Remove worn, damaged or outdated materials from work areas
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 | 14 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Performing General Physical Activities (4.A.3.a.1) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 14 occupations that perform it.
- Remove burned or damaged brick or mortar, using sledgehammer, crowbar, chipping gun, or chisel.
- Remove damaged or defective parts or sections of structures and repair or replace, using hand tools.
- Move furniture from area to be carpeted and remove old carpet and padding.
- Disconnect and remove appliances, light fixtures, and worn floor and wall covering from floors, walls, and cabinets.
- Remove any old tile, grout and adhesive using chisels and scrapers and clean the surface carefully.
- Raze buildings or salvage useful materials.
- Remove existing plaster, drywall, or paneling, using crowbars and hammers.
- Cut and remove broken glass prior to installing replacement glass.
- Remove old insulation, such as asbestos, following safety procedures.
- Remove old paper, using water, steam machines, or solvents and scrapers.
- Remove damaged tile, brick, or mortar, and clean or prepare surfaces, using pliers, hammers, chisels, drills, wire brushes, or metal wire anchors.
- Disassemble and remove damaged or worn pipe.
- Remove old roofing materials.
- Cut damaged sections of pipe with cutters, remove broken sections from ditches, and replace pipe sections, using pipe sleeves.
- Remove and replace cracked or damaged tile.
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
14 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Brickmasons and Blockmasons
- Carpenters
- Carpet Installers
- Construction Laborers
- Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers
- Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles
- Glaziers
- Helpers--Brickmasons, Blockmasons, Stonemasons, and Tile and Marble Setters
- Helpers--Pipelayers, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters
- Helpers--Roofers
- Insulation Workers, Floor, Ceiling, and Wall
- Paperhangers
- Septic Tank Servicers and Sewer Pipe Cleaners
- Tile and Stone Setters
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Dispose of waste or debris”. 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.