Some building professions

A man, who has been an apprentice for some years in a building trade and has therefore enough skill to be considered a skilled worker at his trade, is called tradesman or craftsman. He may be a carpenter-and-joiner, bricklayer, mason, slater-and-tiler, plumber, electrician, house painter, gla­zier, floor-and-wall tiler, plasterer, paper-hanger, steeple­jack, hot water fitter and so on.

Bricklayer is a tradesman who builds and repairs brickwork, lays and joints salt glazed stoneware drains, sets, chimney pots, manhole frames and fireplaces. He rentiers brickwork, including the insides of manholes. A sewer and tunnel bricklayer is a specialised bricklayer. In some districts of Great Britain, bricklayers also fix wall and flooring tiles, and slating and plaster and granolithic floors. But elsewhere these are plasterer's specialities.

Carpenter is a man who erects wood frames, fits joints, fixes wood floors, stairs and window frames, asbestos sheeting and other wallboard. He builds or dismantles wood or metal formwork. The two trades of carpenter and joiner were originally the same, and most men can do both, but specialise in one or the other. In the USA the term "carpenter" includes a joiner. The word is derived from the French word charpentewhich means a wood or metal framework.

Joiner is a man who makes joinery and works mainly at the bench of wood which has been cut and shaped by the machinists. His work is finer than the carpenter's, much of it being highly finished and done in a joinery shop which is not exposed to weather.

In Scotland a joiner is a carpenter-and-joiner.

Mason is a stone worker or stone setter. In Scotland and the USA a bricklayer is usually also a mason. A fixer or a fixer-mason or a builder mason or a builder mason is a mason who sets prepared stones in walls, wether the stone be only facing or to the full wall thickness.

Plasterer is a tradesman who may be a fibrous plast­erer or a plasterer in solid work. The latter lays succes­sive coats of plaster or rendering and fixes fibrous plaster such as mould cornices and wall pattern. He can use a horsed mould, erect lathing for plaster, and apply stucco.