January 30, 2020

By Jaclyn Crawford

With DIY home renovations on the rise and heavily edited home improvement shows blurring the line between reality and entertainment, it’s easy for everyday Americans to misunderstand how much physical labor and hard-earned skill is required for most contractor jobs.

The questions remain: What sort of work is most physically grueling, and what’s hardest to learn and master? To find out, the team at CraftJack – which connects contractors to homeowners and designers – surveyed 1,609 contractors and 652 consumers, asking them to rank 32 types of contractor work.

Consumers and contractors agreed roofing and demolition are the most physically demanding trades. And while contractors voted carpentry as the third-most physically demanding trade, it barely cracked the top 10 for consumers.

Of course, muscle isn’t all you need on a job site. It takes many years of training, patience and humility to fully command some trades and consistently produce masterful work. So, we asked each group about what sort of work is most difficult to master. There was more agreement this time – both consumers and contractors rated electrical, carpentry, HVAC and cabinets/countertops as the most difficult to master.

Finally, we wanted to see which contractors find their own trade the most challenging, both in terms of physical demands and the threshold for mastery. Interestingly, contractors don’t believe painting, carpet cleaning and electrical work to be very physically demanding – unless it’s their specialty. On the other hand, carpentry was equally saluted by both carpenters and non-carpenters.

A similar pattern emerged when we asked about the trades most difficult to master. According to other contractors, electrical and HVAC are among the hardest to learn, but flooring and cleaning specialists were most likely to call their own crafts the toughest. Again, carpentry was viewed as one of the most difficult by both groups.

This study was produced by https://craftjack.com/.