Missouri · Concrete licensing · official-source guide
Missouri issues no statewide concrete contractor license. Authority sits with cities and counties: the Kansas City Permits Division inside City Planning and Development, and the St. Louis License Collector, which requires every contractor and subcontractor working in the city to hold a Construction Industry Contractor Graduated Business License. Workers compensation proof is required before any city license issues.
State-level license
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Public lookup
Not published
Verified against agency sources on 2026-10-26. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Missouri has no state board that licenses concrete flatwork, foundation or masonry contractors. There is no statewide concrete license number, no state exam and no state classification to apply for. Authority sits with cities and counties. Kansas City says so plainly: its City Planning and Development Department's Permits Division administers contractor licensing, certification, registration and renewals within Kansas City, Missouri. The City of St. Louis runs a separate system through the Office of the License Collector, which requires all contractors and subcontractors performing work or services inside the city to hold a graduated business license for contractors under Ordinance 61094, Section 8.12A of the Revised City Code of 1992. Springfield requires a city-licensed general contractor or the appropriate licensed trade professional to be named on a permit before that permit can be issued. Those three systems do not talk to each other. A concrete contractor pouring driveways in Kansas City and footings in St. Louis holds two separate municipal authorizations, renewed on two separate calendars, under two separate fee structures. Nothing issued by one city carries into the next. Plan the paperwork municipality by municipality, starting with the cities where you actually bid. The practical consequence for a concrete business is that your license is a stack of local registrations plus state tax and insurance compliance, not one certificate from one agency. When a homeowner asks whether you are licensed, the honest answer names the city that licensed you. When a general contractor asks for your license number on a bid sheet, the number they want is the one issued by the jurisdiction where the slab is going in, and no other.
Sourcesbizcare.kcmo.gov 1stlouis-mo.gov 2springfieldmo.gov 3
Kansas City publishes the trades it certifies. The list covers demolition supervisors, electrical supervisors and master electricians, elevator supervisors, fire protection supervisors, gas-fired appliance supervisors, mechanical supervisors and master pipe fitters, operating engineers and steam operating engineers, the two plumbing certifications, residential building supervisors, and sign supervisors. Concrete, flatwork, masonry and foundation work appear nowhere on that list as their own certificate. That absence cuts two ways. A concrete subcontractor does not sit for a Kansas City concrete trade exam, because the city does not offer one. The work still cannot be permitted by an unlicensed business. Kansas City states that contractors performing regulated work within the city must obtain the appropriate licenses before pulling permits or performing work, and ties that to the Kansas City Building and Rehabilitation Code. In practice a concrete business working on one- and two-family dwellings and townhomes runs into the Residential Building Supervisor certification, which covers construction, alteration and repair work on those buildings and is tested on residential building codes, construction methods, structural requirements and life-safety standards. A foundation contractor whose scope includes the structural shell of a house is doing exactly that work. A flatwork contractor pouring a private driveway or patio may instead be covered by the general contractor who holds the permit. Ask the Permits Division which path your scope falls under before you bid, because guessing wrong stops the permit, not just the paperwork. The Permits Division sits at 414 East 12th Street on the fifth floor and takes walk-in customers Monday through Friday.
Sourcesbizcare.kcmo.gov
Kansas City runs contractor licensing as three stages in a fixed order. Stage one is a Kansas City business license. The city offers three routes: the QuickTax system for online registration, the RD-100 Registration Application by fax or mail, or an in-person visit to City Hall at 414 East 12th Street between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM, which gets the license issued on the spot. The two remote routes take seven to ten business days to process. For a concrete crew that wants to start pouring next week, the counter visit is the difference between bidding and waiting. Stage two is a Certificate of Qualification, which Kansas City also calls a professional license, in the trade or trades the business will perform. That application goes through CompassKC and must be submitted by the qualified individual or supervisor personally, not by the company. Required reference letters and trade requirements are published on the city's contractor licensing page. Stage three is the contractor license for the business itself, also filed through CompassKC, and it cannot be filed until both the business license and the Certificate of Qualification exist. Renewal follows the same dependency: the Kansas City business license has to be renewed before the contractor license can be renewed. Let the business license lapse and the contractor license cannot be brought current, which means no permits, which means a stalled slab and an idle pump truck. Build both renewal dates into one calendar reminder. The Permits Division answers at (816) 513-1500, extension 1, option 2.
