Nevada · Landscaping licensing · official-source guide
The Nevada State Contractors Board licenses landscaping at state level under NRS 624. The classification is C-10, landscape contracting, and it is required before you bid, negotiate a price or offer to do the work. The headline requirement is four years of verifiable experience in that classification, plus exams, a surety bond and a financial statement.
Verified against agency sources on 2026-10-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Nevada licenses landscaping at state level. The agency is the Nevada State Contractors Board, created by NRS 624.040 and operating under NRS Chapter 624. The Board runs offices in Reno and Las Vegas and decides who gets a license, what classification that license carries, what bond backs it and what monetary limit caps it. There is no separate state landscaping board and no state landscaping registration that sits below the contractor license. A landscaping company working in Nevada holds a Nevada State Contractors Board license or it is working illegally. NRS 624.020 defines a contractor as a person who undertakes or offers to construct, alter, repair, add to, subtract from, improve, move, wreck or demolish any building or other structure, and it includes subcontractors and specialty contractors. The Board states on its own requirements page that all contractors must be licensed before contracting, which it defines as bidding, offering to engage, or negotiating a price. That timing matters for a landscaping company. The license has to be in hand before the estimate goes out, not before the crew shows up. Counties and cities do not replace this. NRS 624.035 says Chapter 624 does not stop a county or incorporated city from requiring an additional contractor license in that jurisdiction, subject to reasonable local standards. So the state license is the floor. Local business licensing and permits sit on top of it, and both layers apply to the same job.
Sourcesnvcontractorsboard.com 1leg.state.nv.us 2nvcontractorsboard.com 3
The classification that covers this trade is C-10, landscape contracting, set out in NAC 624.280. The regulation says the Board will grant qualified applicants a license in the specialty of landscape contracting and designates it classification C-10. The scope written into NAC 624.280 is broad. A C-10 holder may grade and prepare plots of land for architectural horticulture, and may decoratively treat, arrange, plant and maintain gardens, lawns, shrubs, vines, bushes, trees and other vegetation. The same subsection covers constructing systems of drainage and landscape irrigation, installing rocks, sand, gravel and other materials that use xeriscape principles, hydroseeding by spraying mulch, seeds and nutrients under pressure, controlling soil erosion, and installing nonengineered decorative ponds or nonengineered prefabricated trellises and arbors. The hardscape allowance is where the regulation gets specific, and the numbers are limits rather than permissions. In conjunction with the planting work above, a C-10 holder may install nonload-bearing walkways using brick or stone not exceeding 200 square feet in area, patio areas using brick or stone not exceeding 400 square feet in area, retaining walls to a height not exceeding 3 feet, and lighting not exceeding 24 volts. Read those four numbers before you quote a yard. A 500 square foot paver patio, a 4 foot block wall or a 120 volt path light circuit is outside C-10. The classification you hold is also the classification you may advertise, because NRS 624.720 makes it unlawful to advertise as a contractor without a license in the appropriate classification.
The practical problem with C-10 is that modern yard work crosses its edges constantly. A Nevada landscaping company that sells outdoor living rooms needs to know which second license to carry or which subcontractor to bring. Hardscape above the NAC 624.280 thresholds is the common one. Walkways over 200 square feet, patios over 400 square feet and retaining walls over 3 feet in height fall outside the C-10 scope, so the work belongs to a classification that covers masonry or concrete, or to a licensed sub who holds it. Lighting is the second. C-10 stops at 24 volts, and NAC 624.200 puts low voltage systems including outdoor lighting inside the electrical classification C-2 family, with line voltage work further out still. Ponds and water features are the third. C-10 covers nonengineered decorative ponds. Anything engineered, and anything that reads as a residential pool or spa, moves into the pool and spa rules in NRS 624.900 to 624.965, which carry their own licensing and an extra consumer protection bond. The Board does not expect you to guess. Its own contact list publishes a dedicated license classification determination address so an applicant can ask which classification a described scope of work falls under before applying. Use it in writing and keep the answer. Working outside your classification is not a technicality. NRS 624.3017 is titled substandard workmanship, incomplete advertising and advertising projects beyond the scope of license, and the Board treats scope violations as grounds for discipline against the license you already hold.
