Structural Iron and Steel Workers

About the job

Raise, place, and unite iron or steel girders, columns, and other structural members to form completed structures or structural frameworks. May erect metal storage tanks and assemble prefabricated metal buildings.

What you'll do

• Assemble hoisting equipment or rigging, such as cables, pulleys, or hooks, to move heavy equipment or materials.
• Catch hot rivets in buckets and insert rivets in holes, using tongs.
• Dismantle structures or equipment.
• Drive drift pins through rivet holes to align rivet holes in structural steel members with corresponding holes in previously placed members.
• Erect metal or precast concrete components for structures, such as buildings, bridges, dams, towers, storage tanks, fences, or highway guard rails.
• Force structural steel members into final positions, using turnbuckles, crowbars, jacks, or hand tools.
• Hold rivets while riveters use air hammers to form heads on rivets.
• Insert sealing strips, wiring, insulating material, ladders, flanges, gauges, or valves, depending on types of structures being assembled.
• Place blocks under reinforcing bars used to reinforce floors.
• Unload and position prefabricated steel units for hoisting as needed.

Things you need to know

• Building and Construction – Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
• Production and Processing – Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
• Mechanical – Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
• Design – Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
• English Language – Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.

Abilities you'll need to have

• Operation and Control – Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
• Operation Monitoring – Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
• Coordination – Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.
• Judgment and Decision Making – Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
• Monitoring – Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Time Management – Managing one’s own time and the time of others.
• Critical Thinking – Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.