Texas · Concrete licensing · official-source guide
Texas has no state concrete, masonry or general contractor license. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation lists every trade it regulates, and concrete work is not among them. Authority sits with the city issuing the building permit. San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth all require contractor registration, and San Antonio ties foundation repair to a registered Residential Building Contractor.
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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.
Texas does not issue one. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation is the state agency that runs most occupational licensing here, and its regulated industries list names every field it covers: air conditioning and refrigeration contractors, barbering and cosmetology, boiler safety, code enforcement officers, electricians, electric vehicle charging stations, elevator and escalator safety, industrialized housing and buildings, mold assessors and remediators, water well drillers and pump installers, weather modification and many more. Concrete is not on it. Neither is masonry, flatwork, paving, foundation work or general contracting. The agency's active license search is the public database behind every license TDLR issues, and it lets you filter by license type. Read the whole list and there is no concrete finisher, no mason, no foundation contractor and no general contractor. The complaint intake page repeats the same programs under its Building and Mechanical heading, so there is also no state board taking complaints about a failed slab. For a concrete contractor this has two practical consequences. First, you cannot buy credibility with a state license number, because none exists to buy. Second, the rules that do bind you are local and financial rather than occupational: the building permit, the city contractor registration where one applies, the bond on right of way work, your insurance certificate, your sales tax treatment and your business filings. Everything below works down from that split. At state level there is nothing for concrete. At city level there is real registration with real fees, bond amounts and insurance minimums, and the largest Texas metros do not agree with each other on any of it.
Austin Development Services states the position in one line on its contractor registration page: in Texas, anyone can be a general contractor, including homeowners, and a state license is not required. That sentence is the whole state framework. It also explains why Austin tells general contractors they do not have to update their registration annually, while professional trade contractors must, because the trade registration tracks a state license and the general contractor registration tracks nothing. A concrete company pouring driveways, patios, sidewalks, slabs, footings, retaining walls and stem walls therefore operates on the same legal footing as the homeowner who pulls their own permit. What replaces the license is the permit. The person named as general contractor on a Texas building permit carries defined duties that Austin spells out: requesting and activating the permit, making payment for it, performing the work as approved by the permit application, scheduling any related inspections including the final building inspection, obtaining the certificate of occupancy or certificate of completion where one applies, and managing the child trade permits underneath it. Those duties are where liability lands. If the slab fails inspection, the contractor named on the permit answers for it. If the final inspection never happens, the permit never closes, and the owner inherits the problem at resale. So the thing a Texas concrete contractor sells is not a license number. It is the ability to get named on the permit, pass structural inspection and close the permit out. Buyers who have been burned on a cracked driveway ask about that, not about a license.
Sourcesaustintexas.gov
San Antonio Development Services splits building work into three tracks, and a concrete contractor can land in any of them. Commercial general contractors have no license or registration requirement at all. Home Improvement Contractor registration covers limited repair and replacement. Residential Building Contractor registration is the one that matters most for concrete, because the city requires it for new residential construction, alterations or remodeling of existing homes that involve structural work, additions to residential structures, foundation repairs, and detached accessory buildings greater than 300 square feet. Foundation repairs are named explicitly. A pier and beam releveling job, slab underpinning, or a new detached garage slab over 300 square feet all fall inside this registration. It is not a formality. San Antonio requires an FBI national background check before the registration is issued. The registration holder or one affiliated agent must obtain a Residential ICC certification or another certification approved by the Building Official. The registration and renewal fee is $170 for two years. You must file a certificate of liability insurance with the City of San Antonio listed as certificate holder, carrying at least $500,000 per occurrence combined for property damage and bodily injury, $1,000,000 as the total amount the policy will pay for property damage and bodily injury coverage, and $500,000 for products and completed operations. Miss any one of those items and the permit does not issue, which means the job does not start. A San Antonio foundation company quoting work it cannot permit is quoting work it cannot do.
