Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles
Apply blocks, strips, or sheets of shock-absorbing, sound-deadening, or decorative coverings to floors.
23,640 people do this job in the US. $56,460 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 3%
- 0%
- 97%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 3%. Today's estimate: 3%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 14 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lay out, position, and apply shock-absorbing, sound-deadening, or decorative coverings to floors, walls, and cabinets, following guidelines to keep courses straight and create designs.Done daily by most who do it. | 19% | 1.7 h38 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Trim excess covering materials, tack edges, and join sections of covering material to form tight joint.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 13% | 29 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Sweep, scrape, sand, or chip dirt and irregularities to clean base surfaces, correcting imperfections that may show through the covering.Done daily by most who do it. | 12% | 50 min17 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Cut covering and foundation materials, according to blueprints and sketches.Done daily by most who do it. | 11% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Apply adhesive cement to floor or wall material to join and adhere foundation material.Done daily by most who do it. | 10% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Cut flooring material to fit around obstructions.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Form a smooth foundation by stapling plywood or Masonite over the floor or by brushing waterproof compound onto surface and filling cracks with plaster, putty, or grout to seal pores.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 1.3 h33 min to 4.2 h | Stays with people | |
| Disconnect and remove appliances, light fixtures, and worn floor and wall covering from floors, walls, and cabinets.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 4% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Roll and press sheet wall and floor covering into cement base to smooth and finish surface, using hand roller.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min13 min to 1.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Heat and soften floor covering materials to patch cracks or fit floor coverings around irregular surfaces, using blowtorch.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 42 min17 min to 1.4 h | Stays with people | |
| Measure and mark guidelines on surfaces or foundations, using chalk lines and dividers.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Inspect surface to be covered to ensure that it is firm and dry.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 33 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).