Nevada · Concrete licensing · official-source guide
Nevada licenses concrete contractors at the state level through the Nevada State Contractors Board. Flatwork, foundations and most poured work fall under specialty classification C-5, concrete contracting. Masonry needs a separate C-18. The headline requirement is four full years of trade experience within the past fifteen years for the qualifying individual, plus a bond, industrial insurance and a financial statement.
Verified against agency sources on 2026-10-26. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Concrete work in Nevada is licensed by the state, not by individual cities or counties. The Nevada State Contractors Board issues every construction contractor license used anywhere in Nevada, and it operates under NRS Chapter 624. The Board determines the qualifications of applicants before licensing, including written examinations, background investigations and financial responsibility assessments. It also sets conditions on a license, such as field and scope limitations, bond requirements and contractual limits. The Board keeps two offices. The northern office is at 5390 Kietzke Lane, Suite 102, Reno, NV 89511. The southern office is at 8400 West Sunset Road, Suite 150, Las Vegas, NV 89113. NRS 624.020 defines a contractor as a person who undertakes or offers to construct, alter, repair, add to, subtract from, improve, move, wreck or demolish any building or other structure. That definition pulls in subcontractors and specialty contractors, so a crew that only pours driveways is a contractor under Nevada law. A material supplier is not. The Board states that all contractors must be licensed before contracting, and it defines contracting to include bidding, offering to engage and negotiating a price. A concrete company therefore needs the license in hand before it quotes a job, not before it pours one. The Board is funded from fees collected from licensees and receives no money from the State General Fund. Cities and counties in Nevada issue business licenses, which are a separate layer, and they do not replace the state contractor license.
Sourcesnvcontractorsboard.com 1nvcontractorsboard.com 2leg.state.nv.us 3
Flatwork, foundations and most other poured concrete fall under classification C-5, concrete contracting. NAC 624.230 sets the scope. A person who holds a C-5 license may prepare the surface and place reinforcement steel and other embedded materials essential to or comprising an integral part of the concrete or concrete construction. The C-5 holder may pour, place, finish and install concrete. The C-5 holder may construct and assemble forms, molds, slipforms and pans. The C-5 holder may apply concrete sealants and other waterproofing products. The C-5 holder may saw, cut, drill and core concrete and asphaltic paving material. Those five items are the whole scope. Read them as a boundary, because they are what the Board will measure a disputed contract against. Driveways, patios, sidewalks, slabs on grade, footings, stem walls, curb and gutter, equipment pads and pool decks sit inside that language. Form carpentry for concrete sits inside it. Rebar placement for your own pour sits inside it. Decorative sealing and waterproofing of the concrete you place sits inside it. Cutting and coring existing concrete and asphalt sits inside it. Nevada once split this classification. Older C-5a and C-5b licenses were folded into the single C-5 license by a 2003 regulation, with former C-5b holders restricted to the sawing, cutting, drilling and coring work in subsection 5. The Board lists C-5 among 42 subclassifications inside Classification C, and directs applicants to NAC Chapter 624 for the exact scope language of each one. If a job straddles two classifications, the Board publishes a License Classification Request Form so you can get a written determination before you bid.
NRS 624.215 splits the contracting business into three branches: general engineering contracting, general building contracting and specialty contracting. General engineering and general building are mutually exclusive branches. Concrete contracting is a specialty. A specialty contractor is defined as a contractor whose operations are the performance of construction work requiring special skill and whose principal contracting business involves the use of specialized building trades or crafts. That is the C-5 concrete contractor. A general building contractor is one whose principal business is construction or remodeling of buildings or structures for the support, shelter and enclosure of persons, animals, chattels or movable property, requiring the use of more than two unrelated building trades or crafts, where the contractor is prime contractor and the building work is the primary purpose. Unless the general building contractor holds the appropriate specialty license, that contractor may only contract to perform specialty contracting while serving as prime contractor on a project. So a B licensee can self perform the concrete on its own project without a C-5, but it cannot take a standalone flatwork subcontract on someone else's job without one. NRS 624.220 adds two practical allowances. A specialty contractor may take and execute a contract involving two or more crafts or trades if the work outside the licensed craft is incidental and supplemental to the licensed work. A licensed contractor may also perform work outside its classification if the value is less than $1,000 including labor and materials and the work does not require a permit. Those are narrow exceptions, not a second classification. The Board sets a monetary limit on every license, and that limit is the maximum contract you may undertake on a single construction site for a single client.
