Who licenses concrete contracting in Alabama
Concrete contracting in Alabama answers to two separate state boards, and which one you deal with depends on what you pour. Commercial and industrial concrete, site work, grading and paving sit with the Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors in Montgomery. The board defines a general contractor as anyone who constructs or superintends the construction, alteration, maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, remediation, reclamation or demolition of any building, highway, sewer, structure, site work, grading, paving or project where the cost of the undertaking, labor and materials included, is $100,000 or more. Site work, grading and paving are named in that definition, so a flatwork or foundation crew is squarely inside it once the contract hits the figure. Swimming pool construction crosses the line at $5,000 instead. Residential concrete is different. Slabs, footings, driveways and repairs on a house someone else will live in fall under the Home Builders Licensure Board, which licenses residential construction and remodeling under Title 34, Chapter 14A of the Code of Alabama. Its trigger is far lower than the general contractor board's. The general contractor board publishes its own scale. It reports 10,594 current licensees, 1,562 applications processed in fiscal year 2025 and 1,268 site visits in fiscal year 2025. Site visits matter to a concrete contractor more than they do to most trades, because a pour is visible from the street and a board investigator can see a crew working before a license is ever checked. Neither board issues a license that covers the other board's work, so a concrete contractor who does both commercial decks and residential driveways in Alabama can need both.
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The $100,000 line that decides whether you need the state license
The general contractor board draws its jurisdiction by contract value, not by trade. Below $100,000 in combined labor and materials, a concrete job does not require the state general contractor license. At $100,000 or more it does, and that applies to prime contractors and to subcontractors alike. The board states that subcontractors performing minimum contracts including labor and materials of $100,000, or $5,000 on swimming pools, under contract to a licensed prime contractor must be licensed by the board. The duty to check runs both ways. The board says it is the duty of the awarding authority to ascertain whether a contractor is duly licensed before permitting a bid or offer on a project involving $100,000 or more, and that architects, engineers and awarding authorities must put notice in bid specifications that a general contractors license is required before a prime can qualify to bid in Alabama. A prime contractor who awards a subcontract becomes an awarding authority itself. If a contract of $100,000 or more is awarded to an unlicensed contractor, or an unlicensed subcontractor is allowed to begin work, the board says the awarding authority, the contractor and the subcontractor are all in violation and subject to penalties. There is one timing allowance that concrete subcontractors use constantly. A prime contractor may receive bids from unlicensed subcontractors, but the subcontractor must be licensed before beginning work. The board repeats this on its application page: a subcontractor is allowed to bid to a general contractor but cannot start the job until licensed. Older application paperwork still on the board's own forms page carries a $50,000 figure in its subcontractor instructions, which were last revised in 2022. The board's current law page states $100,000. Work from the law page and call the board before relying on a printed form.
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Exemptions, and what changed on October 1, 2026
Section 34-8-7 of the Code of Alabama holds the exemptions from general contractor licensing and the subcontractor rules. The board announced that changes to Section 34-8-7 took effect October 1, 2026 under Act 2026-396. The board describes the changes as including an exemption for the construction and repair of residential swimming pools, plus new exemptions for certain routine or regular maintenance, repair, cleaning and facility support services. For a concrete contractor this is the most consequential recent change in Alabama, because a great deal of concrete work is maintenance and repair rather than new construction. Joint resealing, crack repair, patching a loading dock apron, grinding a trip hazard and periodic resurfacing all sit near the border of routine maintenance. The board is explicit that the border is not fully drawn. It says the law does not define every situation that may qualify as routine or regular maintenance, and that questions about specific projects should be addressed with the board before bidding on or beginning work. Treat that as a procedure, not a disclaimer. Get the board's view in writing before you bid a large repair program, because the penalty structure in Alabama reaches the awarding authority as well as the contractor, and a general contractor or facility owner who has been told the work is exempt will still want something to point at. The board's phone number for this is 334-272-5030. The residential swimming pool exemption also narrows what used to be the lowest threshold on the board's books. Commercial pool work and the $5,000 pool figure appear on the board's law page, so a pool deck or pool shell contractor should confirm with the board which side of the new exemption a given project sits on rather than reading across from the pre-October rule.
