Break or cut bricks, tiles, or blocks to size, using trowel edge, hammer, or power saw.

“Break or cut bricks, tiles, or blocks to size, using trowel edge, hammer, or power saw.” is a core task performed by Brickmasons and Blockmasons. Among the occupation's 14 rated tasks, workers place it 10th by importance (#5 most important). About 97% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Cut materials. in Handling and Moving Objects

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Measure distance from reference points and mark guidelines to lay out work, using plumb bobs and levels. · importance 4.7
• 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. · importance 4.6
• Apply and smooth mortar or other mixture over work surface. · importance 4.5
• Calculate angles and courses and determine vertical and horizontal alignment of courses. · importance 4.3
• Interpret blueprints and drawings to determine specifications and to calculate the materials required. · importance 4.3
• Remove excess mortar with trowels and hand tools, and finish mortar joints with jointing tools, for a sealed, uniform appearance. · importance 4.2
• Fasten or fuse brick or other building material to structure with wire clamps, anchor holes, torch, or cement. · importance 4.0
• Clean working surface to remove scale, dust, soot, or chips of brick and mortar, using broom, wire brush, or scraper. · importance 3.8
• Mix specified amounts of sand, clay, dirt, or mortar powder with water to form refractory mixtures. · importance 3.5
• Examine brickwork or structure to determine need for repair. · importance 3.5
• Lay and align bricks, blocks, or tiles to build or repair structures or high temperature equipment, such as cupola, kilns, ovens, or furnaces. · importance 3.4
• Remove burned or damaged brick or mortar, using sledgehammer, crowbar, chipping gun, or chisel. · importance 3.1
• Spray or spread refractory material over brickwork to protect against deterioration. · importance 2.9

See all tasks on the Brickmasons and Blockmasons page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-4772,
  title  = {Break or cut bricks, tiles, or blocks to size, using trowel edge, hammer, or power saw.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-4772}
}