Maine · Plumbing licensing · official-source guide
Maine licenses plumbers through the Plumbers' Examining Board inside the Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation. The board licenses individuals only, in four classes: trainee, journeyman-in-training, journeyman and master. There is no state plumbing business or contractor license, and Title 32 section 3302 bars municipalities from adding one. A master license needs 2,000 hours as a journeyman and a 75 percent exam.
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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.
Plumbing licensing in Maine is a state function run by the Plumbers' Examining Board. The board sits inside the Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation, which is part of the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation. Its mailing address is 35 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0035, and its phone number is (207) 624-8639. The board's authority comes from Title 32, chapter 49 of the Maine Revised Statutes. Section 3302 says a license is required for any individual who is engaged in plumbing or performing plumbing installations. The same section carries the exemptions: employees of public utilities acting in their official capacity, licensed oil burner technicians and propane and natural gas installers limited to hot and cold water connections to existing piping in the same room, an individual doing plumbing in that individual's own single family residence to board standards, and licensed pump installers running piping from the cold water distribution pipe at the pressure tank main shut-off valve within 15 feet in the same room. Two things follow for a contractor. The license belongs to the person, not to the company. And section 3302 states that municipalities may not require a separate plumbing license, so one state card works in every Maine town. Licensing and code enforcement are split between two different offices. The Plumbers' Examining Board licenses, examines and disciplines. Local Plumbing Inspectors appointed by municipalities issue the plumbing permits and run the inspections. A Maine plumbing contractor deals with both, and the board card alone does not get a pipe in the ground.
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The board issues four individual licenses and nothing else: master plumber, journeyman plumber, journeyman-in-training, and trainee plumber. Section 3301 defines a master plumber as any individual qualified under the chapter engaging in or about to engage in the business of installing plumbing or plumbing systems. That is the license that lets you run the work and hold out as a plumbing business. A journeyman plumber is defined as a person who customarily performs the work of installing plumbing and drainage under the employment and direction of a master plumber, or who does plumbing repair work as a regular part-time occupation. A trainee plumber is a person assisting in making plumbing installations under the direct supervision of one or more licensed journeyman or master plumbers. Journeyman-in-training is the school route. Section 3501 issues it to someone who has finished a board-approved plumbing program and passed the journeyman examination but has not yet banked the field hours. The board states that this license is valid for a single nonrenewable period of four years. Section 3302 says a journeyman-in-training may not act as or represent that the person is a journeyman plumber, so the wording on your truck and your invoices matters at this level. Supervision is capped in statute. Section 3302 states that a master or journeyman plumber may not have more than three trainee plumbers working under direct supervision. That number sets the shape of a Maine crew: one licensed plumber can carry three trainees and no more, which is the practical limit on how fast a shop can scale unlicensed help.
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This is the question most contractors get wrong when they move into Maine, so it is worth being exact. Maine licenses the individual plumber by grade. It does not issue a plumbing contractor license, a plumbing business license, or a business registration through the Plumbers' Examining Board. The evidence is on the board's own site and in the statute. The board's licensing pages list four categories and all four are individual: master, journeyman, journeyman-in-training and trainee. The chapter's old business provision, section 3507, headed Corporations, firms and partnerships, is marked repealed in the legislature's own section index for Title 32 chapter 49. Nothing replaced it. There is no company application, no qualifying-party filing and no company number on the board's applications and forms page. Maine also has no general contractor license. What it does have is the Home Construction Contracts Act at Title 10, section 1487. Any home construction contract for more than $3,000 in materials or labor must be in writing and signed by both the contractor and the homeowner or lessee, and the down payment may not exceed one third of the contract price. The statute lists the terms the contract has to contain, including start and completion dates, a warranty that the work will be free from faulty materials and built to the applicable building code, a dispute resolution clause, and a written change order requirement. So the compliance stack for a Maine plumbing company is short: a licensed master plumber running the work, a written contract that meets section 1487, and a permit from the Local Plumbing Inspector for each job.
