Kansas · Plumbing licensing · official-source guide
Kansas does not license plumbers at state level. K.S.A. 12-1509 leaves licensure to counties and cities, and the state only sets floors: a 75 percent exam pass, two years field experience for journeyman, and 12 hours of continuing education every two years. Wichita, Johnson County, Wyandotte County and Topeka each license the person and the company separately.
State-level license
No — see local details
Public lookup
Not published
Verified against agency sources on 2026-09-11. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
No Kansas state agency licenses plumbers. The state does not run a plumbing board, and there is no state plumber card to apply for. Kansas instead hands the job to local government in K.S.A. 12-1508 through 12-1511. Read the opening words of K.S.A. 12-1509 and the structure is plain: "Any county or city requiring the licensure of plumbers practicing within the county or city may conduct examinations designated by K.S.A. 12-1508." The verb is may. A Kansas county or city decides for itself whether to license plumbers at all. Once it decides to, the state statute then tells it how. So the answer to whether Kansas licenses the individual by grade or the contracting business is that the state licenses neither. Both happen locally, and in the four largest Kansas markets both happen. Wichita and Sedgwick County, Johnson County, Wyandotte County and Topeka each issue a personal trade certificate or license by grade and a separate business license for the company. A plumber working across the Kansas City metro and Wichita therefore carries several cards, not one. K.S.A. 12-1511 adds one more limit. Nothing in the plumbing article lets a licensee practice engineering as defined by K.S.A. 74-7003 without authorization from the Kansas state board of technical professions. Design work above the plumbing code sits outside the license.
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Kansas does not license plumbers, but it does set floors that every licensing county and city has to respect. K.S.A. 12-1509(a) requires the local governing body to adopt rules that prescribe a minimum score of 75 percent for passage of the examination, fix a uniform fee charged to all applicants for each exam, and require every licensee to obtain not less than 12 hours biennially or six hours annually of approved continuing education. Not less than six hours biennially or three hours annually of that has to be code education. All hours must cover construction, maintenance and code update training. The statute also blocks a local monopoly on training. Neither the county commission nor the city governing body may impose any restriction on the number of providers of that continuing education. Providers can be the local governing body, a nationally recognized trade association, a community college, a technical school, a technical college or another approved provider. Experience floors are statewide too. Before issuing a journeyman certificate, the issuing jurisdiction must verify documented proof of a minimum of two years field experience, meaning work under the direct supervision of a valid journeyman or master certificate holder, or trade related schooling. Schooling covers no more than one of the two years and must run a minimum of 930 program hours documented by a certificate of completion. Before issuing a master certificate, the jurisdiction must verify a valid journeyman certificate held for at least two years, or four years of field experience.
Sourcesksrevisor.gov
K.S.A. 12-1508 names the tests. Standard examinations for plumbing contractors and master and journeyman plumbers promulgated or administered by the International Code Council, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, or Prometric are the designated standard examinations for Kansas licensure. That single sentence is what gives a Kansas plumber any portability at all. K.S.A. 12-1509(b) says a certificate of competency earned by meeting the experience requirements and passing a designated exam is valid proof of competency for licensure, without additional examination, in any Kansas county or city that licenses plumbers. The receiving jurisdiction must issue the certificate to an applicant who presents that certificate of competency and shows the experience. It may still charge its own uniform fee. Subsection (c) requires every new license issued on a designated exam to bear a distinctive notation naming the testing agency and the specific test, and every license renewed on continuing education to bear a notation verifying it. Those notations are what the next city reads. K.S.A. 12-1510 marks the boundary. A city or county may use examinations other than the designated ones, but a license granted on a non designated exam does not authorize practice outside that jurisdiction unless the two political subdivisions have a reciprocal agreement. K.S.A. 12-1509(d) protects plumbers certified before July 1, 1989 on a 70 percent standard from being reexamined at renewal.
The Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department licenses plumbing for Sedgwick County, the City of Wichita and the smaller cities in its jurisdiction. MABCD states that journeyman and master trades people in electrical, mechanical and plumbing must hold trade certificates to work in Sedgwick County and the City of Wichita. For a plumbing journeyman certificate MABCD wants one year of field experience plus one year of plumbing trade school, or two years of field experience, and a score of 75 percent or better on ICC exam K9R Plumbing with Gas, ICC exam 560 Journeyman Plumber with Gas, or an IAPMO exam. For master plumber MABCD wants a plumbing journeyman certificate plus two years of field experience as a certified journeyman, or four years of field experience, and 75 percent or better on ICC exam K9F Master Plumber with Gas, ICC exam 557 Master Plumber with Gas, or an IAPMO exam. The fee for a trade certificate is $35, and renewal is also $35. Certificates run two years. Twelve continuing education hours must be complete by the expiration date, built as three trade specific hours plus three general hours in each of the two years. MABCD does not receive CEU certificates from providers, so the tradesperson brings the original. MABCD also states it does not reciprocate with state testing and accepts only the exams on its approved list.
The trade certificate is the person. The contractor license is the company, and MABCD issues them separately. Under the Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code section 3.1.400, any person engaging in the business of plumbing, plumbing repair, drain laying, lawn irrigation, water conditioning or gas fitting must obtain a license from the Director of MABCD before obtaining any permit or transacting any business. Plumbing sits on the trade license cycle, which expires December 31 of every odd numbered year. The fee for a plumbing trade contractor license is $360 for the two year term. The insurance floor comes from UBTC section 4.1(c): general liability written by an insurer licensed in the state with minimum limits of $300,000 per occurrence, plus workers compensation as Kansas law requires and automobile liability as Kansas law requires. Certificates must be filed with MABCD before the license issues and must promise 30 days advance written notice of cancellation or material change. MABCD's application page repeats the $300,000 general liability figure and requires MABCD named as certificate holder at 271 W. 3rd, Suite 101, Wichita. The company also files a Certificate of Good Standing from the Kansas Secretary of State unless it is a sole proprietor, names a qualified person, and provides a letter authorizing that person to bind the company in contracts. MABCD states plainly that it does not reciprocate with other jurisdictions.
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This is the part a Wichita plumbing contractor trips over, and it is written down. UBTC section 4.1(b) requires vehicles used in performance of regulated installations or service to display the contractor's permanent vehicle permit number assigned by MABCD. The number goes on both sides of the vehicle in a conspicuous place, either in paint of a contrasting color or by permanent decal, at a minimum of two inches high with a one half inch wide stroke per character. Employees using personal vehicles to get to or from the job site must display the marking too. The contractor removes the number when a vehicle goes out of service. There is an exception written into the rule: a contractor who chooses to advertise the business on the vehicles and complies with section 4.1(d) is not bound by the marking rule. Section 4.1(d) is the Truth in Advertising Requirement. It is unlawful to advertise as a Licensed Contractor without a valid current license. Any advertisement as a Licensed Contractor placed within the MABCD jurisdiction must include the full name of the licensed entity and the license number MABCD assigned. The definition of advertisement is wide: business cards, contract bid proposal forms, printed letterhead, any other printed or written material, internet postings and publications, electronic billboards, telephonic transmissions, broadcast statements and telephone directory display ads. Basic white and yellow page listings are excluded. Section 4.1(a) adds that the established place of business must display the registered company name and license number as they appear on the license.
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Two separate penalties apply in the MABCD jurisdiction and a contractor can collect both. The first is the criminal one. UBTC Article 1, Section 3 makes any violation of the code an unclassified misdemeanor, and sets the Schedule of Fines at not more than $500.00 and not less than $100.00 per count on a first conviction, not more than $1,000.00 and not less than $200.00 per count on a second conviction within 12 months of the first, and not more than $2,000.00 and not less than $500.00 per count on a third conviction within 12 months of the second and on each conviction after that. Violations continuous with respect to time count as a separate violation for each day they continue. Paying a fine does not stop the department from revoking or suspending the license. The second is the permit penalty, and in the Wichita jurisdiction it is specific to trades. A person or entity that starts trade work without first obtaining the necessary permit pays a $150 civil penalty on top of the permit fee. A second violation within 12 months costs $300 plus the permit fee. A third within 12 months costs $600 plus the permit fee. An appeal goes in writing to the appropriate advisory board within 10 days of assessment. Violating the vehicle marking rule alone can land the contractor in front of a board that may halt new permits, suspend inspections or recall the master certificate.