A C-5 license does not cover masonry. NAC 624.350 creates classification C-18, masonry. A C-18 holder may select, cut and lay brick, other baked clay products, rough cut and dressed stone, artificial stone, precast blocks and structural glass brick or block at random or in courses, with or without mortar. That same section says the C-18 holder may not apply tile to existing surfaces. A contractor who pours footings and then lays block on them is doing C-5 work and C-18 work, and NAC 624.590 requires a separate application for each classification of license in which the applicant wants to conduct business. Deep foundation work can also land outside C-5. Subclassification A-9, piers and foundations, sits in the general engineering branch and covers the examination, excavation, drilling, compacting, pumping, sealing and other work necessary to construct, alter or repair piers, piles, footings and foundations placed in the earth's subsurface to prevent structural settling and to provide adequate capacity to sustain or transmit the structural load to the soil or rock below. Paving is split by material. Subclassification A-16 covers the application of asphalt to streets, driveways, parking lots, boat ramps, landing strips and taxiways. A C-5 holder may saw and cut asphaltic paving material but the asphalt application itself is A-16. Related classifications a concrete company often runs into include C-14 steel reinforcing and erection, C-11 spraying mixtures containing cement, and A-7 and A-12 for excavating and grading. Check the scope before you sign, because scope matters more than the trade name you use.
Nevada does not license the person who finishes concrete. It licenses the business, and the business must put forward a qualified individual who carries the trade experience. The Board is direct about this: the license belongs to the business and not to the qualifying party. Licenses may be issued to individuals, partnerships, corporations, limited liability companies or joint ventures. Under NRS 624.260 the qualifier can be an owner, officer, member, manager or employee of the company. The qualifier must be a bona fide member or employee and actively engaged in the contracting business. The Board also requires that if a license was based in part on employing a particularly qualified person, the licensee must keep employing that person to keep the license. The experience standard is fixed. The person acting as the trade qualified individual must have had, within the fifteen years immediately before the application is filed, at least four full years of experience as a journeyman, supervising employee or contractor in the specific classification requested. For concrete, that means four years in concrete work, not four years in construction generally. The Board accepts four Certification of Work Experience forms for each trade qualifier, or a current masters certification issued by a governmental agency in a substantially similar discipline, or proof of transferable military experience and training. Training at an accredited college, university or equivalent program accepted by the Board may substitute for up to three years of experience, documented with apprenticeship certificates or transcripts. Each qualifier also completes a Resume of Experience. If you rely on self employment, you must list customers with full mailing addresses and phone numbers. There is no education requirement at all. Certificates are not required if the qualifier served in the same classification on another Nevada license within the last five years.
Sourcesnvcontractorsboard.com 1leg.state.nv.us 2leg.state.nv.us 3
The qualifying individual for a contractor's license must pass the Business and Law examination, which the Board calls CMS, and the trade examination specific to the classification requested, unless the individual meets the requirements for a waiver. For a concrete company that means the Business and Law exam plus the C-5 trade exam. Order of operations matters. You cannot schedule an exam before the application is submitted. Once the application is in and the experience requirement has been met, the qualifying individual receives an Examination Eligibility form carrying a Candidate ID number, and only then can an exam date be booked. The Board has contracted with PSI Licensure to deliver the testing. PSI publishes the candidate information bulletins, examination content outlines, reference lists and examination fee amounts on its own site, so the study material and the fee come from PSI rather than from the Board. Three PSI testing centers operate inside Nevada: 5740 S Eastern, Suite 200, Las Vegas; the Airport Plaza Office Building at 1755 E Plumb Lane, Suite 108, Reno; and 225 Silver Street, Suite 102, Elko. PSI also allows applicants to sit the Nevada specific examinations at PSI owned sites in other states. You get three attempts at each exam. A candidate who tests unsuccessfully must wait two weeks before retaking it. If an examination is failed three times, the application becomes void under NAC 624.600(3), and the applicant may reapply with a new application and the applicable fee after 30 days from the date of the last examination. The Board will waive the trade examination and the experience certification in certain circumstances, which the Contractor's License Application spells out.
