Smooth surfaces with abrasive materials or tools
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 | 17 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 17 occupations that perform it.
- Smooth, polish, and bevel surfaces, using hand tools and power tools.
- Cut and trim carpet to fit along wall edges, openings, and projections, finishing the edges with a wall trimmer.
- Scrape and sand floor edges and areas inaccessible to floor sanders, using scrapers, disk-type sanders, and sandpaper.
- Cut, surface, polish, and install marble and granite or install pre-cast terrazzo, granite or marble units.
- Chip, scrape, and grind high spots, ridges, and rough projections to finish concrete, using pneumatic chisels, power grinders, or hand tools.
- Grind curved surfaces or areas inaccessible to surfacing machine, such as stairways or cabinet tops, with portable hand grinder.
- Grind, scrape, sand, or polish surfaces, such as concrete, marble, terrazzo, or wood flooring, using abrasive tools or machines.
- Sand or patch nicks or cracks in plasterboard or wallboard.
- Grind or polish glass, smoothing edges when necessary.
- Smooth surfaces, using sandpaper, scrapers, brushes, steel wool, or sanding machines.
- Smooth rough spots on walls and ceilings, using sandpaper.
- Smooth rough spots to prepare surfaces for waterproofing, using hammers, chisels, or rubbing bricks.
- Trim, file, grind, deburr, buff, or smooth surfaces, seams, or joints of assembled parts, using hand tools or portable power tools.
- Smooth or sand surfaces to remove ridges, tool marks, glue, or caulking.
- Smooth surfaces of articles to be painted, using sanding and buffing tools and equipment.
- Grind ends of new or worn rails to attain smooth joints, using portable grinders.
- Buff tires according to specifications for width and undertread depth.
- Repair cracked or chipped areas of stone or marble, using blowtorch and mastic, and remove rough or defective spots from concrete, using power grinder or chisel and hammer.
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
17 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Carpet Installers
- Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers
- Construction Laborers
- Floor Sanders and Finishers
- Glaziers
- Helpers--Carpenters
- Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons
- Painters, Construction and Maintenance
- Paperhangers
- Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators
- Roofers
- Sheet Metal Workers
- Stonemasons
- Tapers
- Terrazzo Workers and Finishers
- Tile and Stone Setters
- Tire Builders
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Smooth surfaces of objects or equipment”. 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.