Indiana · Plumbing licensing · official-source guide
Indiana licenses plumbing through the Indiana Plumbing Commission at the Professional Licensing Agency. It licenses individuals by grade, apprentice, journeyman and plumbing contractor, and licenses a plumbing corporation separately on top of a named individual contractor. Expect four years of experience, an examination, $50.00 to apply as a contractor, no state bond and no continuing education, and your license number on every ad and vehicle.
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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.
Indiana licenses plumbing through the Indiana Plumbing Commission, a board staffed and administered by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency. The commission's authority is IC 25-28.5, with the general professional licensing provisions of IC 25-1 layered on top, and its rules sit in Title 860 of the Indiana Administrative Code. The agency address is Indiana Government Center South, Room W072, 402 West Washington Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46204, and the plumbing board's published contact address is pla14@pla.in.gov. Applications, renewals and reinstatements run through the MyLicense portal rather than on paper, and the commission charges a paper handling penalty in other programs for filings that could have been made online. The commission licenses individuals and it licenses business entities, but not in the way most states do it. Indiana's plumbing contractor license is itself an individual credential: a natural person passes an examination and holds it. A corporation that wants to contract for plumbing obtains a separate plumbing corporation license that hangs off a named individual contractor licensee. IC 25-28.5-1-2(2) defines a plumbing contractor as any person who for compensation undertakes, submits a bid for, or performs plumbing work and is responsible for substantially all the plumbing within the entire project. IC 25-28.5-1-2(3) defines a journeyman plumber as a person who works under the supervision, direction and responsibility of a licensed plumbing contractor.
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Indiana issues a plumbing apprentice registration, a journeyman plumber license, a plumbing contractor license, a temporary plumbing contractor license and a plumbing corporation license. The commission also approves plumbing apprenticeship schools. Only the plumbing contractor license carries the right to bid and contract. A journeyman plumber may do the work as an occupation or trade, but the statutory definition puts that work under the supervision, direction and responsibility of a licensed plumbing contractor. An apprentice is registered, not licensed, and works under direct and immediate personal supervision. IC 25-28.5-1-11 makes it unlawful for any person to act in the capacity of a plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber in Indiana without first obtaining the matching license from the commission. The same section carves out helpers, laborers, registered apprentices and other employees of a plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber, so long as they do not in any manner hold themselves out to the public as being plumbers. That last clause is the line a growing company crosses without noticing when it puts an unlicensed field employee on a business card or lists him on a website as a plumber. The corporation license exists so that a corporate entity can legally be the contracting party. The temporary plumbing contractor license exists for one situation only. Under IC 25-28.5-1-18.5 the commission may issue it to an applicant who has an ownership interest in or is an officer of a contracting business when the plumbing contractor licensee operating that business has died or is physically or mentally unable to operate it, for the period needed to dispose of the business or meet the emergency, and for no more than two years including all renewals. The commission's page adds the operating detail from 860 IAC 1-1-8: the temporary license runs in six month increments at $25.00 to apply and $25.00 per six month extension, the applicant must be at least eighteen and must prove the death or incapacity, and the page quotes 860 IAC 1-1-8(d) to the effect that no temporary license will be issued to any applicant who fails to first appear before the commission or the executive director of the Indiana professional licensing agency to request the same.
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IC 25-28.5-1-18.1 requires an individual age seventeen or older who wants to be registered as an apprentice plumber to apply on a commission form and to supply a statement signed by a licensed plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber who employs the applicant, confirming that the prospective apprentice is that employer's employee and will work under the direct and immediate personal supervision of a licensed contractor or journeyman. The commission then issues a certificate of registration. Indiana also allows a one year grace period for the program itself. An individual may work under that direct and immediate supervision for one year while awaiting acceptance into a commission approved apprenticeship program, and the requirement is satisfied even if the individual is still waiting on a response or is sitting on the program's waiting list. The apprentice must stop work if the program rejects the application, if the apprentice is removed from the waiting list and does not start, if the apprentice stays on the waiting list longer than one year without starting, or if the apprentice withdraws the application. The supervising contractor or journeyman must notify the commission when any of those events occurs. The commission charges $10.00 to apply and $10.00 to renew, with a $20.00 reinstatement fee. Apprentice licenses expire October 1 of every even year, and apprentices must confirm at renewal that they are still enrolled in an Indiana approved apprenticeship program.
