Arkansas · Plumbing licensing · official-source guide
Arkansas licenses plumbers through the Arkansas Department of Health, not a contractors board. Protective Health Codes issues master, journeyman, apprentice and restricted licenses to individuals, while the Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board licenses the contracting business above its dollar thresholds. Expect five years of experience for a master, a four hour four section exam, and $125 plus $200 in fees.
State-level license
Yes
Public lookup
Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-09-11. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Arkansas does not run plumbing through a contractors board. It runs it through public health. The Protective Health Codes program inside the Arkansas Department of Health issues every plumbing and natural gas license in the state, and the Plumbing Examiner's Committee sits over the examinations. The office is at 4815 W. Markham St., Slot 24, Little Rock, AR 72205, and the licensing phone line is 501-661-2642. The Department publishes the license applications, the licensing rules, the exam calendar, the state plumbing inspector coverage map and the public license search from one page. That is the page to work from, because the applications carry the fee amounts and the rules carry the experience thresholds. The Plumbing Examiner's Committee is listed under the Department's boards and commissions, and it publishes its meeting dates and member list. Two facts follow from this structure and they matter to a contractor. First, your plumbing credential is a health code credential, so it is tied to the Arkansas Plumbing Code and the Arkansas Fuel Gas Code rather than to a general construction statute. Second, the Department licenses people. It licenses a master plumber, a journeyman plumber, an apprentice and a long list of restricted categories, but it does not issue a plumbing company license. The company side of Arkansas plumbing sits at a different agency entirely, the Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board under the Department of Labor and Licensing. A plumbing business working in Arkansas usually needs both, and the two agencies do not talk to each other about your paperwork.
Sourceshealthy.arkansas.gov 1healthy.arkansas.gov 2healthy.arkansas.gov 3labor.arkansas.gov 4
The Department's licensing rules define a master plumber as a person skilled in the planning, superintending and practical installation of plumbing and familiar with the governing laws and rules. A journeyman plumber is a person engaged in the practical installation of plumbing other than a master. An apprentice plumber is registered under a master plumber and enrolled in an apprenticeship program. Under the state plumbing law, only a licensed master plumber or a licensed restricted plumber may be in charge at all times of plumbing installation in cities and towns. That single sentence is why a plumbing company in Arkansas needs a master on staff, not merely a crew of journeymen. Beyond the three main grades the Department licenses a long restricted list, and each one is walled off. The categories published on the Department's licensing page include lifetime plumber, restricted plumber, city plumbing inspector, backflow assembly repair technician, backflow assembly testing technician, supervisor gas fitter, gas fitter, gas fitter trainee, gas utility service person, governmental maintenance, hospital maintenance, hospital maintenance supervisor, hospital maintenance trainee, and water and sewer service line installer. The rules are blunt about the walls. A restricted hospital maintenance licensee may not perform any plumbing service other than the restricted phase licensed, and may not use that experience toward another license. A water and sewer service line installer may not touch any portion of the water distribution or building drain system and may not touch the gas service or system. Pick the wrong restricted category and you have bought experience that does not count toward a master license.
Sourceshealthy.arkansas.gov 1healthy.arkansas.gov 2healthy.arkansas.gov 3
The Department's licensing rules set a minimum of five years of experience for a master plumber and a minimum of four years or the equivalent for a journeyman plumber. There is a step between the two that people miss. The rules require an applicant to hold a journeyman license for one full year before becoming eligible for the master plumber examination, and the Committee may waive that only in cases of extreme hardship. So the practical path is journeyman first, then a year of holding that license, then the master exam. The master plumber application repeats the experience bar in its own words, asking for at least five years of experience in all phases of plumbing and natural gas. Note the phrase all phases. Gas work is inside the Arkansas plumbing credential, not beside it. How you prove the years depends on where you worked. The Department's exam application instructions require notarized affidavits from current or former employers, on company letterhead, attesting to your work background as a plumber and gas fitter, for applicants who are not enrolled in the Arkansas Plumbing Apprenticeship Program. The master plumber application accepts a completed Verification of Employment style attestation, and will also take a W-2 or an employer affidavit. A current Arkansas journeyman only has to document work history matching the length of the journeymanship. Every applicant also files a Candidate Background Affidavit, and the rules bar licensure for offenses listed under Ark. Code Ann. 17-3-102 unless the conviction was sealed, pardoned or expunged.