Sourcessa.gov
Two other San Antonio registrations catch concrete work. Home Improvement Contractor registration is what you need to receive a permit for limited repair and replacement such as non structural remodeling alterations, conversions and modernizations. It costs $150 for two years and carries the same FBI national background check requirement as the residential building track. Its insurance floor is lower: at least $300,000 per occurrence combined for property damage and bodily injury, $600,000 as the total amount the policy will pay for property damage and bodily injury coverage, and $300,000 for products and completed operations, again with the City of San Antonio listed as certificate holder. The second registration is the Sidewalk, Curb and Gutter License, and it is the closest thing in Texas to a dedicated concrete flatwork license. To apply you need government issued photo identification, a current original typed bond in the sum of $2,000 including the license holder's name and the business name, and an annual license and registration fee of $60. Registrations expire each year on December 31, not on the anniversary of issue, so a license bought in November is worth about six weeks. Any crew cutting curbs, replacing sidewalk panels or pouring driveway approaches in San Antonio should plan renewal around that fixed date. The bond is the item most crews get wrong. It has to be an original typed document carrying both names. San Antonio processes these at the Cliff Morton Development and Business Services Center on South Alamo Street, and uses a check in queue rather than appointments.
Austin requires registration, not licensing. Development Services states that before beginning any construction associated with a building permit or trade permits, trade contractors, general contractors and homeowners acting as contractors must register as a contractor with Building and Trade Contractor Services. Only once registered can a contractor be assigned to the applicable permit and begin construction and inspections. For a concrete company the sequence runs like this. Create an Austin Build plus Connect portal account and note the portal identification number. Submit the registration information through the city web form, with a completed Letter of Authorization uploaded. Wait for Building and Trade Contractor Services to complete the registration. Then activate a building permit that plan review has approved, or apply for a stand alone building permit. Registration returns a contractor or homeowner PIN used for future permit activation and inspection requests. Austin says general contractors are not required to update their registration annually since a license is not required, while professional trade contractors register once and then update annually, and must update the city registration whenever the state license is updated. Any change to contact information, company ownership, agents, or license and insurance status requires a Letter of Authorization. Right of way work is handled on a separate track, and Austin points contractors who need right of way registration to that process, which is where sidewalk and driveway work in the public easement belongs. In person registration is available for building and trade contractors. The practical lesson for a concrete contractor bidding Austin work is to register before you quote, not after you win.
Sourcesaustintexas.gov
Fort Worth runs contractor registration through Development Services, and its contractor registration application lists the types a concrete company might need. Contractor Type is a single selection, and the choices include Building, Mechanical, Master Electrical, Master Plumbing, Plumbing Irrigator, Sign Erector, Wrecking Contractor, Moving Contractor and Parkway. Parkway is the flatwork category, and the application breaks it into residential, commercial and utility. The form marks Wrecking, Moving and Parkway as requiring both insurance and a bond, while Mechanical, Master Electrical and Master Plumbing are marked no fee. Parkway contractors are required to provide a copy of their bond, their certificate of insurance and power of attorney documentation, and the form has fields for the bond number and the bond effective date. Building registration is the general track. The application asks for a legible copy of a valid government issued identification plus any trade licenses that apply, and warns that incomplete applications will not be processed. Fees vary by contractor type and are published in the Development Services fee schedule rather than on the application. Fort Worth's permits page lists Parkway Registration beside electrical, mechanical, plumbing and sign erector registration under licensing and renewals handled by Development Support staff. The takeaway for a Fort Worth concrete crew is specific. Driveway approaches, sidewalks and curb work in the parkway strip need a registration backed by both a bond and insurance, and the paperwork includes a power of attorney most contractors have never been asked to produce. Build that lead time into the bid.
Houston Public Works runs Building Code Enforcement, which administers the provisions of the city code of ordinances and state and federal regulations relating to private building construction and sign administration. It is a large operation, with over 400 employees, divided into permits and customer assistance, plan review, inspections and code development. Plan review matters to concrete contractors because Houston requires plan approval before a permit may be purchased for all new construction projects and most renovation, repair or addition projects. Failure to submit plans for review when required can cause costly delays and may result in municipal court citations. Plans are reviewed by examiners certified in four building trades, structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing, plus storm. Structural is the reviewer who looks at footings, reinforcement and slabs. Houston's permits page lists which permits may be purchased online by a properly licensed and registered individual, and the Sidewalk and Driveway Permit is on that list, with the note that a bond number is required on most cases. That is the Houston version of the flatwork bond. The same online list covers plumbing, electrical, mechanical, saw pole, temporary gas inspection and medical gas, which are exactly the trade permits a concrete contractor must not pull on another trade's behalf. To get a licensed account for online permitting, Houston requires the iPermits acknowledgement form, while non licensed users may complete account setup online. A concrete contractor working Houston should expect to carry a bond for right of way flatwork and to route slab work through structural plan review before any money changes hands.