Sourcesleg.state.nv.us 1leg.state.nv.us 2nvcontractorsboard.com 3
Irrigation is the one place where two Nevada classifications overlap, and the overlap is written into the regulations rather than left to practice. NAC 624.280 puts constructing systems of drainage and landscape irrigation inside the C-10 scope. NAC 624.190 defines the plumbing and heating classification C-1 and its subclassifications, and subclassification C-1d, plumbing, covers the installation and maintenance of systems of landscape irrigation alongside sanitary systems, roof drainage, hydronic heating not exceeding 200,000 British thermal units, potable water heating, gas supply piping and compressed air and medical gas piping. A C-1d holder may also install water and gas piping from the edge of a building to that building's utility meter. So irrigation installed as part of landscaping work sits in C-10, and irrigation installed as plumbing sits in C-1d. The reviser's note to NAC 624.190 records a transition in which holders of a former subclassification were deemed to hold C-1d restricted to the installation of systems of landscape irrigation, which shows the Board has treated irrigation as a distinct body of work for a long time. The line to watch is the connection to the potable supply. Running lateral lines, valves, heads and controllers off an existing irrigation point of connection is landscaping. Tapping a building's water service, altering the meter side, or installing the assembly that protects the drinking water system is plumbing work, and the water purveyor serving the site has its own cross connection control rules on top of the license question. Ask the purveyor before you cut into the service.
Sourcesleg.state.nv.us
Nevada does not license landscaping gardeners who mow lawns for a fee as contractors, but the line is narrower than most people assume, and it is drawn by NRS 624.031. That section lists the exemptions from Chapter 624. The two that matter to yard work are subsection 5 and subsection 6. Subsection 5 exempts an owner of property who is building or improving a residential structure for his or her own occupancy and not intended for sale or lease, and it creates a rebuttable presumption of intent to sell if the structure is sold or leased within one year of completion. The owner has to apply to the Board for that exemption, not simply claim it. Subsection 6 is the money threshold. Chapter 624 does not apply to work to repair or maintain property the value of which is less than $1,000, including labor and materials, unless a building permit is required or other conditions in that subsection apply. That is a repair and maintenance carve out, it counts labor and materials together, and it is per project, not per year. Everything above that line needs a license held by the business, qualified through a named individual. Other exemptions in NRS 624.031 cover work performed exclusively by federal, state, city, county, irrigation district or reclamation district representatives, certain 501(c)(3) arrangements with public bodies, officers of a court, and public utilities doing work incidental to their business. None of those turns a private landscaping company into an exempt one.
Sourcesleg.state.nv.us
Nevada licenses the company, but a named person has to qualify it. NRS 624.260 requires an applicant or licensee to show experience, financial responsibility and general knowledge of the state's building, safety, health and lien laws and of the administrative principles of the contracting business. The experience rule is specific. NRS 624.260 requires that each applicant for licensure have had, within the 15 years immediately preceding the filing of the application, at least 4 years of experience as a journeyman, foreman, supervising employee or contractor in the specific classification applied for. Training in a program at an accredited college or university, or an equivalent program accepted by the Board, may be used to satisfy not more than 3 years of that requirement. The Board's own requirements page repeats the four full years within fifteen years test and adds that there is no education requirement at all to qualify for a contractor license. Documentation is where applications stall. The Board accepts four Certification of Work Experience forms for each trade qualifier, or a current masters certification issued by a governmental agency in a substantially similar discipline, or proof of transferable military experience and training. Each qualifier also completes a Resume of Experience, and anyone relying on self employment must supply a customer list with full mailing addresses and phone numbers. The certificates are waived if the qualifier served as a qualified employee in the same classification on another Nevada license within the last 5 years, or qualifies for waiver by endorsement. Per NRS 624.260, the qualifier must be a bona fide member or employee actively engaged in the contracting business.
