Tennessee · Concrete licensing · official-source guide
Tennessee licenses concrete work through the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors at state level, not through a standalone concrete license. A contractor license is required before bidding any project of $25,000 or more. Masonry subcontractors need a license at $100,000 or more, which carries the LMC trade exam. Nine counties add a Home Improvement license below $25,000.
State-level license
Yes
Public lookup
Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-10-26. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Concrete work in Tennessee is regulated at state level by the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors, which sits inside the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance. The Board was established in 1931, and the requirements for licensure are in Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 62, Chapter 6. The Board runs four separate credentials: the contractor license, the home improvement contractor license, the limited licensed electrician and the limited licensed plumber. A concrete, foundation or masonry contractor deals with the first two. There is no standalone state concrete license and no separate flatwork license. Concrete work is licensed through the contractor license and its classifications, and masonry is the one piece of that work with its own trade exam. Applications, renewals, classification changes and monetary limit increases all run through the Board's CORE system. The Board's mailing address is 500 James Robertson Parkway, Nashville, Tennessee 37243-1150, and its phone numbers are 800-544-7693 and 615-741-8307. Licensing questions go to contractors.home-improvement@tn.gov. Two consequences follow from the state-level structure. First, you cannot pour concrete in Tennessee on another state's license; the Board says plainly that you cannot operate here with a license from another state. Second, the state license is only one layer. Permit offices in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga run their own registration and permit systems on top of it, and the Board tells applicants to check with local government for its requirements. As of September 17, 2026 the Department no longer mails physical license certificates, so licensees print their license from inside CORE.
A Tennessee contractor license is required before contracting, and the Board defines contracting to include bidding, offering to engage, and negotiating a price. That matters for a concrete company, because the violation happens at the bid, not at the pour. The threshold is $25,000 or more when you act as a prime contractor, as certain subcontractors, or as a construction manager or consultant. A prime contractor is one who bids or contracts directly with the property owner. So a flatwork crew that signs a $30,000 driveway and patio contract straight with a homeowner is a prime contractor at $30,000 and needs the license before it quotes the job. Subcontractors are treated differently. A subcontractor who contracts directly with a contractor rather than with the owner must be licensed only for specific trades: electrical, mechanical, plumbing, HVAC and roofing when that portion of the project is $25,000 or more, including materials, equipment and labor. Masonry subcontractors sit on a separate and much higher line, covered in the next section. Construction managers and consultants must be licensed when the total project value is $25,000 or more. The Board also warns that projects cannot be split into phases to stay under a limit, and that there is no reciprocal agreement that lets you work in Tennessee before you hold the Tennessee license. The Board's own application instructions state that contracting without a license is punishable by monetary penalties, that a license may be denied, and that the law prohibits participating on the project or rebidding it, citing T.C.A. 62-6-120.
Masonry is the concrete-adjacent trade Tennessee singles out. The Board's rule has two halves, and mixing them up is the most common error a block, brick and stone contractor makes here. As a subcontractor, a masonry contractor must be licensed when the masonry portion of the project is $100,000 or more, including materials, equipment and labor. As a prime contractor, the ordinary rule applies instead: a masonry contractor bidding directly to the owner must be licensed at $25,000 or more. So the same crew can need a license at $25,000 on one job and not until $100,000 on the next, depending on who it signs with. The classification that covers this work is LMC, the Licensed Masonry Contractor, described by the Board as covering projects of $100,000 or more. LMC carries its own trade exam. The Board states that for masonry work of $100,000 or more, as a sub or as a prime, the LMC trade exam is required, and that the LMC exam is required for the BC-9 masonry building subcategory over $100,000. Masonry is also one of the named subcontractor trades that has to appear on the outside of a bid envelope on public bids, which is covered later on this page. If your work is poured flatwork and foundations rather than unit masonry, the LMC exam is not automatically your route, and the classification question in the next section decides it.
