Alabama · Plumbing licensing · official-source guide
Alabama licenses plumbing through the State of Alabama Plumbers and Gas Fitters Examining Board in Homewood. The board certifies the individual by grade, apprentice, journeyman and master, and separately registers the company that sells the work. Running your own shop means a master plumber certificate, a 100 question open book exam passed at 70 percent, and a $25.00 annual entity registration.
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-09-11. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
The State of Alabama Plumbers and Gas Fitters Examining Board issues plumbing credentials statewide. Section 34-37-2(a) of the Alabama Code creates the board by that name, and Section 34-37-3 puts nine members on it, appointed by the Governor. The office sits at 216 Aquarius Dr, Suite 319, Homewood, AL 35209, and the phone number is (205) 945-4857. Alabama runs two registers at once, and a contractor needs both. The board certifies the person by grade. The board separately registers the legal entity that sells the work. Section 34-37-6(b) says the board registers all legal entities engaging in, or offering to engage in, plumbing, gas fitting, or medical gas piping in this state. Rule 720-X-17-.01 repeats it and says those entities register annually. So a master plumber certificate alone does not put a company in business, and a registered company with no certified principal master is not compliant either. Gas fitting runs on its own parallel ladder with its own certificates, so a plumber who also sets gas piping carries two credentials. Medical gas piping is an endorsement layered on top of an existing certificate. There is no state residential versus commercial split in Alabama plumbing certification, which separates it from states that license those scopes apart. Cities add business license and permit steps on top, but they do not issue the plumbing certificate itself. Section 34-37-15(a) carves out who does not need any of this, including maintenance employees working on their employer's premises, railroad and industrial employees, utility company employees, property owners working on their own buildings, and people connecting a washing machine to existing piping. Everyone selling plumbing to the public is inside the chapter.
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Alabama runs five individual credentials plus one endorsement. An apprentice plumber or apprentice gas fitter registers with the board and works directly under the supervision of a journeyman or master. A journeyman plumber performs the work. A master plumber is the grade that carries a company. A journeyman gas fitter and a master gas fitter mirror those two on the gas side. The medical gas piping fitter endorsement sits on top of any of those grades and requires a current and valid third party certification as an ASSE 6010 installer, which Section 34-37-6(h) backs by requiring proof of a board approved medical gas piping certification program. The grade that matters commercially is master. Rule 720-X-12-.02 requires the principal master plumber of a registered entity to be certified as a master plumber, to be an active employee of the legal entity and not an independent contractor, and to refuse to serve as principal for more than one entity at a time. The board's own FAQ states the consequence in plain terms: a journeyman is required to be employed by a company that has a principal master, and under no circumstance other than the listed exemptions can a journeyman act as his own contractor. A plumber who wants to sell jobs under his own name in Alabama is really applying for a master certificate. Scope questions get answered at that grade level too. The board's FAQ works through who may exchange a water heater and who may do the connected piping, and the answer splits on whether the unit is gas or electric, which is a reminder that the plumbing certificate and the gas fitter certificate cover different pipe in the same mechanical room.
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Alabama counts time, not classroom credit. For a journeyman plumber or journeyman gas fitter certificate, the board wants a minimum of two years as a registered apprentice, or completion of a board approved apprenticeship program plus registered apprentice time equaling two years, or alternative apprentice documentation the board will verify. The exams page states the rule in the form the board applies at the counter: you must have 2 years of current work experience to qualify for a journeyman examination. For master plumber or master gas fitter, the requirement is being certified as a journeyman in the matching trade for a minimum of one year, and the exams page again states it as one year of current work experience to qualify for a master examination. There is no degree requirement and no published classroom hour minimum for either grade. The board publishes a Board Appearance Form for applicants who want the board to consider letting them sit for the journeyman exam outside the standard path, which is the route for tradespeople whose apprentice time was never registered. Gas fitting time and plumbing time are tracked separately, because the two ladders are separate certificates. Medical gas piping adds the third party ASSE 6010 installer certification rather than more field hours. Two rules widen the door for service members. Rule 720-X-4-.03 covers Military Family Jobs Opportunity Act applicants and rule 720-X-4-.06 covers academic credit for military education, training and experience, so documented military plumbing time and schooling can be presented to the board rather than repeated as civilian apprentice hours. Rule 720-X-4-.04 covers emergency certifications.
