Skills and training required for mason

Mason usually do not go to school, instead they go for vocational training. They attend vocational schools and attend training given to them by the industry. They also go for on the job training. Those who go for on the job training mostly work under the skilled workers, they may be labors. These labors usually carry materials from one place to other or help in mixing mortar, after gaining the experience they can be promoted to arrange the bricks or stone themselves. These training programmers can last for 2-4 years, after gaining the experience they can find a gateway through native contractor’s trade or union associations.

During the training sessions following things should be thought to the workers-

• Mixing mortar
• Constructing scaffolding
• Laying mortar
• Cutting brick
• Aligning brick
• Should get to know how to mix stone and concrete for better usage in different areas.
• Fire proof mixing
• General cleanup
• Restoration work
• Interior and total demolition
• Hazardous waste removal
• Blue print reading

Becoming a mason

Mason is a person who is basically a worker who builds buildings, construct structures and sculptures using stone from earth. He also helps in constructing many long lasting monuments and cities in an extensive range of cultures. These masons have existed since the ages. Famous work of masons in the past includes the taj mahal, Easter islands statues, the Egyptian pyramids, the Greek Parthenon, Stonehenge, Angkor wat and charters cathedral. Mason usually shapes the uneven pieces of rocks into perfect geometrical shapes, these shapes are of different forms and they look remarkable after completion. When the shapes of stones are made the mason arranges the resultant stones along with mortar to get perfect structure. So basically a mason is a person who with his beautiful ideas of work and with his hard work helps in building up of monuments. Cement masons deals with building of buildings. Cement mason smooth and finishes poured concrete. They construct buildings from masonry. Masons belong to different categories:

• Brick mason- He works in bricks
• Block mason- He works in block
• Stone mason- He works in stone

Basically men are related to this field but nowadays women are also entering in this field. The mason usually requires some skills

• Laying out corners and walls
• Mixing mortar
• Cleaning up the worksite
• Safety

Most of the mason work is performed from outside and it can be physically demanding as they have to carry heavy equipments. They also deal with dangerous equipments so they should be safety conscious in order to avoid accidents. The brick mason usually use caste, blocks and other materials to construct the buildings which includes maintenance of walls, exteriors, fireplaces etc. Whereas stone masons they construct professional buildings where they can use many types of stones like natural cut stone like limestone ,granite or manmade stone constructed from bits of marble. Mason can even come to their own business and can oversee the working of other mason rather than working themselves. Mason can also work as construction manager also so yes masons are very important part of our society and play very important role in our lives as they help in the development of the area.

Salary of a mason

Salary of mason may vary from region to region. The average salary of mason in a year is $1200 per month .A mason can earn $12 to $12.50 per hour. According to the day bases he can earn salary upto $500 to $55o per day. The medium wage salary of a cement mason in previous years was $15.10 per hour, some masons were getting as much as $25.89 per hour. Since the masons are divided into two unions.

• Union workers
• Non union worker

So the union workers are paid more salary than the non union workers Apprentices starts from forty to sixty percent depending upon the experience of the worker. The worker who is more experienced is given more salary and the one who is less experienced is given less salary in comparison the experienced worker, so basically the wages depends upon the experience of a worker. Union workers generally receive paid holidays, life insurance, pension plans and hospitalization. No of leaves depend upon the no of days these workers have worked, like on the basis of their working hour only these workers are given leave.

Job Opportunities available for a mason

Masons have various kinds of job opportunities but before entering into this field the person should be able to work outdoors in various kinds of weather and should be hard working and should have good physical strength. Jobs in this field can also be adversely affected if there is decrease in construction of residential home or construction of other buildings etc. But if there is no such problem then the mason may get continuous employment and can earn money according to his or her hardwork.

Areas where mason can get jobs are:

• High profile buildings.
• Construction site of schools, hospitals and highways.
• They can be employed by small contractors.

The number of jobs for masons can increase by 2012; in the construction of historical buildings demand for mason will be increased. Building up of huge malls, highway construction also require mason, so there are many job opportunities for mason.

The companies which provide job to mason are the following

• Hammers constructions
• Kozial construction
• M and R cement contractors
• Ballew construction
• Platinum recruitment consultancy
• Reed recruitment

Mason can also be given supervisory positions by giving them extra training. They can also do their own business rather than working themselves ,many mason also become construction manager or building inspector .Mason can get job in building up of historical buildings ,monuments ,sculptures, giving different shapes to the monuments .So for the recruitment purpose the mason should be physically strong and they should have proper training and skills and should have proper knowledge of construction sites and should be able to adapt themselves in the working environment then only the mason can be successful in his carrier and will find more job opportunities ,if a individual is not able to survive in the working environment he will not have bright future and will not be able to find good job and will not have bright future in this field.

Roles and Responsibilities of a mason

As mason deals with building up of monuments and buildings they are usually called workers.

Masons are divided into different categories such as,

• Quarrymen
• Sawyers
• Banker masons
• Carvers
• Fixer masons
• Memorial mason
• Cement mason

Quarrymen usually help in splitting up of rocks and extracting the resulting stone blocks from the ground. So the main aim of quarrymen is extracting and splitting up of stone blocks.

Sawyers usually deal in cutting of rough stones into proper shapes seizes.

Banker masons usually deals with designing purpose. They give geometric shapes to the stones. Banker masons can carve out anything from the rough stone. They can design things like, chamfers, tracery windows, moulding the stone and the architectural buildings with beautiful shapes and elegant designs. While working mainly focuses that the stone is fixed in the correct manner so that when the work is finished everything looks good. So basically the banker masons are the designers.

Carvers are usually dealing with the art and craft. They use their carving skill to give the stone a perfect shape.

Fixer mason have an expertise in fixing up of stones into buildings, they use materials like mortars, lime stone to solve their purpose. They make use of dowels and cramps for metal fixing purpose. So fixer mason usually deals with the fixing purpose. The tolerance levels should be high when doing such jobs.

Memorial mason usually carve gravestone and inscriptions.

Cement mason: The main work of cement mason is to smoothen and finishing the poured concrete. They work on the construction of building, in highway construction, or on sidewalks and driveways. These masons get involved whenever there is a requirement for putting concrete on the completed surface. They also have an expertise in using materials such as latex and epoxy. They can also give different look to the flooring by using tinted cement. Mason workers usually work under the contractors. They take their daily wages from these contractors only. Some of them work for concrete contractors, some for the firms who do their own construction; others are self employed and work on small jobs. Cement mason also use plastic forms to shape the concrete. The labors work under the mason and they help in pouring and spreading of concrete, then they level the concrete with the help of floats and screeds for the smoothening purpose. They also use machines in order to remove the air pockets from concrete. So the main purpose of cement mason is leveling and smoothening.