The fee schedule lives in NAC 624.130, and the Board collects those amounts directly. To consider an application for the issuance of a license for a classification in which the applicant is not licensed, the fee is $300. To issue or renew a license, the fee is $600. For the late filing of an application to renew an active license, the fee is $150. To issue or renew an inactive license, the fee is $300, with a $75 late filing fee on an inactive renewal. Several change fees affect a working concrete company. A request to change the qualified person or other principal listed on a license costs $250. A request to broaden a license to include the entire classification or other specific subclassifications within it costs $250. A request for a permanent increase or decrease of a monetary limit costs $250, while an increase of the monetary limit for a single project costs $75. An application to change the name of the licensee costs $250. A duplicate license costs $25, a duplicate identification card $10, and a returned check $25. If you post a cash deposit instead of a surety bond, a biennial administrative fee of $200 is assessed. Fingerprint cards required under NRS 624.265 must be accompanied by a cashier's check payable to the Nevada Highway Patrol covering what the Central Repository for Nevada Records of Criminal History and the FBI charge for processing. NRS 624.280 caps what the Board may charge: an application fee must not exceed $550, a license fee must not exceed $900 biennially, and an examination fee must not exceed $300.
Every Nevada contractor license carries a bond. Before issuing a license, NRS 624.270 requires the applicant to file a surety bond executed by the contractor as principal with a corporation authorized to transact surety business in Nevada, or in lieu of a bond to establish a cash deposit with the Board. Before renewing, the Board requires satisfactory evidence that the bond or cash deposit is still in full force. The amount is not a flat number. The Board fixes it with reference to the contractor's financial and professional responsibility and the magnitude of operations, but it must be not less than $1,000 and not more than $500,000. The Board's own guidance repeats that range and says the amount varies with the type of license, the monetary limit, past, present or future financial responsibility, experience and character of the applicant. You learn your number after the license is approved and before it is issued. The bond must be continuous in form, and total aggregate liability of the surety for all claims is limited to the face amount regardless of how many years the bond runs. The surety's long term obligations must be rated A or better by a nationally recognized rating agency. A surety may cancel by giving 60 days notice to the Board, and your license must carry continuous coverage with no lapse. Cash bonds must be a cashier's check payable to the State Contractors Board for the full amount, and the Board holds a cash deposit for two years after the license terminates. After a licensee has acted as a licensed contractor in Nevada for not less than five consecutive years, the Board may relieve the bond requirement on evidence. Failure to maintain the bond is cause to deny, revoke, suspend or refuse to renew.
Sourcesnvcontractorsboard.com 1leg.state.nv.us 2leg.state.nv.us 3
Before granting an original license or a renewal, NRS 624.256 requires the applicant to submit proof of industrial insurance and insurance for occupational diseases covering the applicant's employees. A self insured employer submits its certificate of qualification from the Commissioner of Insurance, and a member of an association of self insured employers submits that association's certificate. A contractor with no employees may instead file an affidavit affirming three things: that it has no employees, that it is not and does not intend to be a subcontractor for a principal contractor, and that it has not and does not intend to submit a bid on a job for a principal contractor or subcontractor. A concrete crew that subcontracts to builders cannot use that affidavit. Failure to maintain the required coverage is cause for the Board to deny, revoke, suspend, refuse to renew or otherwise discipline. A financial statement is required regardless of the size of the monetary limit requested. The monetary limit is the maximum contract a licensed contractor may undertake on one or more construction contracts on a single construction site or subdivision site for a single client. The required quality of the statement rises with the limit. For limits of $25,000 or less, the Board accepts a CPA prepared statement, a statement on a Board form, or a balance sheet prepared with accounting software under generally accepted accounting principles plus an affidavit of accuracy. Self prepared or compiled statements must be current within six months of receipt. For limits above $25,000 but under $500,000, a compiled CPA statement current within six months, or a reviewed or audited statement current within one year. For $500,000 up to $1,000,000, the compiled statement needs full disclosures. At $1,000,000 or more, the statement must be reviewed or audited by an independent CPA. A Bank Verification Form goes in with it.