The qualifying individual for a C-10 license must pass the Business and Law examination, which the Board calls CMS, and the trade examination for the classification requested, unless a waiver applies. The Board has contracted with PSI Licensure to deliver the testing. Scheduling follows the application, not the other way round. The Board states that an examination cannot be scheduled until after the application has been submitted and an Examination Eligibility form with a Candidate ID has been issued. PSI runs Nevada testing centers in Las Vegas, Reno and Elko, and will let candidates sit the Nevada specific examinations at PSI owned sites in other states. Attempts are limited. You have three attempts to pass each exam, a candidate who fails must wait two weeks before retaking, and NAC 624.600 voids the application if the examination is failed three times. The same regulation requires the qualifying person to pass within 6 months after the application is filed, and allows a fresh application with a new fee 30 days or more after the date of the last examination. Waivers run through NAC 624.600 and NAC 624.615. The Board will waive the examination where the applicant or qualified employee has passed an approved examination in an endorsing state, or one accredited by the National Association of State Contractors Licensing Agencies that the Board finds substantially equivalent. To apply by endorsement, the trade qualified individual must have been actively licensed in the endorsing state for the past four years with no discipline, and must submit a Request for Verification of Licensure. If the endorsing state has no equivalent trade examination, you sit Nevada's.
Nevada publishes its contractor fees in regulation, so you can price the whole process before you start. NAC 624.130 lists the fees the Board charges and collects. The core numbers are these. To issue or renew a license is $600. To consider an application for the issuance of a license for a classification in which the applicant is not licensed is $300. Late filing of an application to renew an active license is $150. To issue or renew an inactive license is $300, and late filing of an inactive renewal is $75. If you post a cash deposit instead of a surety bond, an administrative fee of $200 applies, which the Board's requirements page describes as biennial. Several change fees hit growing companies. A permanent increase or decrease of a licensee's monetary limit is $250. An increase of the monetary limit for a single project is $75. Changing the qualified person or another principal listed on a license is $250. Broadening a license to include the entire classification or other subclassifications within it is $250. A change in the name of the licensee is $250. A duplicate license is $25, a duplicate identification card is $10, and a returned check costs $25. Statute caps these. NRS 624.280 says the application fee must not exceed $550, the license fee must not exceed $900 biennially, and the examination fee must not exceed $300. PSI publishes its own examination fee amounts, which are set by the testing service rather than by the Board.
Sourcesleg.state.nv.us 1leg.state.nv.us 2nvcontractorsboard.com 3
Every Nevada contractor license is bonded, and the bond amount is set case by case. NRS 624.270 requires an applicant to file a surety bond acceptable to the Board, executed by the contractor as principal with a surety authorized in Nevada, or to establish a cash deposit instead. The amount is fixed by the Board with reference to the contractor's financial and professional responsibility and the magnitude of operations, but must be not less than $1,000 and not more than $500,000. The Board's requirements page states the same range and adds that you are notified of the required amount after approval and before issuance. The bond must be continuous in form, written by a surety whose long term debt obligations are rated A or better, and total aggregate liability is capped at the face amount no matter how many years it runs. A surety may cancel on 60 days notice to the Board, and a lapse is cause to deny, suspend, revoke or refuse to renew. Cash deposits must be a cashier's check for the full amount and are held two years after license termination. After acting as a licensed Nevada contractor for not less than 5 consecutive years, a licensee may ask the Board to be relieved of the bond requirement. A financial statement is required regardless of size, and its form scales with the monetary limit requested. Self prepared statements must be current within six months. Above $25,000 the Board wants a compiled statement from an independent CPA, or a reviewed or audited one. At $1,000,000 or more, only a reviewed or audited statement will do. A Bank Verification Form accompanies it.