Sourcesbizcare.kcmo.gov
The City of St. Louis licenses concrete contractors through tax law rather than trade testing. The License Collector's office states that all contractors and subcontractors performing work or services within the City of St. Louis are required to obtain a graduated business license for contractors under Ordinance 61094, which is Section 8.12A of the Revised City Code of 1992. The city classifies the work as a Construction Industry Contractor Graduated Business License. There is no concrete exam, no experience affidavit and no trade classification. What the city checks instead is clearances. Step one is a Missouri sales tax number from the Department of Revenue if the business sells a product. Step two is the graduated business license form, filed in person at the License Collector's office in Room 104 of City Hall, with a copy of a current driver's license. Step three is a statement of clearance from the Collector of Revenue in Room 410, required by Ordinance 63454 and Chapter 8.02.010 of the Revised City Code. Step four is an occupancy permit from the Building Division in Room 425. Step five is proof of workers compensation coverage, or a signed statement that the business is not required by law to carry it. One line in the city's own instructions affects every concrete sub in St. Louis: all general contractors are required to furnish a list of the subcontractors on any job to the License Collector. Your name reaches the city whether or not you filed anything yourself. Sitting on that list without a license of your own is an exposed position.
St. Louis prices the contractor license by headcount, not by revenue or job size. Ordinance 60643 imposes a graduated business license tax on businesses that are not exempt from payment of a license by law, and the city calculates it from the licensee's number of St. Louis employees during the previous calendar year. A new business starting between June 1 and January 1 pays an initial fee of $200.00. A new business starting after January 1 and up to May 31 pays $100.00. Renewals follow a published schedule. A concrete business with zero to two St. Louis employees pays $200. Three to five pays $325. Six to ten pays $675. Eleven to twenty pays $1,500. Twenty-one to thirty pays $2,250. Thirty-one to forty pays $3,000. Forty-one to fifty pays $4,500. Fifty-one to seventy-five pays $7,500. The schedule continues upward from there. The counting rule is specific and worth reading before you estimate the bill. A St. Louis employee is a person performing work for remuneration who is employed for 1,920 hours or more in any calendar year, and owners, partners and officers count. Two or more part-time workers who together reach 1,920 hours in a calendar year count as one full-time equivalent. Seasonal concrete crews that run heavy from April to October can cross a bracket without anyone noticing. The license term runs June 1 through May 31 and must be renewed and paid before June 1 to avoid penalties provided by law. A separate graduated business license is required for each business location or trade name.
A St. Louis business license is permission to operate. A permit is permission to build, and the two come from different offices. The Building Division's Permits Section handles building permits, occupancy permits and trade permits. The trade permits the city lists are electrical, plumbing, mechanical and demolition. Concrete is not among them, which tells a concrete contractor where the work lands: under a building permit, or under a demolition permit when an existing slab, foundation wall or retaining structure comes out first. The Building Division describes a building permit as formal and legal authorization to start construction work on a property. That phrasing matters on a tearout and repour. Breaking out an old driveway and setting forms in the same week can touch two permit types. Occupancy permits are a second trap for concrete contractors in St. Louis, because the License Collector requires an occupancy permit from the Building Division as part of the business license application itself. The permit for your own shop or yard is a prerequisite to the license that lets you pour anywhere in the city. The Building Division can be reached at (314) 622-3313 and sits in Room 425 of City Hall at 1200 Market Street. The division also publishes a building permit search by address, which lets anyone pull the permits previously issued on a property. Use it before you bid a foundation repair or a basement slab, because the permit history tells you what was done on paper and what was never pulled at all. It also tells you which inspections a prior contractor skipped.
Springfield handles concrete through its own contractor licensing, and the rule is written around the permit rather than the trade. The city's Building Development Services division states that a city-licensed general contractor or the appropriate licensed trade professional must be listed on the permit before the permit can be issued. Plan review and approval may occur before a contractor is named, so a design can clear while the bid is still open, but nothing gets issued until a licensed general contractor or trade master is on the document. For most permits Springfield expects a licensed master in the applicable trade to be listed. Concrete flatwork, footings and foundation walls generally travel under the general contractor license rather than a separate concrete master, which makes the general contractor license the one a Springfield concrete business cares about, or makes it the general contractor's license that has to carry your work. There is a homeowner exception, and it is narrow: it may apply to permits obtained by a homeowner for work on a residence they personally occupy. It does not extend to the contractor they hire. Springfield also warns that not all permits can be issued to a homeowner and that some types of work require a licensed contractor to obtain the permit and perform the work. The city has adopted the 2018 International Building Code, the 2018 International Residential Code, the 2018 International Existing Building Code and the 2017 National Electrical Code, among others, under Section 36-100 of the city code. Those adopted codes are what your footing depths, reinforcement and slab details get inspected against.
