Oklahoma · Plumbing licensing · official-source guide
Oklahoma licenses plumbing through the Construction Industries Board in Oklahoma City under The Plumbing License Law of 1955. The license is held by an individual, graded apprentice, journeyman or plumbing contractor, and the contractor grade is what lets a business contract. An active contractor carries a five thousand dollar bond and fifty thousand dollars of general liability coverage.
Verified against agency sources on 2026-09-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
The Oklahoma Construction Industries Board issues plumbing licenses. Its office is at 2401 NW 23rd Street, Suite 2F, Oklahoma City, OK 73107. The governing statute is The Plumbing License Law of 1955, codified at title 59 of the Oklahoma Statutes, sections 1001 through 1023.1. The board's rules for the trade are Oklahoma Administrative Code title 158, chapter 30. Section 1003 defines the working parts. The Board means the Construction Industries Board. The Committee means the State Committee of Plumbing Examiners appointed by the board. The Plumbing Hearing Board is a designee of the Construction Industries Board as chair plus the members of the Committee of Plumbing Examiners, and it is the body that hears suspensions, revocations and fines. Section 1003 also retires an old word: master plumber is a term used and defined under laws that have been repealed, and a person formerly known as a master plumber is now called a plumbing contractor. Section 1002 gives the board authority to write rules on examination and licensing, apprentice registration, administrative fines, disciplinary proceedings, minimum standards of plumbing installation, and bonding and insurance requirements for a plumbing contractor license. One point the board publishes on its own home page frames everything below it: general contractors are not currently required to have a state license in Oklahoma for general contracting, but trade licenses and registrations are required for performing, or offering to perform, licensed trade work.
Rule 158:30-5-1 lists the categories. Apprentice plumber registration comes first. Apprentices engaged in plumbing must be under the direct supervision of a licensed plumber, and both must be employed by the same plumbing contractor. An unlimited journeyman plumber must be employed and supervised by a licensed plumbing contractor to engage in the act of plumbing, and a journeyman may not contract or furnish labor, or labor and materials. A residential journeyman license covers plumbing for detached one or two family dwellings and multiple single family dwellings, meaning townhouses, not more than three stories in height with a separate means of egress; on commercial or industrial work a residential journeyman performs as an apprentice. The plumbing contractor license is the top of the ladder. The board describes contracting as the highest ranking plumbing license, and rule 158:30-5-1 says an unlimited plumbing contractor may operate as an individual, a firm, partnership, limited liability company, corporation or other legal entity to engage in the business of plumbing or the business of contracting to do plumbing within the unlimited category. A residential plumbing contractor does the same inside the residential category. Both contractor categories carry an obligation most people miss on the first read: plumbing contractors must notify their surety of any municipalities where plumbing work will be performed. Section 1012 of title 59 makes the contractor license the one that permits you to hold yourself out. It is unlawful and a misdemeanor to act as a plumbing contractor, or to engage in or offer to engage in, by advertisement or otherwise, the business of plumbing, until licensed as a plumbing contractor.
Oklahoma registers helpers rather than leaving them invisible. The board states it plainly: all plumbing helpers performing any plumbing work must be registered and directly supervised by a journeyman or a contractor, in a ratio of no more than three apprentices to one licensed journeyman or contractor. Hours worked as a registered apprentice count toward the verifiable experience requirement to become a journeyman. Section 1003 of title 59 sets the age floor at sixteen years and defines an apprentice as a person whose principal occupation is learning and assisting in the installation of plumbing under the direct supervision of a licensed journeyman plumber or plumbing contractor. Rule 158:30-5-1 adds the paperwork. Apprenticeship registration is effective on posting of the application, and a copy of the executed application form with proof that the proper fee was tendered serves as evidence of registration for a period not to exceed thirty days. The apprentice is registered for a one year period once a completed application form arrives at the Plumbing License Unit with the application and registration fees, along with either verification of enrollment in an approved school or training course or a statement of employment by the licensed plumbing contractor who arranged the employment. Section 1009 confirms that apprentice registration certificates expire one year after the date of registration, at which point the apprentice may reregister. On re-registration the application fee is only charged again when the registration application is not filed within thirty days of the previous registration expiring. The board also requires original signatures on apprentice applications, signed by an active contractor.