Two filings outside the Contractors Board gate the license, and both catch new landscaping companies. The first is industrial insurance. NRS 624.256 requires that before granting an original or a renewal license, the Board collect proof of industrial insurance and occupational disease insurance covering the applicant's employees, or a self insured certificate from the Commissioner of Insurance, or a certificate issued to an association of self insured employers. The only way out is an affidavit that the applicant has no employees, is not and does not intend to be a subcontractor for a principal contractor, and has not and does not intend to bid work for a principal contractor. For a landscaping crew that uses any paid labor, that affidavit is not available. The same section ties failure to carry industrial insurance to notification of the Fraud Control Unit for Industrial Insurance and to disciplinary action, and addresses unpaid contributions to the Unemployment Compensation Fund. The second is the state business license. The Board's application page states that before you start, your business needs a Nevada Business ID number issued by the Secretary of State, obtained through SilverFlume, and that a filed fictitious name certificate is requested if you will operate under a name other than your registered legal name. The application also requires a Background Disclosure Statement and Fingerprint Authorization form from each person listed, including every qualified individual. Plan the calendar around that. Fingerprint results are not instant, and the Board will not process an incomplete application or one submitted without payment.
A Nevada contractor license expires 2 years after the date it was issued, under NRS 624.283, although the Board may prescribe shorter or longer periods and prorated fees to run a system of staggered biennial renewals. A license not renewed on or before its renewal date is automatically suspended. That is automatic, not discretionary, and a suspended license cannot lawfully bid or advertise. Renewal takes an application for renewal, the renewal fee fixed by the Board, all information needed to complete the renewal, and any assessment required under NRS 624.470 if the holder is a residential contractor as defined in NRS 624.450. A residential contractor is one licensed under Chapter 624 who contracts with the owner of a single family residence to perform qualified services, and NRS 624.455 defines a single family residence to include improvements affixed to the parcel. Most residential landscaping companies fall inside that definition, so the recovery fund assessment is part of their renewal. NRS 624.270 also requires satisfactory evidence at renewal that the surety bond or cash deposit remains in full force, unless the Board has relieved the licensee of it. The Board may require a demonstration of financial responsibility at any time, through a financial statement prepared by an independent certified public accountant or on a form the Board prescribes. Inactive status exists and is priced separately in NAC 624.130 at $300 to issue or renew, with a $75 late fee. Use it when a company pauses rather than letting the license lapse, because reinstatement after suspension is a different and slower path.
Nevada treats unlicensed contracting as a crime, not a paperwork problem, and the penalties escalate fast. NRS 624.700 makes it unlawful to engage in the business or act in the capacity of a contractor in Nevada, or to submit a bid on a job in Nevada, without an active license, unless exempt under NRS 624.031. District attorneys prosecute these violations in their counties, and on the Board's request the Attorney General prosecutes instead. A person convicted may be ordered to pay court costs and costs of prosecution, the Board's reasonable costs of investigating, and damages up to the amount of the person's pecuniary gain. If a bid or contract is made in violation of that subsection, the bid or contract is deemed void from the start. The criminal scale sits in NRS 624.750. A first offense is a misdemeanor punished by a fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $4,000, and up to 6 months in county jail. A second offense is a gross misdemeanor with a fine of not less than $4,000 and not more than $10,000 and up to 364 days in jail. A third or later offense is a category E felony with a fine of not less than $10,000 and not more than $20,000 and 1 to 4 years in state prison. Maximum fines may be raised by up to 10 percent of the value of the offending contract where work started or money changed hands. Separately, NRS 624.710 lets the Board impose an administrative fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $50,000 for each violation.
Sourcesleg.state.nv.us
Nevada is one of the stricter states on what a contractor must put in front of a customer, and the rules bite on every ad a landscaping company runs. NRS 624.720 sets four of them. It is unlawful for any person, including a person otherwise exempt under NRS 624.031, to advertise as a contractor without a license in the appropriate classification established under NRS 624.215 and 624.220. Any unlicensed person who advertises to perform or complete construction work must state in the advertisement that he or she is not licensed under Chapter 624. A licensed contractor may not disseminate any false or misleading statement or representation of material fact intended to induce someone to use the contractor's services. And all advertising by a licensed contractor must include the name of the contractor's company and the number of the contractor's license. It is also unlawful for anyone to advertise construction work using a license number that does not correspond to a valid license issued to that person. Read subsection 4 literally. All advertising means the website, the yard sign, the door hanger, the vehicle wrap, the paid search ad and the social profile, each carrying the company name and the license number. Vehicles have their own rule. NRS 624.288 requires a licensee to display, on each commercial motor vehicle registered under the licensee's name, the licensee's name and license number in letters and numbers approximately 1 1/2 inches high. Enforcement runs through NRS 624.710 fines and the hearing requirement in NRS 624.291.
