BusinessHABApprentice Carpentry work : Carpentry is a skilled trade in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials.
During the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc.
Carpenters traditionally worked with natural wood and did the rougher work such as framing.
But today many other materials are also used and sometimes the finer trades of cabinetmaking and furniture building are considered carpentry.
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In the Nigeria, 98.5% of carpenters are male.
And it was the fourth most male-dominated occupation in the country.
Carpenters are usually the first tradesmen on a job and the last to leave.
Carpenters normally framed post-and-beam buildings until the end of the 19th century.
Now this old fashioned carpentry is called timber framing.
Carpenters learn this trade by being employed through an apprenticeship training.
Normally 4 years—and qualify by successfully completing that country’s competence test.
It is also common that the skill can be learned by gaining work experience other than a formal training program, which may be the case in many places.
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Apprentice Carpentry work:
1. Training
Carpentry requires training which involves both acquiring knowledge and physical practice.
In formal training a carpenter begins as an apprentice.
Then becomes a journeyman, and with enough experience and competency can eventually attain the status of a master carpenter.
Today pre-apprenticeship training may be gained through non-union vocational programs such as high school shop classes and community colleges.
Informally a laborer may simply work alongside carpenters for years learning skills by observation and peripheral assistance.
While such an individual may obtain journeyman status by paying the union entry fee and obtaining a journeyman’s card.
Which provides the right to work on a union carpentry crew.
The carpenter foreman will, by necessity, dismiss any worker who presents the card but does not demonstrate the expected skill level.
Carpenters may work for an employer or be self-employed.
No matter what kind of training a carpenter has had, some states require contractors to be licensed which requires passing a written test and having minimum levels of insurance.
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Apprentice Carpentry work:
2. Carpentry schools and programs
Formal training in the carpentry trade is available in seminars, certificate programs, high-school programs, online classes, in the new construction, restoration, and preservation carpentry fields.
Sometimes these programs are called pre-apprenticeship training.
In the modern construction industry, carpenters are trained through apprenticeship schemes.
Where general certificates of secondary education (GCSE) in Mathematics, English, and Technology help but are not essential.
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However, this is deemed the preferred route, as young people can earn and gain field experience whilst training towards a nationally recognized qualification.
There are two main divisions of training:
Construction-carpentry and cabinetmaking.
During pre-apprenticeship, trainees in each of these divisions spend 30 hours a week for 12 weeks in classrooms.
And indoor workshops learning mathematics, trade terminology.
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And skill in the use of hand and power tools.
Construction-carpentry trainees also participate in calisthenics to prepare for the physical aspect of the work.
Upon completion of pre-apprenticeship, trainees who have successfully passed the graded curriculum.
Taught by highly experienced journeyman carpenters are assigned to a local union and to union carpentry crews at work on construction sites or in cabinet shops as First Year Apprentices.
Over the next four years, as they progress in status to Second Year, Third Year, and Fourth Year Apprentice, apprentices periodically return to the training facility every three months for a week of more detailed training in specific aspects of the trade.
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Apprentice Carpentry work:
3. Apprenticeships and Journeymen carpenters
Tradesmen in some countries required to fulfill a formal apprenticeship (usually three to four years).
To work as a professional carpenter.
Upon graduation from the apprenticeship, he or she is known as a journeyman carpenter.
Up through the 19th and even the early 20th century.
The journeyman traveled to another region of the country to learn the building styles and techniques of that area before (usually) returning home.
In modern times, journeymen are not required to travel, and the term now refers to a level of proficiency and skill.
Professional status as a journeyman carpenter in the some states may be obtained in a number of ways.
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Apprentice Carpentry work:
4. Master carpenter
After working as a journeyman for a while, a carpenter may go on to study or test as a master carpenter.
In some countries, such as Germany and Japan, this is an arduous and expensive process, requiring extensive knowledge (including economic and legal knowledge) and skill to achieve master certification.
These countries generally require master status for anyone employing and teaching apprentices in the craft.
