A design-build laborer helps the firm's carpenters and subs on additions, remodels and new homes. They tear out old kitchens and baths, carry material in and trash out, and set up dust walls and floor covers. Before they go home, they leave the family's house clean.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Support design-build projects by assisting skilled trades, handling materials, and performing various basic tasks to ensure efficient project operations. Contribute to maintaining a safe, organized work environment while supporting cross-functional teams. Act as an essential team member promoting quality workmanship and customer satisfaction.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Assist experienced trades and craftsmen with on-site tasks to maintain project timelines.
Handle, distribute, and organize materials ensuring proper storage and availability when needed.
Prepare job sites by cleaning work areas and ensuring necessary equipment is in place.
Support various construction tasks including demolition, assembly, and installation procedures.
Follow safety protocols and adhere to company policies to maintain a compliant work environment.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Transport and unload materials and tools ensuring quick and efficient access for trades.
Provide basic labor support to skilled team members during project execution.
Perform routine site clean-up and organize materials to promote safety and efficiency.
Communicate with the project supervisor regarding material needs and task progress.
Material Handling Accuracy: Maintain error rate at <2% during material distribution and storage.
Safety Compliance: Sustain a 100% adherence rate to safety protocols and company policies.
Productivity Efficiency: Reach a productivity rate of at least 95% during daily shifts.
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
High School Diploma or equivalent required.
1-2 years of experience working in a construction or home services role preferred but not mandatory.
Strong work ethic, reliability, and ability to follow instructions accurately.
Excellent communication skills and basic math aptitude for measurements and material management.
6. Preferred Experience
Experience working on design-build projects or within construction environments.
Familiarity with basic hand and power tools used in general construction.
Previous laborer or helper role in the home services or renovation industry.
Exposure to safety protocols and standard job site practices.
7. Physical Requirements
Ability to lift and move materials up to 50 lbs regularly.
Perform repetitive physical tasks including bending, lifting, walking, and standing for extended periods.
Comfortable working in various environmental conditions including hot, cold, or confined spaces.
Capable of operating hand and power tools safely throughout the day.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Typical work hours are Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with occasional extended shifts as needed.
On-site work in a dynamic and occasionally unpredictable project setting.
Some outdoor work exposure is expected in various weather conditions.
Availability for occasional weekend work during high-volume project periods.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Hourly rate of $15 - $20 USD depending on experience and performance.
Eligibility for annual performance bonuses based on project success metrics.
Comprehensive Health, Dental, and Vision insurance plans available.
Participation in the company 401(k) plan and additional fringe benefits such as paid time off and professional development support.
10. Company Culture and Overview
We are a forward-thinking design-build firm that values innovation, teamwork, and continuous learning.
Our company fosters a culture of mutual respect and encourages career growth and skill development.
We pride ourselves on delivering top-notch service to our customers while nurturing a supportive work environment for our employees.
Join our team where your contributions help drive meaningful project outcomes and personal career achievements.
11. How to Apply
If you meet the above criteria and want to be part of a growth-oriented company focused on customer satisfaction, please send your resume to [INSERT EMAIL HERE] or apply online at [INSERT WEBSITE LINK HERE].
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Most days this helper works inside someone's home rather than on an open lot. The day starts with tearing out what's there and ends with a house clean enough for a family to live in that night.
Tear-out with the family a wall away
Most tear-outs happen while the family lives in the house. The helper sets the route first: runners from the door to the work, corner guards on stair rails and door frames, and plastic over anything the debris passes. Old cabinets and tubs leave that way in covered carts, straight to the dumpster, never across the lawn. Before leaving, the helper vacuums the work area, checks the plastic for gaps and clears the family's path to the bathroom.
Nothing gets cut until it's been checked
Walls and floors in an older house hide wires, gas lines and water pipes. Often no drawing shows them. A helper never cuts into a wall, ceiling or floor until the supervisor has checked what's behind it. Power, water or gas to that area gets shut off first. If a saw blade hits something odd, the helper stops and calls the supervisor. They don't yank it free.
Old floors need a test before tear-out
Before a helper pries up old sheet vinyl or square floor tiles, someone checks when the floor went in. OSHA's asbestos rule presumes asphalt or vinyl flooring laid in 1980 or before holds asbestos, unless an industrial hygienist's testing shows it doesn't. Pipe wrap and sprayed-on ceilings in houses built by then carry the same presumption. Taking up such a floor calls for at least eight hours of hands-on training, and no sanding, ripping up sheet goods or dry sweeping. Until results come back, the helper works around it. Source: eCFR: 29 CFR 1926.1101, asbestos in construction.
Breaking tile and concrete makes silica dust
Chipping out a mortar-bed tile floor, or a strip of basement slab for a new drain, makes silica dust. Table 1 of OSHA's silica rule lets the chipping hammer run with water sprayed where it strikes, or with a shroud and a vacuum dust collector. Indoors, either way, a respirator rated APF 10 or higher goes on too, even for a few minutes. Outdoors, the table adds one only when the shift's Table 1 work passes four hours. Afterward, the dust gets wetted down or HEPA-vacuumed rather than swept dry. Source: eCFR: 29 CFR 1926.1153, respirable crystalline silica in construction (Table 1).
How much design-build laborers make
The closest BLS group for design-build laborers is construction laborers. Construction laborers who work for building contractors earned a median of $22.97 an hour ($47,770 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $47,120 median for construction laborers in all industries. About 271,860 of the 1,096,780 construction laborers in that survey work for building contractors.