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Overland Park sits in Johnson County, and Johnson County Contractor Licensing is the program that issues trade contractor licenses there. It is a division of the county's Department of Planning, Housing and Community Development and it issues 11 contractor license types. The plumbing one is Class DP. The county describes it in one line: a Class DP License entitles the holder to perform only plumbing services. The general building classes make the split explicit in the other direction. Class A, Class B and Class C licenses each state that they do not entitle the licensed company to perform HVAC, plumbing, electrical or fire protection work. The fees are published. A new license costs a $100 application fee plus a $225 license fee for each license type, so a single Class DP application totals $325. Renewal is $225 per license type. A late fee of $75 per license type applies on February 1. A company name change costs $25 and a license verification costs $25. Licenses are valid for one year. The company must designate a Qualifying Individual who is a full time employee working a minimum of 30 hours a week on the tasks the license covers, and a company that loses its QI has its license inactivated and its permits stopped. Continuing education runs eight hours per license classification each calendar year for every Qualifying Individual.
Overland Park's own rules cover the code, not the card. The city adopted the 2024 International Plumbing Code by reference as the Plumbing Code of the City of Overland Park in municipal code section 16.330.100. Title 5 of the Overland Park code is titled Business Licenses and Regulations, and its chapters run to adult businesses, liquor, massage establishments, pawnbrokers, precious metal dealers and similar trades. No contractor licensing chapter appears there. The city's own business license page states that Overland Park does not require a general occupational business license and lists massage therapists, pawnbrokers, precious metal dealers, taxi and limo services and transient merchants as the licensed categories. So the plumbing card a contractor carries in Overland Park is the county one. Practically, that means a plumbing company working Overland Park addresses builds its file around Johnson County Contractor Licensing at 111 S. Cherry St., Suite 1000 in Olathe: the Class DP license, the Qualifying Individual, general liability insurance on an ACORD form, workers compensation insurance or a notarized waiver if the company has employees, and a Certificate of Good Standing from the Kansas Secretary of State where applicable. New license applications cannot be submitted online and go in by mail or in person. Renewals can be done through the contractor portal. Incomplete applications get held, so the checklist matters more than the calendar.
The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas splits the requirement the same way the rest of the state does, and adds a bond instead of an insurance certificate. The Unified Government states that general contractors and subcontractors working within Wyandotte County must obtain a city occupational tax license, which its Business License Division issues, and that trade masters must carry a master's license with Building Inspections. The licensing year runs January 1 through December 31. For MEP contractors, meaning mechanical, electrical and plumbing, the Unified Government states that no certificate of insurance is required and that a $5,000 surety bond is required instead, submitted as a signed copy together with the power of attorney page. Bonds go to the Business License Division. The Unified Government publishes lists of currently licensed subcontractors by trade, with plumbing among the three trade disciplines listed alongside mechanical and electrical, and it points applicants to Prometric testing. Plan the sequencing. The master's license sits with Building Inspections and the occupational tax license sits with the Business License Division, and both have to be in place before the company pulls permits. A plumbing company that already holds a MABCD certificate in Wichita gets no automatic credit here, because the personal certificate and the business license are separate instruments issued by different jurisdictions under K.S.A. 12-1509.
Topeka Municipal Code 5.63.030 makes it unlawful to conduct, carry on or engage in the plumbing trades in Topeka without first obtaining the proper contractor's license. The city licenses three grades of person and a separate trade contractor company license. Under TMC 5.63.080 each initial application for examination for a journeyman or master license goes on forms provided by the Development Services Division, and the applicant must score at least 75 percent. Topeka names the exams it accepts: Standard Master Plumbing with Gas and Standard Journeyman Plumbing with Gas, from Block, NIA-Block, Experior, Thomson-Prometric or Prometric. An ICC exam is accepted if the applicant supplies a notarized time in trade form and proof of a 75 percent or better score, and the ICC exam must be comparable to the standard Prometric exam. Apprentices are required to be licensed to work in Topeka and may not be left at a worksite alone. The supervision ratio in plumbing is one to one. TMC 5.63.080 also sets the continuing education condition for renewal and requires six hours of continuing education credits for each year of expiration to reactivate a lapsed license. The code separately recognizes certified backflow testers, who must complete accredited training and pass an examination before they may test and repair backflow devices.
