New Hampshire · Concrete licensing · official-source guide
New Hampshire issues no concrete, masonry or general contractor license. The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification lists the state's credentials, and this trade is absent. Concrete work is governed instead by the state building code under RSA 155-A and by city building permits, with workers compensation required from your first employee under RSA 281-A.
State-level license
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-10-26. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
New Hampshire has no state concrete contractor license and no state general contractor license. The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, or OPLC, is the state body that runs professional licensing. Its public License Lookup page names the credential types the state issues. That list covers Accountant, Architect, Electrician, Engineer, Home Inspector, Land Surveyor, Forester, Manufactured Housing Installer, Real Estate and a long run of health professions. Concrete contractor is not on it. Neither is mason, flatwork contractor, foundation contractor, general contractor or home improvement contractor. So a crew that forms footings, pours a frost wall, sets anchor bolts, finishes a garage slab or lays block does not apply to the state for permission to do that work. The control on concrete work in New Hampshire sits in two other places. The first is the New Hampshire State Building Code under RSA 155-A, which is the technical standard every footing and foundation has to meet. The second is the city or town, which issues the building permit and sends the inspector who signs off on the footing before you pour. A contractor who wants to understand what governs a job in Manchester, Nashua or Concord should stop looking for a state license number and start reading the local code office rules and the state code chapter. That is where the enforceable requirements actually live, and it is also where the penalties for getting it wrong are written.
Sourcesoplc.nh.gov 1gc.nh.gov 2
The distinction matters on a mixed job. OPLC's License Lookup names Electrician as a licensed credential, and the state also regulates plumbing and mechanical work through its own boards. So a concrete crew pouring a basement slab may work unlicensed, while the electrician setting conduit in that same slab and the plumber running the under-slab drain line both hold state credentials. The Concord Residential Building Permit Application Guide puts it plainly for homeowners and contractors: separate trades permits are required for mechanical, electrical and plumbing work, and licensed tradespeople are required to call for their own mechanical, electrical or plumbing inspections. Your foundation inspection is a different call, made by you or the permit holder. Other state credentials touch concrete work at the edges. Engineer and Land Surveyor are licensed, which matters when a retaining wall or a commercial footing needs a stamped design. Architect is licensed. Manufactured Housing Installer is licensed, which matters if you set piers or a slab for a manufactured home. None of these turn into a license for the concrete work itself. Practically, the question a New Hampshire concrete contractor has to answer is not "which classification do I hold" but "which parts of this scope belong to someone who is licensed, and have I subcontracted them correctly." Pouring is yours. The wiring and the piping are not. Getting that line wrong is one of the few ways a concrete contractor in this state can run into a licensing problem at all.
Sourcesoplc.nh.gov 1concordnh.gov 2
RSA 155-A is the New Hampshire Building Code chapter. Its definition of the state building code adopts by reference the International Building Code 2024, International Existing Building Code 2024, International Plumbing Code 2024, International Mechanical Code 2024, International Energy Conservation Code 2018, International Swimming Pool and Spa Code 2024 and International Residential Code 2024 as published by the International Code Council, plus the National Electrical Code 2023, including amendments reviewed and approved by the state building code review board as of October 10, 2025. RSA 155-A:2, I states that all buildings, building components and structures constructed in New Hampshire shall comply with the state building code. That is the clause that reaches your footings, your foundation walls and your structural slabs, whether or not any town ever sends an inspector. The same section carries a point worth building into your contracts: the code in effect when the building permit application is received stays in force for the duration of that permit's work. A long foundation job started under one edition is not retroactively pulled onto the next. The City of Nashua's Building Safety Department posted notice that House Bill 1159 was signed on May 8, 2026, updating the state building code to the 2024 editions effective July 1, 2026, with a grace period until December 31, 2026, and pointed contractors to the Building Code Review Board for the New Hampshire specific amendments. If you are quoting work across that boundary, say in writing which edition your detailing is priced to.