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The board has contracted with Prov, Inc. to develop and administer its licensing examination program. Candidates schedule by calling Prov at 866-720-7768 or online. Every exam is computerized and open book, and every exam requires a 70 percent score to pass. The journeyman plumber exam is 70 questions in 2.92 hours. The master plumber exam is 100 questions in 4.17 hours. The journeyman gas fitter exam is 40 questions in 1.67 hours. The master gas fitter exam is 50 questions in 2.08 hours. Approved references are the 2021 International Plumbing Code, the 2021 International Fuel Gas Code, Mathematics for Plumbers and Pipefitters 8th edition, and Modern Plumbing 8th edition, and master level candidates also get Administrative Code Chapter 720. The exam fee is $110.00 for journeyman and $160.00 for master, both non refundable. As of January 1, 2026 the master level also requires a Business Law exam, priced at $100.00 in the fee rule. Section 34-37-6(g) sets the clock after the pass: a person who has passed the examination must become certified within 90 calendar days, and an individual who passes but fails to become certified within 90 calendar days has to retake it. The statute also requires at least four examinations per year. Candidates schedule online at provexam.com/schedule as an alternative to the phone line. Because every exam is open book against named editions, the practical preparation is owning the 2021 International Plumbing Code and the 2021 International Fuel Gas Code and knowing how to navigate them under time rather than memorizing them.
Sourcespgfb.alabama.gov 1pgfb.alabama.gov 2admincode.legislature.state.al.us 3pgfb.alabama.gov 4
The board's fee schedule lives in Alabama Administrative Code rule 720-X-4-.01, and it is short enough to budget from directly. Apprentice level: $35.00 initial registration, $35.00 annual renewal, $35.00 late penalty. Journeyman level: $110.00 non refundable exam, $50.00 application processing, $75.00 initial certificate, $75.00 annual renewal, $75.00 late penalty. Master level: $160.00 written exam, $100.00 business law exam, $50.00 application processing, $175.00 initial certificate, $175.00 annual renewal, $175.00 late penalty. Medical gas pipe fitter renewal is $25.00. Business registration is $25.00 initial, $25.00 annual renewal, and a $25.00 late renewal penalty, and the company registration form repeats the $25.00 fee and the $25.00 late fee after December 31. Miscellaneous charges include $15.00 for license verification, $15.00 for an alternative assessment, and $15.00 plus $0.25 per page for records. The same rule carries the disciplinary floor: violations not related to gas work shall carry a minimum fine of $500.00, and violations related to gas work shall carry a minimum fine of $1000.00. A new master plumber running a one person company therefore pays $160.00 plus $100.00 plus $50.00 plus $175.00 in individual charges and $25.00 to register the entity. Nothing in that schedule is prorated. A certificate issued in November still expires on December 31 under Section 34-37-9, so an applicant who certifies late in the year pays the initial certificate fee and then the annual renewal fee within weeks. Applicants who pass an exam in the fall usually do better certifying and renewing as one planned sequence. The board takes payment by the Credit Card Authorization Form or the E Check Authorization Form it publishes on its forms page.