Hourly pay, plus the yearly bonus and benefits the template lists. By BLS figures for construction laborers at building contractors, a helper at the template's top rate still earns less than the typical laborer, and one at its starting rate less than nine in ten of them. Tie raises to skills a helper adds, such as hanging drywall or framing a wall, and see what local remodelers pay before you post the low end.
Building contractors
$47,770$47,770 median Middle half $39,230–$59,970 10th–90th $35,060–$76,790
All industries
$47,120$47,120 median Middle half $38,620–$59,740 10th–90th $35,090–$78,090
$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k$80k$90k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Building contractors
$35,060
$39,230
$47,770
$59,970
$76,790
All industries
$35,090
$38,620
$47,120
$59,740
$78,090
BLS doesn’t publish pay for design-build firms on their own. These figures cover construction of buildings, which include them. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
The pay line in the template above is an example from our Role Blueprint. Set yours from these figures and what local companies pay.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Keeps a family's house protected and clean while rooms are torn out
Stops and asks before cutting into a wall, a floor or an old material
Carries material through a finished house without marking walls or floors
Takes directions from a carpenter and asks why, so they learn the work
Wears a respirator, eye and hearing protection whenever the task calls for it
Teach these on the job
Setting up dust walls, floor protection and air scrubbers
The order for tearing out a kitchen, a bath or a drywall ceiling
Running a reciprocating saw, a chipping hammer and a HEPA vacuum
Spotting old flooring, pipe wrap and coatings that need testing first
Basic framing, drywall hanging and trim tasks
Helpers use pry bars, hammers, a reciprocating saw, a chipping hammer, a HEPA vacuum and dollies or carts for cabinets and appliances, then framing and drywall tools as they learn. At firms with a warehouse, floor protection and dust-wall gear often come out in kits.
Design-build laborer interview questions
Two of the 6 questions we'd ask, and what a strong answer sounds like. Ask every candidate the same questions, and rate each answer on your own before you compare notes.
Situational · Hidden utilities in demolition
You're told to take out a wall, and when you open it you see pipes and wires inside. What do you do?
A strong answer: Stops, tells the lead, and doesn't cut anything until someone confirms it's safe and there's a plan.
Behavioral · Care with property
Tell me about a time at work, school or volunteering when you took care with someone else's property.
A strong answer: Gives a real example with specific steps, such as covering floors, asking before moving things, and putting items back as found.
The field supervisor and the carpenters a helper works beside see these numbers best, so gather their notes house by house. A tear-out week and a trim week ask different things, so compare each helper with others on similar tasks.
On-Time Task Completion Rate
Each morning the lead carpenter sets the helper's list, such as a bath torn out by noon or the next day's drywall carried up. Count what was done by then, leaving out tasks a late sub or truck held up.
Material Handling Accuracy
Each dented door, cracked tile or gouged floor from carrying, plus items set in the wrong room or sent to the wrong house, divided by the loads the helper handled that week in the daily log.
Safety Compliance
The field supervisor's unannounced checks: plastic up before tear-out starts, respirator and glasses on for cutting and chipping, cords and debris clear of the family's path, and work stopped at suspect material.
Productivity Efficiency
Hours spent on assigned work against hours on the clock, from timecards and the daily log. Time spent waiting for direction or material goes against the plan, not the helper.
Career path
Design-build laborerHandles tear-out, dust protection and daily cleanup at the firm's houses.
CarpenterTakes on framing, drywall and trim after learning them as a helper.
Lead carpenterLeads the work at a single house and talks with the family on site.
Field supervisorAnswers for quality and daily progress at several houses at once.
Can someone under 18 work as a design-build helper?
Only with care. Under 16, federal child labor rules keep teens off construction sites altogether. Until 18, no one may work at a site where a building is being torn down in whole or in part, cleanup included. Framing a roof, trusses and sheathing included, and running or helping on a reciprocating or circular saw are barred too, unless the worker is an apprentice or student-learner who meets the rule's conditions. Tear-out fills much of a helper's week, so ask a lawyer or the Wage and Hour Division before scheduling a minor, and check your state's limits as well.
How much does a design-build laborer make?
Construction laborers who work for building contractors earned a median of $22.97 an hour ($47,770 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $39,230 and $59,970 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
What physical work does a design-build helper do?
The template's lines stay word for word. On these jobs they mean carrying cabinet boxes through a finished house, helping haul an old cast-iron tub out to the dumpster, and kneeling to pull up floor tile. They also mean working in an attic in July and crawling under a house beside a plumber. Give each task a line in the ad, with a rough idea of how often it comes up, and offer reasonable accommodation.
Who pays for a helper's safety gear?
The firm, for most of it. OSHA has employers provide the protective gear its rules call for at no cost, such as respirators, safety glasses, hearing protection and hard hats. The firm needn't pay for everyday clothes and work boots, or for gear worn only against cold and rain. Ordinary steel-toe boots and prescription safety eyewear are exempt too, when the firm lets workers wear them off the job. Worn-out or broken gear is replaced at the firm's cost, unless the worker lost it or damaged it on purpose.
What should a new helper learn in the first week?
How to set up and take down floor protection and dust walls, where debris goes at each house, which tools they may run and which they only carry, and how to spot old flooring or pipe wrap that needs a test. On a pre-1978 home where EPA's lead rule applies, the job's certified renovator must teach each worker the lead-safe practices their tasks call for. Pair them with one lead carpenter for the week, and have the field supervisor check their setup before their first tear-out.