Sourceshoustonpermittingcenter.org 1houstonpermittingcenter.org 2
Dallas handles construction oversight through Plan Review and Field Service Inspections, whose stated job is ensuring construction meets all applicable city codes and regulations. Every Dallas permit is submitted through the DallasNow system. The department publishes commercial and residential permit dashboards, pre development and Q Team services, engineering and fire protection review, forms, and certificate of occupancy processing. Its public frequently asked questions cover when a building permit is needed and where to get one, whether a permit can be obtained at a building inspection district office, which model codes are currently adopted, the fees for fire alarm plan review, how to register with the city as a fire sprinkler contractor, and the fees for fire sprinkler permits. That list is worth reading closely. Dallas names specific trade registrations in its own FAQ and does not name a concrete, masonry or general contractor registration, which matches the rest of Texas. The control point in Dallas is therefore the permit and the inspection, not a trade card. For a concrete contractor that makes the Dallas risk procedural rather than licensing based. Pouring a structural foundation element before plan review clears, or without the permit, puts the owner in violation and puts your payment at risk, because a permit that never closes surfaces in a title search and in a buyer's inspection report. Dallas also publishes its adopted building construction code, development code, code interpretation and inspection code directory, which is where you settle a disagreement with an inspector about thickness, cover or reinforcement instead of arguing it on site.
Sourcesdallascityhall.com
Nothing in Texas law stops you from pouring a slab. Plenty stops the same crew from finishing the whole job. TDLR is blunt about electrical work: anyone who performs, or offers to perform, non exempt electrical work in the state of Texas must be licensed and perform that work through a licensed electrical contractor. Note the phrase offers to perform. Quoting the conduit run under a new patio slab, or the wiring for lighting cast into a poured retaining wall, is an offer. The individual licenses TDLR issues include apprentice electrician, residential wireman, maintenance electrician, master electrician and several specialty classes, and the business licenses are electrical contractor, electrical sign contractor and residential appliance installation contractor. The same pattern governs the other TDLR building and mechanical programs: air conditioning and refrigeration contractors, boilers, elevators and escalators, industrialized housing and buildings, mold assessors and remediators, and water well drillers and pump installers. If your concrete work touches any of those, you subcontract to a holder of the right license or you stay out of it. Mold is the trap on slab and foundation repair, because drying and rebuilding inside a house after a plumbing leak under a slab can slide into regulated mold remediation. Water well drilling and pump installation is the trap on rural pad and well house work. The clean pattern is to print the licensed subcontractor's license number on your own proposal, so the homeowner can see the whole chain and verify it themselves.
Foundation work is where Texas does get strict, just not through a contractor license. The Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors administers the Texas Engineering Practice Act, which defines the practice of engineering in section 1001.003 and describes it broadly: a public or private service or creative work, the adequate performance of which requires engineering education, training and experience in applying special knowledge or judgment of the mathematical, physical or engineering sciences. The board says one of the most common questions it receives concerns Texas projects involving the design, erection, construction, enlargement, alteration or repair of a building, or the creation of plans and specifications for one, and it publishes a flow chart for working through whether a Texas licensed engineer is required. Two rules bind a concrete contractor directly. First, all engineering work and services must be performed by, done by, or directly supervised by a professional engineer licensed in Texas who is a regular, full time employee of the firm. Second, a business entity offering engineering services to the public in Texas must register as an engineering firm, and the board sets that registration fee at $25 for a sole practitioner and $150 for entities with more than one employee. The line is therefore clean. A foundation repair company can install piers, drill shafts, place steel and finish concrete all day. It cannot produce the engineering design, certify the remedy, or present itself as the engineer, unless a Texas licensed professional engineer inside a registered firm stands behind the work.