Sourceshealthy.arkansas.gov 1healthy.arkansas.gov 2healthy.arkansas.gov 3healthy.arkansas.gov 4
The Department publishes its own study guides for the master and journeyman examinations, and they describe a test that is not a plain multiple choice sitting. Both exams run four sections, delivered one at a time in random order, and the candidate is given four hours to complete all four sections with no per section time limit. Section 2 is fifty random questions drawn from the applicable codes and state law. The other sections are worked problems. On the journeyman exam, Section 1 asks for a drainage, waste and vent riser diagram in isometric form plus water system sizing. Section 3 covers sizing flue gas venting and natural gas piping and calculating combustion air. Section 4 is component identification from diagrams. The master guide follows the same shape, with drawings, code questions, venting and combustion air calculations, and gas pipe sizing. Both guides state the code basis: the 2018 Arkansas Plumbing Code, the 2018 Arkansas Fuel Gas Code, and the Arkansas State Plumbing Law. The Department sets exam dates on a published annual calendar rather than offering testing on demand at a commercial center. The licensing rules do state a 70 percent passing mark for the plumbing and gas inspector examinations, which are administered on an as needed basis at various times and places and cover the Arkansas State Plumbing and Natural Gas Code as amended. Applicants for restricted hospital maintenance and for water and sewer service line installation are examined by the Department to determine competency. Backflow assembly testing technicians must first complete a forty hour approved classroom and wet lab course, then examine.
Sourceshealthy.arkansas.gov 1healthy.arkansas.gov 2healthy.arkansas.gov 3healthy.arkansas.gov 4
The licensing rules carry the whole fee schedule, and the application forms repeat the numbers. Application fees run $125.00 for master plumber, restricted supervisor solar mechanic, restricted residential maintenance, restricted governmental maintenance, restricted supervisor hospital maintenance, restricted water and sewer service line installation and restricted supervisor gas fitter. Application fees run $75.00 for journeyman, restricted gas fitter, restricted hospital maintenance and restricted solar mechanic. A failed exam, or a non appearance without notice, costs $50.00. A non scheduled or oral examination adds $50.00 per exam. Annual license fees are separate from the application fee. Master plumber is $200.00, as are restricted supervisor solar mechanic, restricted residential maintenance, restricted water and sewer service line installation, restricted supervisor gas fitter and restricted gas utility. Journeyman is $75.00, as are restricted solar mechanic and restricted gas fitter. Restricted governmental maintenance and restricted supervisor hospital maintenance are $100.00. Restricted hospital maintenance is $37.50. Apprentice, gas fitter trainee, hospital maintenance trainee, solar mechanic trainee and plumbing or gas inspector registration are $25.00 each, and gas utility serviceperson is $25.00. The master plumber application states the two charges plainly: a $125 application fee and a $200 license fee. Inspections cost $25.00 each, and an additional inspection caused by the negligence of a supervisor costs $35.00. Deferment costs $20.00 a year. Transferring a master license down to journeyman costs $20.00. The rules also carry an initial licensure fee waiver for applicants on Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, TANF or Lifeline, for those approved for unemployment within twelve months, and for income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line.
The Department of Health license puts a person in charge of plumbing work. It does not authorize a company to contract for it. That authority comes from the Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board, housed in the Department of Labor and Licensing, and the thresholds are dollar based rather than trade based. A commercial license is required when the cost of the work, including labor and materials, is fifty thousand dollars or more. The board's own definition in ACA 17-25-101(a)(1) reaches any person or entity that attempts to or submits a bid at that level, so the trigger fires at the bid, not at the contract. A home improvement license is required for specialty work on single family residences above two thousand dollars, and a residential remodeler license is required above two thousand dollars for structural changes or additions. A subcontractor registration certificate exists for firms working only under properly licensed contractors. Temporary commercial and temporary home improvement licenses are valid for ninety days once issued. The commercial application shows what the board wants: a $100.00 filing fee, an $84.00 business and law examination fee, a $10,000 surety bond filed with the board before the license is valid, and workers compensation coverage if the applicant has one or more employees. The bond requirement sits in ACA 17-25-404 as a penal sum of ten thousand dollars. Financial statements scale with the license. A restricted commercial license needs a compiled report from a CPA prepared within one year, with half of the required net worth held as cash in the bank. An unrestricted commercial license needs a reviewed or audited statement. Plumbing appears in the classifications as Mechanical, covering plumbing and HVACR, and carries a five year experience requirement.