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Section 3501 sets the hours and the board repeats them on its individual licenses page. For a journeyman plumber license there are two doors. The first is a minimum of at least two years with 4,000 hours of work in the field of plumbing installations as a licensed trainee plumber. The second is a minimum of 2,000 hours of work in the field as a licensed journeyman-in-training, and the board's page ties that to hours completed within the four year life of the journeyman-in-training license. Either door ends with the journeyman examination. For a master plumber license there are also two doors. The first is a minimum of at least one year with 2,000 hours of work in the field of plumbing installations as a licensed journeyman plumber. The second is a minimum of at least four years with 8,000 hours of work in the field as a licensed trainee plumber. Either door ends with the master examination. The journeyman-in-training license is the only one with a classroom requirement. The board requires completion of a plumbing course consisting of one year or two semesters at a board-approved community college, or an approved two year career and technical program, plus a passing grade of 70 percent or higher on the journeyman plumbers examination. The trainee license has no experience or schooling requirement at all. The board lists the requirement as a completed application. That is the entry point: you get the trainee card, you work under a licensed journeyman or master, and the hours you log on affidavits are what later buy the journeyman license.
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Maine writes its passing grades into statute rather than leaving them to a vendor. Section 3501-A states that the passing grade on a master plumber license examination may not be less than 75 percent, and the passing grade on a journeyman plumber license examination may not be less than 70 percent. The board's journeyman FAQ repeats 70 percent for the journeyman exam. A master candidate therefore has a harder bar to clear than a journeyman candidate, which is unusual and catches people who assume one score applies to both. The examinations are computer based and administered by Prov. The board lists five Maine test sites: Auburn, Bangor, Calais, Portland and Presque Isle. Remote proctoring from a personal computer is also offered. The sequencing rule is the one that costs people money. The board states that applicants must receive board approval prior to sitting for an examination, and that examination scores of applicants who take the examination prior to receiving board approval will be null and void. So the exam application, with the affidavits of hours, goes in first and gets approved first. The board's affidavit form warns that dates and time accumulated must be listed or the affidavit will be returned. After a pass, the board's journeyman FAQ says a candidate can apply for licensure through the online system within 24 hours of passing. Section 3501-A also requires that the examination be presented in writing, wholly or in part, and test practical competency for the work the licensee will be responsible for.
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Section 3501-B caps what can be charged. It says the Director of the Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation may establish fees by rule in amounts that are reasonable and necessary, except that the fee for any one purpose may not exceed $350 biennially. The board's individual licenses page lists the current amounts. A master plumber license is a license fee of $200.00 plus a criminal background check fee of $21.00. A journeyman plumber license is the same, $200.00 plus $21.00. A trainee plumber license is $100.00 plus the $21.00 background check. Renewal is biennial at $200.00 for master, $200.00 for journeyman and $100.00 for trainee. On the journeyman-in-training license two Maine sources give different numbers, and we report both rather than choose. The board's individual licenses page states a license fee of $200.00 plus a $21.00 criminal background check fee. The board's own combined initial license application PDF, the one linked from the applications and forms page, prints a required licensing fee of $121.00 for JT alongside $221.00 for JY and $221.00 for MS, and says that figure includes the criminal records check fee. Confirm the amount with the board before you send a check. No insurance certificate, bond, financial statement or company fee appears anywhere in the board's fee structure. The board charges for the application, the exam, the license and the background check, and that is the whole list published on its site.
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Master, journeyman and trainee licenses renew every two years. The board's licensing page states that each of the three renews biennially based on the date of initial licensure, and the renewal application prints the biennial renewal fees of $200.00 for master, $200.00 for journeyman and $100.00 for trainee. Section 3504 ties the expiration date to the licensing period set by the commissioner under Title 10, section 8003, subsection 4. Late renewal runs on a two step ladder. The board's individual licenses page and the renewal application both state a late fee of $50.00 for a license renewed up to 90 days after the expiration date. Past 90 days and up to two years after expiration, the board lists a $100.00 late fee plus the license fee, and directs the applicant to the reinstatement application rather than the renewal application. The board's laws and rules booklet sets out the same ladder and adds the end of it: past two years, the applicant must apply as a new applicant and pass the examination again. The journeyman-in-training license sits outside all of this. The board states plainly that this license is valid for a one-time period of four years and cannot be renewed. If the field hours do not arrive inside those four years, the credential lapses and there is no renewal path back. Section 3504 also carries a military provision: a licensee separated from active duty other than dishonorably who applies within 90 days of separation may have the examination waived where the license lapsed because of that service.
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Continuing education is where secondary guides most often add a requirement Maine does not impose, so this section is written from what the agency documents contain. Section 3504, the renewals section of Title 32 chapter 49, addresses expiration, late fees and a military waiver. It sets no continuing education condition on renewal. The board's renewal application for master, journeyman and trainee plumbers lists the fee, the late fee and the signature blocks, and contains no continuing education attestation or course log. The board's own laws and rules booklet, which reprints the statute and the board rule chapters together, contains no continuing education chapter or section. What that means in practice is that a Maine master plumber renews on fee and good standing. Nothing on the board's licensing pages conditions renewal on classroom hours. Two things are worth separating from this. First, the journeyman-in-training route does require schooling up front, one year or two semesters of a board-approved community college plumbing program or an approved two year career and technical program, but that is an entry requirement and not a renewal requirement. Second, the plumbing code itself changes. Section 3403-B of the same chapter gives the board the plumbing code function, and the Maine Center for Disease Control page for municipal offices shows the Uniform Plumbing Code adopted as the state standard along with amended subsurface wastewater rules. Code updates arrive whether or not a course is required, and the inspector will apply the current edition.
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The Plumbers' Examining Board publishes no insurance minimum and no bond for a plumbing license. The board's combined initial license application asks for identity, the affidavits of hours, the fee and the criminal records check authorization. It does not ask for a certificate of insurance, an insurer name, a policy number or a surety bond. Title 32 chapter 49 has no insurance section. No section in the legislature's index for the chapter carries an insurance or bond heading. So unlike Maryland, which writes a dollar figure into statute, Maine does not condition the plumbing license on coverage. That is a licensing fact, not business advice, and it is easy to misread. Three other things still reach a Maine plumbing contractor. First, the permit side. The Local Plumbing Inspector issues the internal plumbing permit and can set local administrative conditions within what Title 30-A, section 4211 allows. Second, the contract side. Title 10, section 1487 requires a written signed contract for home construction work over $3,000, caps the down payment at one third of the contract price, and requires a warranty term stating the work will be free from faulty materials, built to the applicable building code, constructed in a skillful manner and fit for habitation. That warranty is a contractual promise you are making in writing on every residential job. Third, commercial general contractors and public owners routinely set their own certificate requirements. Those come from the contract, not from the board.
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Maine does not publish a list of named reciprocal states. It publishes a test, and the test is in section 3504-A. That section states that the board shall issue a license to any person who files a sworn application and who is licensed under the laws of another state or territory of the United States as long as that state or territory has licensing standards and experience requirements at least equivalent to this State's and as long as that state or territory grants similar privileges to persons licensed under this chapter. It closes with a sentence that matters to out of state shops: reciprocal licenses may not be denied on the basis of current residency. Read that carefully, because it is two conditions and not one. The other state's standards and experience requirements must be at least equivalent to Maine's, and the other state must grant similar privileges back to Maine licensees. A one way arrangement fails the second half. There is a second and newer door. Section 3501-C, licensure by endorsement, directs the board to establish a process to issue a license by endorsement for each license authorized under the chapter that the board determines is appropriate for endorsement, in accordance with Title 10, section 8003-H. The section states that an applicant may apply through the endorsement process or through any other licensure method available under the chapter, so endorsement is an additional route rather than a replacement. Because neither section names states, the practical step is to send the board your current license and the issuing state's requirements and ask which door applies to you.