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Topeka publishes several of its trade contractor amounts in the application packet itself. A completed packet to sit the Prometric exam goes in with a $50.00 non-refundable payment for trade board review. City Ordinance 119330, effective November 9, 2009, set a $20.00 re-test charge paid to Development Services before a new signed registration form is issued, and the candidate still pays Prometric its own test fee. First time issuance of the license by the City of Topeka carries no charge. Renewal fees do apply, and every Topeka license must be renewed each year by December 14 to avoid late fees. The designated master or journeyman for a trade contractor must obtain six hours of continuing education a year, three of which must be earned in their trade. Insurance is a condition of the license staying current. TMC 5.63.020 sets commercial general liability at $300,000 per occurrence for trade contractors, including product and completed operations coverage, and the same $300,000 per occurrence for residential contractors. Certificates go to Development Services, and after the 30 day grace period a $30.00 reinstatement fee applies if a current certificate of insurance or workers compensation has not arrived. A $10.00 return mail fee is charged when a notice or renewal comes back undelivered, since the postal service does not forward city mail. TMC 5.63.050 leaves the schedule of license fee amounts to the city fee schedule.
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Topeka writes its display rule into the code, and it is short enough to quote. TMC 5.63.110(a) requires all contractors licensed under the chapter to display or post the required license in their place of business, and requires all licensed masters and journeymen to carry their licenses on their persons and exhibit the license on the demand of the inspector, his assistants or any officer of the City. TMC 5.63.110(b) covers the truck: "The name of the contractor or his or her business name shall be displayed on any work or service vehicle operated by the contractor or his or her employees during the course of business operations. The name of the contractor or his or her business shall be posted on each side of the service or work vehicle by paint, decal or magnet in letters and/or numbers not less than two inches high." Both sides. Two inches minimum. Paint, decal or magnet all count, which is a softer rule than Wichita's painted or permanent decal standard. Topeka does not set a separate advertising rule requiring the license number in print or online, so the number belongs on the estimate and the website as a matter of practice rather than code. The card itself has to be on the person. TMC 5.63.080 repeats that trade persons carded by a City of Topeka inspector without current identification and a current Topeka license will be asked to leave the worksite.
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A few things do come from the state, and they catch plumbing companies that assume Kansas regulates nothing. Medical gas is the largest. K.S.A. 12-1509(g) makes it unlawful for anyone to install, improve, repair, maintain or inspect a medical gas piping system within a county or city unless that person is licensed under K.S.A. 12-1508 et seq. and certified under the appropriate professional qualifications standard of ASSE Series 6000. Installers must pull a proper permit, inspections must be performed by a third party agency certified under ASSE Series 6000 for medical gas systems inspectors, and all inspection and certification documentation must reach the county or city before any occupancy of the building or unit. Out of state plumbing companies pick up a second state obligation. K.S.A. 79-1009 requires a nonresident contractor to register with the secretary of revenue for each contract where the total contract price or compensation exceeds $10,000, and a foreign corporation authorized to do business in Kansas is exempt. K.S.A. 79-1010 requires that registrant to file a bond with a surety company authorized in Kansas in a sum of not less than $1,000 before commencing work, and the secretary can require the bond increased. Well work is licensed at state level too. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment runs the Water Well Program, requiring application, a written exam, annual renewal, well records and eight continuing education units a year.
There is no statewide plumbing license lookup in Kansas, because there is no statewide plumbing license. Verification is per jurisdiction, and the tools differ in quality. Johnson County publishes the best one. Its Contractor Licensing System carries a public contractor search at cls.jocogov.org/searchcontractor, plus two downloadable files, a Licensed Companies List and a combined Licensed Companies and Licensees List. Topeka publishes plain PDF rosters by trade, and the plumbing one sits at files.topeka.gov under business, general, contractor information as licensed_plumbingcontractors.pdf. That file is a list of currently licensed Topeka plumbing contractors, so a homeowner can read a name straight off it. Wichita and Sedgwick County do not publish a contractor search on the MABCD contractor licensing page, so verification there runs through the MABCD Permitting and Licensing Office at 271 W. 3rd, Suite 101, Wichita, on 316-660-1840. The Unified Government points to its Business License Division on 913-573-8780. Two statewide checks are still useful. The Kansas Secretary of State business entity search shows whether the company is in good standing, which MABCD and Johnson County both require. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment publishes a map of licensed water well contractors and services for well work. For advertising, the Wichita rule means the license number is on any compliant ad, so the number is usually the first thing to check.