Sourcesadmincode.legislature.state.al.us 1pgfb.alabama.gov 2pgfb.alabama.gov 3
The plumbing board's published requirements do not include a surety bond or a liability insurance minimum. Rule 720-X-4-.01 prices applications, certificates, renewals and penalties and sets no bond. The company registration form asks for entity details and the $25.00 fee and requires compliance with rule 720-x-12-.02 for plumbers and rule 720-x-13-.02 for gas fitters, and it collects no certificate of insurance. That is a real difference from states that gate the plumbing license itself on coverage, and it means the bonding pressure on an Alabama plumbing contractor comes from three other directions. General contractor licensure carries its own requirements once a project crosses the threshold in Section 34-8-1. City business license offices set their own documentation lists. Private owners and general contractors set coverage in the subcontract. None of that is the plumbing board's doing, so a contractor who reads only the board's rules will under buy. Carry coverage because the customer, the prime and the city want it, not because the board checks. The board does check the principal master relationship, the annual entity registration, and the certificate status of every journeyman and apprentice on the payroll, since the FAQ states that journeyman and apprentice level employees must also be certified or registered. The board does publish a Classification Declaration Form and Update Record forms for master, journeyman and apprentice holders, so employment changes are reported to the board rather than discovered at a renewal. Keeping the entity record, the principal master record and the employee roster current is the compliance work the board actually audits.
Sourcesadmincode.legislature.state.al.us 1pgfb.alabama.gov 2pgfb.alabama.gov 3genconbd.alabama.gov 4pgfb.alabama.gov 5
Alabama plumbing certificates are annual. Section 34-37-9 states that all annual certificates or registrations shall expire on December 31 of the year in which they are issued. The renewal window for the business record is explicit on the registration form: business information must be submitted and verified annually between October 1 and December 31. The board runs renewals and profile updates through its online portal, linked from the licensees page. Miss the deadline and the late penalty is not a flat administrative charge, it matches the certificate: $35.00 for apprentice, $75.00 for journeyman, $175.00 for master, $25.00 for the business registration. The board also publishes an Application for Inactive Status and an Application for Active Status, so a plumber leaving the trade for a season can park a certificate instead of letting it lapse, and a Waiver of Annual Fees and Penalties form exists for the cases the board will consider. Three separate things expire on the same date for a small plumbing company: the master's certificate, every journeyman and apprentice certificate on the crew, and the entity registration. Contractors who renew the master certificate and forget the $25.00 entity renewal are advertising as a registered plumbing business without a current registration behind it. The board also publishes newsletters on its own site announcing rule and fee changes, which is where changes like the January 1, 2026 Business Law exam requirement for master applicants surface first. Renewal season and rule changes land in the same quarter.
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Alabama requires 4 hours of continuing education per renewal period, and the split depends on which certificates you hold. A master plumber or journeyman plumber only takes 4 hours of plumbing continuing education or business and compliance type courses. A master gas fitter or journeyman gas fitter only takes 4 hours of gas fitting continuing education or business and compliance courses. Anyone holding both plumbing and gas certificates takes 4 hours total, of which 2 hours must be plumbing and 2 hours must be gas fitting, with business and compliance courses counting toward any of those hours. The deadline is earlier than the renewal deadline and that is where people get caught. All continuing education must be completed by November 1 prior to renewal, not by December 31. Non compliance results in a $100 deficiency fee. The requirement is set by Alabama Administrative Code rule 720-x-21, specifically rule 720-x-21-.02 on continuing education standards. The board runs an age exemption for individuals 65 or older as of January 1, 2026, claimed once using the board's Continuing Education Age Exemption Form. Providers have to be approved by the board through its own provider application packet, so hours taken from an unapproved provider do not count toward the four. Courses taken for another state's plumbing license do not automatically count, since the credit has to come through a provider the board approved under its own provider application process. The board publishes both a continuing education page and a provider portal, and the provider list is the thing to check before paying for a class.