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IC 25-28.5-1-12 sets the journeyman path. The applicant must be over the age of eighteen and must pass the examination described in IC 25-28.5-1-15. To qualify to sit that examination, an Indiana resident must give the commission evidence of at least four years in an apprenticeship program approved by the commission, or a notarized statement evidencing at least four years of experience in the plumbing trade in one of the employment categories listed at IC 25-28.5-1-32(2), 32(6) or 32(7). The commission's own licensing page describes the same two doors in plainer language: apply through a commission approved apprenticeship school with a certificate of completion signed by the sponsor, or apply through the plumbing trade, which requires a current active out of state plumbing license showing four years of experience plus an employer affidavit of experience. The fee is $30.00 to apply. Issuance costs $30.00 in an even year and $15.00 in an odd year, because the license runs to the end of the odd year regardless of when it is issued. Renewal is $30.00. Journeyman licenses expire December 31 of every odd year. A renewal received after December 31 but before March 1 adds a $15.00 late fee, and one received on or after March 1 of the even year adds $100.00. Reinstating a journeyman license expired three years or more costs $60.00.
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The plumbing contractor license uses the same age and examination rules as the journeyman license but adds a qualifying route that matters to business owners. Under IC 25-28.5-1-12(c), an Indiana resident applying for the contractor examination must show four years in a commission approved apprenticeship program, or a notarized statement of four years of experience in the plumbing trade under the same employment categories, or evidence of having worked in a plumbing business under the direction of a licensed plumbing contractor for at least four years. That third route is how an owner or manager who runs the plumbing side of a business qualifies without having served a formal apprenticeship. The commission's page implements it as a separate application path called applying through a plumbing business, which requires completion of Section 4 of the application, Experience in a Plumbing Business, plus a letter from the employer on company letterhead listing job duties and dates of employment. The page warns that applicants using the business route must not complete the employer affidavit of experience in the plumbing trade. Fees: $50.00 to apply, $100.00 for even year issuance or $50.00 for odd year issuance, $100.00 to renew. Contractor licenses expire December 31 of every odd year. Late renewal adds $15.00 before March 1 and $200.00 after. Reinstatement after three years or more costs $150.00.
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IC 25-28.5-1-13 is the structure rule, and it is stricter than most states. All members of a firm, copartnership or association who engage in plumbing contractor activities must be individually licensed as plumbing contractors. In a limited partnership, only the general partner must be licensed. A corporation in the plumbing contracting business must itself be licensed as a plumbing contractor and file its own application, and it cannot be licensed unless one of its officers or employees holds a valid plumbing contractor license issued by the commission. Where a license issues to a corporation, at least one officer or employee must be licensed as a plumbing contractor, designated in the application and named in the license. Subsection (d) then adds the part that surprises people: an officer or employee of a corporation who wants to act as a plumbing contractor in connection with the corporation's business must take out a separate plumbing contractor's license in that person's own name. Subsection (f) requires a business that provides plumbing services and must file a certificate of assumed business name under IC 23-0.5-3-4 to register the name, address and telephone number of the business with the commission. The commission prices the corporate license at $50.00 to apply and $100.00 to renew, with the same $15.00 and $200.00 late tiers and a $200.00 reinstatement fee. Corporations must confirm the responsible licensed plumbing contractor on file in order to renew.
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IC 25-28.5-1-15 requires individual applicants for a plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber license to pass an examination whose contents test the current level of skills required in that license category, at times and locations the commission prescribes. IC 25-28.5-1-16 leaves the subject matter and the passing grade to the commission, which must publish both before the exam date. IC 25-28.5-1-17 allows reexamination after a first failure and lets the commission condition further attempts, after two failed tries, on additional study or training. The commission's licensing page requires the application for examination to be reviewed and approved for eligibility before a candidate may register, and then directs applicants to register at provexam.com. The same page's frequently asked questions state that a candidate may take the test seven times within a two year period, that the two year window runs from the first scheduled test date, and that rescheduling is handled by ICC, which the answer calls the exam administrator. Two vendor names appear on one agency page, so confirm the current administrator with the commission before paying a seat fee. For apprenticeship schools, the commission quotes 860 IAC 2-1-7.1 on its page: the practical section has three parts, a copper pipe assembly project, a cast iron assembly project and a plastic pipe assembly project, a student must score at least seventy percent on all three, and the school must allow each student at least seven attempts.
