New Mexico · Concrete licensing · official-source guide
New Mexico licenses concrete work at state level. The Construction Industries Division of the Regulation and Licensing Department issues contractor licenses to business entities through a certified qualifying party. Flatwork, driveways and sidewalks fall under the GS-4 concrete classification, and masonry falls under GS-16. GS-4 requires two years of trade experience, one year of it at foreman level.
State-level license
Yes
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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.
The Construction Industries Division, part of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, licenses contractors for the whole state. No New Mexico city issues a separate concrete contractor license that replaces it. The division issues the license to a business entity, not to the person running the screed. That entity must employ or be owned by one or more qualifying parties whom the division has certified for the scope of work the company intends to sell. Applications and renewals are processed by PSI, while permitting and inspections stay with the division. A corporation, LLC, limited partnership or limited liability partnership has to be legally authorized to do business in New Mexico before it can apply for, renew or keep a license, and the license cancels automatically if the entity stops existing under state law. A sole proprietor license cancels on the death of the proprietor. The qualifying party certificate is personal. It cannot be transferred, and a company that lets someone else use its license faces discipline up to revocation. If a licensee loses its qualifying party, both the company and that person must notify the division in writing within thirty days. One individual may qualify only one licensed entity unless there is at least thirty percent common ownership. The requirement bites at the permit counter: division rule states that a person who is not appropriately, validly and currently licensed is not eligible to apply for or be issued a permit. A concrete company with the wrong classification cannot pull the permit that a footing or structural slab inspection runs on.
GS-4 is the specialty classification written for concrete work. The rule describes it as concrete, cement, walkways and driveways, and the scope reads: mix, pour, place and finish concrete, including all necessary preparatory work such as excavation, form work and placing of reinforcement materials. It also covers installation on private property of curbs, gutters, sidewalks and driveway culverts. The experience bar is higher than most specialty classifications. GS-4 requires two years of practical trade experience, one year of which must be at foreman level. Most other GS classifications ask only for two years of general experience with no foreman year, so a concrete finisher moving toward a license needs documented supervisory time, not just years on the crew. The scope has one sharp limit worth reading before bidding. A GS-4 licensee may not perform curb, gutter, sidewalk or culvert work in public rights of way unless that work is subcontracted from a validly licensed GA contractor. The classification stops at the property line. A driveway apron that crosses into the municipal right of way, a replacement sidewalk panel along a public street, or a curb cut for a new commercial entrance all move the job into GA territory. The classification letters themselves carry meaning. G marks the general construction field, S marks specialties, and the number identifies the specific trade, so GS-4 is a general construction specialty license for concrete.
Sourcessrca.nm.gov
Masonry is a separate license. GS-16 covers installing or erecting brick and other baked clay products, rough cut and dressed stone, artificial stone and precast blocks, structural glass brick or block adobe, laid at random or in courses, with or without mortar, to form masonry walls, anchored stone or masonry veneer. It reaches building walls, freestanding walls six feet or higher measured from ground level, and retaining walls measuring thirty six inches or more from the bottom of the footing. GS-16 requires two years of experience, with no foreman year specified. The division drew a hard boundary between the two trades. The GS-16 scope expressly does not include the execution, fabrication and erecting of poured cement and concrete, except as a foundation for a wall. A masonry contractor can pour the footing under the block wall it is building. It cannot take the slab, the driveway or the patio that the homeowner asks about on the same visit. Running both sides of that work legally means holding both GS-4 and GS-16, or holding a general building license that carries the specialty scopes. Every additional classification is applied for separately and carries its own application fee. The retaining wall threshold matters for a yard contractor. A dry stacked or mortared retaining wall under thirty six inches from the bottom of its footing sits outside the GS-16 description, while anything at or above that height is masonry contracting.
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Concrete placed for public vehicular traffic is regulated as asphalt, bitumen and concrete construction, not as a GS specialty. GA-1 covers streets, roads and highways, including tunnels, parking lots, alleys, seal coat and surfacing, and authorizes clearing, aligning, filling, compacting and preparing land within the assigned rights of way, then placing and finishing concrete or bituminous materials. GA-1 includes parking lots, sidewalks and driveways, and it carries the scopes of GA-2 and GA-3. GA-2 is maintenance and repair: fixing, patching, mending, covering, filling or replacing with like materials on streets, roads, highways, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks and alleys. GA-3 is the one most concrete crews care about. It authorizes forming, placing and finishing concrete curbs, gutters, driveway culverts, public sidewalks and bituminous ridge curbs for the deflection of water. Each of the GA classifications requires two years of experience. GA-98 indicates licensure in GA-1 through GA-5 and covers all work authorized in those classifications. The practical rule for a flatwork company is this. Private slabs, private driveways and private walks are GS-4. The same forms and the same mix placed in the public right of way need a GA license, or the work must come to the GS-4 holder as a subcontract from a validly licensed GA contractor. Municipal and county sidewalk replacement contracts, curb and gutter packages and alley aprons sit on the GA side of that line.
