Ohio · Concrete licensing · official-source guide
Ohio does not license concrete, flatwork, foundation or masonry contractors. The Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, inside the Department of Commerce, licenses only electrical, plumbing, HVAC, hydronics and refrigeration contractors. Concrete work is governed instead by the Home Construction Service Suppliers Act, by city contractor registration in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo and Akron, and by a $250,000 general liability floor.
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Ohio licenses five construction trades at the state level, and concrete is not one of them. Section 4740.01(A) of the Ohio Revised Code defines a license from the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board as a license to act as a heating, ventilating and air conditioning contractor, a refrigeration contractor, an electrical contractor, a plumbing contractor, or a hydronics contractor. That list is closed. A contractor who pours driveways, sidewalks, patios, garage floors, footings, foundation walls and retaining walls, or who lays block and brick, does not apply to the board, does not sit a state concrete exam, and cannot buy a state concrete license, because Ohio does not create one. The board sits inside the Ohio Department of Commerce under section 4740.02 and runs three specialty sections: plumbing and hydronics, electrical, and heating, ventilating, air conditioning and refrigeration. There is no masonry section and no flatwork section. This changes how you sell. A homeowner in Dublin or Parma who asks for your state license number is asking for a document Ohio does not print for your trade. The answer that wins the job names what you do carry instead: city contractor registration where the work sits, general liability coverage, Ohio workers compensation coverage if you have a crew, and a written contract that satisfies Chapter 4722 of the Revised Code. Put that in writing on your estimate and on your website. The rest of this page covers what Ohio does enforce against concrete and masonry contractors, and the paperwork that actually gates your permits, which lives at the city counter rather than in Columbus.
A flatwork and foundation contractor still needs to know the board's reach, because concrete jobs frequently run into licensed trades. Section 4740.06 sets the qualification route for the trades that are licensed: an applicant must be at least eighteen, must be a United States citizen or a legal resident with documentation, and must have worked as a tradesperson in that licensed trade for not less than five years immediately before filing, or be a registered Ohio engineer with three years of construction industry experience in the trade, or hold other experience the specialty section accepts. The applicant also has to carry contractor liability insurance in an amount the specialty section sets, and pay the application fee set under section 4740.09. Section 4740.13(A) then makes it an offence for any person to act as, or claim to be, a type of contractor the chapter licenses without holding or being assigned that license. Read against a concrete scope, the line falls in predictable places. A heated slab with hydronic tubing, a trench drain tied into sanitary or storm plumbing, conduit and boxes cast into a slab, or a condenser pad wired at the same visit all pull in a trade the board governs. The pour itself does not. The clean arrangement is to subcontract the licensed portion to a license holder and show the homeowner both names. That is also the arrangement your city building department expects to see when it reviews the permit application for a slab that carries mechanical, electrical or plumbing work.
Chapter 4722 of the Ohio Revised Code is the statute that reaches residential concrete and masonry work, and most contractors have never read it. Section 4722.01(B) defines home construction service as the construction of a residential building, including creating a new structure and the repair, improvement, remodel or renovation of an existing one. A residential building under section 4722.01(F) is a one, two or three family dwelling plus any accessory construction incidental to the dwelling, which pulls in the driveway, the garage slab, the walks, the patio, the porch, the steps and the foundation. Structures with four or more dwelling units are outside the chapter except for work on an individual unit, and common areas of condominium property are outside it as well. Section 4722.01(C) sets the trigger: a home construction service contract is a contract to perform home construction services for an amount exceeding twenty five thousand dollars, and the definition expressly includes cost plus work. So a $25,000 tear out and replace of a long driveway and apron sits below the line, and a foundation and flatwork package at $30,000 sits above it. Nothing in the chapter requires you to register with anyone, and nothing gives you a license. What it does is attach a set of contract duties and a private right of action once you cross the threshold. Track your contract value against that number the same way you track your material costs, because the duties switch on at the dollar amount rather than at the type of work.
