From the course: Skilled Trades: Construction Apprenticeship Foundations

What laborers do

- [Narrator] Construction craft laborers do a huge variety of work and are often referred to as the athletes of construction. - As far as laborers, I kind of consider us the Marines out of all the trades. We get dirty, and we get in there and we get it done. - They have the benefit of being one of the few crafts that will work on a project from beginning to end. - We start out with doing site prep. We do a lot of underground pipework. We do all the utilities underground. We also do dirt work or grading and doing grade checking with a GPS machine, or Global Positioning System machine. - You could be doing a demolition job. You could be removing asbestos. You could be assisting carpenters, building forms, filling the concrete, as well. But every part of the construction that you're assisting other trades with, whether it's the bricklayers or the carpenters or the operating engineers, you're part of what it takes to put a construction project together and complete it. - [Narrator] Laborers place and vibrate concrete. They clear timber and brush, perform landscaping and install pipe. - Cover everything from falling trees and preparing a site for construction to buttoning it up and turning over the project when it's completed. - So the laborers are basically journalists on a construction trade. We do over 100 different skillsets. - [Narrator] They work on projects such as highways, bridges, tunnels, large buildings, sanitation, and residential. - Start pouring concrete footings and then we'll start going up from there pouring structural concrete, a lot of heavy highway work, bridge work, tunneling. So yeah, we're always able to stay busy 'cause we have such a wide range of different skills that we're able to do. - To work as a laborer, you will need to be able to work with your hands, be proficient in a variety of hand tools, power tools, and tools that run on gasoline, electricity, and compressed air. - Everyone gets their little initials somewhere on that building, and it's got your name on it. You put your blood, sweat, and tears in it so it's part of you, and you do take a lot of pride in it, in seeing that building. It's going to be there for a long time, long after I'm gone. Our kids are grown up, they can point at it and say, Grandma built that. It's great, great satisfaction.

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