Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles
In short: today's best AI models could do about 3% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 97% of the time, stays with people.
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.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on1 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people39 h
Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 1 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 39 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Determine traffic areas and decide location of seams (about 1 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 3%
- 0%
- 97%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days 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.
Measured use over time
None of this job's 14 tasks showed up in the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled in any of its 7 releases, from February 2025 to May 2026.
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 97% of this job's working time as physical work. For 87% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 81% in a purpose-built cell, 7% in a structured facility. 0.94 of 3, the 149th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 3%
- No robot shown 10%
- In a purpose-built cell 81%
- In a structured facility 7%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
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. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, PavePal P900 Floor Tile Paving Robot (Partner Robotics) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 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. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Alliance Automation four-robot gantry waterjet trimming cell (ABB IRB 2600 robots, RobotWare Cutting) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 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. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Scan + Grind system (ABB robot with FerRobotics AAK 617 Concrete end effector, integrated by accell GmbH) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 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. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Zünd G3 / D3 digital flatbed cutting systems (Zünd Cut Center software) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 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. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, WEINMANN WALLTEQ M-300/M-380/M-500 multifunction bridge with gluing unit (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 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. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Proliner digital templating feeding in-house CNC machining (Prodim (Proliner) / Foam Craft Floors) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 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. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, WEINMANN WALLTEQ M-300 multifunction bridge (HOMAG) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 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. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 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. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Black Bros. Panel Express rotary laminator (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 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. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, RoBuild flooring robot (RoBuild, Inc.) (demonstrated). Anthropic's rating. | 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. Robots: in a structured facility, Dusty Robotics FieldPrinter / FieldPrinter 2 (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 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. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 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).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 3% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 3% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Determine traffic areas and decide location of seams (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: 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; Trim excess covering materials, tack edges, and join sections of covering material to form tight joint; and Sweep, scrape, sand, or chip dirt and irregularities to clean base surfaces, correcting imperfections that may show through the covering. Together such tasks are about 97% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 97% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 87% of the working time, 7% in a structured facility. Its index is 0.94 of 3. One example: Dusty Robotics FieldPrinter / FieldPrinter 2 for "measure and mark guidelines on surfaces or foundations, using chalk lines and dividers". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 14 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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