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These are common details other guides publish about Kansas, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. Kansas has no state plumbing board and no state plumber license. K.S.A. 12-1509 begins "Any county or city requiring the licensure of plumbers practicing within the county or city," which leaves the decision to license with the county or city. In the large Kansas markets the answer is yes locally, so a plumber licenses where the work is.
Neither at state level. Locally, both. Wichita and Sedgwick County issue a personal trade certificate for journeyman and master plumbers and a separate plumbing contractor license for the business. Johnson County issues a Class DP license to the company behind a Qualifying Individual. Topeka licenses masters, journeymen and apprentices, plus a trade contractor license.
It can. K.S.A. 12-1509(b) makes a certificate of competency earned on a designated exam valid proof of competency without re-examination in any Kansas county or city that licenses plumbers, provided you also show the experience. The new jurisdiction still charges its own uniform fee and still issues its own certificate.
K.S.A. 12-1508 designates the standard examinations promulgated or administered by the International Code Council, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, or Prometric. MABCD accepts ICC K9R and 560 for journeyman plumber with gas and ICC K9F and 557 for master plumber with gas, or an IAPMO exam. Topeka names the Standard Master and Standard Journeyman Plumbing with Gas exams.
K.S.A. 12-1509(f) sets the floor: a valid journeyman certificate held for a minimum of two years, or a minimum of four years of field experience. For journeyman, subsection (e) requires two years of field experience, with no more than one year satisfied by trade related schooling of at least 930 program hours.
The MABCD trade certificate for the person is $35, and renewal is $35. The plumbing trade contractor license for the company is $360 for a two year term that expires December 31 of odd numbered years. Exam fees go to the testing agency separately.
The state sets no figure, because the state issues no license. UBTC section 4.1(c) requires $300,000 per occurrence general liability in the Wichita and Sedgwick County jurisdiction, plus workers compensation and automobile liability as Kansas law requires. Topeka Municipal Code 5.63.020 also sets $300,000 per occurrence. Wyandotte County takes a $5,000 surety bond from MEP contractors instead of an insurance certificate.
K.S.A. 12-1509(a) sets the statewide minimum at not less than 12 hours biennially or six hours annually, with at least six hours biennially or three annually being code education. Sedgwick County runs 12 hours across the two year certificate as three trade and three general hours a year. Topeka requires six hours a year with three in trade. Johnson County requires eight hours per license classification per calendar year.
Under UBTC section 4.1(b) the MABCD permanent vehicle permit number goes on both sides of the vehicle in a conspicuous place, in contrasting paint or permanent decal, at least two inches high with a half inch stroke per character. Employees driving personal vehicles to the job site display it too. If you instead advertise the business on the truck and comply with the Truth in Advertising rule, the marking rule does not apply.
In the MABCD jurisdiction, yes. UBTC section 4.1(d) requires any advertisement as a Licensed Contractor to include the full name of the licensed entity and the MABCD license number. Advertisement is defined to include business cards, contract bid proposal forms, printed letterhead, internet postings, electronic billboards and telephone directory display ads. Basic white and yellow page listings are excluded.
For trades in the Wichita jurisdiction the civil penalty is $150 on top of the permit fee for a first offense, $300 plus the permit fee for a second within 12 months, and $600 plus the permit fee for a third within 12 months. Separately, any code violation is an unclassified misdemeanor carrying a fine of $100.00 to $500.00 per count on a first conviction.
K.S.A. 79-1009 requires a nonresident contractor to register with the secretary of revenue for each contract where the price or compensation exceeds $10,000, unless the company is a foreign corporation authorized to do business in Kansas. K.S.A. 79-1010 then requires a bond of not less than $1,000 filed before work starts. That is on top of whatever the city or county licenses.
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