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Classifications that cover concrete, masonry and foundations
Alabama does not hand out one undifferentiated contractor license. The board classifies each applicant and issues a license certificate for the types of contracts the applicant may perform. The subcontractor application instructions state the rule plainly: the applicant will not be approved or permitted to perform types of work not included in the application, and the applicant must state on the application the classifications in which it has performed in prior years. The classifications that matter to concrete work are visible in the trade examinations the board's testing vendor administers. The candidate information bulletin for Alabama general contractors includes separate trade examinations for Concrete Contractor, Masonry Contractor, Foundations, Pilings, and Cofferdams with Retaining Walls Contractor, and Pre-Cast and Pre-Stressed Concrete Contractor. Related classifications a concrete crew often touches appear as well, including Sitework Contractor, Excavation and Grading, Hot and Cold Asphalt Plant Mix Paving Contractor, Highways and Streets Contractor, Hard Tile and Stone Contractor, Lath and Plaster Contractor, Special Coatings and Waterproofing Contractor and Structural and Miscellaneous Steel Contractor. Pick the classifications you actually intend to bid. The board's forms page warns that all amendment requests will require a trade exam for each classification being amended, so adding a classification later is not a paperwork change, it is another examination. A contractor who pours flatwork and also sets retaining walls should look at whether one classification covers both or whether two are needed before the application goes in. The public license roster shows classifications as codes next to each company name, such as BC for building construction, HS for highways and streets and MU for municipal and utility. That is how an owner, architect or general contractor will see your scope, which is a practical reason to get the classification list right at application rather than at amendment.
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Residential concrete and the Home Builders Licensure Board
If the concrete goes into a house, the Home Builders Licensure Board is the board that matters. Its statutory definition of a residential home builder covers a person who constructs a residence or structure for sale, or who for a fixed price, commission, fee or wage undertakes or offers to undertake the construction or superintending of the construction, or who manages, supervises, assists or provides consultation to a homeowner regarding construction, of any residence or structure not over three floors in height and with no more than four residential units, or the repair, improvement or reimprovement of one, to be used by another as a residence, when the cost of the undertaking exceeds ten thousand dollars ($10,000). The same definition sets a lower figure for residential roofers, who are covered above two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500). The citation the board gives is Ala. Code section 34-14A-2(16). Read the words "repair, improvement, or reimprovement." A tear-out and replacement driveway, a new patio slab, underpinning a settled footing or a garage floor replacement on an existing home is residential home building once the price passes $10,000, even though nobody is building a house. The definition also exempts a person performing these acts on his or her own residence or other real estate holdings, which is why an investor pouring on property he owns sits outside it. The board's own stated mission is consumer protection in residential construction and remodeling. Its consumer pages carry a license lookup, a complaint procedure, a disciplinary actions list and a Homeowners Recovery Fund, and the board runs a Builder Watch Hotline at 1-800-304-0853 for anonymous reports of unlawful residential construction. A residential concrete contractor working above $10,000 is inside that system whether or not it thinks of itself as a home builder.
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Prime license, subcontractor license, or both
The general contractor board issues two different licenses and charges two different application fees. The prime contractor application carries a $300 fee. The subcontractor application carries a $150 fee. Both fees are non-refundable and non-transferable, and the prime instructions require a cashier's check or money order, warning that personal or company checks will be returned. The applications are not scaled versions of each other. The prime application has to be on file 30 days before a board meeting, and board meetings are quarterly. Every prime must take the Business and Law examination administered by the board's testing vendor. Prime applicants submit a current financial statement, proof of liability insurance, a Secretary of State entity print screen, a Qualifying Party form, three work references, a principal individual questionnaire for anyone whose experience is being counted, and an organizational chart. The subcontractor application is lighter. The board says it must be completed in its entirety with no attachments necessary, beyond three references from general contractors, architects, engineers or awarding authorities for work you have completed. The board's own illustration of an acceptable reference is a masonry subcontractor who supplied the masonry brick for a 4,000 square foot office building under a prime contractor, which tells you the level of detail expected: who you worked for, where, what you did, the contract amount and the date. Which one you need follows your position on the job. A concrete contractor who contracts directly with the owner on a $100,000 or larger project needs the prime license. A concrete contractor working under a licensed prime at that value needs the subcontractor license. A contractor who does both needs the prime license, and the board treats the prime license as the one carrying financial scrutiny and a bid limit.
