Install masonry materials
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 | 10 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 10 occupations that perform it.
- Build forms and mix and pour cement to form garden borders.
- Install refractory bricks or other heat-resistant materials in fireboxes of pressure vessels.
- Construct corners by fastening in plumb position a corner pole or building a corner pyramid of bricks, and filling in between the corners using a line from corner to corner to guide each course, or layer, of brick.
- Lay brick to build shells of chimneys and smokestacks or to line or reline industrial furnaces, kilns, boilers and similar installations.
- Finish and dress the joints and wipe excess grout from between tiles, using damp sponge.
- Wet surface to prepare for bonding, fill holes and cracks with grout or slurry, and smooth, using trowel.
- Wet surface to prepare for bonding, fill holes and cracks with grout or slurry, and smooth with a trowel.
- Place, consolidate, or protect case-in-place concrete or masonry structures.
- Cut fixture or border tiles to size, using keyhole saws, and insert them into surrounding frameworks.
- Resurface an outside area with cobblestones, terracotta tiles, concrete or other materials.
- Fasten or fuse brick or other building material to structure with wire clamps, anchor holes, torch, or cement.
- Replace broken or missing masonry units in walls or floors.
- Cut, surface, polish, and install marble and granite or install pre-cast terrazzo, granite or marble units.
- Fabricate concrete beams, columns, and panels.
- Mount tile, using adhesives, or by nailing, screwing, stapling, or wire-tying lath directly to structural frameworks.
- Lay and align bricks, blocks, or tiles to build or repair structures or high temperature equipment, such as cupola, kilns, ovens, or furnaces.
- Construct and install prefabricated masonry units.
- Lay and set mosaic tiles to create decorative wall, mural, and floor designs.
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
10 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 “Build structures”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
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.