Tennessee does not hand out a license that simply says concrete. The Board assigns classifications, and the classification has to match the work. Building classifications are tiered by project type: BC-A residential, BC-B commercial, BC-C industrial, BC for all three, BC-b(sm) small commercial, and combined forms such as BC-A,b(sm). Under those sit numbered building subcategories, running from BC-1 for acoustical treatments through BC-33 for irrigation, with BC-9 for masonry. The Board allows a license with up to five subcategories without a trade exam, and notes that passing the full BC exam covers all of them. The complete list of classifications comes from Rule 0680-01-.16 in the Board's rules, published by the Tennessee Secretary of State. Site and paving work has its own families. Highway, Railroad and Airport classifications include HRA-A grading and drainage, HRA-B base and paving, and HRA-C bridges and culverts. Heavy Construction includes HC-D for dams, dikes, levees and canals and HC-1 for structural steel erection. Municipal Utility includes MU-A underground piping and MU-C grading and drainage, and the Board notes that MU and MU-B require the BC-B or BC exam. Two limits bite concrete contractors. Tennessee law requires that your classification cover 60 percent of the project, or that you hold a commercial BC or BC-B classification, citing T.C.A. 62-6-111. And a contractor on a non-tested trade or specialty classification cannot perform electrical, mechanical or plumbing work above $25,000, which has to be subcontracted to a properly licensed contractor.
Below the $25,000 contractor threshold, Tennessee has a second credential that catches most residential concrete work, but only in some counties. A Home Improvement license is required for residential remodeling projects from $3,000 to $24,999 in the counties that adopted the law. The Board lists those counties as Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Haywood, Knox, Marion, Robertson, Rutherford and Shelby. That list includes Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga, so the four largest metros are all covered. Home improvement is defined in T.C.A. 62-6-501(4)(A) and takes in repair, replacement, remodeling, alterations and additions to land or a residential building. The Board's own examples name driveways, swimming pools, porches, garages, landscaping and fences, which is precisely the flatwork a concrete contractor sells. A $12,000 driveway replacement in Davidson County therefore sits in home improvement territory, not in the exempt zone. Requirements are lighter than the contractor license. You need a surety bond of $10,000, or other financial responsibility in the form of a cash or property bond or an irrevocable letter of credit. You need photo identification and a Social Security number, proof of general liability and workers compensation insurance, Secretary of State registration if you operate as a corporation, general partnership or LLC, and experience performing remodeling work. There is no financial statement and no exam. The initial application fee is $250 and renewal is $200. The renewal grace period is three months with a $10 per month late fee, after which you must reapply from scratch.
Tennessee licenses the business, not the individual, and then requires the business to name a person who carries the technical credit. That person is the Qualifying Agent. The QA is the one who passes the exams, or who supplies the experience on classifications that have no trade exam. The QA may be an owner, a full-time employee or an officer. A QA without ownership has to file the Board's Power of Attorney form, signed by the owner and notarized, and the Board applies that form to anyone with no ownership or less than 20 percent. Up to two people may take each exam for the company, and the person who sits the Business and Law exam does not have to be the one who sits the trade exam. On experience, the Board says it prefers three years, and it also looks at equipment and financial information. You list experience on the application, and it can come from work performed in other states or for other contractors. Every applicant, including second and reinstatement licenses, must file one Letter of Reference. It has to be completed by a past client or employer who can speak to your construction experience, or by a code official who has inspected your work. It cannot come from a family member, and the reference does not have to be a Tennessee resident. A Contractor's Affidavit must be signed and notarized by the qualifying agent, owners, partners, members, main officers and major stockholders. If a QA leaves, a replacement must be designated within three months under T.C.A. 62-6-115 and Rule 0680-1-.23, or the classification becomes invalid.