Sourcessrca.nm.gov
Concrete shows up in several other classifications, and the one a company holds decides what it can bid. GS-15 covers caissons, piers and pile driving: installing piers, caissons and pilings with pile driving equipment, including excavation, grading and clearing for site preparation, cutting, welding, joining and fabricating caissons or piles, and installing all necessary concrete and reinforcing steel within the caissons to create a structural member. It also covers soil stabilization and rock fall mitigation and requires two years of experience. GS-34 covers concrete coring, drilling and slab sawing: coring, boring, drilling, cutting and sawing concrete, including removal or demolition of the material, with two years of experience. GS-34 does not include installing electrical wiring or plumbing in the openings it creates. GS-25 covers swimming pools on the non plumbing, mechanical and electrical side, including excavation, installation of reinforcing steel or mesh, and application of concrete and special coatings. GS-24 structural steel erection expressly does not authorize construction of concrete foundations or complete buildings, so a steel erector needs a concrete licensee for the footings and piers under its columns. On the fixed works side, GF-7 tanks and towers includes construction of concrete tanks, pads and foundations as part of that scope. A cutting and demolition arm of a flatwork company is therefore a second license application, not an extension of GS-4.
Sourcessrca.nm.gov
Two general building classifications swallow the concrete specialty scopes. GB-2 is the residential classification. It authorizes erecting, altering, repairing or demolishing residences and apartment houses accommodating not more than four family units in Groups R-1, R-2 and R-3, and it includes all work described by the GS specialty classifications provided the work is limited to residential construction. A GB-2 holder can pour residential foundations, slabs, driveways and patios without a separate GS-4. GB-2 requires two years of foreman level practical or related trade experience. GB-98 is general building. It authorizes erecting, altering, repairing or demolishing residential and commercial buildings and certain structures, and includes all work authorized by GB-2, GF-5, GF-7 and the GS classifications, plus seal coating and striping of driveways and parking lots. GB-98 requires four years of foreman level practical or related trade experience, at least two of which must be commercial. GB-98 excludes structures covered by the EE, MM, GA or GF classifications. Bidding rules follow from this. A licensee may bid and contract as prime only if the major portion of the work by dollar amount is authorized by its own classification, and everything outside that scope must be subcontracted to a contractor validly licensed for it. A GB-98 contractor may not take a whole project as prime when the major portion by dollar amount falls under any GA classification or under GF-1, GF-2, GF-3, GF-4, GF-6, GF-8 or GF-9. A parking lot package is a good example of a job that can outgrow a building license.
Sourcessrca.nm.gov
New Mexico licenses the company and certifies the person. The qualifying party is the individual who sits the exams and carries the technical competence for the classification. Qualifying party certificates go only to individuals eighteen or older, grant authority only in the classification named on the certificate, and are not transferable. A qualifying party may only perform work authorized by the certificate while validly attached to a validly licensed entity, and may not take other employment that conflicts with supervising the licensee's work. Experience must be in the classification applied for and, per the division's application instructions, must fall within the ten years immediately preceding the application. Proof is submitted on a work experience affidavit. Each person attesting to the applicant's experience uses a separate affidavit, fills in the affiant portion, and has that signature notarized. Applicants use as many affidavits as it takes to cover the period required for the classification. Accredited training can substitute in part. Training through a manufacturer's accredited training program, a technical vocational institute or an accredited apprenticeship program counts, with each year of equivalent training applied as one half year of experience, and accredited training may never exceed one half of the total experience requirement. For GS-4 that means the foreman level year cannot be bought entirely with classroom time. The division or PSI reviews the affidavit, and nobody schedules an exam until the experience is accepted in writing. Expedited certification exists for military service members, their spouses and veterans who hold a substantially equivalent credential elsewhere.