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Experience, references and the financial proof behind a bid limit
Alabama does not publish a flat number of years of experience for a concrete classification. Instead the board reviews what you submit. The prime instructions say the work experience section is very important, that the board will review the information to determine your level of experience within each classification requested, and that a principal individual questionnaire should be included for anyone whose experience is being considered. References must be commercial or industrial work completed in prior years in the classifications requested, and they must be completed by individuals who supervised that work. The financial side is where prime applicants get stopped. The board treats current financial information as no more than one year old at submission. It accepts an audited, reviewed or compiled financial statement prepared under generally accepted accounting principles by a Certified Public Accountant or a Licensed Public Accountant approved by the board, and it accepts the Alabama Department of Transportation booklet. Cash basis and tax basis statements are not acceptable, old confidential financial statement booklets are not acceptable, and the instructions state flatly that deficits are not acceptable. The entry requirement is a minimum net worth and working capital of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00). Once both minimums are met, a line of credit from a state or federal chartered bank or savings association may be used to raise working capital to the level of net worth, and a personal or parent company financial statement may be used to raise the bid limit by one step. If a parent company statement is used, no company listed in it may hold a license with this board, and a Guaranty Agreement from the board's forms page must be completed. A bid limit increase request form is also on the forms page, so the bid limit is something a growing concrete contractor revisits rather than sets once.
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The examinations a concrete contractor takes
The board requires two kinds of test. Its testing page states that any application received January 22, 2008 forward requires a trade examination as well as the Business and Law examination. The examinations are administered by PSI, whose Alabama construction program the board links from that page, and the candidate information bulletin sets out each examination. The Business and Law examination, formerly called the general contractor examination, is required of all general contractors. It runs 50 questions with a minimum passing score of 70 percent and 120 minutes allowed. Its content outline weights licensing at 8 items, payroll and taxes at 6, contracts at 6, estimating and bidding at 5, financial at 5, personnel and labor at 5, risk management at 4, safety recordkeeping and environmental at 4, project management at 3, liens at 2 and business organization at 2. It is open book, with the NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business Law and Project Management, Alabama General, third edition, allowed in the examination center. The Concrete Contractor trade examination is 60 questions, 150 minutes, with a minimum passing score of 70 percent, which the bulletin states as 42 correct. Its content outline is General Concrete 16 items, Layout and Excavation 12, Estimating and Plan Reading 10, Formwork 8, Reinforcing Steel 8 and Safety 6. It is open book. The Masonry Contractor examination is also 60 questions at 70 percent, 42 correct, with 180 minutes allowed. The Foundations, Pilings, and Cofferdams with Retaining Walls examination is 50 questions at 70 percent, 35 correct, with 130 minutes allowed, and its outline includes concrete, concrete formwork, pre-cast pre-stressed concrete erecting, piles, excavation and grading, erosion and sedimentation control and one call.
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What the state charges
The published fees for the general contractor license are short and specific. The prime contractor application fee is $300.00. The subcontractor application fee is $150.00. Both are stated as non-refundable and non-transferable, and the prime instructions require a cashier's check or money order payable to the Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors. Examination fees are separate and go to the testing vendor. The candidate information bulletin sets $96 per examination, with $106 per examination only for AL Building Construction (Commercial), AL Highways and Streets Contractor, AL Municipal and Utility Contractor and AL Heavy Railroad Construction. The Concrete Contractor, Masonry Contractor and Foundations, Pilings, and Cofferdams examinations are not in that higher group, so a concrete contractor is paying the $96 rate per examination, once for the trade exam and once for Business and Law. Renewal fees are lower than application fees. The board's renewal schedule lists $200 for a prime license and $100 for a subcontractor license in every renewal month. On the residential side, the Home Builders Licensure Board charges $25 for a mailed application package, payable by check or money order, and states that the package can be downloaded free from its website instead. Its instructions say the completed notarized application is returned with payment for the application processing fee and the applicable license fee, which are separate amounts not published on that page. Budget for the costs the state does not charge but does require. A prime applicant pays a CPA or Licensed Public Accountant for an audited, reviewed or compiled financial statement, and may pay a bank for a line of credit letter. A residential applicant pays a credit reporting agency to send a current credit report directly to the board.
