doubtedly this year’s results re-
vealed that the machinery is still no
substitute for human trade skills.

Of course, SPEC Mix Bricklayer
500 finalists achieve productivity
levels generally unseen on any ac-
tual construction site. As thou-
sands watched, the bricklayers
built a stretch of wall that the NYT
says “would be a day’s work for a
mason building at a normal pace.”
SAM machinery still cannot do
much more than lay brick in a
straight line, but automation may
have its place, as the National As-
sociation of Home Builders (NAHB)
says in a survey that nearly two-
thirds of bricklaying contractors are
struggling to find enough workers.

It takes three or four years of ap-
prenticeship for a person without
experience to fully qualify as a jour-
neyman. The automated equipment alter-
native is expensive and still scarce.

The machines cost about $400,000
each – prohibitively expensive for
smaller contractors, and the NYT
says there are so far only 11 of
them in use. As well, SAM still re-
quires less skilled workers “to load
its brick, refill its mortar and clean
up the joints of the bricks it lays.”
Of course, the equipment does-
n’t get sick, thirsty or tired. “It’s not
whether or not we win in the first
hour,” the NYT quoted Scott Peters,
president of Construction Robotics,
the maker of the machine, as say-
ing. “We’d just like to see them in
the fourth hour.”
Robotic equipment could ease
construction cost pressures, and
perhaps help the industry deal with
the labor shortage.

“The machines will never re-
place the human,” Buczkiewicz said
in the NYT interview. “They will
help down the road and they will
make it that we won’t need as
many workers, but given the short-
ages we’re seeing now, that’s prob-
ably a good thing.”
However, he added: “There’s a
human element to a craft that you
don’t get from a robot.”
And in North Carolina, at least,
young people who commit to the
apprenticeship process likely will
have long and lucrative careers
ahead. Click here for a related video.

2017-2018 edition
The North Carolina Construction News — March-April 2018 — 7