Sourcesleg.state.nv.us
Design work carries a second and separate Nevada credential. NRS Chapter 623A creates the State Board of Landscape Architecture and defines the practice of landscape architecture as providing or holding out professional services to the public, including consultation, investigation, reconnaissance, research, planning, design, preparation of drawings and specifications and supervision, where the dominant purpose concerns land uses, natural features, ground cover and planting, natural drainage, settings and approaches to improvements, and issues of erosion, wear, lighting characteristics and the design of landscape irrigation, lighting and grading. A C-10 contractor is not shut out of drawing. NRS 623A.070 says the chapter does not apply to a contractor licensed under Chapter 624 who provides his or her own drawings for his or her own construction activities, nor to owners drawing plans for their own property, nor to registered architects or licensed civil engineers, nor to a person who designs, manufactures or sells irrigation equipment and gives installation instructions without installing it. The limit is the title. Subsection 3 of NRS 623A.070 states that the exemptions do not entitle a person without a certificate of registration to hold himself or herself out to the public or advertise as a landscape architect or a landscape architect intern. NRS 623A.360 makes practicing without a certificate, or representing yourself as registered after suspension or revocation, a misdemeanor, and NRS 623A.365 adds a civil penalty of not more than $5,000 for each violation. Registrants have an advertising rule of their own under NRS 623A.355, which requires all advertising and business cards to include the certificate number. Registration fees are capped by NRS 623A.240 at $300 to apply and $300 for annual renewal.
Sourcesleg.state.nv.us
Spray a herbicide for money in Nevada and you move under a different agency. The Nevada Department of Agriculture licenses pest control, and its own guidance says a license is needed by anyone who applies pesticides for hire, anyone in the business of applying pesticides or using mechanical devices to exterminate, prevent, destroy or repel pests, anyone who sells or advertises pest control services, and anyone who performs pest inspections for hire. Pesticides there include insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides, fungicides and plant growth regulators. Statute backs that. NRS 555.280 bars a person from engaging in pest control for hire without a license as an applicator issued by the Director, and bars operating as a pest control business without a business license. Two Department categories map onto this trade. Under the Urban and Structural field, category C1, limited landscape, covers control of insect pests, vertebrate pests and plant diseases and the use of plant regulators on ornamental and turf in urban areas. Category C6, weeds, covers weed control in the maintenance of landscapes, turf and rights of way. A pest control business must employ a Primary Principal who has two years of licensed experience in the category applied for, or six months plus at least 16 college credit hours in biological sciences with at least 8 related directly to pest control, and who passes a fingerprint background check and the General Knowledge core exam, an open book Laws exam and an exam for each category. NRS 555.330 requires proof of public liability and property damage insurance of not less than $50,000. Restricted use certification renews on 12 continuing education units, at least 2 in Laws, or by examination.
Sourcesagri.nv.gov 1leg.state.nv.us 2agri.nv.gov 3agri.nv.gov 4agri.nv.gov 5
The state license does not end the paperwork. NRS 624.035 preserves the right of any county or incorporated city to require an additional contractor license within its boundaries, subject to local standards that are reasonable and necessary to protect the public. In practice that means a local business license, plus permits and inspections, for work the state has already licensed you to perform. Southern Nevada is the one to plan for, because jurisdiction is not obvious from an address. The Clark County Department of Business Licensing handles license applications for unincorporated Clark County and also for Glendale, Good Springs, Indian Springs, Jean, Laughlin, Logandale, Moapa, Overton, Primm, Sandy Valley and Searchlight. The County publishes a Which Jurisdiction Am I In tool, a list of license categories and fees, and a Contractor and Multi Jurisdictional License Search. Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson license separately, so one yard on a city boundary can involve two permit counters. Verification runs the other way too, and it is worth using as a sales tool. The Nevada State Contractors Board publishes a License and Disciplinary Search from its own site, so a homeowner can confirm the classification, the status, the monetary limit and whether discipline exists before signing. The Board also publishes a disciplinary search and a contractor listing search. Point customers at it in writing. Your license number already has to appear in every advertisement under NRS 624.720, so inviting the lookup costs nothing and separates you from whoever quoted the same yard without a number on the estimate.