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RSA 155-A:2 reserves permit issuance and fee collection for counties, towns, cities and village districts authorized under RSA 155-A:3, and reserves permits and certificates of occupancy for those same local bodies, with the state fire marshal handling state owned buildings. RSA 155-A:3, I authorizes the local legislative body to establish a local enforcement agency to enforce the state building code. That is the structure a concrete contractor works inside. There is no single state window. Every municipality you pour in has its own code office, its own application, its own fee math and its own inspection schedule. New Hampshire has well over two hundred municipalities, so a contractor covering the Merrimack Valley or the Seacoast will deal with many separate permit counters in a season. Two habits save money. First, confirm before you quote whether the town has an enforcement agency at all, because the answer changes who you notify. Second, build the footing inspection into your schedule as a hard gate, not a courtesy call, because the inspector has to see the excavation, the forms and the steel before concrete covers it. RSA 155-A:7, I covers the gap case: where there is no local enforcement agency and no contract with a qualified third party, the state fire marshal or designee may enforce the state building code at the municipality's written request. So an absent inspector is not an absent code. It only changes who shows up.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov
Manchester publishes its building fee math on the Planning and Community Development building fees page. New construction for one and two family dwellings is the estimated cost of the work multiplied by .006. All other new construction, meaning commercial and multi-family, plus additions to existing buildings and structures, is the estimated cost of the work multiplied by .01. Alterations, renovations or repairs to existing buildings and structures are also the estimated cost of the work multiplied by .01. Every building permit carries a $25.00 application fee. A plan review fee of .02 per square foot is assessed on all multi-family and commercial building permit applications. The adopted Building Code of the City of Manchester adds the detail that matters on a small pour. There is a $25.00 non-refundable application fee for all permits except yard sale permits, and a minimum permit fee of $30.00 for all permits requiring inspections. The building official may charge a reinspection fee of at least $30.00 when more inspections than normal were required. Filing an appeal of a code official's decision costs $300.00. If a permit is returned uncommenced within six months, $35.00 is deducted before any refund, and no refund is given after the seventh month. For a concrete contractor, the useful reading is that the fee scales off your own estimated cost of work. An understated estimate is not a saving. It is a number the building official can question before the permit issues.
Manchester's building code writes two separate consequences, and a concrete contractor can hit both on one job. Section 151.10.6 provides that any person who violates a provision of the Building Code, fails to comply with its requirements, or erects, constructs, alters or repairs a building or structure in violation of the approved construction documents, a directive of the Building Official, or a permit or certificate issued under the code, is guilty of a violation and subject to a fine not exceeding $550.00 for each offense. Each day the violation continues after a notice of violation has been issued is a separate and distinct offense. Violations are also subject to Chapter 38 of the City Code of Ordinances, covering citations and their penalties. Section 151.10.7 is the one that stings on a fast foundation job. Any person who commences work or establishes a use without a permit required by the Building Code is subject to a surcharge added to each permit equal to 100 percent of the permit fee. The same surcharge is repeated in the fee amendments at section 109.5. So pouring first and papering later doubles the permit cost and leaves the daily fine exposure running. Read together with the fee math, a commercial slab priced at a meaningful cost of work can turn an unpermitted start into a real number. Appeals go to the Manchester Building Code Appeals Board under Appendix B of the International Building Code, at a filing fee of $300.00.
Nashua runs permitting through its Department of Building Safety, at 229 Main Street on the second floor of City Hall, with a mailing address at P.O. Box 2019 and a phone line at 603-589-3080. Office hours run Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the permit desk closes at 4:30 p.m., and inspections are scheduled Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The department accepts permit applications for review and approval of construction documents and conducts the inspections on permitted work. Every permit application requires a Building and Land Use Application plus one paper plan set and one electronic plan set. Commercial submittals can go by email to the permits address with one paper plan set delivered to City Hall. Residential and commercial plan requirement sheets are published separately. Trade permits for electrical, mechanical and plumbing work are filed on their own forms, residential and commercial versions each. Inspections can be requested through the online request button, by email, or by phone. The Building and Land Use Application itself asks for the property owner, the applicant and the contractor by name, address and contact details, the new or added square foot area of construction, and the approximate cost of construction including plumbing, electrical, mechanical and fire suppression. It does not ask for a state contractor license number, because New Hampshire does not issue one. It does ask whether the building predates 1978 and whether the work area contains materials painted before 1978, and it states that lead safe work practices must be followed if either answer is yes.
