Annual Salary
£24,000 to £40,000
Average UK salary in 2024 was £37,430
(source Office for National Statistics)
Swap to Design or Fashion & textiles or go back to all job sectors or go to green jobs
Swap to Design or Fashion & textiles or go back to all job sectors or go to green jobs
Stonemasons carve and shape stone blocks, and lay and fit stonework on construction, conservation and restoration projects.
Average UK salary in 2024 was £37,430
(source Office for National Statistics)
You could work: between 8am and 6pm;
There will be
1.9% fewer Stonemason jobs in 2029.
As a stonemason, you could:
In this job, you'll work with materials like sandstone, limestone, slate, marble and granite.
You may need to wear safety clothing and use safety equipment.
You could work on a construction site, in a workshop or at a client's home.
Your working environment may be at height, dusty, noisy and physically demanding.
You can get into this job through:
You could take a college course, which would teach you some of the skills needed to get a trainee job with a building company.
Courses include:
You could apply to do a Stonemason Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship.
This apprenticeship has pathways for different types of stonemasonry work, for example:
This apprenticeship takes about 24 months to complete and is a mix of workplace learning and off-site study.
You'll usually need:
You could start as a construction labourer or bricklayer and take further training with your employer to get a qualification in stonemasonry.
You may be able to find short training courses in heritage skills by contacting organisations like The Historic England Foundation.
You'll find more information about careers in stonemasonry from Go Construct and the Stone Federation.
You can also get details about stonemasonry carving skills from the Crafts Council.
With experience, you could become a site supervisor or specialise in heritage conservation.
You could also move into related areas like:estimating; construction management; training apprentices in further education
In time, you might set up your own stonemasonry business.
Construction skills are important to retrofitting domestic buildings.
You'll find more on careers in stonemasonry from Go Construct and the Stone Federation.
Retrofit careers
Retrofitting includes a wide variety of jobs and skills that help to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings. When a property has been retrofitted it can retain heat for longer. This increases the comfort of a home whilst also lowering energy usage which can result in lowered energy costs and carbon emissions.
There are a wide variety of retrofitting jobs requiring lots of different skills including working in the construction industry.
For example in the West of England area Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) indicate that over 250,000 homes in the West of England require retrofitting. That’s a huge amount of retrofitting work over the next few years to meet our net zero targets. Have a look at these pathway maps to see how you can become a stonemason.
Stonemasons are needed to work on sustainable and low carbon building and construction projects in the West of England.
Stonemasonry skills are in demand for retrofitting commercial and domestic buildings. Have a look at these pathway maps to see different routes into becoming a stonemason.
Click here to find a local provider
Click here to search for a local apprenticeship
For more information on the different routes you can take to get into working as a stonemason, take a look at the 'Routes into this job' section above.
Click here for an explanation of the different course and apprenticeship levels.
For more local employment opportunities see the 'Live job vacancies by region' section above.
You'll need: