Apply decorative or textured finishes or coverings
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 7 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Handling and Moving Objects (4.A.3.a.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 7 occupations that perform it.
- Dress bodies and place them in caskets.
- Finish surfaces of woodwork or wallboard in houses or buildings, using paint, hand tools, or paneling.
- Lay out, position, and apply shock-absorbing, sound-deadening, or decorative coverings to floors, walls, and cabinets, following guidelines to keep courses straight and create designs.
- Create patterns on glass by etching, sandblasting, or painting designs.
- Use special finishing techniques such as sponging, ragging, layering, or faux finishing.
- Smooth strips or sections of paper with brushes or rollers to remove wrinkles and bubbles and to smooth joints.
- Apply coats of plaster or stucco to walls, ceilings, or partitions of buildings, using trowels, brushes, or spray guns.
- Cut stencils and brush or spray lettering or decorations on surfaces.
- Cover interior walls and ceilings of rooms with decorative wallpaper or fabric, using hand tools.
- Create decorative textures in finish coat, using brushes or trowels, sand, pebbles, or stones.
- Place strips or sections of paper on surfaces, aligning section edges and patterns.
- Apply weatherproof, decorative coverings to exterior surfaces of buildings, such as by troweling or spraying on coats of stucco.
- Cure freshly plastered surfaces.
- Spray acoustic materials or texture finish over walls or ceilings.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
7 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Apply decorative finishes”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Apply decorative masonry finishes | 4 |
| Apply finishes to artwork, crafts, or displays | 3 |
| Apply decorative coloring to photographs or printed materials | 1 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.