One respected Biblical scholar claims the language issue has confused the actual occupation of Joseph and Jesus.
His reading of the Aramaic original is that the occupation is ‘stone worker’ or mason. That might be more reasonable and common in small village whose homes were known to be constructed largely of stone.
In either case, its more likely that the occupation was blue-collar than an elite architect in a poor village.
If he was a builder then his material was probably stone as wood was in short supply in the middle east. Carpenters would have been building doors and windows, and furnishings. Even today, 80% of the world population lives in stone built houses.