Sourcesleg.state.nv.us 1clarkcountynv.gov 2nvcontractorsboard.com 3
These are common details other guides publish about Nevada, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Simple maintenance can fall under the NRS 624.031 exemption for repair or maintenance work worth less than $1,000, counting labor and materials. The moment a job crosses that value, or a building permit is required, you need a Nevada State Contractors Board license. Spraying herbicide for hire needs a Department of Agriculture license regardless of job value.
Classification C-10, landscape contracting, under NAC 624.280. It covers grading and soil preparation, planting and maintaining vegetation, drainage and irrigation systems, xeriscape materials, hydroseeding, erosion control, and nonengineered decorative ponds, trellises and arbors, plus limited hardscape and low voltage lighting within the square footage, height and voltage caps the regulation sets.
Only within limits. NAC 624.280 allows nonload-bearing brick or stone walkways up to 200 square feet, patio areas up to 400 square feet, retaining walls up to 3 feet high and lighting up to 24 volts, and only in conjunction with planting work. Larger hardscape needs a different classification or a licensed subcontractor.
Both C-10 and the plumbing subclassification C-1d cover systems of landscape irrigation, under NAC 624.280 and NAC 624.190. Lateral lines, valves and heads off an existing point of connection sit in C-10. Work on the building's water service or the meter side is plumbing, and the water purveyor serving the property adds its own rules.
NRS 624.260 requires at least 4 years of experience within the 15 years before the application, as a journeyman, foreman, supervising employee or contractor in the exact classification applied for. Accredited college or equivalent training can cover up to 3 of those years. The Board says there is no education requirement at all.
The qualifying individual passes the Business and Law exam, which the Board calls CMS, plus the C-10 trade exam, both through PSI Licensure. You get three attempts per exam with a two week wait between tries. Under NAC 624.600 a third failure voids the application, and you may reapply 30 days later.
NAC 624.130 sets $600 to issue or renew a license and $300 to consider an application for a classification you do not hold. Late renewal of an active license is $150. Broadening a classification or changing the qualified person is $250 each. NRS 624.280 caps the license fee at $900 biennially.
The Board sets it individually. NRS 624.270 fixes the range at not less than $1,000 and not more than $500,000, based on your financial and professional responsibility and the size of your operations. You learn the amount after approval and before issuance. After 5 consecutive years licensed in Nevada, the Board may relieve you of it.
Partly. NAC 624.600 and NAC 624.615 let the Board waive the examination where you passed an approved exam in an endorsing state or an accredited equivalent. The trade qualified individual must have been actively licensed there for the past four years without discipline. If that state has no equivalent trade exam, you sit Nevada's.
NRS 624.700 makes it unlawful and voids the contract from the start. NRS 624.750 sets a first offense fine of $1,000 to $4,000 plus up to 6 months in jail, rising to a category E felony with $10,000 to $20,000 for a third offense. NRS 624.710 adds administrative fines up to $50,000 per violation.
NRS 624.720 requires all advertising by a licensed contractor to include the company name and the license number. Advertising as a contractor without the appropriate classification is unlawful, as is using a license number that is not yours. NRS 624.288 requires the name and number on each commercial vehicle in characters about 1 1/2 inches high.
No. NRS 623A.070 lets a licensed contractor provide drawings for his or her own construction work, but it does not permit holding yourself out or advertising as a landscape architect without a certificate of registration. NRS 623A.360 makes that a misdemeanor and NRS 623A.365 adds a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation.
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