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Exams are administered by PSI. A qualifying party applicant must pass the trade exam or exams applicable to the classification being sought, plus a contractor's business and law exam. Applicants must be preapproved before they can schedule anything. The sequence set out by the division runs like this. Submit a completed qualifying party application and work experience affidavit to PSI with the application fee, with the applicant's signature notarized. Complete submissions go to the PSI Albuquerque office by hand or by mail, and faxed or emailed forms are not accepted. The division or PSI reviews the affidavit. If the experience is acceptable, an approval notice goes to the applicant, who may then schedule exams with PSI. If it is not acceptable, the applicant is notified in writing. There is an alternative to the business and law exam. The division allows a business and law course scheduled with approved vendors in lieu of the exam. Registration forms sit at the end of the PSI candidate information bulletins under Contractor, Journeyman or LP Gas, and payment is due at the time of registration. Each registration form is valid for one exam. A passing score stays good for one year, so a qualifying party who passes and then waits too long to attach to a licensed entity has to sit the exam again. The fee rule also prices review of a failed exam and a second review after two failures in the same classification.
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Fees come from two places. The division's application page states that a qualifying party applicant submits the application and work experience affidavit to PSI with a $36 fee, and that the company then submits its license application to PSI with a $36 application fee plus applicable license fees. The fee rule at 14.5.5.8 NMAC sets the underlying schedule. It requires a non refundable license application fee of $30 for an initial contractor's license, in addition to any other required fees, and the same $30 non refundable application fee for each additional classification. The basic license fee for an initial license or a renewal in the GA-98, GB-2, GB-98, GF-98, EE-98 or MM-98 classifications is $100 per year or $200 for two years, for each such classification. The basic fee for any other classification, which is where GS-4, GS-16, GS-15 and GS-34 sit, is $50 per year or $100 for two years. An applicant who takes and fails an examination for GB-2, GB-98, EE-98 or MM-98, or who fails the business and law exam for any classification, may request a review for a non refundable fee of $25. An applicant who fails the same classification exam twice may request a special review for $40. Journeyman certificate fees are $75. Military service members and veterans are not charged a fee for the first three years for a license or certificate issued under the expedited rule, though that exemption does not cover document copies or replacement licenses.
Proof of financial responsibility is a bond, not a net worth test. On initial licensure and as a condition of renewal, each applicant must furnish the division a bond in the amount of ten thousand dollars ($10,000), underwritten by a corporate surety authorized to transact business in New Mexico. The bond has to cover the entire period of licensure. Payment from it is used to cure division certified code violations caused and not corrected by the licensee, and claims must be made within two years following final inspection or within two years of issuance of a certificate of occupancy, whichever is earlier. The bond carrier must give the division and the licensee thirty days written notice before cancelling, and if a replacement bond is not provided, cancellation action against the license follows immediately. Workers compensation is not optional for a concrete company. The New Mexico Workers' Compensation Administration states that employers of three or more workers must carry coverage, and that employers actively engaging in activities required to be licensed by the Construction Industries Licensing Act must have coverage regardless of the number of employees. A business owner is counted in the head count when the business is engaged in activities requiring a division license, although a sole proprietor licensed by the division has the option to exempt themselves. The company application also requires a tax registration certificate from the Taxation and Revenue Department, and entity documentation from the Public Regulation Commission or the Secretary of State depending on how the company is organized.
Renewal is on the licensee, not on the mail. The division or its designee mails every licensee a renewal application at least thirty days before expiration, to the address of record, but the rule states that whether or not the form is received, it is the sole duty and responsibility of each licensee to renew on time. The filing date is the postmark, or the date of hand delivery. The signatures of all current qualifying parties on the license must appear on the renewal form. If the renewal is late, or arrives and is rejected for failing a renewal requirement, the license is suspended and subject to cancellation. Renewal can also be denied where the applicant has a disqualifying felony conviction listed in the rule. Several events make a license invalid on their own: failing to renew, failing to maintain proof of financial responsibility, and failing to comply with workers compensation law. Continuing education is where concrete contractors get a break. The division's continuing education page states plainly that the General Building Bureau does not have continuing education requirements for contractors. Continuing education in New Mexico construction licensing attaches to journeyman certificates in the electrical and mechanical plumbing trades, not to general construction contractor licenses. A name change is its own process. The licensee submits a written request with an amended registration certificate from Taxation and Revenue, a rider from the bonding company, and the state amendment document for a corporation, LLC, LP or LLP. Trading under the new name before the division approves and posts it can itself be a violation.