As of July 1, 2026, Prov administers the exams for the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors, replacing PSI. Every contractor applicant takes the Tennessee Business and Law exam. A trade exam is required only for certain classifications, and for concrete and masonry work the relevant one is LMC, the masonry trade exam, triggered at $100,000 or more. Exams are open book, and the Board states they are typically valid for two years. Applicants already scheduled with PSI for a date after July 1 could keep that appointment, with PSI continuing scheduled exams through September, but new scheduling goes through Prov. Reference material includes the Business and Law Reference Manual, Tennessee Edition, and the Tennessee Contractor's Candidate Information Bulletin. Exam preparation courses have to be taken through a Board-licensed provider, and the Board publishes that provider list with license numbers next to each name. There are two ways around the standard exam route. Tennessee accepts the NASCLA Accredited Examination Program national commercial exam. And residential contractors who want to work below $125,000 can take the Restricted Residential Limited License, BC-A/r, by completing a limited license course through a Tennessee community college or vocational school instead of sitting the BC-A residential trade exam and the Business and Law exam. All other application requirements still apply, only the examination requirement is waived. BC-A/r has no 10 percent monetary tolerance, does not allow joint ventures, and the contract or permit value may not exceed the assigned limit, including land cost and profit.
Tennessee caps the size of each job you can take through a monetary limit printed on the license. The limit is calculated as 10 times the lesser of working capital or net worth, plus the required experience. Working capital is current assets minus current liabilities. Net worth is total assets minus total liabilities. The Board's own example: a $150,000 limit requires $15,000 in both working capital and net worth, and if working capital is $10,000 while net worth is $200,000, the limit comes out at $100,000, because the lesser figure governs. An unlimited monetary limit requires $300,000 in both working capital and net worth, plus experience. There is a 10 percent tolerance on the limit for bidding, except on the BC-A/r restricted license. The limit applies per project or contract, not in total, and the Board warns against splitting projects into phases. The supporting document is a reviewed or audited financial statement prepared by an independent CPA or licensed public accountant, in the exact name and mode of operation to be licensed, less than 12 months old and prepared under GAAP. A reviewed statement covers limits of $3,000,000 or less; an audited statement is required above $3,000,000. Since July 1, 2026 there is an alternative: the Board's Contractors' Surety Bond, in an amount equal to at least 50 percent of the monetary limit requested, submitted on the Board-approved form. Working capital can also be supplemented with a line of credit or a guaranty agreement. A bond in the Board's format may replace a guaranty agreement at $500,000, or $1,000,000 for unlimited limits.
The Board publishes a single fee schedule and states that every fee paid in connection with these transactions is non-refundable. For the contractor license, the initial application fee is $250, and the same $250 applies to reinstatement and to an ownership change. Renewal is $200. The late renewal penalty is $20 per month for up to 12 months. A mode of operation change costs $100. A duplicate license is $25. Retirement costs $25 per year of renewal for up to seven years, and every seven years a $200 reset fee is required to keep the license in retirement. Bringing a license out of retirement takes a $200 renewal fee. For the Home Improvement license, initial, reinstatement and ownership change are each $250, renewal is $200, the late penalty is $10 per month for up to three months, and a duplicate is $10. Two transactions a growing concrete contractor uses often carry no fee at all: monetary limit increases and revisions, and classification modifications, both filed through CORE. Pre-approval to sit the plumbing or full mechanical exam carries a $50 fee, which a concrete contractor does not hit. Course provider licensing is $1,500 initial and $1,000 renewal. These are state figures only. They do not include the CPA's charge for the reviewed or audited financial statement, the exam provider's seat fee, the surety bond premium, or any city or county permit and registration cost.
