exception is a loss caused by the worker's willful or intentional disregard of the employer's interest. So the production manager writes the rework rule ahead of time: who goes back, how that time is paid, and when repeat defects cost a crew its lots. Source: Kentucky Revised Statutes 337.060: Deductions from wages.
Glue under the board can raise the screws
USG traced raised bumps over screw heads, which crews call screw buttons, to low-VOC water-based drywall adhesive. In its lab tests the adhesive shrank as it cured and pulled the board tight to the studs. The screws didn't move, so the compound over each one stood out within a day. Solvent-based adhesive, or water-based adhesive left to cure fully before finishing, didn't do it, and cold slowed the cure. So the production manager picks the adhesive and sets the wait before taping. Source: USG: Fastener-related drywall installation issues and recommendations (WB2757).
Plaster base can't wait long for plaster
Veneer plaster goes over gypsum base, often called blueboard. The Diamond veneer finish data sheet from USG wants base with clean blue face paper. It warns that the paper degrades when base hangs too long before plastering, or sits in too much sun. Once the paper turns gray to tan, it needs an alum treatment, or a bonding agent and a two-coat plaster system. The production manager books plaster days close behind the hang. Source: USG: Diamond veneer finish submittal sheet (P777).
Long plaster runs need control joints
USG's crack-control guide for veneer and conventional plaster puts control joints no more than 30 feet apart on partitions. Interior ceilings get them at most 50 feet apart with perimeter relief, or 30 feet without it. The guide also places them where the wings of an L-shaped ceiling meet. When drawings for a long plaster corridor or ceiling show none, the production manager asks the designer before the plaster crew starts. Source: USG: Preventing cracks in veneer and conventional plaster systems (PM17).
How much drywall and plaster production managers make
The closest BLS group for drywall and plaster production managers is construction managers. Construction managers who work for drywall and insulation contractors earned a median of $98,660 a year ($47.43 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $114,990 median for construction managers in all industries. About 4,920 of the 380,360 construction managers in that survey work for drywall and insulation contractors.
Salary plus a bonus for delivery and quality is the template's setup. BLS figures for construction managers in drywall and insulation contracting put three in four above its starting salary, and the median above its top figure. Weight the bonus toward areas that clear inspection on the first visit, a number crews and project managers can watch too.
Drywall and insulation contractors
$98,660$98,660 median Middle half $77,390–$131,500 10th–90th $56,750–$166,310
All industries
$114,990$114,990 median Middle half $88,550–$151,640 10th–90th $69,690–$189,440
$25k$50k$75k$100k$125k$150k$175k$200k$225k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Drywall and insulation contractors
$56,750
$77,390
$98,660
$131,500
$166,310
All industries
$69,690
$88,550
$114,990
$151,640
$189,440
BLS reports drywall and insulation contractors together. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
The pay line in the template above is an example from our Role Blueprint. Set yours from these figures and what local companies pay.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has run production for a drywall or interior finishes contractor with several crews
Sets piece rates a crew can earn and a builder's price can carry
Traces a callback to its cause: framing, adhesive, joint spacing or workmanship
Knows veneer and three-coat plaster well enough to set their standards
Spots, by phase, where a drywall job's labor ran over
Teach these on the job
Your builders' house plans and the hours each one takes
The adhesive, compound and bead brands you buy
Your state's rules on wage deductions and piece-rate pay
How your project managers report their jobs
Your callback codes and how they're logged
The production manager keeps four things open: the job cost report by phase, the piece-rate sheet, the callback log sorted by cause, and the data sheets for every board, compound and adhesive crews use. A strong finalist knows where to find a product's cure or set time without calling the rep.
Drywall and plaster production manager interview questions
Two of the 6 questions we'd ask, and what a strong answer sounds like. Ask every candidate the same questions, and rate each answer on your own before you compare notes.
Situational · Fastening problems
You find hangers are driving screws too deep and breaking the face paper. What do you do?
A strong answer: Has screw gun depth reset, retrains, adds fasteners where paper is broken, and spot-checks the next rooms.
Behavioral · Safety leadership
Tell me about a near miss or injury on a drywall crew, such as a board stack tipping or a knife cut. What did you change?
A strong answer: Stopped the work, found the root cause, changed the practice, such as stacking rules or cut-resistant gloves, retrained the crew, and checked that it held.
Set winter and summer targets apart. Cold houses slow finishing every winter, and one target set in July makes every January look like a failure.
On-time project completion rate
Buildings and lots handed to paint by the date given to the builder, across every project manager. Tag each late one by cause: a late release, an inspection, crew size or rework.
Quality assurance pass rate
Areas that pass the field supervisor's check and the superintendent's walk the first time, out of areas checked. Sort failures by the standard they missed, such as screw spacing, joint gaps or finish level.
Customer satisfaction rating
Builder and homeowner survey scores across all jobs, read with the callback log, since a builder may rate a crew well and still send a long warranty list months later.
Safety incident rate
Recordable cases from the OSHA log against hours worked, by crew and by month, with near misses and site check findings beside them so a quiet month isn't mistaken for a safe one.
Career path
Field supervisorCatches bad framing, wide joints and lost boxes before they're covered.
Project managerLearns which house plans and buildings eat hours, job by job.
Production managerWrites the work standards and piece rates every crew is held to.
General managerSigns builder price sheets and answers for the branch's results.
A common split: the production manager proposes them, and the general manager or COO approves. Rates often differ by board type, ceiling height, stairwells and finish level, since a Level 5 room or a two-story foyer takes far longer per sheet. Base them on hours from houses you've already built, and review them when a builder changes plans or prices.
How much does a drywall and plaster production manager make?
Construction managers who work for drywall and insulation contractors earned a median of $98,660 a year ($47.43 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $77,390 and $131,500 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
How should the template's safety incident rate be measured?
The template sets it per project, but one house is too small for a fair rate. BLS gives the standard formula: recordable cases from your OSHA log, times 200,000, divided by the hours employees worked. The 200,000 stands for 100 full-time workers over a year. One case swings a small crew's monthly rate hard, so judge a crew on a year of hours, not one bad month.
The template asks for endurance for physical tasks. How should the ad put that?
Leave that line exactly as the template has it. In the ad, list what it means in this job: walking several builder communities a day, climbing stairs and ladders to check ceilings, lifting a box of screws or a bag of compound, and standing in a cold house or a dusty one. Add the gear you supply and an offer of reasonable accommodation.
What should a drywall production manager do when a supplier swaps a product?
Read the new product's data sheet before crews use it. Check the framing spacing and fire rating for board, and the set or dry time for compound. A lighter board may not carry the rating the plans list: USG's half-inch UltraLight panel, for one, is made for walls and ceilings that aren't fire rated. A rated wall gets the listed product or the designer's written okay.