Ohio does not set a bond for concrete work and does not publish a statewide minimum policy for contractors generally. It does something less obvious. Section 4722.01(D) defines a home construction service supplier as a person who contracts with an owner to provide home construction services for compensation and who maintains in force a general liability insurance policy in an amount of not less than two hundred fifty thousand dollars. The figure is written into the definition itself. Section 4722.02(A)(8) then requires that a copy of the supplier's certificate of insurance showing general liability coverage of not less than $250,000 be included in the written contract for any job at or above the threshold. The practical effect is a floor. If you intend to sign residential concrete contracts above $25,000 in Ohio, a $250,000 general liability policy is the minimum the statute contemplates, and the certificate has to travel with the contract rather than sit in a drawer. Most commercial and municipal flatwork buyers in Ohio will ask for considerably more than that, and most city registrations impose their own limits, so treat $250,000 as the statutory basement and not as a target. Two things follow for how you quote. Carry the certificate as a PDF you can attach to an estimate the same day. And name the carrier and the coverage on the contract page, because section 4722.03(A)(1) makes failure to enter a compliant written contract before starting work a prohibited act on its own.
Section 4722.02(A) lists what a home construction services contract has to carry, and the list is specific enough that a generic estimate form will fail it. The contract must state your name, physical business address, business telephone number and taxpayer identification number. It must state the owner's name, address and telephone number. It must state the address or location of the property where the work happens. It must carry a general description of the service, including the goods and services furnished as part of it. It must give the anticipated date or time period the work begins and the anticipated date or time period it is completed. It must give the total estimated cost. It must give any cost of installation, delivery or other cost that the total estimated cost does not cover. It must include a copy of your certificate of insurance showing general liability coverage of not less than $250,000. And it must carry the dated signatures of both the owner and you. For a concrete contractor that means the contract names the pour, the square footage, the thickness, the reinforcement, the finish, the saw cutting and the haul away of the broken slab, with a start window and a completion window. A cost plus contract is treated differently: section 4722.02(C) relieves a supplier who enters a cost plus contract from divisions (A) and (B). Rebuild your template once against this list and the compliance problem goes away permanently.
Sourcescodes.ohio.gov
Two figures in Chapter 4722 control cash flow on residential concrete work, and both are easy to breach by habit. Section 4722.04 caps a down payment at not more than ten per cent of the contract price before performance required by the contract begins. The one carve out is special order material: a supplier may take not more than seventy five per cent of the total cost of a special order item that is otherwise not returnable or usable before performance begins. Cost plus contracts are excluded from the section, and a supplier may accept payments from a construction loan. So on a $40,000 driveway, apron and retaining wall package, the deposit ceiling before you mobilise is $4,000 unless a specific item qualifies as a non returnable special order. Section 4722.02(B) handles the other direction. If reasonably unforeseen but necessary excess costs exceed five thousand dollars over the course of the whole contract, you must give the owner an estimate of those excess costs before performing the related work, written or oral depending on the box the owner initialled in the contract. The contract itself has to carry the statutory excess cost paragraph with the two initial lines. If the contract fixes a firm price and you will not charge excess costs, the notice duty does not apply. Soft subgrade, buried rubble and unexpected rebar depth are exactly the conditions this paragraph was written for, so decide the firm price question before you sign.
Section 4722.03(A) sets out the conduct Ohio prohibits for a home construction service supplier, and it reads like a list of the complaints homeowners file about concrete work. You may not fail to enter a compliant written contract before starting. You may not fail to provide the excess cost estimate the chapter requires. You may not fail to disclose, before the owner accepts goods or work tied to an excess cost, that refusing the excess cost may make completion impossible and that a charge may be imposed for disassembly, reassembly or partially completed work directly related to the actual labour or parts involved. You may not charge for an excess cost the owner has not approved. You may not represent that work has been performed when it has not. You may not fail to perform the service in a workmanlike manner. You may not fail to refund, within a reasonable time, payment taken for goods or services you did not deliver under the contract. Section 4722.01(G) defines workmanlike manner by reference to an outside yardstick: construction that meets or exceeds the minimum quantifiable standards promulgated by the Ohio home builders association. That is unusual drafting and it matters on a failure claim about cracking, scaling, spalling, settlement or a slab that holds water. Document subgrade compaction, slump, air content, curing and joint layout on every residential pour above the threshold. Photographs with timestamps are the cheapest defence available to a flatwork contractor in Ohio.