Tennessee ties your insurance to your monetary limit, so a concrete contractor who raises its limit has to raise its coverage. Since July 1, 2007 state law has required proof of general liability insurance to apply for or renew a contractor or home improvement license. The Board's minimum general liability amounts are set out in its insurance resource document. For a limit of less than $25,000, which is the home improvement band, up to $500,000, the minimum is $100,000. For $500,001 to $1,500,000, the minimum is $500,000. For $1,500,001 to unlimited, the minimum is $1,000,000. The Board notes that insurers may advise more coverage based on the work performed, and that local permit issuing agencies and bid awarding authorities may require their own insurance and bonding. Workers compensation insurance is also required unless proof of exemption is provided. Under Public Chapter 1149, effective March 1, 2011, owners, officers, partners and LLC members in construction may register as a Construction Services Provider with the Tennessee Secretary of State to exempt themselves. The statute allows the exemption for no more than three officers of one corporation, for an LLC member owning at least 30 percent, for a partner owning at least 30 percent, and for a sole proprietor. Contractor and home improvement applicants must supply workers compensation proof, Construction Services Provider registration, or the exemption questionnaire from the application. Home improvement licensees carry the separate $10,000 surety bond. Pre-license course providers carry a $50,000 bond.
The renewal option appears in your CORE account once you are within 90 days of the expiration date, and the Board asks that renewals be submitted at least 30 days before expiration so you are not working on an expired license. The contractor license carries a 12 month grace period, with a $20 per month late fee if you renew inside it. Once a license has been expired for 12 months or longer, you cannot renew at all; you submit a new application and meet every initial licensure requirement again. The Home Improvement license has a three month grace period with a $10 per month late fee, and the same reapply-from-scratch consequence after that. Renewal documents are a financial statement, a certificate of insurance for general liability, workers compensation proof or exemption registration, and proof of active status with the Secretary of State for corporations and LLCs. On the financial statement, a renewal above $1.5 million needs a compiled statement prepared by a licensed CPA, while a renewal below $1.5 million can use a self-prepared balance sheet on the Board's form. Continuing education is narrower than contractors expect. Under Tenn. Code Ann. 62-6-112(g), contractors holding a residential classification, meaning BC-A, BC-A/r or BC-A,b(sm), who were licensed after January 1, 2009, must show eight hours of Residential Continuing Education from a Board-approved provider at renewal. The Board states that BC-A and BC-A/r contractors complete eight hours with every biennial renewal. The Qualifying Agent earns it, and where a license has several residential QAs only one has to.
The Board's position is blunt: you cannot operate in Tennessee with a license from another state, and the application instructions repeat that there is no reciprocal agreement allowing work before you obtain a Tennessee license. What Tennessee does offer is narrower, a waiver of the trade exam only. If you are actively licensed in a participating state and the classification you want requires a trade exam, you may qualify for a trade exam waiver by having that state complete the Board's License Verification form and returning it with your application. The participating states and the categories Tennessee accepts are: Alabama for general, electrical, residential and HVAC; Arkansas for commercial and residential building only; Louisiana for residential, commercial, electrical and mechanical; Mississippi for residential, commercial, electrical and unlimited mechanical; North Carolina for residential and commercial building and electrical; Ohio for electrical, plumbing and HVAC; South Carolina for commercial building, electrical, HVAC and plumbing through its Commercial Contractors Licensing Board; and West Virginia for residential, commercial and industrial building, electrical, mechanical and masonry. West Virginia is the one state on that list where masonry is named, which matters for an LMC applicant. Tennessee also accepts the NASCLA National Commercial exam. The waiver applies only to the Contractor license and not to Home Improvement, LLE or LLP. A separate waiver path exists for applicants who have passed a comparable proctored trade exam with a Tennessee municipality such as Nashville, Knoxville, Oak Ridge or Chattanooga. Bid preference for nonresident contractors is handled under T.C.A. 12-4-801.