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Contractors moving into New Mexico should plan on testing. The division states that the only journeyman classification reciprocated in New Mexico is EE-98J, residential and commercial electrical with 8,000 hours of experience, and that EE-98J reciprocity is accepted from Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. The continuing education page repeats the point from the other direction: New Mexico has reciprocal licensing agreements, for a journeyman certificate or license only, with those same states. There is no contractor license reciprocity for GS-4, GS-16, GB-2 or GB-98 in either description. A concrete company crossing from Texas, Colorado or Arizona has to put a qualifying party through the New Mexico process the same way a local company does: documented experience in the classification, within the ten years before application, verified on notarized affidavits, then the trade exam and the business and law exam through PSI. The one real shortcut is for military applicants. The expedited certification path lets a qualified military service member, spouse, dependent child or veteran substitute documentation for work experience verification where they are currently licensed or certified and in good standing in another jurisdiction, including a branch of the armed forces, and the minimal licensing requirements in that jurisdiction are substantially equivalent to New Mexico's. The division acts on those applications within thirty days of a complete filing. Everyone else should budget for the full affidavit and exam sequence before quoting New Mexico work.
The division is direct about this. Contracting without a license in New Mexico is against the law, and if a contractor is working without a license the division may stop the construction project and file a criminal charge of unlicensed contracting in Metropolitan or Magistrate Court. Penalties are set out in Section 60-13-52.A of the Construction Industries Licensing Act. Where the dollar value of the contracting work is $5,000 or less, the contractor may be sentenced to the county jail for 90 days or to the payment of a fine of $300 to $500, or both. Where the dollar value of the contracting work is over $5,000, the contractor may be sentenced to the county jail for 6 months or to the payment of a fine of 10 percent of the dollar value of the contracting work, or both. That percentage fine scales with the job, so a large commercial slab pour carries far more exposure than a patio. Violators are eligible for licensure one year from the date of conviction, which turns a conviction into a year of lost bidding on top of the fine. There is a narrow exemption for very small work. The handyman rule defines a handyman as an individual working on one project at a time that in the aggregate or singly does not exceed seven thousand two hundred dollars ($7,200) compensation a year, where the work is casual, minor or inconsequential. The exemption fails if the work is part of a larger operation, and it fails if the individual advertises or keeps a sign, card or other device indicating to the public that he is qualified to engage in contracting.
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The division's enforcement rule lists grounds for disciplinary action that apply directly to how a concrete company markets itself. Contracting without displaying the full name as it appears on the license issued by the division is a violation. Advertising a classification or trade in which a contractor is not licensed by the division is a violation. Advertising a service in a false, fraudulent or misleading manner is a violation. Using a false, fraudulent or deceptive statement in any document connected with construction bids, licensing, inspections or permitting is a violation. Read together, these set the rules for a website and a truck. Advertise the trade you hold. A GS-4 holder advertising masonry walls, or a GS-16 holder advertising driveways and patios, is advertising a classification it is not licensed in. The same applies to a GS-4 holder marketing public sidewalk and curb replacement, which belongs to the GA classifications. The business name on the site, the vehicle lettering and the written estimate should match the name on the license exactly, because a trading name that has drifted from the licensed name is its own problem, and a change of name is not effective until the division approves and posts it. Permits carry a display duty too. Every permit or notice of permit issued must contain the name, address and license number of the contractor or the homeowner to whom it was issued, and must be prominently displayed on the site where the permitted work is to be performed.
The state license is one layer. The permit is another, and in the largest New Mexico metros the permit comes from the city. Albuquerque's Building Safety Division, inside the Planning Department, issues building permits and runs building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical inspections, with the permit counter and inspections reached at 505-924-3320 at Plaza del Sol. Albuquerque also requires a business license. The Business License Ordinance requires every business to apply and pay a business license fee for each outlet, branch, location or place of business within the municipal limits before engaging in business, and applications and renewals require a current dated copy of the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department registration certificate showing the physical business address. Santa Fe runs its own Building Division inside Planning and Land Use, at City Hall on Lincoln Avenue, and operates its building permit counter by appointment. Santa Fe's business licensing page states that anyone conducting business in the city limits needs a business license, and tells applicants to establish the entity with the Secretary of State and obtain tax documents including gross receipts tax registration from Taxation and Revenue first. Where no municipal building department has jurisdiction, the Construction Industries Division permits and inspects directly from its Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Las Cruces offices. Statewide, separate permits are required for general building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing, and LP gas work, and a concrete subcontractor normally works under the general building permit rather than pulling its own.