Concord permits through the Code Administration Division, Building Safety, at 37 Green Street, with a code office line at 603-225-8580 and office hours of Monday to Friday 7:30 to 4:00. A complete application goes through the Citizen Self Service permit portal, and all fees must be paid before a permit issues. Building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and demolition permits all run through that portal, and separate fee schedules are published for building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and fire plan review. Concord's Residential Building Permit Application Guide is the most concrete specific municipal document in the state's three largest cities. Permits are required for constructing, altering, repairing, moving, demolishing or changing the occupancy type of any building or part of a building, including any structural changes. Permits are not required for accessory structures and sheds no larger than 60 square feet, or for retaining walls not over 4 feet in height. The foundation plan requirements are specific: footing widths, heights, depth below finished grade and grades; wall thicknesses; rebar sizes and locations, with rebar needed in some walls depending on wall height and whether backfill sits on one side or both; footing drains with pipe size and type, crushed stone, filter fabric, direction of flow and termination point; and damp-proofing methods. Monolithic slabs up to 600 square feet are allowed for some standalone accessory buildings of light construction, with the footing and slab poured at the same time and some rebar required. Consultations with the Code Administration Office are free.
The Concord guide publishes the local climate and geographic design criteria a residential foundation has to be built to: a ground snow load of 70 pounds per square foot, a wind speed of 90 miles per hour, seismic design Class B, severe weathering, a frost line depth of 48 inches, termite probability slight to moderate, and flood hazard based on the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps. For a concrete contractor these are not background. The 48 inch frost depth sets the bottom of your footing and therefore your excavation volume, your form height and your concrete yardage on every frost wall in the city. Severe weathering exposure drives the concrete specification for exterior flatwork, steps and foundation walls. The 70 pound ground snow load feeds the structural loads your footings carry. Quoting a Concord foundation off a template built for a warmer frost line is how a job loses its margin before the first truck arrives. The guide also sets out the sequence. Apply through the portal with documentation attached, allow review time, then pay the fees once the review is complete and the permit is emailed. Simple projects can be reviewed and approved in days, while large projects may take several weeks. New dwelling units are assessed impact fees that must be paid before a certificate of occupancy issues. If the scope expands mid-job, the work can often be added to the current permit, though it may require more documentation or another fee. Changing the contractor on a live permit is handled by calling the code office.
Sourcesconcordnh.gov
Foundation and flatwork jobs that come with real excavation can trip a state permit that has nothing to do with licensing. RSA 485-A:17, Terrain Alteration, requires a person proposing to significantly alter terrain to submit detailed plans to the department at least 30 days before undertaking the activity, and operations may not begin until the applicant receives a permit. The statute's fee provisions are keyed to the size of the disturbance. Paragraph II(a) sets tiers that begin at an area of at least 150,000 square feet but less than 200,000 square feet, and for properties subject to RSA 483-B:9, the shoreland protection section, at an area of at least 50,000 square feet but less than 150,000 square feet. Paragraph II-f refers to plans encompassing an area less than 150,000 square feet in setting up a permit by notification route, and paragraph II-a excludes projects located within protected shoreland areas under RSA 483-B from that notification process for solar projects, sending them through the standard alteration of terrain review instead. The practical consequence for a concrete contractor is scheduling. A thirty day clock in front of the work is not something you absorb after you have mobilized. On any site near a lake, pond, river or coastline, or any commercial pad with a large disturbed footprint, confirm who is pulling the alteration of terrain permit and whether it is already in hand before you commit a pour date.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov
New Hampshire does not license concrete contractors, but it does care what you call yourself. The Secretary of State's Corporation Division runs trade name registration under RSA 349. A person conducting business under any name other than his or her own legal name must register. Form TN-1, Trade Name Registration, carries a $50 filing fee, and a trade name renewal also carries a $50 fee. So if you pour as John Smith, you are registered by default. If you pour as Granite State Flatwork, the name goes on file with the state. The Department of Revenue Administration's page on registering a new business states that all businesses operating in the State of New Hampshire are required to register with the Secretary of State's Office, and that anyone doing business under a name other than their own must register that trade name. It names the NH Secretary of State Corporate Division as the registration body and the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration as the agency that collects state taxes, and points filers to NH QuickStart. For a contractor, trade name registration is also the cheapest piece of credibility available in a state with no license number to quote. A homeowner cannot look you up in a contractor registry here because there is not one. They can look up the business name. Keeping that filing current, and putting the exact registered name on contracts, estimates and the truck, is how you stay findable and consistent.