Sourcesspringfieldmo.gov
Workers compensation is where Missouri concrete contractors get caught, because the construction threshold is not the general one. The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations states that an employer in Missouri must carry workers compensation insurance with five or more employees, unless the employer is in the construction industry, in which case coverage is required with one or more employees. A concrete business with a single finisher on payroll is inside the mandate. The department also sets out who counts. Sole proprietors and partners are not themselves covered unless they elect to be covered. Close family member employees and members of a limited liability company are presumed to be covered unless they opt out. That presumption surprises family concrete operations that assumed a brother on the crew sat outside the policy. Employers below the threshold or with employees in exempt categories may elect to come under the law and carry coverage. The department is direct about the alternative: exempt employers that decide not to purchase workers compensation insurance or to self-insure remain exposed to civil lawsuits brought by employees who are injured during work. On a concrete job the injury exposure is not theoretical. After an injury the worker should notify the employer in writing with the date, time, place and nature of the injury. The employer must then report the injury to the insurance company or third party administrator within five days of the date of injury or within five days of being told about it, whichever is later. The insurer or administrator files a First Report of Injury with the division within thirty days of knowledge of the injury.
Sourceslabor.mo.gov
Section 287.061 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri is the hinge between insurance and the city license, and it applies statewide. Any city or county that issues an occupational or business license for a contractor in the construction industry must require either a certificate of insurance for workers compensation coverage or an affidavit, on a form developed by the division, signed by the applicant attesting that the contractor is exempt. The statute then states the consequence: any contractor who fails to comply shall be denied such a license until he or she furnishes a certificate of insurance. There is no discretion for the clerk at the counter. A concrete contractor who files in St. Louis or any other Missouri city without one of those two documents goes home without a license. The statute also limits what the city has to do. No city or county has the duty to investigate any certificate of insurance or affidavit filed under the section, and nothing in the section creates a liability or a cause of action against the city over issuing a license. Read that as a warning rather than a convenience. The city is not checking your math, so an affidavit claiming exemption that does not match your payroll is not caught at filing. It is caught later, by a claim. Providing fraudulent information under the section is unlawful under Section 287.128. The City of St. Louis quotes this statute directly in its contractor license instructions and offers an affidavit of exemption for applicants genuinely outside the requirement. Read the exemption list before you sign that affidavit, not after.
Missouri attaches a written notice requirement to the lien rights a concrete contractor depends on to get paid. Section 429.012 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri requires every original contractor who performs work or furnishes material for a building, erection or improvement on land to give the person they contracted with, or the owner if there is no contract, a written notice before receiving payment in any form of any kind. The notice must carry a disclosure in ten-point bold type headed NOTICE TO OWNER, telling the owner that failure of the contractor to pay those supplying material or services can result in a mechanic's lien on the property, that the owner may ask the contractor for lien waivers from all persons supplying material or services, and that failure to secure lien waivers may result in paying for labor and material twice. Timing is fixed by the statute. The notice goes out at the execution of the contract, when materials are delivered, when the work is commenced, or delivered with the first invoice. The statute then makes compliance a condition precedent to the creation, existence or validity of any mechanic's lien in favor of that original contractor. Skip the notice and the lien is not weak, it does not exist. For a concrete contractor who signs directly with a homeowner on a driveway, a patio or a foundation repair, that notice is the only thing keeping a lien available when the final check does not come. The penalties run further. Failing to provide the notice with intent to defraud is a class B misdemeanor, and knowingly issuing a fraudulent lien waiver or a false affidavit is a class D felony. The statute carries an exception for new residences.
Sourcesrevisor.mo.gov
Missouri does not require a concrete contractor to print a state license number on trucks, yard signs, written estimates or a website, because there is no state license number to print. What the state does regulate is the claim itself. Section 407.020 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri declares it an unlawful practice to use any deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise, misrepresentation, unfair practice, or the concealment, suppression or omission of any material fact in connection with the sale or advertisement of any merchandise in trade or commerce in or from the state of Missouri. The statute closes the obvious gap: an act declared unlawful by that subsection violates it whether committed before, during or after the sale, advertisement or solicitation. For concrete marketing that draws a bright line. Calling yourself state licensed or state certified in Missouri, when no state concrete license exists, is a misrepresentation in connection with the advertisement of a service. So is implying that a Kansas City contractor license covers a pour in the City of St. Louis. Staying quiet about a lapsed city license is omission of a material fact. Safe wording describes what you actually hold and where: licensed in the City of St. Louis, or holding a Kansas City contractor license, naming the city each time. Where you do hold a city license number, putting it on estimates and on the truck is a selling advantage rather than a legal duty, because it lets the customer check you in the city's own records while they are still deciding. The Attorney General's Consumer Protection Section enforces the Merchandising Practices Act and has authority to initiate both civil and criminal prosecutions.