Under NRS 624.283 each license expires two years after the date it is issued, except that the Board may by regulation prescribe shorter or longer periods and prorated fees to establish a system of staggered biennial renewals. Any license not renewed on or before the renewal date is automatically suspended. Renewal means submitting an application for renewal, the renewal fee fixed by the Board, any Recovery Fund assessment owed by a residential contractor, and all information required to complete the renewal. NAC 624.630 says the Board mails a renewal application to each licensee at the address of record, and the licensee must return it no later than the last day of the month in which the license expires. If the Board has asked for a financial statement with the renewal, the deadline moves up to the first day of that month and the statement must come with the application and fee. The Board may require a licensee to demonstrate financial responsibility at any time. Renewal also carries the bond and insurance tests. The Board requires evidence that the surety bond or cash deposit is in full force, and proof of industrial insurance, before it renews. A suspended license can be reinstated by filing a renewal application within six months of the suspension date and paying a reinstatement fee on top of the renewal fee, if the licensee is otherwise in good standing with no complaints pending. A license not reinstated within six months may be cancelled, after which a new license issues only on application for an original contractor's license. Residential contractors also pay a biennial Recovery Fund assessment under NRS 624.470, not to exceed $200 per biennium where the monetary limit is not more than $1,000,000, 500 where the limit is higher but still limited, and 1,000 where it is unlimited. The Board must reduce the assessment when the account balance reaches 150 percent of the largest balance during the previous fiscal year. Keep your address current: NAC 624.640 requires reporting address or personnel changes in writing within 30 days.
Sourcesleg.state.nv.us 1leg.state.nv.us 2nvcontractorsboard.com 3
Nevada runs licensure by endorsement rather than open reciprocity. Under NAC 624.590 the Board will waive the experience documentation requirement if the applicant or the qualified employee has a minimum of four years of experience, approved by the Board under NAC 624.615, as a contractor licensed in good standing in the endorsing state. The applicant must also show no investigation for misconduct as a contractor, no license revoked, modified, limited, suspended or otherwise disciplined by the endorsing state or any other jurisdiction, and no disciplinary actions or proceedings pending anywhere. The endorsing state has to be on Nevada's list. NAC 624.615 directs the Board to determine whether another state's requirements are substantially equivalent to Nevada's, and to maintain and publish a list of those states and territories. The Board publishes that as a State Equivalency Chart. The Board's own guidance says the trade qualified individual must have been actively licensed in the endorsing state for the past four years with no disciplinary actions, suspensions or sanctions. The paperwork is specific. A Request for Verification of Licensure, completed by the endorsing state, must be submitted with the application, and the endorsing state verifies on a Board form that the license is valid. If the endorsing state does not offer an equivalent trade examination, you still have to pass the Nevada trade examination for the classification. Endorsement waives documentation, not the rest of the file. An out of state concrete contractor still files the application and fee, still clears the background check, still posts the bond or cash deposit, still proves industrial insurance, and still submits a financial statement sized to the monetary limit requested. Plan on the Business and Law examination unless the Board waives it.
NRS 624.700 makes it unlawful for any person or combination of persons to engage in the business or act in the capacity of a contractor within Nevada, or to submit a bid on a job situated in Nevada, without an active license, unless exempt under NRS 624.031. If a person submits a bid or enters into a contract in violation of that section, the bid or contract is deemed void ab initio. District attorneys prosecute these violations in their counties, and on the Board's request the Attorney General prosecutes instead. The criminal ladder is in NRS 624.750. A first offense is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $4,000, with up to six months in county jail. A second offense is a gross misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $4,000 and not more than $10,000, with up to 364 days in county jail. A third or subsequent offense is a category E felony punishable by a fine of not less than $10,000 and not more than $20,000, with one to four years in state prison. Where the person commenced work or received money, the maximum fine may be raised by an enhancement of up to 10 percent of the contract value. A person convicted may also be ordered to pay court costs, the costs of prosecution, the Board's reasonable investigation costs, and damages up to the amount of pecuniary gain. NRS 624.710 lets the Board impose an administrative fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $50,000 for each violation. The narrow handyman exemption in NRS 624.031 covers repair or maintenance work valued under $1,000 including labor and materials, but it falls away if a building permit is required, if the work is part of a larger project valued at $500 or more, or if contracts under $500 were split to evade the chapter.