Sourceslabor.arkansas.gov 1labor.arkansas.gov 2labor.arkansas.gov 3labor.arkansas.gov 4
Arkansas runs two renewal calendars and mixing them up costs money. Master, journeyman and apprentice licenses expire December 31 and must be renewed by February 1. All restricted plumber licenses, and plumbing and gas inspector registrations, expire June 30 and must be renewed by August 1. The general rule in the licensing rules is that all licenses shall be renewed annually within thirty days after the expiration date. Miss the deadline and the penalty is $5.00 per month for master, journeyman and apprentice after February 1, and $5.00 per month for restricted plumbers and inspectors after August 1. Past thirty days the Department stops calling it a renewal and starts calling it a reinstatement, which is a different form and a much larger number. Reinstating an expired license costs $325.00 for a master plumber license or $150.00 for a journeyman plumber license, in addition to any back fees and penalties. Reinstating from deferred status costs $20.00 plus the current license fee. Reinstating a revoked license costs the same as a new license, which means starting over. Deferment itself is available at $20.00 a year and is the right tool if you are stepping away from the trade temporarily rather than letting the license lapse. Partial year permits are prorated by the rules using months divided by twelve times the annual fee. Backflow prevention assembly testing technician certification runs on its own clock, expiring at the latest certification date and no more than thirty six months from the certification or recertification date. A backflow repair license has no expiration but is invalid without a current tester license.
Sourceshealthy.arkansas.gov
This is the point where Arkansas differs from most states and where secondary guides tend to invent a number. The Department's licensing rules set a specific continuing education requirement for plumbing and gas inspectors: renewal requires eight hours of refresher training issued by the Department. Backflow prevention assembly testing technicians must complete a Department approved recertification training course before the expiration date. For master, journeyman and apprentice plumbers, the rules contain a general condition rather than an hour count. Applicants shall be current on all required continuing education related to the license for which they are applying. No annual hour figure for master or journeyman plumbers appears in the published licensing rules, in the renewal instructions, or in the Department's quarterly Plumbline newsletter. If a course seller tells you Arkansas requires a fixed number of hours a year for a master plumber, ask them to point at the rule. The rules do carve out uniformed service members and spouses, who are exempt from applicable continuing education and from backflow tester and repair technician recertification, and from inspector requirements, for one hundred eighty days following return from deployment, and must complete the requirement inside that window. The practical reading for a contractor is this. Your renewal turns on paying the fee on time and staying in good standing, and on any course requirement attached to a specialty credential you hold, such as backflow or an inspector registration. Verify your own situation with the licensing office at 501-661-2642 before you buy hours you may not need, and keep the certificates for anything you do complete.
Sourceshealthy.arkansas.gov 1healthy.arkansas.gov 2healthy.arkansas.gov 3
The Department publishes signed reciprocity agreements with four states on its plumbing and natural gas licensing page: Ohio, Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Each is a separate document, and the terms are per agreement rather than blanket. The Ohio agreement is the clearest example of how narrow these can be. It applies to master plumber only. For Ohio to recognize an Arkansas credential the Arkansas master plumber license must have been acquired by examination and not by reciprocity, the holder must be a resident or chartered in Arkansas, must show three years of continuous licensure without disciplinary action, and must satisfy Ohio commercial contractor requirements. For Arkansas to recognize an Ohio credential the Ohio license must have been obtained by examination covering plumbing and natural gas, not reciprocity, and must be in good standing with no revocation, suspension or probation. Both states waive the examination when the criteria are met. That agreement took effect September 1, 2022. Outside the signed agreements the rules carry a general reciprocal path. The applicant must hold a plumber's license in another United States jurisdiction with requirements substantially similar to Arkansas, in good standing, with no revocation for bad faith or a violation of law, rule or ethics, and no suspended or probationary license anywhere. Substantially similar is defined in the rules as a jurisdiction that has adopted a national model plumbing or gas code and uses a comprehensive examination created and proctored by a national examination agency or equivalent. Where that fits, the rules say examinations shall not be required and apprenticeship, education or training shall not be required. Arkansas also operates an automatic occupational licensure route under Act 457 of 2023 for new residents.
Sourceshealthy.arkansas.gov 1healthy.arkansas.gov 2healthy.arkansas.gov 3
The penalty language in the state plumbing law is unusually direct about advertising, and contractors should read it twice. Ark. Code Ann. 17-38-102 reaches any person, firm or corporation that engages in or follows the business or occupation of, or advertises or holds himself or herself or itself out as, or acts temporarily or otherwise as a plumber without first having secured the required license or permit. The act of advertising is itself the violation. You do not have to turn a wrench. The offense is a misdemeanor, punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail for not more than thirty days, or both. Each day during which a violation continues is a separate offense. A second provision in the same section carries imprisonment up to three months or a fine up to five hundred dollars, and the section also provides for civil penalties up to one thousand dollars per violation. Those civil penalties are not theoretical. The Department's Plumbline newsletter publishes committee sanctions by name, and the summer 2026 issue lists penalties for operating with no license at four thousand dollars for one individual, which reflects the per violation stacking. The Department also runs a public sanctions search so a homeowner or a general contractor can look up disciplinary history. On the company side the contractors law adds its own exposure. A violation of the commercial licensing requirement is a Class A misdemeanor with each day of activity constituting a separate offense, plus a civil penalty of not less than one hundred dollars and not more than four hundred dollars per day under ACA 17-25-103.