Alabama's plumbing reciprocity is narrow and recent. The board states that effective January 1, 2026, the Alabama Plumbers and Gas Fitters Examining Board does now have a reciprocal agreement in place with the Mississippi Board of Contractors, and it publishes a Mississippi Reciprocal Request Form for a Mississippi license holder seeking an Alabama master plumber certificate. That is the only out of state plumbing agreement the board publishes. The second reciprocity route is internal to Alabama and applies to gas only: a master gas fitter can request reciprocation to the Alabama Liquefied Petroleum Gas Board using the board's Request for Reciprocation form, and rule 720-X-4-.05 runs the other direction by letting an LP Gas Board employee competency card holder with a service technician endorsement reach master gas fitter certification with 3 years of experience. Everyone else licensed elsewhere takes the Alabama exam. The out of state applicants page says a plumber or gas fitter certified in another state may be able to take the examination for an equivalent classification in Alabama, using the Examination Packet for Out of State Applicants. Rule 720-X-4-.02 requires verification from the other state's examining agency that the applicant is currently licensed and a minimum score of seventy on the Alabama test. A verification of an Alabama license going out to another state costs $15. Section 34-37-6(i) adds a separate emergency path. If the Governor or the Legislature declares a state of emergency, the board may issue an emergency certificate of endorsement for plumbing or gas work in the impacted area to an applicant holding a current out of state license in good standing, valid for the duration of the emergency and in no case more than 60 days. Storm work in Alabama runs through that provision, not through reciprocity.
Sourcespgfb.alabama.gov 1pgfb.alabama.gov 2pgfb.alabama.gov 3admincode.legislature.state.al.us 4pgfb.alabama.gov 5
Section 34-37-6(a) draws the line wider than most contractors expect. It is unlawful for any person or other legal entity to contract, engage in, offer to engage, or convey the impression that he or she is certified in plumbing, gas fitting, or medical gas piping within this state unless the person has first registered or received a certificate that is in force and effect at the time the work is offered, performed, directed, or superintended. Offering and conveying the impression are violations on their own, before a pipe is touched. Section 34-37-17(c) makes a violation of any provision of the chapter unlawful and punishable as prescribed for a Class A misdemeanor. Section 34-37-17(a) gives the board civil authority to fine any registered apprentice, certificate holder, or registered legal entity up to two thousand dollars per violation plus actual hearing cost, and to require training specific to the violation. Section 34-37-17(b) lets the board issue a cease and desist order directing a person or entity to stop work already underway or about to begin. Section 34-37-12(a) adds revocation, suspension, restitution and the same $2,000 per violation ceiling. Rule 720-X-4-.01 sets minimum fines of $500.00 for non gas violations and $1000.00 for gas violations. The board takes public reports through its Uncertified Contractor Complaint form. The exemptions in Section 34-37-15(a) are the defense that actually works, and they are narrow: maintenance employees on their employer's premises, railroad and industrial employees, utility company employees, property owners working on their own buildings, and washing machine hookups to existing piping. None of them cover a contractor selling plumbing to a third party.
Sourcespgfb.alabama.gov 1admincode.legislature.state.al.us 2pgfb.alabama.gov 3pgfb.alabama.gov 4
Alabama puts a specific, measurable requirement on your trucks, and it is statutory rather than buried in a rule. Section 34-37-6(c) reads: the business name which is registered with the board for each legal entity engaged in plumbing, gas fitting, or medical gas piping shall be displayed in a prominent manner on two sides of each service or construction vehicle, and the lettering shall be a minimum of two inches in height. The board restates it in its own FAQ: every person or company that meets the criteria must have the business name displayed in a prominent location on both sides of the service or construction vehicle in letters that are a minimum of two inches in height. Read the two details that get missed. It is two sides, not one, and not the back doors. It is the business name as registered with the board, so a company registered as one entity and lettered with a different trade name is out of compliance even though the truck is lettered. The statute sets no requirement for the certificate number on the vehicle, on estimates, or on a website, which is the opposite of Arizona's rule. Enforcement runs through Section 34-37-17, so the exposure is the same $2,000 per violation civil ceiling and a Class A misdemeanor. The rule attaches to the vehicle rather than to the job, so an unlettered truck parked at a supply house is as exposed as one parked at a jobsite. Companies that run wrapped vans and plain pickups should check the pickups, since those are the vehicles that usually miss the two inch standard on both sides.