Sourcesleg.state.nv.us 1nvcontractorsboard.com 2nvcontractorsboard.com 3
Nevada ties your marketing to your license number. NRS 624.720(4) states that all advertising by a licensed contractor must include the name of the contractor's company and the number of the contractor's license. The statute defines advertising broadly: any sign, card or device, or permitting any sign or marking on a motor vehicle, in any building or structure, in a newspaper or magazine, in an airway transmission, on the Internet, or in any directory under the listing of contractor, with or without limiting qualifications. The Board spells out where the number has to appear. Its advertising guidance lists commercial vehicles used for the business, business cards, letterhead, signage at job sites and offices, online and print directories, newspapers and other publications, and the website. The Board's wording is plain: it is not just good practice to include your license number in all business advertisements, it is the law. Three more rules sit in the same statute. It is unlawful for any person, including a person exempt under NRS 624.031, to advertise as a contractor without a license in the appropriate classification, so you cannot advertise concrete work you are not classified for. An unlicensed person who advertises to perform construction work must state in the advertisement that he or she is not licensed. It is unlawful for anyone to advertise using a license number that does not correspond to a valid license issued to that person. False or misleading statements of material fact intended to induce someone to hire you or sign a contract are also unlawful. Enforcement has teeth beyond fines. After notice and a hearing, the Board may order a person to cease the unlawful advertising and to have any telephone number in the advertising disconnected. If the person does not comply within five days, the Board may ask the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada to order the telephone provider to disconnect the number. Advertising violations carry the same criminal ladder as unlicensed contracting under NRS 624.750, plus the administrative fine under NRS 624.710. Separately, NAC 624.640 requires each licensee to include in all bids submitted and contracts entered into for construction work in Nevada the number of the license and any monetary limit placed on it.
Sourcesnvcontractorsboard.com 1nvcontractorsboard.com 2leg.state.nv.us 3leg.state.nv.us 4
The state license lets you contract. A local business license lets you operate in that jurisdiction, and the two are stacked, not alternatives. Clark County alone contains six separate licensing jurisdictions: unincorporated Clark County, the City of Henderson, the City of Las Vegas, the City of North Las Vegas, Boulder City and the City of Mesquite. The county warns that a large portion of the Las Vegas valley carries a Las Vegas mailing address while actually sitting in unincorporated Clark County, and it publishes a jurisdiction locator and an interactive map so you can confirm which agency licenses your address. Clark County's own general business license process runs in steps. License fees are based on the services and activities provided, and business license fees are accompanied by a one time $45.00 application fee in addition to each license fee. Multiple licenses may be required if you provide more than one service. Before applying, the county directs you to register and obtain a Nevada State Business License, noting that NRS 76 requires businesses, corporations and partnerships operating in Nevada to hold one, and to register with the Nevada Department of Taxation. A business operating under a fictitious firm name must file a DBA with the Clark County Clerk, and the owner name on that certificate must match the entity name on the state business license. The county lists the Nevada State Contractors Board among the regulatory agencies that may also license your activity. If your business location sits in a city but you travel into unincorporated county territory to work, a Clark County license may be required on top of the city license. Reno applies the same logic in the north. The City of Reno states that any person licensed as a contractor by the State Contractor's Board must obtain a business license if conducting business in the City of Reno, or if physically located in the City of Reno whether or not construction work is performed in the city. The City of Las Vegas runs its own business license division with its own application, renewal and search tools.