Sourcesrevisor.mo.gov 1ago.mo.gov 2
Out-of-state concrete crews hit a Missouri requirement that has nothing to do with licensing. Section 285.230 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri defines a transient employer as an employer paying taxable wages who is not domiciled in Missouri and who temporarily transacts any business within the state, with the transaction of business treated as temporary whenever it cannot reasonably be expected to continue for twenty-four consecutive months. Every transient employer must file a financial assurance instrument with the director of revenue. It can be a cash bond, a surety bond or an irrevocable letter of credit issued by a state or federal financial institution. The amount must be at least the average estimated quarterly withholding tax liability of the applicant, but in no case less than five thousand dollars and no more than twenty-five thousand dollars. Missouri is the obligee and the employer is the principal obligor. There is an exemption worth knowing in the Kansas City metro, where crews cross the state line daily. An employer does not have to file the instrument if its principal place of business is in a county of another state contiguous to Missouri, it has been under contract to perform work in Missouri for at least sixty days cumulatively out of twelve months during each of the two calendar years immediately preceding its initial application, and it holds a tax clearance from the Department of Revenue and the Division of Employment Security. The clearance has to be renewed on or before January thirty-first each year. The penalties are real. Failure to file is a class A misdemeanor. A corporation may be fined up to five thousand dollars or twice what it profited. The employer cannot perform on the contract until it complies, and is barred from public works projects in Missouri for one year.
Sourcesrevisor.mo.gov
Public concrete work in Missouri carries two requirements that a private driveway does not. The first is prevailing wage. The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations states that Missouri's Prevailing Wage Law establishes a minimum wage rate for public works projects in Missouri valued over $75,000, and gives bridges, roads and government buildings as examples. The law applies to all public works projects constructed by or on behalf of state and local public bodies, and the rates must be incorporated into contract specifications for all public works jobs. The rate is a floor, not a ceiling: employees are free to bargain for a higher rate and employers are free to pay one. Rates differ by county and for different types of work, so a flatwork rate in one county is not the rate in the next. The Division of Labor Standards releases a final Annual Wage Order by July 1 each year listing the rates in each county for the applicable occupational categories, calculated from contractor wage surveys that contractors submit voluntarily. Bid a public sidewalk, curb or approach job off last year's order and the difference comes out of your margin. The second requirement is a work authorization affidavit. Section 285.530 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri prohibits any business entity or employer from knowingly employing an unauthorized alien to perform work within the state. As a condition for the award of any contract or grant in excess of five thousand dollars by the state or by any political subdivision, the business entity must affirm by sworn affidavit, with documentation, its enrollment and participation in a federal work authorization program for the employees working on the contracted services, and must sign an affidavit that it does not knowingly employ an unauthorized alien on that work. Those affidavits are provided annually.
Before a Missouri city will license a concrete business, the state wants it registered. The Missouri Department of Revenue requires a business to obtain a sales tax license by registering with the department if it is making sales of tangible personal property and taxable services. A business should also register if it is a corporation responsible for filing and paying corporate tax, or if it has employees and is required to remit withholding tax. A concrete business with a crew on payroll meets the withholding test whether or not it sells anything over a counter. Registration runs through the department's online registration system or the Missouri Tax Registration Application, Form 2643. Business Tax Registration can be reached at businesstaxregister@dor.mo.gov or 573-751-5860. The order of operations is set by the cities rather than the state. The City of St. Louis instructs contractors to register with the State of Missouri for a state sales tax number and obtain that number before visiting City Hall, and to proceed to the next step only if they are not selling a product. Kansas City puts its own business license first in the sequence and the trade Certificate of Qualification second. Either way, state registration and city filings are not parallel tracks. Get the state numbers, then file locally. For a concrete contractor the material question is where your sales fall. Concrete, rebar, mesh, forms and fill bought for a job and installed into real property sit in a different tax position than a bag of mix sold off a shelf. Ask the department which position applies to your contracts before you write your first bid, because the answer changes whether you collect tax from the customer or pay it on purchase.