Enforcement runs down two tracks. Section 4722.06 lets the Ohio attorney general investigate when there is reasonable cause to believe a person has engaged in an act or practice that violates the chapter, with power to administer oaths, subpoena witnesses, take evidence and require production of relevant material, including material held outside Ohio. Section 4722.07 then lets the attorney general seek a declaratory judgment that the act or practice violates the chapter, or a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction or permanent injunction to restrain it. Where a supplier violates such an order and had notice of the action, the court may impose a civil penalty of not more than five thousand dollars for each day of violation. The second track belongs to the customer. Section 4722.08 gives an owner a cause of action. Where the violation was an act prohibited by section 4722.02, 4722.03 or 4722.04, the owner may, in an individual action, rescind the transaction or recover actual economic damages plus an amount not exceeding five thousand dollars in noneconomic damages. Rescission has to be sought within a reasonable time after the owner discovers or should have discovered the ground, and before any substantial change in condition of the subject of the transaction. An owner may also seek a declaratory judgment, an injunction or other appropriate relief, and the court may award a reasonable attorney fee to the prevailing party in defined circumstances. A missing contract on a $30,000 pour is therefore not a paperwork slip. It is a standing claim.
Sourcescodes.ohio.gov
Ohio sets no statewide rule requiring a concrete contractor to print a license number on a truck, a yard sign, an estimate or a website, for the simple reason that the state issues no number for the trade. The prohibition runs the other way. Section 4740.13(A) says no person shall act as or claim to be a type of contractor that Chapter 4740 licenses unless that person holds or has been assigned the matching license. Section 4740.99 fixes the penalty: a minor misdemeanor on a first violation and a misdemeanor of the fourth degree on later ones. Section 4740.01(B) is drafted broadly enough to reach your marketing, because it defines a contractor partly by whoever offers, identifies, advertises or otherwise holds out or represents that it is permitted or qualified to take responsibility for work in one or more trades. So a concrete company page that lists heated floors, basement plumbing reroutes or electrical slab work alongside flatwork, without a license holder behind it, is advertising into a licensed trade. The second constraint is the Consumer Sales Practices Act. Section 1345.02(A) bars a supplier from committing an unfair or deceptive act or practice in connection with a consumer transaction, before, during or after it, and division (B) treats representations about sponsorship, approval, performance characteristics, uses or benefits that the subject does not have as deceptive. Phrases such as state licensed, state certified or state approved concrete contractor are the exposure. Bonded and insured, city registered, and the registration number your city issued are accurate and safe. The downside is quantified. Under section 1345.09 a consumer may rescind or recover three times actual economic damages or two hundred dollars, whichever is greater, plus up to five thousand dollars in noneconomic damages. Section 1345.07 lets the attorney general seek a civil penalty of up to five thousand dollars for each day an injunction is violated, and up to twenty five thousand dollars for a practice a court has already condemned and published.
