Brickmasons and Blockmason Lay and bind building materials, such as brick, structural tile, concrete block, cinder block, glass block, and terra-cotta block, with mortar and other substances, to construct or repair walls, partitions, arches, sewers, and other structures.
Brickmasons and Blockmason is Also Know as
In different settings, Brickmasons and Blockmason is titled as
- Block Layer
- Block Mason
- Blockmason
- Brick and Block Mason
- Brick Mason
- Bricklayer
- Concrete Finisher
- Mason
- Masonry Installer
- Tender
Education and Training of Brickmasons and Blockmason
Brickmasons and Blockmason is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Brickmasons and Blockmason
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Brickmasons and Blockmason
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Brickmasons and Blockmason
- Bachelor in Mason/Masonry
- Associate Degree Courses in Mason/Masonry
- Masters Degree Courses in Mason/Masonry
Training Required for Brickmasons and Blockmason
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Brickmasons and Blockmason in different industries are
- Helpers--Brickmasons, Blockmasons, Stonemasons, and Tile and Marble Setters
- Refractory Materials Repairers, Except Brickmasons
- Tile and Stone Setters
- Carpenters
- Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles
- Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers
- Terrazzo Workers and Finishers
- Insulation Workers, Floor, Ceiling, and Wall
- Construction Laborers
- Stonemasons
- Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic
- Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers
- Sheet Metal Workers
- Plasterers and Stucco Masons
- Structural Iron and Steel Workers
- Insulation Workers, Mechanical
- Reinforcing Iron and Rebar Workers
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
- Glaziers
- Boilermakers
What Do Brickmasons and Blockmason do?
- 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.
- Measure distance from reference points and mark guidelines to lay out work, using plumb bobs and levels.
- Calculate angles and courses and determine vertical and horizontal alignment of courses.
- Fasten or fuse brick or other building material to structure with wire clamps, anchor holes, torch, or cement.
- Break or cut bricks, tiles, or blocks to size, using trowel edge, hammer, or power saw.
- Remove excess mortar with trowels and hand tools, and finish mortar joints with jointing tools, for a sealed, uniform appearance.
- Interpret blueprints and drawings to determine specifications and to calculate the materials required.
- Apply and smooth mortar or other mixture over work surface.
- Mix specified amounts of sand, clay, dirt, or mortar powder with water to form refractory mixtures.
- Examine brickwork or structure to determine need for repair.
- Clean working surface to remove scale, dust, soot, or chips of brick and mortar, using broom, wire brush, or scraper.
- Lay and align bricks, blocks, or tiles to build or repair structures or high temperature equipment, such as cupola, kilns, ovens, or furnaces.
- Remove burned or damaged brick or mortar, using sledgehammer, crowbar, chipping gun, or chisel.
- Spray or spread refractory material over brickwork to protect against deterioration.
Qualities of Good Brickmasons and Blockmason
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Brickmasons and Blockmason
- Adhesive trowels
- Adjustable widemouth pliers
- Adjustable wrenches
- Air compressors
- Angle grinders
- Block and tackle equipment
- Bolt cutters
- Bosun chairs
- Bracing equipment
- Brick bolsters
- Brick hammers
- Brick jointers
- Brick sets
- Brick spacing rulers
- Brick tongs
- Bush hammers
- C clamps
- Carpenters' hammers
- Caulking guns
- Cement mixers
- Chain blocks
- Chalk lines
- Circular saws
- Claw hammers
- Compasses
- Concave jointers
- Concrete vibrators
- Crowbars
- Cutting torches
- Desktop computers
- Dust masks
- Edgers
- Electric winches
- Fall arrest systems
- Floats
- Forklifts
- Gas generators
- Grease guns
- Groovers
- Grout pumps
- Hammer drills
- Hammers
- Hand sprayers
- Hard hats
- Hoisting equipment
- Hydraulic jacks
- Jackhammers
- Jacks
- Jig saws
- Ladders
- Laser levels
- Mashing hammers
- Masonry brushes
- Masonry levels
- Masonry saws
- Measuring tapes
- Mixing drills
- Mortar hoes
- Mortar mixers
- Notebook computers
- Outriggers
- Pallet jacks
- Picks
- Pitching chisels
- Plastering trowels
- Plumb bobs
- Pneumatic chipping guns
- Pneumatic chisels
- Pointing trowels
- Portable routers
- Portable welding machines
- Power drills
- Power grinders
- Power joint cutters
- Power saws
- Power screwguns
- Power trowels
- Power washers
- Precision squares
- Pressure gauges
- Propane torches
- Protractors
- Pry bars
- Rake jointers
- Refractory hammers
- Rope and pulley systems
- Round point shovels
- Rubber mallets
- Rubbing stones
- Safety glasses
- Scaffolding
- Scrapers
- Screeds
- Screw jacks
- Shielded arc welding tools
- Skid steer loaders
- Sled runner jointers
- Sledgehammers
- Slings
- Socket wrench sets
- Spray guns
- Square point shovels
- Staple guns
- Stone masons' hammers
- Stone splitters
- Striking tools
- Swing stages
- Tile chisels
- Tile hammers
- Torque wrenches
- Tower cranes
- Transit levels
- Utility knives
- Water levels
- Welders
- Wire brushes
- Wire snips
- Wood chisels
- Work cages
- Workshop cranes
Technology Skills required for Brickmasons and Blockmason
- Construction Management Software ProEst
- CPR Visual Estimator
- Daystar iStructural.com
- Estimating software
- Intuit QuickBooks
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Windows
- RISA Technologies RISA-3D
- Tradesman's Software Master Estimator