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Insurance, bonds and workers compensation
The general contractor board requires insurance but does not publish a minimum limit. Its prime application instructions say proof of current liability insurance must be submitted with the application, that the name of the insured must match the applicant name on the application, and that the certificate holder must be listed as the Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors, 445 Dexter Ave, Suite 3060, Montgomery, AL 36104. Ask your agent for the certificate in exactly that form, because a mismatch between the insured name and the applicant name is a common reason an application sits. Bonding is handled differently by the two boards. The general contractor board's financial test is a net worth and working capital test rather than a surety bond. The Home Builders Licensure Board requires a $10,000 License/Permit Bond naming the board as obligee, submitted directly to the board by the surety, for a Roofers License. For an unlimited or limited residential license the board substitutes a current credit report sent to it directly by a credit reporting agency. Workers compensation is a separate statute and the exemption has a construction carve-out that hits concrete crews directly. The Alabama Department of Labor states that an employer who regularly employs fewer than five employees, full-time or part-time and including corporate officers, in any one business is not required to carry workers compensation coverage, other than the business of constructing or assisting on-site in the construction of new single-family, detached residential dwellings. A three-man crew forming and pouring footings and slabs for new detached houses does not get the small-employer exemption. The department also lists domestic employees, farm laborers and casual employees as outside the requirement, and runs a claims and coverage line at 1-800-528-5166.
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Renewal, late renewal and continuing education
The general contractor board renews on a staggered schedule keyed to the first letter of the company name, which is unusual and easy to get wrong. Companies starting with I, J, K or L renew in March; M or N in April; O, P, Q or R in May; S in June; T through Z in July; G or H in August; D, E or F in September; C in October; B in November; and A in December. The fee in every month is $200 for a prime license and $100 for a subcontractor license. Two timing rules bracket that. Renewal forms are available online only and are no longer mailed to licensees, and any renewal submitted more than 45 days before the license expires may be returned. At the other end, the board warns that if you fail to renew within a year from your expiration date, you will be required to submit a new application and to retake the trade examinations along with the Business and Law examination. For a concrete contractor that means a lapse past twelve months costs the $300 or $150 application fee, the examination fees and the board meeting wait, not a late charge. The general contractor board does not publish a continuing education requirement for its license. The Home Builders Licensure Board does. It states that all of its licensees must complete six hours of continuing education before a renewal license can be issued, whatever license type they hold, and that for a corporate entity the designated qualifying representative completes it. It advises finishing before October 1 so the license issues faster, notes that no action is needed to claim the first-time exemption, and says an inactive licensee must complete continuing education to return to active status.
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Reciprocity for out-of-state concrete contractors
Alabama recognizes five states for general contractor reciprocity: Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and North Carolina. The board's reciprocity page sets the terms. An applicant holding a license in good standing in a comparable classification in a recognized reciprocity state may have the trade portion of the examination waived upon written certification from the state where the applicant is licensed. The business law portion is not waived. The proposed qualified individual for the applicant must be the same individual already qualified for the license the reciprocal state issued. All other Alabama licensing requirements still apply, and the application must be in the board's office for 30 days before a license issues through reciprocity. The application page adds the holding period: applicants must be licensed for one year with the same classification being requested in Alabama. The prime application instructions name the specific agencies, listing the Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee general contractors boards and the North Carolina State Board of Electrical Contractors, and repeat that the qualifying party for Alabama must be the same as the qualifying party for the reciprocal state. The Out of State License Verification form is part of the prime application and is also on the board's forms page; you complete the top portion and send it to the reciprocal board. Note what reciprocity does not do for a concrete contractor. It waives a trade examination, not the financial statement, not the liability insurance certificate, not the Secretary of State registration and not the 30-day wait. A Mississippi or Tennessee concrete contractor crossing into Alabama for one large pour still assembles most of the file. Residential work carries no equivalent published reciprocity on the Home Builders Licensure Board's how-to-get-licensed page.