Sourceshealthy.arkansas.gov 1healthy.arkansas.gov 2healthy.arkansas.gov 3labor.arkansas.gov 4healthy.arkansas.gov 5
Arkansas has a display rule with actual measurements in it, and it lives in the plumbing code rather than the licensing rules, which is why most licensing guides miss it. Section 107.1.2.4 of the Arkansas plumbing code requires that any person, firm, company or corporation engaged in installation or repair of a plumbing system display prominently and in a legible manner, on both sides of all service and installation vehicles, the company name and the company master plumbing or gas fitter supervisor license number, in letters not less than 2 inches high. Read the three pieces. Both sides, not one. The company name and the supervisor license number, not just a phone number. Two inch letters as the floor. The same section carries the company name, license number and phone number onto business cards and onto every job site where new plumbing work is being performed, and it sets a minimum job site sign size of 8 1/2 by 11 inches. There is a personal document rule alongside it. Any person installing plumbing or natural gas shall at all times have available on the job site their personal plumbing or natural gas fitter license. That is the card, on the person, on the site. For a contractor this is a cheap compliance item and a free marketing one. The license number you are required to paint on the truck is the same number a customer can type into the Department's public search, so the truck and the verification page reinforce each other. Print the number on estimates and invoices as well. The code does not require that, but it removes the argument later.
Sourceshealthy.arkansas.gov
Arkansas protects the title, not only the work. Ark. Code Ann. 17-38-301 provides that no person other than a licensed master plumber shall use or display the title master plumber, or append his or her name to or in connection with such a title or any other title or words that represent or may tend to represent him or her as a licensed master plumber. The reach of that phrase matters. It is not limited to the exact words master plumber. Any other title or words that may tend to represent you as a licensed master plumber fall inside it. Terms that imply the grade without using it are exposed. So is a company page that lists a master plumber on staff after that person has left. The advertising hook in 17-38-102 sits next to it, making it an offense to advertise or hold yourself out as a plumber without first having secured the required license or permit. Put the two together and a website is regulated surface. Practical rules follow. Advertise the grade you hold and no higher. If your company holds a Contractors Licensing Board license as well, that number is a separate number and belongs in different copy, not blended with the plumbing license number. If the master plumber in charge changes, change the site the same week. Under the licensing rules the Department also bars work beyond a restricted category, so a restricted water and sewer service line installer cannot advertise general plumbing repair. Keep service pages inside the scope printed on the license.
Sourceshealthy.arkansas.gov 1healthy.arkansas.gov 2healthy.arkansas.gov 3
Little Rock adds three requirements on top of the state credentials, and the permit desk enforces all three before it issues a plumbing permit. First, the city points back at state law, noting that contractors must be licensed in the State of Arkansas before bidding or performing work in excess of two thousand dollars. The city business portal repeats it, stating that all professional contractors and persons working on another's residence are required to obtain a contractors license from the Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board when the project is two thousand dollars or more. Second, city ordinance requires a City Contractor's License, which Little Rock also calls a city business license or privilege license, to operate within the jurisdiction of the City of Little Rock. Applications run through the Finance Department, and the city publishes an online business license application. Third, and this is the one that stops jobs, the permit desk requires a surety bond made out to the City of Little Rock in the amount of $10,000. On top of the bond, for the special trades the permit desk requires a copy of the master license for plumbing and electrical, and a Class A license for mechanical. So a plumbing contractor pulling a Little Rock permit is presenting a state Department of Health master plumber license, a state Contractors Licensing Board license where the job value triggers it, a city privilege license and a ten thousand dollar bond. Build that packet once and keep it current, because the renewal dates do not line up. The state plumbing license renews by February 1 and the city privilege license runs on the city calendar.