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New Hampshire's two business taxes are published by the Department of Revenue Administration. The Business Profits Tax rate is 7.6 percent for taxable periods ending on or after December 31, 2022, and 7.5 percent for taxable periods ending on or after December 31, 2023. For taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, the BPT filing threshold is gross business income from all business activities of more than $109,000. The Business Enterprise Tax rate is .55 percent for taxable periods ending on or after December 31, 2022. For taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, the BET filing threshold is more than $298,000 of gross receipts from all activities, or an enterprise value tax base of more than $298,000. Those two thresholds set a real planning line for a concrete business. A two truck flatwork operation can cross the BPT threshold on a handful of commercial slabs and still sit under the BET threshold, or cross both in a strong foundation season. Because the BET base is built on compensation, interest and dividends paid rather than profit, a crew heavy concrete contractor can owe BET in a year with thin margins. Registration runs through the Secretary of State's office, and the Department of Revenue Administration collects the tax. Price your work knowing which side of $109,000 and $298,000 your year is likely to land on, and set the filings up before the first big pour rather than after.
This is the coverage requirement a New Hampshire concrete contractor cannot skip. RSA 281-A:2, VIII(a) defines a private employer as a person, partnership, association, corporation or legal representative who employs one or more persons. One. There is no small employer exemption to grow into. RSA 281-A:5 provides that an employer subject to the chapter shall secure compensation to employees, either by insuring and keeping insured the payment of such compensation with a licensed company, or by furnishing the commissioner satisfactory proof of financial ability to pay compensation directly. The penalty provisions in RSA 281-A:7, I(a)(1) are written to make non-compliance expensive. An employer may be assessed a civil penalty of up to $2,500, and such an employer may be assessed a civil penalty of up to $100 per employee for each day of noncompliance. Run a four person finishing crew uncovered through a month and the daily arithmetic alone becomes the largest line item in the job. Concrete work carries exactly the injury profile that makes carriers price it carefully: lifting, saw work, chemical burns from wet cement, falls into excavations and struck-by exposure around pump trucks. New Hampshire sets no state license, no state bond and no state liability insurance minimum for concrete contractors, so workers compensation is the one statutory insurance obligation sitting over the trade. General liability limits are set by your contracts and by general contractors and property owners, not by the state.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov 1oplc.nh.gov 2
Because New Hampshire issues no concrete or general contractor license, there is no state license number to display on ads, vehicles, websites or written estimates, and no state statute penalizing its omission. What does apply is RSA 358-A, Regulation of Business Practices for Consumer Protection. RSA 358-A:2 makes it unlawful for any person to use any unfair method of competition or any unfair or deceptive act or practice. Item V reaches representing that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits or quantities they do not have, and extends to claiming that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation or connection that such person does not have. Item VII reaches representing that goods or services are of a particular standard, quality or grade. Item IX reaches advertising goods or services with intent not to sell them as advertised, and item X reaches advertising goods or services with intent not to supply reasonably expectable public demand. The practical rule follows directly. Do not advertise yourself as a licensed concrete contractor, a state licensed foundation contractor or a state certified mason in New Hampshire, because no such credential exists and the claim implies a status you do not have. Claims you can make are the ones you can document: years in business, the trade name you registered, your workers compensation and liability coverage, manufacturer training, ACI certifications held by named finishers, and the municipalities you hold current permits in.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov 1oplc.nh.gov 2
A New Hampshire homeowner cannot verify a concrete contractor in a state contractor registry because there is not one. OPLC's License Lookup verifies the credentials the state does issue, which is where a customer confirms the engineer who stamped a retaining wall design, the land surveyor who set the lot lines, the architect on a commercial project, or the electrician and plumber on your job. For the concrete work itself, the checkable records are the municipal permit file at the Manchester, Nashua or Concord code office, the Secretary of State trade name filing, and your certificate of workers compensation insurance. Expect buyers to ask for all three, and make them easy to hand over. Payment protection runs through RSA 447, Liens for Labor and Materials. RSA 447:2, I gives a lien to any person who performs labor, provides professional design services, or furnishes materials to the amount of $15 or more for erecting or repairing a house or other building or appurtenances, on the materials furnished, on the structure, and on the owner's right to the lot of land. RSA 447:9 provides that the lien continues for 120 days after the services are performed or the materials are furnished, unless payment is made first. RSA 447:5 is the trap for subcontractors: if you contract with an agent, contractor or subcontractor of the owner rather than the owner, you have the same lien only if you give written notice of the claim to the owner or the person in charge of the property before performing the labor or furnishing the material.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov 1oplc.nh.gov 2
These are common details other guides publish about New Hampshire, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification lists the credentials the state issues, and concrete contractor, mason, foundation contractor and general contractor are not among them. Flatwork, footings, frost walls and slabs are controlled instead by the state building code under RSA 155-A and by the city or town that issues your building permit.