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IC 25-28.5-1-23 leaves the fee schedule to the commission under IC 25-1-8, and the commission publishes it in one table. Plumbing apprentice: $10.00 application, $10.00 renewal, $20.00 reinstatement. Journeyman plumber: $30.00 application, $30.00 even year issuance, $15.00 odd year issuance, $30.00 renewal, $45.00 for an expired renewal received after December 31 of the odd year but before March 1 of the even year, $130.00 for an expired renewal received after March 1 of the even year, and $60.00 to reinstate a license expired three years or more. Plumbing contractor: $50.00 application, $100.00 even year issuance, $50.00 odd year issuance, $100.00 renewal, $115.00 and $300.00 at the two expired renewal tiers, and $150.00 to reinstate after three years or more. Temporary plumbing contractor: $25.00 application and $25.00 for each six month renewal or extension. Plumbing corporation: $50.00 application, $100.00 renewal, $115.00 and $300.00 expired tiers, and $200.00 reinstatement. The commission states that all application fees are nonrefundable, that license issuance fees are set by the year the license is issued rather than the year the application arrived, and that an application is abandoned if it is not completed within one year. Renewal notices go out approximately ninety days before expiration, and the commission treats its duty as discharged once the notice is emailed or mailed.
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IC 25-28.5-1-22 sets every license or certificate of registration issued under the chapter to expire on a date established by the licensing agency under IC 25-1-5-4 and to be renewed biennially on payment of the required renewal fee. Applications for renewal are filed in the form and manner the commission provides, accompanied by the fee, and the commission then reissues a license in the category the applicant previously held. A license lapses without any action by the commission if the renewal application and fee do not arrive by the biennial renewal date. Reinstatement splits at three years. A license three years or less delinquent must be reinstated under IC 25-1-8-6(c) on the completed renewal application, the current renewal fee and a reinstatement fee set by the licensing agency. A license more than three years delinquent must be reinstated under IC 25-1-8-6(d) on the completed renewal application, the current renewal fee, a reinstatement fee equal to the current initial application fee, and whatever remediation and additional training the board considers appropriate given the lapse of time. The commission's page adds what that looks like in practice: payment of the current renewal fee and the current initial application fee, a letter of work history or resume detailing any work since the license expired, and a personal appearance. Plumbing corporations and apprenticeship programs expired three years or more can now reinstate online using the license number and a registration code. IC 25-28.5-1-18.3 adds a rule with no equivalent in most states: a plumbing contractor's license expires upon the death of the individual to whom it was issued.
Three requirements that most states impose are absent from Indiana's plumbing statute and from the commission's licensing page, and a contractor planning a budget should know which ones. IC 25-28.5-1 contains no surety bond requirement and no minimum general liability or workers compensation figure tied to plumbing licensure. The commission's licensing information page, which lists every document an applicant must submit for each license type, names no bond and no certificate of insurance. It also states no continuing education requirement for any plumbing license type, and the chapter imposes none. Renewal in Indiana is a fee and a confirmation, not a classroom count. What this does not mean is that a plumbing business in Indiana can operate uninsured. Insurance is still driven by the customer contract, the lender, the general contractor and the local permit office, and IC 25-28.5-1-33 expressly leaves political subdivisions free to require registration with a local public official and to charge a reasonable fee for it, which is where local bond and insurance filings usually appear. The absence of a state bond also removes a recovery route that exists in bonded states, so an Indiana homeowner with a complaint is pointed at the commission's disciplinary process under IC 25-1-11 and at the courts rather than at a bond claim.
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IC 25-28.5-1-19 reads as a reciprocity provision. On payment of the required fee, an applicant who is a plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber licensed or registered in another state, territory, country or province shall without examination be granted the matching Indiana license, provided the applicant is at least eighteen, is not granted a license in a category the applicant does not hold elsewhere, and the other jurisdiction's requirements at the date of that last licensing were substantially equal to Indiana's and the same privilege is accorded to Indiana licensees. IC 25-28.5-1-12(e) repeats it: if the applicant holds a license in a state that has a reciprocity agreement with Indiana, the appropriate license shall be issued automatically. The commission's own frequently asked questions on its licensing page then say the opposite about current practice. Asked whether reciprocity exists for journeyman and contractor plumbers, the answer published by the agency is that reciprocity is not available for journeyman and contractor plumbers, that the applicant must instead present an application and pay the fee, that the application then goes before the board, and that if the board approves it the applicant must take the exam and pass. IC 25-28.5-1-12(d)(1) fits that answer: an applicant licensed in a state without a reciprocity agreement presents the license to become eligible to take the examination. Plan on sitting the Indiana exam.