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Penalties for unlicensed concrete work
The two boards publish different enforcement pictures, and the residential one is the blunter of the two. The Home Builders Licensure Board states that any person who undertakes or attempts to undertake the business of residential home building without a current and valid residential home builders license, or who knowingly files false information with the board to obtain a license, or who violates any law or code adopted by a county commission under the chapter, is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor, citing Ala. Code section 34-14A (14)(a). Its home page carries the warning that law enforcement may charge unlicensed homebuilders with a felony. Once an unlicensed builder is identified, the board says it can fine the unlicensed builder up to $5,000.00, stop the work, or pursue criminal charges. Reports reach the board through an unlicensed builder information form from a homeowner, an unlicensed builder tip form from anyone else, or the Builder Watch Hotline at 1-800-304-0853. On the commercial side, the general contractor board lists Section 34-8-6 of the Code of Alabama as prohibited acts and penalties and Section 34-8-10 as indictment or complaint. The exposure is not limited to the unlicensed contractor. The board states that where a contract of $100,000 or more including material and labor is awarded to an unlicensed contractor, or an unlicensed subcontractor is allowed to begin work, the awarding authority, contractor and subcontractor are all in violation and subject to penalties. Since a prime awarding a concrete subcontract becomes an awarding authority, an unlicensed concrete sub puts the general contractor in the same sentence. There is a money consequence on the residential side too. The Homeowners Recovery Fund only reaches licensed builders, so a homeowner who hires unlicensed has no claim on it.
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The city and county layer in Birmingham, Mobile and the rest
A state license is not a business license in Alabama, and the general contractor board says so in its own instructions: obtaining your general contractor license does not exempt you or your company from any other laws, boards or commissions, and the privilege license required by the state and county is separate from the board's license to contract. The Alabama Department of Revenue's Business and License division oversees and coordinates the issuance of state and county business privilege licenses, which are obtained through the county probate office, and the division also points to municipal business licenses. Mobile is the clearest published example of a city adding a requirement on top of the state. The city requires a business license for any person, firm or entity conducting business from, into or within the City of Mobile and its police jurisdiction. Its application flow has a Contractor business type with separate Home Builders and General Contractors applications, and it states the requirement directly: you must have an Alabama Home Builders License and a Surety Bond, with Build Mobile reachable at 251-208-5894 for questions. Applicants also obtain a zoning clearance that must be attached before the application is processed. All Mobile business licenses expire December 31 regardless of when in the year they were issued, are due by January 1 and are delinquent after January 31. Birmingham splits the two functions across departments. The Tax and License Administration Division collects license fees and takes applications for new non-controlled business licenses daily at Room TL-100, City Hall, 710 North 20th Street, and publishes a Schedule of Business Licenses and a supplemental documentation checklist. Permits run through the Department of Planning, Engineering and Permits, which operates an Online Permit Center and an interactive Permit Guide, reachable at 205-254-2904.
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Advertising, what you may call yourself, and how a customer checks
Alabama's residential statute treats advertising as the act itself. The Home Builders Licensure Board quotes the definition of residential home builder and ends it this way: anyone who engages or offers to engage in any acts described in that subdivision, through advertising or otherwise, shall be deemed to have engaged in the business of residential home building. A website, a truck wrap or a yard sign offering driveway replacement or foundation repair on homes is an offer to engage. You do not need to have poured anything to be inside the definition. What you may claim is bounded by your classification. The general contractor board's subcontractor instructions state that the applicant will not be approved or permitted to perform types of work not included in the application. The public roster then publishes your classifications in plain language next to your name, with codes such as BC for building construction and HS for highways and streets, so an owner or architect can see whether your license covers what your advertising says it does. Verification is public and easy, which is the practical point. The general contractor board's License Verification Search at licensesearch.alabama.gov/genconbd lists name, license number, city, state, specialty and phone number, has a single search box that filters across every column, offers a details link and a report link per licensee, and provides the whole list as a CSV download. The Home Builders Licensure Board's consumer pages carry their own Look Up a License tool and a disciplinary actions list, and tell consumers to call 1-800-304-0853 if a builder does not appear on the web list. Put your license number and classification where a customer can match them to those records.
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