Fort Smith runs the same two layer model with different numbers, and it publishes the requirement plainly. Plumbing, electrical and mechanical contractor licenses are required on all mechanical, plumbing and electrical projects, and the state license has to be registered with the city's Building Safety department before work starts. Fort Smith then adds a bond and insurance condition of its own. Mechanical, plumbing and electrical contractors are required to have a minimum $2,000 permit and license bond, and contractors must show proof of workers compensation and general liability insurance. Building Safety takes the registrations at 479-784-2206. The pattern holds across the state. Neither the Department of Health nor the Contractors Licensing Board issues permits. Permits come from the city or, where there is no local program, from the Department's own state plumbing inspectors, whose county coverage map and contact list the Department publishes and updates. For a contractor working several Arkansas markets, that means the license stack is stable and the local layer is not. The state master plumber license travels statewide. The Contractors Licensing Board license travels statewide. The city registration, the city privilege license and the bond made out to that specific city do not travel at all. Before you take work in a new Arkansas city, call the building department and ask three questions: does the city require a separate contractor registration, does it require a bond payable to the city and in what amount, and does it require proof of general liability and workers compensation at registration or at permit. Those three answers are the whole local cost of entry.
Sourcesfortsmithar.gov 1healthy.arkansas.gov 2littlerock.gov 3
The Department of Health runs a public license search for plumbing and natural gas licensees, and it is open to anyone with no login. The search allows filtering by license type, state, city, ZIP code and expiration date, and each record returns the licensee name, address, license type, license number and expiration date. License types shown include master plumber, journeyman plumber, apprentice plumber, gas fitter and plumbing inspector. A homeowner checking a bid can confirm three things in under a minute: that the person named exists in the file, that the grade matches what was claimed, and that the expiration date has not passed. The Department also publishes a sanctions search for the Plumbing Examiner's Committee, which is where disciplinary history and penalties for unlicensed work appear, and it prints committee sanctions by name in the quarterly Plumbline newsletter. A separate license verification request form exists for licensees who need formal written verification sent to another state. For the company side the Contractors Licensing Board maintains its own Find A Licensed Contractor search, which is a different database with different numbers. Two verification paths, two license numbers, and a customer who finds only one may assume you are unlicensed. That is the argument for putting the plumbing license number on the truck, which the plumbing code requires anyway, and on the estimate and the website, which it does not. A number a customer can verify in one search closes the loop the state left open.
Sourcesadhplumbinghvacrlookup.arkansas.gov 1healthy.arkansas.gov 2labor.arkansas.gov 3healthy.arkansas.gov 4
These are common details other guides publish about Arkansas, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes. The Arkansas Department of Health, through its Protective Health Codes program and the Plumbing Examiner's Committee, issues master, journeyman, apprentice and restricted plumbing and natural gas licenses statewide.
Both, at two different agencies. The Department of Health licenses the individual plumber by grade. The Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board, under the Department of Labor and Licensing, licenses the contracting business once job values cross its thresholds.
The Department's licensing rules require a minimum of five years. The master plumber application asks for five years in all phases of plumbing and natural gas, and applicants must hold a journeyman license for one full year before sitting for the master exam.
Four sections given one at a time in random order, with four hours for all four. Section 2 is fifty questions from code and state law. The rest are worked problems including isometric riser diagrams, water sizing, gas pipe sizing and combustion air.
The Department's study guides list the 2018 Arkansas Plumbing Code, the 2018 Arkansas Fuel Gas Code and the Arkansas State Plumbing Law.
A $125.00 application fee plus a $200.00 annual license fee. A journeyman pays $75.00 application and $75.00 license. A failed exam or a no show without notice costs $50.00.
Master, journeyman and apprentice licenses expire December 31 and must be renewed by February 1. Restricted licenses and inspector registrations expire June 30 and must be renewed by August 1. Late renewal adds $5.00 per month.
The Department publishes signed agreements with Ohio, Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. The Ohio agreement covers master plumber only and requires the license to have been earned by examination rather than reciprocity.
Under Ark. Code Ann. 17-38-102 it is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of $100 to $500 or up to thirty days in county jail, with each day a separate offense, plus civil penalties up to $1,000 per violation.
No. The statute makes it an offense to advertise or hold yourself out as a plumber without first having secured the required license or permit. The advertisement alone is the violation.
Section 107.1.2.4 of the plumbing code requires the company name and the company master plumbing or gas fitter supervisor license number on both sides of all service and installation vehicles, in letters not less than 2 inches high.
Through the Department of Health's public plumbing and natural gas licensee search, which returns name, address, license type, license number and expiration date. The Plumbing Examiner's Committee also publishes a separate sanctions search.
We can review the local market, your current search visibility, and paid-search fit before recommending any marketing work.