Building Trades

Boilermakers construct, assemble, maintain, and repair stationary steam boilers and boiler house auxiliaries. Align structures or plate sections to assemble boiler frame tanks or vats, following blueprints. Work involves use of hand and power tools, plumb bobs, levels, wedges, dogs, or turnbuckles. Assist in testing assembled vessels. Direct cleaning of boilers and boiler furnaces. Inspect and repair boiler fittings, such as safety valves, regulators, automatic-control mechanisms, water columns, and auxiliary machines. Starting Pay Rate: $32.32 (Journeyman Rate: $46.17)

Bricklayers lay bricks, concrete blocks, stone and other similar materials to construct or repair walls, arches, chimneys, fireplaces and other structures in accordance with blueprints and specifications. You could be installing firebrick in commercial and industrial furnaces and incinerators. You could also be working with acid tile and acid brick in pulp mills.

Carpenters: construct, erect, install, and repair structures and fixtures made from wood and other materials. Carpenters are involved in many different kinds of construction, from the building of highways and bridges to the installation of kitchen cabinets. They cut and shape wood, plastic, fiberglass, or drywall using hand and power tools, such as chisels, planes, saws, drills, and sanders.

Millwright: is a high-precision craftsman or tradesman who installs, dismantles, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites. This includes such tasks as leveling, aligning and installing machinery on foundations or base plates and setting, leveling and aligning electric motors or other power sources such as turbines with the equipment, which millwrights typically connect with some type of coupling.

Piledrivers: install piling to hold back the Earth during excavations, or to set up the foundation for skyscrapers and bridges, or to build docks and wharfs. Pile drivers are typically certified welders and sometimes commercial scuba divers so that underwater construction can be accomplished.

Electricians – Wireman: Wiremen are electricians who specialize in connecting their commercial customers’ electrical systems to the outside power source, and then distributing that power throughout the facility. An inside wireman’s job might include installing conduit, lighting fixtures and electrical outlets.

Electricians – Telecom: Telecommunications technicians install, maintain and repair the switches, multiplexors, transmission equipment and associated emergency generating equipment required to keep the communications network viable.

Electricians – Lineman: Linemen build and maintain electrical power systems. They do all the work from the point of generation (power plants) all the way to the customer’s meter. The lines may be on overhead structures (up to 300′) or in underground vaults or trenches. They may be in rural and metropolitan areas. Linemen also do work on traffic signals and street lights. The work is varied and exciting.

Heat and frost insulators apply insulation materials to plumbing, air-handling, heating, cooling and refrigeration systems; piping equipment and pressure vessels; and walls, floors and ceilings of buildings and other structures to prevent or reduce the passage of heat, cold, sound or fire.

An ironworker uses blueprints to determine where the structural elements they are responsible for fits within a structure. Since metal is extremely heavy, they must also direct crane operators to lift and position the iron and steel metal pieces needed and then safely guide them to the desired location. Ironworkers attach iron and metal to other elements of a building using bolts and wire. They may also need to weld one metal object to another to ensure the connection is secure.

Laborer’s help during all phases of construction from operating jackhammers, traffic control on road crews, or using surveying equipment. They may dig trenches, backfill holes, or compact earth to prepare for construction. Those laborers with special training may transport and use explosives or run hydraulic boring machines to dig out tunnels. They may use lasers to place pipes and use computers to control robotic pipe cutters.

Operating Engineer: Heavy Equipment Operator: Heavy Equipment Operators operate a wide variety of equipment ranging from dozers to crusher plants throughout the state for various contractors. The work can range from small parking lot paving to construction of ice roads.

Operating Mechanic: Heavy Duty Equipment Mechanic: Heavy Equipment Mechanics repair and maintain many types of equipment including dozers, scrapers, loaders, and large trucks to name a few. A workday may consist of minor adjustments or repairs to the complete tear down and rebuild of equipment.

Operating Heavy Duty Service Oiler: Heavy Duty Service Oilers lubricate all types of earthmoving equipment, from the largest crawler tractors down to the smallest pump and everything in between. The Service Oilers job is the heartbeat of any construction project. They are the eyes and ears for the Master Mechanic.

Painters: Painting is the craft of applying paint, varnishes, lacquers, sealers and stains to a variety of prepared surfaces.

Glaziers: Glaziers prepare and install glass, mirrors, metal framing, and glass and aluminum doors and entrances.

Drywall Finishers: Drywall finishers apply finish, maintain and restore plaster or similar materials on interior and exterior walls, ceilings, and building partitions.

Floor Coverers: Floor covering installers are people who put down carpet, linoleum, and tile, both in older buildings and those under construction. They also install materials made of cork, asphalt, rubber, and vinyl. In addition to floors, they sometimes cover walls and countertops.

Plasterers finish interior walls and ceilings of buildings and apply plaster on masonry, metal, and wire lath or gypsum. Cement masons are responsible for all concrete construction, including pouring and finishing of slabs, steps, wall tops, curbs and gutters, sidewalks, and paving

Plumbers, Pipefitters & Steamfitters (FBKS)

Plumbers can install, repair and maintain water and sewer lines as well as pumps, valves and other plumbing fixtures and mechanisms. A journeyman plumber can install pipes for HVAC and sprinkler systems and assemble parts that are used for plumbing and ductwork. Pipefitters installs, assembles, fabricates, maintains and repairs mechanical piping systems. Journeyman pipefitters deal with industrial/commercial/marine piping and heating/cooling systems.

Sheet metal workers fabricate and install heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) ducts. They also install other sheet metal products, such as metal roofs, siding, and gutters

Construction Driver: A teamster is a construction driver that operates equipment such as articulating trucks, forklifts and loaders, fuel and lube trucks, mixers and ready mix, rock buggies, end dumps, belly dumps, water trucks, sweeper trucks, tilt trailers, tire repair trucks, and truck mounted cranes/booms.

Logistic Technician: Logistics technicians help a company extend its national and global reach by linking factories, suppliers and customers. Working in a warehouse setting, they are involved in receiving, packing, shipping and processing orders.

Surveyor: Surveyors update boundary lines and prepare sites for construction so that legal disputes are prevented. Surveyors make precise measurements to determine property boundaries. They provide data relevant to the shape and contour of the Earth’s surface for engineering, mapmaking, and construction projects.