Sourcesclarkcountynv.gov 1reno.gov 2lasvegasnevada.gov 3nvcontractorsboard.com 4
Nevada gives homeowners and general contractors three public search tools, all run by the Board. The license search lets anyone look up a contractor by license number or name and see the classification, status and monetary limit. A separate contractor listing search returns contractors by classification, which is how builders find C-5 holders. A public disciplinary and board actions search shows whether the Board has taken action against a licensee. Those tools sit on the Board's online services platform, linked from the Board's own site. The obligation runs both ways. NAC 624.640 requires each licensee to provide proof of licensure to any interested person, so a customer who asks for your license number is exercising a right the regulation gives them. The same regulation requires licensees to include the license number and any monetary limit in all bids and contracts for construction work in Nevada, which means a quote already answers the question before it is asked. It also requires a licensee to ascertain that each person whose bid the licensee considers is appropriately licensed, so a general contractor taking concrete bids has a duty to check yours. Two more provisions protect the verification system. NRS 624.720 makes it unlawful to advertise using a license number that does not correspond to a valid license issued to that person, which is what stops a competitor from borrowing yours. NAC 624.640 also voids any bid or contract where a licensee works outside the scope of the license or exceeds the monetary limit. For a concrete contractor that is the practical argument for getting the classification question settled in writing before bidding, using the Board's License Classification Request Form, rather than after a dispute starts.
Sourcesnvcontractorsboard.com 1leg.state.nv.us 2leg.state.nv.us 3
These are common details other guides publish about Nevada, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Classification C-5, concrete contracting, under NAC 624.230. It lets you prepare the surface, place reinforcing steel and embedded materials, pour, place, finish and install concrete, build forms, molds, slipforms and pans, apply concrete sealants and waterproofing products, and saw, cut, drill and core concrete and asphaltic paving material.
No. Masonry is its own classification. NAC 624.350 creates classification C-18, covering selecting, cutting and laying brick, baked clay products, rough cut and dressed stone, artificial stone, precast blocks and structural glass block. NAC 624.590 requires a separate application for each classification, so pouring footings and laying block means two licenses.
Not the asphalt itself. Subclassification A-16 covers applying asphalt to streets, driveways, parking lots, boat ramps, landing strips and taxiways. A C-5 holder may saw, cut, drill and core asphaltic paving material, but laying the asphalt is A-16 work in the general engineering branch.
Specialty. NRS 624.215 divides contracting into general engineering, general building and specialty contracting. Concrete sits in the C series of specialty classifications. A general building contractor may self perform concrete only while serving as prime contractor on a project, unless that contractor also holds the C-5 specialty license.
Four full years within the fifteen years immediately before the application is filed, as a journeyman, supervising employee or contractor in the specific classification requested. Accredited college or equivalent training approved by the Board can cover up to three of those years. Nevada imposes no education requirement at all.
NAC 624.130 sets $300 to consider an application for a classification the applicant is not licensed in, and $600 to issue or renew a license. Late filing on an active renewal is $150. Changing the qualified person costs $250, and broadening a license costs $250.
NRS 624.270 says the Board fixes the amount with reference to your financial and professional responsibility and the magnitude of your operations, but not less than $1,000 and not more than $500,000. You are notified of the amount after approval and before issuance. A cash deposit carries a $200 biennial administrative fee.
NRS 624.283 says each license expires two years after it is issued, though the Board may prescribe shorter or longer periods and prorated fees to run staggered biennial renewals. Any license not renewed on or before the renewal date is automatically suspended, and renewal requires current bond evidence and proof of industrial insurance.
The license is automatically suspended. You may reinstate it by filing a renewal application within six months of suspension and paying a reinstatement fee plus the renewal fee, if you are otherwise in good standing with no complaints pending. After six months the Board may cancel it, and you reapply as an original.
Yes. NRS 624.720 requires all advertising by a licensed contractor to include the company name and the license number, and defines advertising to include markings on a motor vehicle, signs, directories and the Internet. The Board lists vehicles, business cards, letterhead, signage, directories, publications and your website.
NAC 624.640 requires each licensee to include the number of the license and any monetary limit placed on it in all bids submitted and contracts entered into for construction work in Nevada. The same regulation voids any bid or contract where a licensee works outside its scope or exceeds its monetary limit.
Yes. The City of Reno states that a contractor licensed by the State Contractor's Board must obtain a business license when conducting business in the city or when physically located there, whether or not construction work happens in the city. Clark County contains six separate licensing jurisdictions, each with its own application.
We can review the local market, your current search visibility, and paid-search fit before recommending any marketing work.