In others, ‘master carpenter’ can be a loosely used term to describe any skilled carpenter.
Fully trained carpenters and joiners will often move into related trades such as shop fitting, scaffolding, bench joinery, maintenance and system installation.
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Apprentice Carpentry work:
5. Materials used
Carpenters traditionally worked with natural wood.
Which has been prepared by splitting (riving), hewning, or sawing with a pit saw or sawmill called lumber
or timber.
Today natural and engineered lumber and many other building materials carpenters may use are typically prepared by others and delivered to the job site.
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Apprentice Carpentry work:
6.Health and safety
Carpentry is often hazardous work.
Types of woodworking and carpentry hazards include
In general construction “employers must provide working conditions that are free of known dangers.
Keep floors in work areas in a clean and, so far as possible, a dry condition.
Select and provide required personal protective equipment at no cost to workers.
Train workers about job hazards in a language that they can understand.
Examples of how to prevent falls includes placing railings and toe-boards at any floor opening which cannot be well covered and elevated platforms and safety harness and lines, safety nets, stair railings and hand rails.
Safety is not just about the workers on the job site.
Carpenters work needs to meet the requirements in the Life Safety Code such as in stair building and building codes to promote long term quality and safety for the building occupants.
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Apprentice Carpentry work:
7.Types and occupations
A finish carpenter also called a joiner is one who does finish carpentry.
That is, cabinetry, furniture making, fine woodworking, model building, instrument making, parquetry, joinery.
Or other carpentry where exact joints and minimal margins of error are important.
Some large-scale construction may be of an exactitude and artistry that it is classed as finish carpentry.
A carpenter and joiner is one who has a much broader skill ranging from joinery, finishing carpentry, building construction and form work.
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A trim carpenter specializes in molding and trim, such as door and window casings, mantels, baseboards, and other types of ornamental work. Cabinet installers may also be referred to as trim carpenters.
A cabinetmaker is a carpenter who does fine and detailed work specializing in the making of cabinets made from wood, wardrobes, dressers, storage chests, and other furniture designed for storage.
A ship’s carpenter specializes in shipbuilding, maintenance, repair techniques and carpentry specific to nautical needs in addition to many other on-board tasks; usually the term refers to a carpenter who has a post on a specific ship. Steel warships as well as wooden ones need ship’s carpenters, especially for making emergency repairs in the case of battle or storm damage.
A shipwright builds wooden ships on land.
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A cooper is someone who makes barrels: wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth.
A scenic carpenter builds and dismantles temporary scenery and sets in film-making, television, and the theater.
A framer is a carpenter who builds the skeletal structure or wooden framework of buildings, most often in the platform framing method. Historically, balloon framing was used until the 1950s when fire safety concerns made platform framing inherently better. A carpenter who specializes in building with timbers rather than studs is known as a timber framer and does traditional timber framing with wooden joints, including mortise-and-tenon joinery, post and beam work with metal connectors, or pole building framing.
A luthier is someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments. The word luthier comes from the French word for lute, “luth”.
A log builder builds structures of stacked, horizontal logs including houses, barns, churches, fortifications, and more.
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A formwork carpenter creates the shuttering and falsework used in concrete construction.
In Japanese carpentry, daiku is the simple term for carpenter, a miya-daiku (temple carpenter) performs the work of both architect and builder of shrines and temples, and a sukiya-daiku works on teahouse construction and houses. Sashimono-shi build furniture and tateguya do interior finishing work.[18]
A restoration carpenter is a carpenter who works in historic building restoration, someone who restores a structure to a former state.
A conservation carpenter works in architectural conservation, known in the U.S. as a “preservation carpenter” who works in historic preservation, someone who keeps structures from changing.
Green carpentry is the specialization in the use of environmentally friendly, energy-efficient and sustainable sources of building materials for use in construction projects.
They also practice building methods that require using less material and material that has the same structural soundness.
Recycled (reclaimed, re purposed) carpentry is carpentry that uses scrap wood and parts of discarded or broken furniture to build new wood products.
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