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IC 25-28.5-1-35 is the display section, and it reaches four places. Subsection (a) requires a plumbing contractor licensee to prominently display the license in the licensee's principal business office, and for a partnership or corporation the license of at least one partner, member or officer, or the corporate license, must be displayed. Subsection (b) is the marketing rule: the license number of a licensed plumbing contractor must be recognizably displayed in all forms of written or printed advertising for plumbing services and on all vehicles that are used to provide plumbing services. The statute uses the word recognizably and sets no letter height and no prefix, so the practical test is legibility on the medium. Subsection (c) requires the contractor, partnership or corporation to maintain a register listing the name and license number of every plumbing contractor currently employed there, the name and license number of every journeyman plumber currently employed there, and the name and registration number of every apprentice plumber currently employed there, and that register must be available for public inspection upon request. Subsection (d) puts a copy in the truck: a plumbing contractor, journeyman plumber or apprentice plumber must carry a facsimile of that person's license or certificate of registration on a job location and display it on demand of a state inspector, a local building or plumbing inspector within that inspector's jurisdiction, or upon a customer's request.
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IC 25-28.5-1-31(c) adds a second advertising requirement that is separate from the license number. It is unlawful for a plumbing contractor to fail to include one of the following on written or printed advertising for plumbing services and on vehicles used to provide plumbing services: the plumbing contractor's name, or the name of the business the plumbing contractor is associated with. Read together with Section 35(b), an Indiana plumbing truck needs two things on it, a name and the contractor license number, and so does a printed advertisement. Subsection (a) of the same section sets the criminal exposure. A person who acts or advertises as a plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber without first obtaining a license from the commission, or who continues to act as one after the license has been suspended, revoked or otherwise restricted under IC 25-1-11, commits a Class A misdemeanor. Note that the verb is acts or advertises: in Indiana the advertisement alone is the offense, without any work being performed. Subsection (b) makes it a Class B misdemeanor to fail to renew and keep working after the license has expired, which is the trap for a contractor who missed the December 31 odd year date. Violations of the chapter are also grounds for disciplinary sanction under IC 25-1-11, so the same conduct can cost the license.
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Indiana attaches two civil consequences to unlicensed plumbing that are stronger than the misdemeanor. IC 25-28.5-1-36 bars the money: no action or suit shall be instituted in any court of this state to recover compensation for plumbing contracting services, or for wages for work done which under the chapter constitutes plumbing, by a person who is not licensed or registered under the chapter. An unlicensed operator who finishes a job and does not get paid has no route to a judgment for the contract price. IC 25-28.5-1-39 arms the competitor. If a person submits a written competitive bid for a project involving alteration, construction, conversion, improvement, modernization, rehabilitation, remodeling, renovation, repair or replacement of plumbing, and that bid is not accepted because another person knowingly violated the chapter, then the bidder who lost, or an organization or association that represents plumbers, may bring a civil action to enjoin the violator from performing any activity under that competitive bid. That is a private enforcement right aimed squarely at bid work, and it means a licensed Indiana contractor who loses a job to an unlicensed bidder has a named remedy rather than only a complaint form. Discipline runs on a third track. Violations of the chapter are grounds for sanction under IC 25-1-11, and IC 25-1-11-12(a) lets the board permanently revoke, suspend, censure, reprimand or place a practitioner on probation, assess a civil penalty not to exceed $1,000 per violation against an individual practitioner and not to exceed $5,000 per violation against a business entity, and order the practitioner to pay consumer restitution to a person who suffered damages. The board must consider ability to pay, and may suspend a license for nonpayment of the penalty, though not where inability to pay is the sole basis. The commission also publishes its disciplinary actions and license litigation records, so past enforcement against a competitor is a matter of public record.
IC 25-28.5-1-32 lists nine exemptions, and several of them decide whether a job needs a licensed plumber at all. The chapter does not apply to contractors working on bridges, roads, streets, highways, railroads or utilities and services incidental to that work; to authorized employees of government acting within their employment and not professing to be for hire; to public utilities doing construction, maintenance and development work with their own forces incidental to their business; to the owner occupant of a dwelling of eight or fewer residential units installing, altering or repairing the plumbing of those units; to an individual employed as a maintenance person at that person's place of employment; to farmsteads, except buildings built on the farmstead for public or commercial use; and to a sewer contractor, sewage disposal contractor, excavation contractor or utility contractor who generally installs, alters or repairs sewers, private or public sewage disposal systems, and water distribution or drainage lines outside the foundation walls of a building. IC 25-28.5-1-33 then limits local governments. Nothing limits a political subdivision's power to regulate the quality and character of plumbing work through building codes and inspections, but no political subdivision shall require any licensee under the chapter to submit to any other form of licensing. A city may require a state licensed plumbing contractor to register with a local public official so inspectors have the records they need, and may charge a reasonable fee for that registration. The statute backs that local filing with a state penalty. Failure to register as required by a political subdivision, upon certification of that failure to the commission, may at the commission's discretion be a basis for suspension of the plumbing contractor's license, and repeated and intentional violation may be a basis for revocation. So in Indianapolis or Fort Wayne the question is never a second plumbing license. It is whether the city wants a registration filing before its inspectors issue permits, and a missed one is a route to losing the state license every other Indiana city relies on.