Not a state license. You need the local building permit for the structure, and your footing and foundation have to meet the New Hampshire State Building Code adopted under RSA 155-A. The inspector, not a licensing board, is the gate. Plan on a footing inspection before concrete covers the excavation, forms and reinforcing steel.
OPLC's License Lookup names Electrician, Engineer, Architect, Land Surveyor, Home Inspector and Manufactured Housing Installer, among others, and the state also runs plumbing and mechanical boards. Concrete is absent from that list. On a mixed scope, the wiring and piping around your slab belong to licensed trades and should be subcontracted accordingly.
The municipality. RSA 155-A:2 reserves permit issuance and fee collection for counties, towns, cities and village districts authorized under RSA 155-A:3, and RSA 155-A:3 lets the local legislative body establish an enforcement agency. In practice that means the Manchester, Nashua or Concord code office, each with its own application and fee math.
Manchester charges the estimated cost of the work multiplied by .006 for new one and two family dwellings, and multiplied by .01 for commercial, multi-family, additions, alterations, renovations and repairs. Every permit carries a $25.00 application fee, with a minimum permit fee of $30.00 for permits requiring inspections.
Manchester's code adds a surcharge equal to 100 percent of the permit fee to any permit where work was commenced without one. Separately, a code violation carries a fine not exceeding $550.00 per offense, and each day the violation continues after a notice of violation is issued counts as a separate offense.
RSA 155-A:8-a, I makes a violation a misdemeanor for a natural person and a felony for any other person. It also carries a civil penalty of $275 for the first offense and $550 for subsequent offenses, assessed for each day the violation continues. That runs on top of whatever the municipality charges.
Yes. RSA 281-A:2, VIII(a) defines a private employer as one who employs one or more persons, so coverage starts at your first employee. RSA 281-A:5 requires securing compensation through an insured policy or by proving financial ability to pay directly to the commissioner. There is no small crew exemption to grow into.
RSA 281-A:7, I(a)(1) allows a civil penalty of up to $2,500, plus a civil penalty of up to $100 per employee for each day of noncompliance. On a four person crew the daily figure compounds fast. Since New Hampshire sets no contractor bond or liability minimum, this is the statutory insurance exposure that matters most.
If you do business under any name other than your own legal name, yes. The Secretary of State's Corporation Division registers trade names under RSA 349. Form TN-1 carries a $50 filing fee, and renewal also costs $50. With no contractor registry in New Hampshire, that filing is often the record a customer can actually check.
No. No such license exists, so the claim implies a status you do not hold. RSA 358-A:2, V makes it unlawful to represent that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation or connection that such person does not have. Advertise what you can document: coverage, registered trade name, certifications and permit history.
RSA 447:9 keeps the lien alive for 120 days after the services are performed or the materials are furnished, unless payment is made first. RSA 447:2 sets the threshold at $15 or more of labor or materials. If you contract through a general rather than the owner, RSA 447:5 requires written notice to the owner beforehand.
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