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The penalty is not inside chapter 49. Section 3304 of Title 32 is a single sentence: any person who violates section 3302, subsection 1 is subject to the provisions of Title 10, section 8003-C. The older penalty and injunction subsections that used to sit in 3304 were repealed and the whole load moved to the Title 10 provision. Title 10, section 8003-C carries three separate consequences. It is a crime. A person who practices or represents to the public that the person is authorized to practice a profession or trade and intentionally, knowingly or recklessly fails to obtain a license commits a Class E crime. A second offense within three years escalates to a Class D crime, with sentencing under Title 17-A, section 9-A. There is a civil penalty. The section provides for a fine of not less than $1,000 but not more than $5,000 for each violation. Note the floor as well as the ceiling: there is no token amount. And there is an injunction route. The Attorney General may bring an action in Superior Court to enjoin a person from violating the unlicensed practice provisions, and violating such an injunction carries a fine of up to $10,000 per violation. Two traps sit next to this for legitimate contractors. Taking the board examination before the board has approved your application voids the score. And a journeyman-in-training who represents that the person is a journeyman plumber is violating section 3302 in the same way an unlicensed person is.
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Maine runs plumbing permits through municipal Local Plumbing Inspectors on state forms, which means the paperwork looks the same in every town even though you file it locally. The form is HHE-211, the state plumbing application, published by the Maine Center for Disease Control. It prints the rule in plain terms: internal plumbing fixtures and piping may not be installed until a permit is issued by the Local Plumbing Inspector. The form carries a master plumber license number field, a state fee line, a local fee line, a per fixture fee calculation and a permit transfer line, and it is signed by the owner or applicant, with the LPI signing the permit and again at rough-in and final inspection. The fee ceiling is statutory. Title 30-A, section 4211 says a plumbing permit fee not to exceed $10 per internal fixture may be charged, and a minimum fee not to exceed $40 may be charged for all internal plumbing permits combined. The state permit fee schedule published for municipalities mirrors that: a minimum fee of $40.00 covering one to four fixtures, $10.00 for each individual fixture above four, $10.00 to hook up to a public sewer, $10.00 to hook up to an existing subsurface system, $10.00 for piping relocation with no new fixtures, and $10.00 for a permit transfer. The split is printed on the same schedule: municipality 75 percent, state 25 percent of the minimum fee. Subsurface wastewater permits are priced separately, for example $250.00 for a non-engineered system, with a $15.00 surcharge on any full system.
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Maine's largest cities do not run their own plumber licensing, and they are not allowed to. Section 3302 of Title 32 states that municipalities cannot require separate plumbing licenses. That single clause is what makes a Maine master license portable from Portland to Lewiston to Bangor without a second application or a second fee, and it is a real difference from Maryland, where Baltimore City adds its own supervision condition on top of the state license. What a city does control is the permit and the inspection. Title 30-A, section 4211 lets a municipality issue plumbing permits and charge within the statutory ceiling, and puts enforcement of any local plumbing and wastewater ordinance on the municipality, with violations penalized under section 4452 and with the municipality or the department able to seek an injunction. So the local variable is the Local Plumbing Inspector's office hours, the local share of the fee inside the $10 per fixture and $40 minimum caps, and the inspection scheduling, not your right to work. The Maine Center for Disease Control supports those municipal offices directly and publishes the form set they use, including HHE-200 for subsurface wastewater systems, HHE-211 for internal plumbing, HHE-220 for engineered systems and HHE-204 for variances. It also names the state plumbing inspector and site evaluator as the escalation point when an LPI sends a complex variance up for state review. Practical advice for a contractor moving between Maine towns: your license does not change, your permit desk does.
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Maine's display rule is short and sits in section 3501 of Title 32. All persons licensed by the board must receive a license that must be publicly displayed at the principal place of business, and a pocket card that is carried on the person. Two artefacts, two different places. The wall copy goes up at the shop. The pocket card travels to the job, which is what an inspector or a customer will ask to see. Maine does not go further than that in the way Maryland does. Chapter 49 has no section requiring a license number in printed or broadcast advertising, and the board's laws and rules booklet contains no advertising chapter. There is no statewide rule requiring lettering on both sides of a van, and no minimum character height. If a Maine contractor puts a license number on a truck or a website, that is a marketing decision and a trust signal, not a compliance obligation. What Maine does police is the title you claim. Section 3302 states that a journeyman-in-training may not act as or represent that the person is a journeyman plumber. Title 10, section 8003-C reaches anyone who represents to the public that the person is authorized to practice a trade without holding the license. So the wording in your advertising is regulated through the title, not through a disclosure requirement: call yourself what your card says, and no more. The written contract rules in Title 10, section 1487 govern what your residential paperwork must contain.
