Examine brickwork or structure to determine need for repair.

“Examine brickwork or structure to determine need for repair.” is a core task performed by Brickmasons and Blockmasons. Among the occupation's 14 rated tasks, workers place it 5th by importance (#10 most important). About 98% 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.

• Inspect facilities or equipment. in Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials

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: T1.

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
• Break or cut bricks, tiles, or blocks to size, using trowel edge, hammer, or power saw. · 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
• 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-4777,
  title  = {Examine brickwork or structure to determine need for repair.},
  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-4777}
}