Texas sets no statewide insurance minimum for concrete contractors, because there is no state license to attach one to. The minimums that exist are municipal, and they are specific. San Antonio's Residential Building Contractor registration requires at least $500,000 per occurrence combined for property damage and bodily injury, $1,000,000 as the total the policy will pay for property damage and bodily injury coverage, and $500,000 for products and completed operations. Its Home Improvement Contractor registration requires $300,000, $600,000 and $300,000 on those same three lines. Both require the City of San Antonio to appear as certificate holder, so a generic certificate gets rejected. Bonds attach to right of way work. San Antonio's Sidewalk, Curb and Gutter License requires a current original typed bond in the sum of $2,000 carrying both the license holder's name and the business name. Fort Worth requires insurance and a bond for Parkway registration, plus power of attorney documentation. Houston notes that a bond number is required on most Sidewalk and Driveway permits. Workers compensation is the part that surprises out of state crews. The Texas Department of Insurance states that in Texas private employers can choose to carry workers compensation insurance coverage, but it is not required in most cases. Employers without coverage are called non subscribers. They must report to the state that they do not have coverage, and must report to the Division of Workers Compensation any work related injury resulting in more than one day of lost time, as well as all work related illnesses and deaths. Going without also gives up the liability limit coverage provides.
Sourcessa.gov 1sa.gov 2fortworthtexas.gov 3houstonpermittingcenter.org 4tdi.texas.gov 5
The Texas Comptroller treats concrete work as work on real property, and the tax answer turns on two questions: residential or nonresidential, and which contract form you used. Labor to repair, remodel or restore residential real property is not taxable. Residential real property means family dwellings, including apartment complexes, nursing homes, condominiums and retirement homes, and the property does not have to be the residence of the owner. Hotels and residential properties rented for periods of less than 30 days are excluded. By contrast, the total amount charged for remodeling, repairing or restoring nonresidential real property is taxable. The Comptroller's examples of nonresidential real property include hospitals, office buildings, refineries, warehouses, parking garages, retail shops, restaurants and manufacturing facilities, which is most of the commercial flatwork market. Then the contract form decides who pays tax on materials. Under a lump sum contract, where the price is billed as one amount, you pay tax on your supplies, materials, equipment and taxable services when you buy them and you do not charge the customer tax. Under a separated contract, where the price is divided into a charge for skill and labor and a charge for incorporated materials, you give suppliers resale certificates instead of paying tax on those materials, and you collect sales tax from the customer on the agreed contract price of all materials incorporated into the realty. The Comptroller applies the same structure to homebuilders improving residential real estate. Multiple use property has its own guidelines. Get the contract form wrong on a commercial parking lot replacement and the exposure is yours.
With no license to apply for, a Texas concrete contractor's compliance file is entity and tax paperwork. Entity filings run through the Secretary of State, whose business filing applications are SOSDirect and SOSUpload. A sales and use tax permit comes from the Comptroller through the Texas Online Tax Registration Application, filed in eSystems. You must complete that application if you are engaged in business in Texas and you sell or lease tangible personal property in Texas, or you sell taxable services in Texas, which covers any concrete contractor running separated contracts or doing nonresidential repair and remodeling. The Comptroller tells applicants to allow two to three weeks to receive the permit, so this is not a same week fix when a commercial job lands. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age. A sole owner, partner, officer or director without a Social Security number cannot use the online application and must file form AP 201 instead. The permit covers sales and use tax, the 911 surcharge and fees, and the sales tax surcharge on diesel equipment, which matters to a crew running its own skid steers, saws and pumps. Franchise tax is a privilege tax imposed on each taxable entity formed or organized in Texas or doing business in Texas, and an entity at or below the no tax due threshold still has to file a Public Information Report or Ownership Report to stay current. Employers register a tax account with the Texas Workforce Commission for unemployment tax. None of it is a license, and all of it is checkable.
Sourcessos.state.tx.us 1comptroller.texas.gov 2comptroller.texas.gov 3twc.texas.gov 4
Get this straight before you print another yard sign. There is no state license number for a Texas concrete contractor to display, because the state issues no such license. No Texas rule requires a concrete company to put a number on a truck, a website, a yard sign or a written estimate, for the simple reason that no number was ever issued. That cuts both ways. There is no state penalty for omitting a number you do not have. There is also no such thing as a state licensed concrete contractor in Texas, so a competitor claiming one is describing something that does not exist, and you are free to point that out. What you can claim is specific and verifiable: the registrations a city actually issued to you. A San Antonio Residential Building Contractor registration. A San Antonio Sidewalk, Curb and Gutter License. A Fort Worth Parkway registration. An Austin contractor registration and PIN. Those are real, issued to a named holder, and the city can confirm them. Where Texas does restrict wording is engineering. A business entity offering engineering services to the public in Texas must be a registered engineering firm, and all engineering work must be performed or directly supervised by a Texas licensed professional engineer who is a regular, full time employee. So phrases like engineered foundation repair, or our engineers designed the fix, carry a license behind them. If no professional engineer in a registered firm did the work, do not write it.