The wording in Section 34-37-6(a) about conveying the impression that you are certified is the advertising rule Alabama actually enforces. A company that puts plumbing services on a van, a yard sign or a listing is offering to engage in plumbing, and that triggers the entity registration requirement in Section 34-37-6(b) and rule 720-X-17-.01 whether or not a job ever books. The board's FAQ states it directly: companies that contract, engage in, offer to engage in, or convey the impression that they are in the business of plumbing or gas fitting must be properly registered as such by the board. Three practical limits follow. A journeyman may not advertise as a contractor, because a journeyman must be employed by a company that has a principal master and cannot act as his own contractor outside the listed exemptions. A master plumber who has not registered an entity may not advertise the entity. A plumber with no gas fitter certificate may not advertise gas work, because the certificates are separate ladders and the fine floor for gas violations is $1000.00 rather than $500.00. Medical gas is the same logic, gated on the ASSE 6010 installer certification. Match the words on the ad to the certificates actually held. There is no state residential or commercial grade in Alabama plumbing, so the certificate does not limit the type of building you may advertise. What limits you is the trade split between plumbing, gas fitting and medical gas, and the entity registration behind the name on the ad.
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Plumbing certification is not the only state credential a growing plumbing company hits. The Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors defines a general contractor in Section 34-8-1 as one who undertakes to construct or superintend the construction, alteration, maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, remediation, reclamation, or demolition of any building, highway, sewer, structure, site work, grading, paving or project or any improvement in the State of Alabama where the cost of the undertaking including labor and materials is $100,000 or more. Swimming pool construction sets the bar at $5,000 or more. Section 34-8-7 reaches subcontractors: subcontractors performing minimum contracts including labor and materials of $100,000, or $5,000 for swimming pools, under contract to a licensed prime contractor must be licensed by the board, and licensure has to be in hand before work starts. That board sits at 445 Dexter Ave, Suite 3060, Montgomery. Its application fee is $300.00 for a prime contractor and $150.00 for a subcontractor. Prime applicants must pass a Business and Law Exam administered by PSI and have the application on file 30 days prior to a board meeting. Subcontractor applicants supply three references from general contractors, architects, engineers, or awarding authorities. A plumbing company bidding a $100,000 mechanical scope needs this license in addition to its plumbing certificates. The general contractor board maintains its own public roster search, separate from the plumbing board's lookups, so a customer or an awarding authority checking a large bid is looking at a different database than the one that shows your master plumber certificate. Both have to be current for a $100,000 plumbing scope.
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City requirements sit on top of the state certificate, and both of Alabama's largest cities run them through the business license office rather than through a separate trade license. Huntsville states that all persons, firms, or corporations engaged in any exhibition, trade, business, vocation, occupation, profession, calling or conducting any type business within the corporate limits of the City of Huntsville shall obtain a Business License from the Finance Department before engaging in business, and its contractor page repeats that all contractors and subcontractors conducting any type of business within the corporate limits shall obtain a General Business License. Huntsville publishes a contractor business license fee schedule and processes most electrical, plumbing, mechanical and gas trade permits online, and general contractors document each subcontractor's business license on a Sub contractors Schedule C form. The Huntsville Inspection Office is at 305 Fountain Circle and takes calls at 256-427-5331. Birmingham runs the check at the license counter. Its supplemental documentation checklist for business license applications requires copies of evidence of state licensing, or state certification cards, for master plumbers, master gas fitters, and master plumbers and gas fitters, among other trades. Birmingham's Permitting and Inspection Division processes trade permits over the counter and online and takes calls at 205-254-2904. Neither city replaces the board certificate. The pattern across Alabama is the same in smaller cities: the state board certifies the trade, the city licenses the business and issues the permit. Budget a business license in every municipality worked rather than assuming the state certificate travels alone.