Sourcescodes.ohio.gov 1codes.ohio.gov 2codes.ohio.gov 3codes.ohio.gov 4codes.ohio.gov 5
Canvassing a street while the mixer is on site is normal practice in Ohio flatwork, and it triggers a specific set of duties. Section 1345.21(A) defines a home solicitation sale as a sale of consumer goods or services where the seller or someone acting for the seller personally solicits the sale at the buyer's residence, including a solicitation that follows the buyer's own invitation, and the buyer's agreement or offer to purchase is given there, or is made at any place other than the seller's place of business. Transactions under twenty five dollars are excluded, as are deals concluded entirely by mail or by telephone initiated by the buyer, and final agreements reached after the buyer visits a fixed retail establishment. Section 1345.23 then requires a written agreement or offer to purchase in the same language as the oral presentation, carrying your name and address, presented to the buyer for signature, stating the date the buyer actually signed, and left with the buyer in a signed copy. Beside the signature line the contract must carry, in bold face type of at least ten points, the statement that the buyer may cancel at any time before midnight of the third business day after the date of the transaction. A completed notice of cancellation must be attached in duplicate, easily detachable, in ten point bold face, with the statutory wording. Signing a patio contract on a porch without that attachment is a defect in the paperwork, not a technicality, and it keeps the cancellation window open.
Cincinnati is the clearest example of where concrete and masonry contractors are actually regulated in Ohio. The Department of Buildings and Inspections administers contractor registration under chapter 1106 of the Cincinnati Municipal Code. Its registration rules set three categories. Home Improvement Contractor covers repair, remodeling, alteration, improvement or addition to one, two and three family residences. OCILB Licensed Specialty Contractor covers the five state licensed trades. Building Construction Contractor covers everything else, including new one, two and three family dwellings and contractors specialising in a single construction activity or trade, with masonry, carpentry, demolition, glazing and crane operations named in the rule. Flatwork, foundations and masonry land in that third category. Registration needs the application signed by a responsible party, a certificate of liability insurance from a carrier licensed in Ohio with minimum limits of one hundred thousand dollars for damages to a single person and three hundred thousand dollars for one occurrence, proof of Ohio workers compensation coverage, and a federal taxpayer identification number or the responsible party's social security number. The fee is $125.00 plus a three per cent technology surcharge and a one per cent financial recovery fee, a total of $130.00, and registration can be issued for one, two or three years at $130.00 per year. Same day processing costs an extra $208.00. Mid term changes, including adding or swapping an insurance carrier, cost $78.00. Renewal is open in the sixty day window before expiry.
Sourcescincinnati-oh.gov
The enforcement schedule in the Cincinnati rules is the reason registration pays for itself. A violation of chapter 1106 of the Cincinnati Municipal Code draws a written citation carrying a $750.00 fine on the first offence. That citation can be appealed through the administrative hearing process, where the contractor is offered the chance to become registered and have the fine reduced to $325.00. A second violation brings a $1500.00 fine and makes the contractor ineligible to register under the chapter for one year from the date of the violation. For a flatwork business inside the city limits, a one year registration ban is a business ending penalty, not a fine. The violations listed are not exotic. Performing contracting work in the city limits without being registered counts. Not renewing an expired registration counts. Letting any required provision lapse counts, and the rule names liability insurance coverage, workers compensation coverage and an account in good standing with the City Income Tax Division. The chief building official can also revoke, suspend or refuse a registration for misrepresentation in the application, for using a registration to obtain a permit for another party, or for failing to secure required permits, inspections and approvals. A first time application left incomplete on file for over one hundred twenty days draws a $78.00 late fee and moves to expired status. A registration not renewed within thirty days after expiry needs a reactivation fee of $130.00 a year plus a $130.00 registration fee.
Sourcescincinnati-oh.gov
Cleveland's Department of Building and Housing registers building contractors and runs the Code Enforcement, Construction Permitting and Records Administration divisions. The department states that to register as an electrical, plumbing or HVAC contractor you must first be licensed by the State of Ohio, and points applicants to the Industry Licensing Board; a concrete, foundation or masonry contractor has no such prerequisite and submits the contractor packet from the department's resources page. Cleveland also warns that residential permits are required for work including decks, porches and ramps, so a porch slab or a ramp pour is permit work even where the registration question is simple. Toledo states plainly that the city requires contractors to register and maintain a license to do business in the city, and publishes lists of registered contractors by category: refrigeration, home remodeling, electrical, sign, plumbing, hydronics, fire and HVAC. There is no separate concrete or masonry list, so a flatwork contractor working in Toledo should confirm which category the Division of Building Inspection assigns before quoting. Akron handles registration through its Plans and Permits office in the Engineering Bureau. Since June 2024 all contractor registration there runs through the Plan Review and Permits web portal, and the renewal period opens on June 1 and closes on June 30, which is a single fixed annual window rather than a rolling anniversary. Akron also issues the permits a concrete crew actually needs: grading and paving permits, right of way permits and street occupancy permits, with inspections to be scheduled forty eight hours before work begins.