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New Mexico publishes a free public license lookup, and the department points consumers straight at it. The Regulation and Licensing Department's verify a license page says to verify a license with the Construction Industries Division using the PSI public search at public.psiexams.com, and the division's own unlicensed violations page links the same PSI licensee search beside its enforcement tools. Anyone can run a name or a license number and see the status. That is useful to a licensed concrete contractor rather than threatening. The public search is the fastest way for a homeowner comparing three driveway bids to confirm which bidders are real, and a company that publishes its license number and classification makes that check take seconds. Put the license number and the classification code on the estimate, on the website and on the truck, with the business name spelled the way it appears on the license. The division also runs an investigation and enforcement portal where a member of the public can request an investigation online or on a paper form, and it publishes disciplinary actions and citations. Anyone can file a complaint against a licensee, and the division assigns an employee to investigate. A notice of investigation goes to the address on record in the licensee file, and the licensee must respond within fifteen calendar days with the information or documents requested. Keeping the address of record current is therefore part of keeping the license, since the division addresses all written communication to that address.
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These are common details other guides publish about New Mexico, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
GS-4, described in rule as concrete, cement, walkways and driveways. The scope is to mix, pour, place and finish concrete, including excavation, form work and placing reinforcement, plus curbs, gutters, sidewalks and driveway culverts on private property. It requires two years of practical trade experience, one year of which must be at foreman level.
The GS-4 scope covers mixing, pouring, placing and finishing concrete with all necessary preparatory work, including excavation, form work and placing of reinforcement materials. A residential builder holding GB-2 already carries the GS specialty scopes for residential work, so many foundation pours happen under a general building license instead.
Only in one place. GS-16 masonry expressly does not include the execution, fabrication and erecting of poured cement and concrete, except as a foundation for a wall. A GS-16 holder can pour the footing under the block wall it is building, but needs GS-4 or a general building license for slabs, driveways and patios.
A GA licensee. GA-3 authorizes forming, placing and finishing concrete curbs, gutters, driveway culverts and public sidewalks. GS-4 covers those items on private property only and may not perform them in public rights of way unless the work is subcontracted from a validly licensed GA contractor. GA-1 carries the GA-3 scope.
Documented experience in the classification, within the ten years immediately preceding application, proved on notarized work experience affidavits. Each person attesting uses a separate affidavit. Submit it to PSI with the application fee. Nobody schedules an exam until that experience is reviewed and approved in writing by the division or PSI.
To the company. The division issues licenses to business entities that employ or are owned by one or more qualifying parties certified for the scope of work. The qualifying party certificate is personal and not transferable. If you and your qualifying party separate, both of you must notify the division in writing within thirty days.
A bond of ten thousand dollars ($10,000), underwritten by a corporate surety authorized to transact business in New Mexico, furnished on initial licensure and as a condition of every renewal. It must cover the entire period of licensure. The carrier must give the division and you thirty days written notice before cancelling it.
Yes. The New Mexico Workers' Compensation Administration states that employers of three or more workers must carry coverage, and that employers actively engaging in activities required to be licensed by the Construction Industries Licensing Act must have coverage regardless of the number of employees. A licensed sole proprietor may exempt themselves.
No. The division's continuing education page states that the General Building Bureau does not have continuing education requirements for contractors. Continuing education in New Mexico construction licensing is attached to journeyman certificates in the electrical and the mechanical plumbing trades, not to general construction contractor licenses such as GS-4, GS-16 or GB-98.
Not directly. The division states that the only journeyman classification reciprocated in New Mexico is EE-98J electrical, accepted from ten named states. No contractor license reciprocity is described for the concrete, masonry or general building classifications. Military service members, spouses, dependent children and veterans have a separate expedited certification path.
The division may stop the project and file a criminal charge of unlicensed contracting in Metropolitan or Magistrate Court. For work valued at $5,000 or less, the penalty can reach 90 days in county jail or a fine of $300 to $500, or both. Convictions also block licensure for one year.
Yes. Building permits and inspections in Albuquerque come from the city Building Safety Division inside the Planning Department. The city also requires a business license for each outlet, branch, location or place of business within municipal limits, and applications need a current dated New Mexico Taxation and Revenue registration certificate with the physical address.
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