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The board maintains a free public license search and points the public at it from two directions. The board's main page carries a Verify License link to the Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation licensee search filtered to board number 4460, the Plumbers' Examining Board. The consumer questions page in the board's FAQ set repeats the route, telling the public they can search for a licensee through the official database and file a complaint through the Professional Licensing division. The board also removed the alternative. Its licensing page states that effective March 1, 2019 the Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation no longer issues paper license verifications, and that verification is available through the online database at no cost. So there is no letter to request and no certificate to mail to a general contractor. The online record is the verification. Two consequences for a contractor who wants the license to help win work. First, the record is public and searchable by name, which means a homeowner comparing three quotes can confirm in seconds which of the three actually holds a master license. Second, the board's journeyman FAQ notes that application information is public record except for Social Security numbers, and that contact information provided to the board is posted on the board's website. Keep the address and business name on file current, because that is the version the public sees. Duplicate license certificates can be requested online at no charge and are emailed back.
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These are common details other guides publish about Maine, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes. The Plumbers' Examining Board inside the Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation licenses plumbers statewide under Title 32, chapter 49. Section 3302 requires a license for any individual engaged in plumbing or performing plumbing installations, and the same section bars municipalities from requiring a separate plumbing license.
The individual only. The board issues master, journeyman, journeyman-in-training and trainee licenses, all to people. The chapter's old business provision, section 3507 on corporations, firms and partnerships, is marked repealed in the legislature's index for chapter 49, and the board publishes no company application.
Master plumber, journeyman plumber, journeyman-in-training and trainee plumber. A master installs plumbing or plumbing systems as a business. A journeyman works under the employment and direction of a master. A trainee assists under direct supervision. Journeyman-in-training is a schooling route valid for a single nonrenewable four year period.
Section 3501 gives two routes: at least one year with 2,000 hours of plumbing installation work as a licensed journeyman plumber, or at least four years with 8,000 hours as a licensed trainee plumber. Either route ends with the master plumber examination.
The two grades differ and both are in statute. Section 3501-A states the passing grade on a master plumber examination may not be less than 75 percent, and the passing grade on a journeyman plumber examination may not be less than 70 percent. The board repeats 70 percent for the journeyman exam.
No, and the score will not count if you do. The board states that applicants must receive board approval prior to sitting for an examination, and that examination scores of applicants who take the examination prior to receiving board approval will be null and void. Exams are computer based and administered by Prov.
The board lists a master license fee of $200.00 plus a $21.00 criminal background check fee, a journeyman license on the same terms, and a trainee license of $100.00 plus the $21.00 check. Biennial renewal is $200.00 for master and journeyman and $100.00 for trainee. Section 3501-B caps any one fee at $350 biennially.
The board publishes none. Section 3504, the renewals section, sets expiration, late fees and a military waiver and imposes no education condition. The board's renewal application carries no continuing education attestation, and the board's laws and rules booklet contains no continuing education chapter.
Not as a condition of the board license. The board's initial license application asks for identity, hours affidavits, the fee and the background check authorization, and asks for no certificate of insurance or surety bond. Title 32 chapter 49 carries no insurance section. Contract and permit conditions are separate.
Section 3504-A sets a test rather than a state list. The board issues a license to a person licensed in another state or territory if that jurisdiction has licensing standards and experience requirements at least equivalent to Maine's and grants similar privileges to Maine licensees. Reciprocal licenses may not be denied for current residency.
Section 3304 routes violations to Title 10, section 8003-C. Unlicensed practice is a Class E crime, a second offense within three years is a Class D crime, the civil penalty is not less than $1,000 and not more than $5,000 for each violation, and the Attorney General can seek an injunction carrying up to $10,000 per violation.
No statewide rule requires it. Section 3501 requires the license to be publicly displayed at the principal place of business and a pocket card to be carried on the person. Chapter 49 has no advertising disclosure section. What is regulated is the title you claim: a journeyman-in-training may not represent that the person is a journeyman plumber.
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