Tennessee attaches the violation to the bid. The Board's application instructions state that a contractor's license is required for projects of $25,000 or more prior to contracting, and define that as bidding, offering a price, or negotiating. Contracting without a license is a violation of the law punishable by monetary penalties, a license may be denied, and the law also prohibits participating on that project or rebidding it. The Board cites T.C.A. 62-6-120. The practical cost is usually the lost job rather than the fine, because an unlicensed bid cannot be cured by getting licensed afterward and bidding again. A related trap is the name on the bid. The Board explains that a contractor licensed as an individual, for example John Jones, who bids as John Jones, Inc. is treated as an unlicensed entity. The fix is a license revision to change the mode of operation, or a second license, before bidding in the new name. A change in mode of operation gives you 90 days to file, and during that time you may finish existing contracts but may not bid or enter new ones until the revised license is issued. Applicants who have complaints, convictions, or who have previously bid where a license was required must interview with the Board at a regularly scheduled meeting. The Department publishes a Disciplinary Action Report showing formal actions including suspensions, revocations and fines, and invites consumers to file complaints when they witness unlicensed activity.
The display rule Tennessee enforces most directly against concrete and masonry contractors is the bid envelope rule. Under T.C.A. 62-6-119, the name, license identification number, classification and expiration date must appear on the outside of the bid envelope for the prime contractor. The same information must appear for named subcontractors: electrical, plumbing, HVAC and roofing when their portion of the bid is $25,000 or more, and masonry under LMC when the masonry portion is $100,000 or more, including materials and labor. For a masonry sub chasing institutional or public work in Tennessee, that means your license number and expiration date are read before your price is. Getting it wrong is not a paperwork slip, because the Board treats a bid in a name other than the licensed name as a bid by an unlicensed entity. Keep the exact licensed entity name, the license identification number, the classification code such as LMC or BC-9, and the expiration date together in one block, and reuse that block on written proposals and estimates so the numbers never drift apart. Classification matters in the display as much as the number does, because the classification is what tells an awarding authority your license actually covers the concrete, foundation or masonry scope you are bidding, and Tennessee separately requires your classification to cover 60 percent of the project unless you hold a commercial BC or BC-B classification. Confirm any advertising requirements with your city permit office before you letter trucks or publish a website.
Tennessee keeps a free public lookup, and a concrete contractor should assume every serious residential buyer uses it. The tool is Verify Public Search, run by the Department of Commerce and Insurance at search.cloud.commerce.tn.gov. The Department describes it as a public tool to look up a professional license, credential or registration for an individual or a business, showing license status, expiration dates and any public disciplinary actions, with results updated daily. The Board links to it from both its main page and its Consumer Resources page. There is a second lookup most contractors forget. The Board publishes a separate Verify a Qualifying Agent search, which lets anyone check the person who holds the technical credit behind the company license. If your QA has left and you have not designated a replacement within the three months the law allows, that shows. The Department also publishes a Disciplinary Action Report listing formal actions such as suspensions, revocations and fines, and runs an online complaint process. Since the Department stopped mailing paper certificates on September 17, 2026, the printable copy inside CORE and the public search result are what a customer or general contractor will actually look at. Two habits follow. Keep your status active and your expiration date current before bid season, because the public record is the first thing an awarding authority checks. And make sure the entity name you advertise matches the name in the search result exactly, because a mismatch reads as unlicensed.
Sourcessearch.cloud.commerce.tn.gov 1tn.gov 2tn.gov 3tn.gov 4
Holding the state license does not finish the job. The Board tells applicants to check with local government for permit and inspection requirements, and each large Tennessee metro runs its own system. In Nashville, the Metropolitan Department of Codes and Building Safety is the hub of the building permit process for every Metro department that reviews an application. Metro Codes states that registered contractors can apply for residential building permits through ePermits, with a username and password issued by Permit Issuance, and it operates an online License Renewal system, sending each licensee a yearly renewal notice with the login credentials. For flatwork specifically, Metro Codes publishes its own permit triggers: replacing a deck or building a new one requires a permit, deck board replacement above 100 square feet requires a permit, and any footing or framing replacement requires a permit. In Memphis, construction permits and contractor license registration both run through the Develop 901 Citizen Portal, which also handles engineering permits, inspections scheduling and permit history. In Chattanooga, the Land Development Office enforces the adopted codes, including the 2018 International Building Code and 2018 International Residential Code, and the city's permits and applications catalog includes a Trade Licensing category alongside building and trades permits. Knoxville runs its own plans review and inspections office. One state-level item belongs here: the Board requires a business tax license through the Tennessee Department of Revenue for each city or county where you plan to operate, which is separate from any construction permit.