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The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency runs a single public verification search covering the boards it administers, plumbing among them. A searcher can look by first or last name with wildcard support, by profession, by license type, by license number, by city, county or zip code, by state for out of state verification, by doing business as name, and by license status including active, expired, suspended and revoked. The agency's guidance is to search with less information rather than more and to use a partial name followed by an asterisk. Because the status field is exposed, a customer can see not only that a license exists but whether it lapsed, which matters in Indiana where contractor and journeyman licenses both expire on December 31 of odd years and a late renewal is a Class B misdemeanor if work continues. The agency also publishes a disciplinary actions and license litigation database separately, so a prospective customer can check enforcement history rather than only current status. A customer standing on the job site has a statutory check as well. Under IC 25-28.5-1-35(d) the plumbing contractor, journeyman plumber or apprentice plumber must carry a facsimile of the license or certificate of registration on the job and display it upon a customer's request, and under Section 35(c) the company's register of licensed employees must be available for public inspection on request.
These are common details other guides publish about Indiana, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
The Indiana Plumbing Commission, administered by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency at 402 West Washington Street, Room W072, Indianapolis. Its statute is IC 25-28.5 together with IC 25-1, and its rules are in Title 860 of the Indiana Administrative Code.
Both, in an unusual arrangement. The plumbing contractor license is an individual credential earned by examination. A corporation that contracts for plumbing holds a separate plumbing corporation license that must name at least one officer or employee who holds the individual contractor license.
Four years, by one of three routes under IC 25-28.5-1-12(c): four years in a commission approved apprenticeship program, four years of plumbing trade experience in the employment categories at IC 25-28.5-1-32(2), (6) or (7), or four years working in a plumbing business under the direction of a licensed plumbing contractor.
The commission charges $50.00 to apply, $100.00 for even year issuance or $50.00 for odd year issuance, and $100.00 to renew. Late renewal adds $15.00 before March 1 and $200.00 after. Reinstating a license expired three years or more costs $150.00.
IC 25-28.5-1 contains no surety bond requirement and no insurance minimum, and the commission's licensing page lists neither among the documents an applicant must submit. Local registration under IC 25-28.5-1-33, customer contracts and lenders are where bond and insurance requirements usually appear.
The commission's licensing information page lists no continuing education requirement for any plumbing license type, and IC 25-28.5-1 imposes none. Renewal is the application, the fee and, for apprentices and corporations, a confirmation of program enrollment or of the responsible contractor.
Journeyman plumber, plumbing contractor and plumbing corporation licenses expire December 31 of every odd year. Plumbing apprentice licenses expire October 1 of every even year. IC 25-28.5-1-22 sets renewal as biennial.
IC 25-28.5-1-19 allows licensure without examination where the other jurisdiction is substantially equal and grants the same privilege to Indiana licensees, but the commission's own published answer says reciprocity is not available for journeyman and contractor plumbers and that an approved applicant must take and pass the exam. Plan on testing.
Two things. IC 25-28.5-1-35(b) requires the plumbing contractor's license number to be recognizably displayed on all vehicles used to provide plumbing services, and IC 25-28.5-1-31(c) requires the contractor's name or the name of the associated business on those vehicles as well.
The same two items. The contractor license number must be recognizably displayed in all forms of written or printed advertising for plumbing services under IC 25-28.5-1-35(b), and the contractor's name or business name must appear under IC 25-28.5-1-31(c). No letter height or prefix is specified.
IC 25-28.5-1-31(a) makes acting or advertising as a plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber without a license a Class A misdemeanor, and the same applies to continuing after suspension or revocation. Continuing to work after a license simply expires is a Class B misdemeanor under subsection (b).
No. IC 25-28.5-1-36 bars any action or suit in an Indiana court to recover compensation for plumbing contracting services, or wages for plumbing work, by a person who is not licensed or registered under the chapter.
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