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The board publishes two separate public lookups and a customer needs both to see the whole picture. Individual certificates are searchable through the board's licensee search, linked from the licensees page and the consumers page. Company registrations are searchable through a separate business lookup linked from the same pages. That split matters because the two records can disagree: a current master plumber certificate attached to an entity whose $25.00 annual registration lapsed on December 31 will show up as one good record and one bad one. The consumers section also hosts the Consumer Complaint form for work already performed and the Uncertified Contractor Complaint form for someone working without a certificate, so the same page a prospect uses to verify you is the page they use to report you. Contractors doing work above the Section 34-8-1 threshold have a third record, the Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors roster search at licensesearch.alabama.gov/genconbd. Three things keep those records clean and matching: renew the individual certificate and the entity registration in the October 1 to December 31 window, complete the four continuing education hours by November 1, and letter the trucks with the exact business name on file with the board. The verification service runs both directions. A $15.00 Request for Verification of Alabama license or registration is how another state's board, a general contractor or a prequalification desk gets your status in writing, and the board publishes that form on its forms page.
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These are common details other guides publish about Alabama, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Both, and separately. The board certifies the individual as apprentice, journeyman or master under Section 34-37-6, and registers the legal entity under Section 34-37-6(b) and rule 720-X-17-.01. The entity registration is $25.00 a year and the two records are searched in two different lookups.
Master plumber. Rule 720-X-12-.02 requires the registered entity's principal master to be a certified master plumber, an active employee of the entity rather than an independent contractor, and principal for only one entity. The board's FAQ states a journeyman cannot act as his own contractor.
Two years as a registered apprentice qualifies you to sit for the journeyman exam, and one year certified as a journeyman qualifies you for the master exam. The exams page states the counter rule as 2 years of current work experience for journeyman and 1 year for master.
Prov, Inc. administers the board's exam program. The master plumber exam is 100 questions in 4.17 hours, the journeyman plumber exam is 70 questions in 2.92 hours, both computerized and open book, both requiring 70 percent. Approved references include the 2021 International Plumbing Code.
For a master plumber starting a company: $160.00 master exam, $100.00 business law exam, $50.00 application processing, $175.00 initial certificate and $25.00 entity registration, all set by rule 720-X-4-.01. Journeyman runs $110.00 exam, $50.00 processing and $75.00 certificate.
The board's fee rule and its company registration form set no bond and no liability insurance minimum. Coverage requirements come from city business license offices, general contractors and owners instead. The general contractor board applies once a contract reaches the Section 34-8-1 threshold.
December 31 of the year it was issued, under Section 34-37-9. The business record is verified annually between October 1 and December 31. Late penalties match the credential: $35.00 apprentice, $75.00 journeyman, $175.00 master, $25.00 business registration.
Four hours per renewal period, completed by November 1, not December 31. Plumbing only certificates take four plumbing hours, gas only take four gas hours, and combination holders take two and two. Missing it costs a $100 deficiency fee under rule 720-x-21.
The board publishes one out of state plumbing agreement, with the Mississippi Board of Contractors, effective January 1, 2026. Everyone else certified elsewhere applies through the Examination Packet for Out of State Applicants and sits the Alabama exam at a minimum score of seventy.
Section 34-37-6(c) requires the business name registered with the board to be displayed prominently on two sides of each service or construction vehicle, in lettering a minimum of two inches in height. The name has to match the entity registration, not a different trade name.
Alabama's statute does not require the certificate number on advertising, estimates or a website. What it does require is the registered business name on two sides of every vehicle at two inch minimum lettering, and that you hold the certificates for whatever the ad offers.
Section 34-37-17(c) makes it punishable as a Class A misdemeanor. The board can fine up to two thousand dollars per violation plus hearing costs and issue a cease and desist order. Rule 720-X-4-.01 sets minimum fines of $500.00, or $1000.00 for gas work.
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