Columbus runs the most structured city licensing system of the Ohio metros. The Department of Building and Zoning Services grants licenses and registrations, and the categories include General Contractor, Home Improvement General Contractor, Home Improvement Limited Contractor, Demolition Contractor, OCILB Contractor, General or Limited Sign Erector, Sewer Water or Combined Sewer and Water Contractor, Fire Contractor and Special Inspectors. Review sits with named bodies, including the Board of General and Home Improvement Contractors and the Skilled Trades Review Board. A concrete and foundation business doing residential and light commercial work in Columbus is looking at the general contractor or home improvement categories rather than a trade license, and the city's general contractor application calls for a surety bond and a certificate of liability insurance naming the City of Columbus from a carrier licensed in Ohio. Confirm the current bond amount, insurance limits, license term and fee directly with the department before you file, since the city publishes those on its fee schedule and application forms. One statewide constraint is worth knowing when a smaller Ohio municipality asks you to register. Section 4740.12(A) of the Revised Code says no political subdivision, district or agency of the state may adopt an ordinance or rule requiring contractor registration and the assessment of a registration or license fee unless that ordinance or rule also requires any contractor who registers and pays to be licensed in the contractor's trade under Chapter 4740. That provision is a real limit on local contractor registration fees, and it is the right question to raise with a village that demands a fee for a trade the state does not license.
Two statewide obligations hit every Ohio concrete contractor regardless of city. The first is workers compensation. Section 4123.01(A)(1)(b) brings within the system every person in the service of any person, firm or private corporation that employs one or more persons regularly in the same business or about the same establishment under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written. One regular employee puts you inside the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation system, and Cincinnati requires proof of that coverage at registration while exempting sole proprietors and entities with no employees that state law does not require to carry it. The second is sales and use tax, and the Ohio rule is counterintuitive for contractors who came from a retail background. Rule 5703-9-14 of the Ohio Administrative Code defines a construction contract as any agreement under which tangible personal property is transferred and incorporated into real property so as to become part of it, regardless of whether the work is new construction, an addition or an alteration, and defines a construction contractor as any person performing such an agreement as prime or subcontractor. Division (D)(1) makes the construction contractor the consumer of materials and taxable services incorporated into real property, so you pay sales or use tax on the purchase price rather than charging the homeowner tax on the slab. The rule also singles out concrete forms, together with shoring lumber, fencing and temporary utility hook ups, as property temporarily affixed during construction and not incorporated into real property, even if it stays in place afterwards.
Ohio sets the technical standard for your pours even though it sets no license. Chapter 4101:8-4 of the Ohio Administrative Code is the Foundations chapter of the Residential Code of Ohio, adopted under section 3781.10 and effective March 1, 2024. Section 402.2 and Table 402.2 fix minimum specified compressive strength at twenty eight days. Basement walls, foundations, basement slabs and interior slabs on grade call for 2,500 psi. Basement walls, foundation walls, exterior walls and other vertical concrete exposed to the weather call for 2,500 psi where weathering potential is negligible and 3,000 psi in moderate and severe weathering areas. Porches, carport slabs, steps exposed to the weather and garage floor slabs call for 2,500 psi where weathering potential is negligible, 3,000 psi in moderate areas and 3,500 psi in severe areas. Where air entrainment is required, total air content must be not less than 5 per cent and not more than 7 per cent. Section 403.1.4 requires exterior footings to be placed not less than 12 inches below the undisturbed ground surface, and section 403.1.4.1 requires frost protection, with the frost line taken from Table 301.2(1). On verification, Ohio's eLicense look up covers twenty four named agencies, boards and commissions and does not include the construction board, so a homeowner checking a licensed trade uses the Department of Commerce OCILB company licensee look up. For concrete work itself, the check is your city registration, your certificate of insurance and your contract.