Sourcestdlr.texas.gov 1sa.gov 2sa.gov 3fortworthtexas.gov 4austintexas.gov 5pels.texas.gov 6
Anyone can check a Texas concrete contractor, but most people look in the wrong place first. TDLR's active license search is the state's public license database, and it covers only active licenses in the programs TDLR runs. Searching it for a concrete company returns nothing. That is the expected result, not a warning sign. The search is still worth using twice. It proves no state concrete license exists, and it verifies the electrician, air conditioning contractor, elevator contractor, mold remediator or water well driller your concrete contractor subcontracts to, searchable by license type, license number, name or business name, city and expiration date. The second place to look is the city. San Antonio Development Services publishes a contractor search covering its registration categories, so a homeowner can confirm a Residential Building Contractor registration or a Sidewalk, Curb and Gutter License before signing anything. Austin issues a contractor PIN tied to the registration used for permit activation and inspection requests. The third place is the permit record itself, which names the general contractor responsible for requesting and activating the permit, performing the work as approved, scheduling inspections and obtaining the certificate of occupancy or completion. The fourth is the engineering roster published by the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, which is the check on any claim of an engineered design. A contractor who volunteers all four of those before being asked tends to win the job, because the homeowner has already met three who could not.
Sourcestdlr.texas.gov 1sanantonio.gov 2austintexas.gov 3pels.texas.gov 4
These are common details other guides publish about Texas, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation publishes the full list of industries it regulates, and concrete, masonry, flatwork, foundation work and general contracting are not on it. Its active license search offers no concrete or general contractor license type. Regulation happens at the city that issues your building permit.
San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth all run contractor registration. San Antonio requires Residential Building Contractor registration for foundation repairs. Fort Worth has a Parkway registration for flatwork, which requires insurance and a bond. Austin requires general contractors to register with Building and Trade Contractor Services before a permit can be activated.
There is no state license number to show, because Texas issues no concrete or general contractor license. What you can advertise is what a city actually issued: a San Antonio Residential Building Contractor registration, a Sidewalk, Curb and Gutter License, a Fort Worth Parkway registration, or an Austin contractor registration and PIN.
Registration as a Residential Building Contractor. The city names foundation repairs in that category, alongside new residential construction, structural alterations and additions. Registration requires an FBI national background check, a Residential ICC certification or a Building Official approved equivalent held by the registrant or an agent, and $170 for two years.
The annual license and registration fee is $60, and registrations expire each year on December 31 rather than on the anniversary of issue. You also need government issued photo identification and a current original typed bond in the sum of $2,000 including the license holder's name and the business name.
At least $500,000 per occurrence combined for property damage and bodily injury, $1,000,000 as the total the policy will pay for property damage and bodily injury coverage, and $500,000 for products and completed operations. The certificate must list the City of San Antonio as certificate holder. Home Improvement Contractor limits are lower.
Yes. The Fort Worth contractor registration application marks Parkway registration as requiring both insurance and a bond, and splits it into residential, commercial and utility. Parkway contractors must provide a copy of the bond, a certificate of insurance and power of attorney documentation, and list the bond number and effective date.
Houston's permits page lists the Sidewalk and Driveway Permit among permits that may be purchased online by a properly licensed and registered individual, and notes that a bond number is required on most cases. Houston also requires plan approval before a permit may be purchased for new construction and most repairs.
Yes. Austin Development Services requires trade contractors, general contractors and homeowners acting as contractors to register with Building and Trade Contractor Services before beginning any construction tied to a permit. Austin also states that general contractors need not update that registration annually, since Texas requires no state license.
The Texas Department of Insurance states that in Texas private employers can choose to carry workers compensation coverage, but it is not required in most cases. Employers without it are non subscribers, must report that to the state, and must report work related injuries causing more than one lost day, plus illnesses and deaths.
The Comptroller states that labor to repair, remodel or restore residential real property is not taxable. Residential real property covers family dwellings, apartment complexes, condominiums, nursing homes and retirement homes, and need not be owner occupied. The total amount charged to repair or remodel nonresidential real property is taxable.
When the work amounts to the practice of engineering under the Texas Engineering Practice Act. The board publishes a flow chart for projects involving design, construction, alteration or repair of a building. Engineering work must be performed or directly supervised by a Texas licensed professional engineer who is a full time employee of a registered firm.
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