There is no single Missouri website where a homeowner types in a concrete contractor's name and sees a state license. Verification is municipal, and it is worth telling customers exactly where to look. The City of St. Louis publishes a Business License Search for businesses with licenses in the city. The database is updated nightly and provides only current-year graduated business license information for businesses the city considers currently licensed, meaning the business has been issued a license for the current fiscal year. License types other than the graduated business license are not included, because other departments set those requirements. A license is valid from June 1 and expires May 31 the following year, so a search in late spring can show a business that has not yet renewed. The search works by business name or by city address and parcel identifier, and you do not have to enter the full name. The city also points users to the Missouri Secretary of State site to verify that a business is registered with the state, which is a separate question from whether it may work in the city. St. Louis separately publishes a building permit search by address showing permits previously issued on a property, so a homeowner can check whether the last driveway or foundation job on their house was ever permitted. For a concrete contractor that search cuts both ways, and it is also a selling tool. Name the city the customer is in, tell them the search exists, and let them find you listed while they are comparing bids. In Kansas City, point them to the Permits Division at (816) 513-1500 to confirm a contractor license and Certificate of Qualification.
These are common details other guides publish about Missouri, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. Missouri has no state board that licenses concrete, flatwork, masonry or foundation contractors, so there is no state exam, classification or license number. Authority sits with cities and counties. Kansas City runs licensing through its Permits Division, and the City of St. Louis requires a graduated business license for contractors from the License Collector's office.
Kansas City states that contractors performing regulated work within the city must obtain the appropriate licenses before pulling permits or performing work, under the Kansas City Building and Rehabilitation Code. The city lists no standalone concrete certificate, so confirm with the Permits Division whether your scope sits under a residential building supervisor certificate or under the permit holder's license.
Ordinance 60643 sets the graduated business license tax by employee count. A new business starting between June 1 and January 1 pays $200.00, and one starting after January 1 pays $100.00. Renewals run $200 for zero to two St. Louis employees, $325 for three to five, and $675 for six to ten, rising from there.
Yes. The License Collector states that all contractors and subcontractors performing work or services within the City of St. Louis must obtain a graduated business license for contractors under Ordinance 61094. General contractors are also required to furnish the city a list of the subcontractors on any job, so your name reaches the city regardless.
At one employee. The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations sets the general threshold at five or more employees but states that construction industry employers must carry coverage with one or more employees. Sole proprietors and partners are not covered unless they elect it, and limited liability company members are presumed covered unless they opt out.
Yes, and it must. Section 287.061 RSMo requires any city or county issuing a business license to a construction contractor to obtain either a workers compensation certificate of insurance or a signed affidavit of exemption. The statute says a contractor who fails to comply shall be denied the license until he or she furnishes a certificate of insurance.
Section 429.012 RSMo requires an original contractor to deliver a written NOTICE TO OWNER in ten-point bold type, covering mechanic's liens and lien waivers, before receiving payment of any kind. It goes out at contract signing, material delivery, start of work, or with the first invoice. Compliance is a condition precedent to any lien existing.
No. No state concrete license exists, so the claim misrepresents what you hold. Section 407.020 RSMo makes deception, false promise, misrepresentation or omission of a material fact in connection with the advertisement of merchandise an unlawful practice, before, during or after the advertisement. Name the city that licensed you instead of claiming a state credential.
Section 285.230 RSMo may treat you as a transient employer, requiring a financial assurance instrument filed with the director of revenue for at least your average estimated quarterly withholding liability, never under five thousand dollars or over twenty-five thousand dollars. A contiguous-county exemption exists if you meet the sixty-day work and tax clearance tests.
Missouri's Prevailing Wage Law applies to public works projects valued over $75,000, with rates set by county and by type of work in the Annual Wage Order released by July 1. For state or political subdivision contracts over five thousand dollars, Section 285.530 RSMo requires sworn affidavits on federal work authorization program enrollment.
In the City of St. Louis, the License Collector's Business License Search lists currently licensed graduated business license holders and updates nightly, covering only the current fiscal year running June 1 to May 31. The Building Division also publishes a permit search by address. In Kansas City, call the Permits Division to confirm.
Springfield requires a city-licensed general contractor or the appropriate licensed trade professional to be listed on the permit before it can be issued, and expects a licensed master in the applicable trade on most permits. Plan review may proceed before the contractor is named. A narrow exception covers homeowners working on a residence they occupy.
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