Sourcescodes.ohio.gov 1codes.ohio.gov 2elicense.ohio.gov 3apps.com.ohio.gov 4
These are common details other guides publish about Ohio, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. Section 4740.01(A) of the Revised Code limits Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board licenses to heating, ventilating and air conditioning, refrigeration, electrical, plumbing and hydronics contractors. Concrete, flatwork, foundation and masonry work is not on that list, so there is no state exam, no state fee and no state license number for the trade.
Any residential job above the statutory threshold. Section 4722.01(C) defines a home construction service contract as a contract to perform home construction services for an amount exceeding twenty five thousand dollars, including cost plus work. Driveways, garage slabs, patios, porches, steps and foundations on one, two and three family dwellings all count as home construction service.
Section 4722.01(D) defines a home construction service supplier as someone who maintains general liability coverage of not less than two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Section 4722.02(A)(8) requires a copy of that certificate inside the written contract. Treat $250,000 as the statutory floor, since most commercial and municipal buyers demand considerably more.
Section 4722.04 caps a down payment at ten per cent of the contract price before the performance required by the contract begins. A special order item that is otherwise not returnable or usable may carry up to seventy five per cent of its total cost. Cost plus contracts are excluded from the section entirely.
No. Section 4740.13(A) bars anyone from claiming to be a type of contractor that Chapter 4740 licenses without the matching license, and section 4740.99 makes a first violation a minor misdemeanor. Section 1345.02 adds deceptive practice exposure. Use bonded and insured, or name your city registration number instead.
Cincinnati registers them as Building Construction Contractors, a category whose rules name masonry directly. Cleveland's Department of Building and Housing registers building contractors. Toledo requires contractors to register and hold a city license. Akron handles registration through its Plan Review and Permits portal. Columbus issues general and home improvement contractor licenses.
The registration fee is $125.00 plus a three per cent technology surcharge and a one per cent financial recovery fee, for a total of $130.00. Registration can run one, two or three years at $130.00 per year. Same day processing adds $208.00, and mid term changes to an issued registration cost $78.00.
A first violation of chapter 1106 of the Cincinnati Municipal Code brings a written citation with a $750.00 fine, reducible to $325.00 on appeal if the contractor registers. A second violation brings a $1500.00 fine plus ineligibility to register for one year from the violation date, which closes the city to you.
Yes. Under sections 1345.21 and 1345.23, a sale solicited at the buyer's residence is a home solicitation sale. The contract must carry a bold face statement that the buyer may cancel before midnight of the third business day, plus a detachable notice of cancellation in duplicate using the statutory wording.
You pay it. Rule 5703-9-14(D)(1) of the Ohio Administrative Code makes a construction contractor the consumer of materials incorporated into real property, so sales or use tax is due on your purchase price. You do not bill the homeowner tax on the finished slab as if it were a retail sale.
No. Rule 5703-9-14(B) lists concrete forms with shoring lumber, fencing, construction elevators and temporary utility hook ups as property temporarily affixed during construction and not incorporated into real property for sales and use tax purposes, even where the items stay affixed afterwards through inadvertence or convenience.
Table 402.2 of Chapter 4101:8-4 sets twenty eight day minimums for porches, carport slabs, exposed steps and garage floor slabs at 2,500 psi where weathering potential is negligible, 3,000 psi in moderate areas and 3,500 psi in severe areas. Required air entrainment runs from 5 to 7 per cent.
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