Sourcesnashville.gov 1nashville.gov 2nashville.gov 3memphistn.gov 4chattanooga.gov 5chattanooga.gov 6tn.gov 7
These are common details other guides publish about Tennessee, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
It depends on the contract price and the county. At $25,000 or more you need the contractor license from the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors before you bid. From $3,000 to $24,999 you need a Home Improvement license in the nine counties that adopted the law, and driveways are named in the Board's own examples.
When the masonry portion of the project is $100,000 or more, including materials, equipment and labor, according to the Board. That threshold applies when you contract with a contractor rather than the owner. Bidding straight to the owner makes you a prime contractor, and the ordinary $25,000 threshold applies instead.
There is no classification called concrete. The Board assigns building classifications such as BC-A, BC-B, BC-C and BC, with numbered building subcategories from BC-1 through BC-33 beneath them, including BC-9 for masonry. Site and paving work falls under separate HRA, HC and MU families. Rule 0680-01-.16 holds the full list.
The Board states that for masonry work of $100,000 or more, performed either as a subcontractor or as a prime contractor, the LMC trade exam is required. It also states that the LMC exam is required for the BC-9 masonry subcategory above $100,000. Every contractor applicant also takes the Tennessee Business and Law exam.
The Board lists Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Haywood, Knox, Marion, Robertson, Rutherford and Shelby. That covers Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga. The license applies to residential remodeling from $3,000 to $24,999, and the definition in T.C.A. 62-6-501(4)(A) includes driveways, porches, garages and swimming pools.
General liability scales with your monetary limit. Up to $500,000 the minimum is $100,000. From $500,001 to $1,500,000 it is $500,000. From $1,500,001 to unlimited it is $1,000,000. Workers compensation is also required unless you provide proof of exemption. Home improvement licensees carry a $10,000 surety bond as well.
It is 10 times the lesser of your working capital or net worth, plus the required experience. The Board's example: a $150,000 limit needs $15,000 in both. An unlimited limit needs $300,000 in both. There is a 10 percent bid tolerance on every limit except the restricted BC-A/r license.
Yes, since July 1, 2026. Instead of a CPA-reviewed or CPA-audited statement, you may submit the Board's Contractors' Surety Bond on the approved form, in an amount equal to at least 50 percent of the monetary limit you are requesting. Reviewed statements cover limits of $3,000,000 or less; audited statements are required above that.
The initial contractor application is $250 and renewal is $200, with a $20 per month late penalty for up to 12 months. Home Improvement is also $250 initial and $200 renewal, with a $10 per month late penalty for up to three months. Monetary limit increases and classification changes carry no fee.
Renewal appears in CORE within 90 days of expiration, and the contractor grace period is 12 months. Continuing education applies only to residential classifications: BC-A, BC-A/r and BC-A,b(sm) holders licensed after January 1, 2009 must show eight hours of Residential Continuing Education from a Board-approved provider, per Tenn. Code Ann. 62-6-112(g).
No. The Board states you cannot operate in Tennessee with another state's license. What you may get is a trade exam waiver. Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia participate, and West Virginia is the one that names masonry. The NASCLA National Commercial exam is accepted too.
Under T.C.A. 62-6-119 the outside of the bid envelope carries your name, license identification number, classification and expiration date, and the same for a masonry subcontractor at $100,000 or more. Customers check you through Verify Public Search at search.cloud.commerce.tn.gov, which shows status, expiration and public discipline, updated daily.
We can review the local market, your current search visibility, and paid-search fit before recommending any marketing work.