Sourcesoklahoma.gov 1oklahoma.gov 2oklahoma.gov 3oklahoma.gov 4
Applicants for the Oklahoma journeyman plumber examination must be eighteen years of age or older and have one of three things. The first is three years of experience in the plumbing trade while employed by a licensed plumbing contractor. The second is equivalent verifiable three years of experience in the plumbing trade while serving in the United States military. The third is a verifiable out of state plumbing license that is current and in good standing, which may speed processing or be considered for reciprocity where a written agreement exists. Rule 158:30-9-1 states the same three routes and ties the out of state route back to the reciprocity rule. Education can stand in for part of the experience. An associate degree or a Career Tech diploma certifying completion of a plumbing educational program of a minimum of one thousand classroom hours from a school approved by the Committee may be substituted for two years of experience. A Career Tech diploma certifying completion of a program of a minimum of five hundred classroom hours from an approved school may be substituted for one year. The board notes that educational experience must be actual classroom hours verified with a transcript, and it publishes a list of schools approved by the Plumbing Committee. Once licensed, a journeyman works under a licensed plumbing contractor, can supervise up to three apprentices, can work projects both small and very large, and can act as job foreman. Journeyman work experience under a contractor counts toward the contractor requirements.
An applicant for an Oklahoma plumbing contractor license must meet the same requirements as a journeyman applicant plus one more year of experience in the plumbing trade. That is the whole of the extra experience requirement, and rule 158:30-9-1 states it the same way for both the unlimited and the residential categories. The same education substitutions apply: one thousand approved classroom hours for two years, five hundred approved classroom hours for one year. The exam is where the contractor license separates from the journeyman license. Rule 158:30-9-1 requires applicants for a contractor license to pass both portions of the contractor license exam, the business and law portion and the trade portion. Partial credit is allowed but on a clock. If an applicant passes only one of the two portions, the applicant need only retake the portion not passed if that is done within three years of the date the applicant is approved and eligible to sit for the contractor exam; otherwise both portions must be retaken. If an applicant passes only the trade portion, that passing score may be applied to a journeyman license application instead, provided the journeyman application form and fee reach the board no more than one year after passing the trade portion. Applicants for the plumbing contractor examination must be capable of reading English without assistance, and a person who cannot meet that requirement may request a hearing before the Committee to ask for reasonable accommodations. A contractor may later elect to renew as a journeyman, but that election is treated as a permanent category change.
Sourcesoklahoma.gov 1oklahoma.gov 2
Section 1005 of title 59 says examinations shall be uniform and practical in nature but sufficiently strict to test the qualification and fitness of the applicant, and shall be in whole or in part in writing. Regular examinations are held at least twice each year, and the Committee may fix special examinations. The retake clock is written into the same section. An applicant initially failing the examination may not take another for thirty days. After that, an applicant who fails again may not retake for ninety days. Rule 158:30-9-1 sets the scoring. Examination for a plumber's license includes written questions and drawings or charts. The maximum grade value of each part of the plumbing examination is one hundred points, and an examinee must make seventy five percent or more on each part to pass. The exam is delivered by a third party vendor. The board tells applicants that once the application is approved and the applicant is eligible for examination, the board provides the contact information of the testing vendor, and the applicant contacts the vendor to set the date, time and location. The board lists PSI as the plumbing testing vendor and publishes a candidate information bulletin for the trade. Cheating has its own penalty: an applicant who violates exam procedures, including cheating or misrepresenting oneself as another, may be expelled, the exam is invalid, and the applicant is disqualified from retaking for no less than thirty and no more than three hundred sixty five days, as the Administrator determines.
Sourcesoklahoma.gov 1oklahoma.gov 2oklahoma.gov 3oklahoma.gov 4
Rule 158:30-9-2 publishes the plumbing fee schedule in one place. The contractor application fee is thirty dollars. The initial contractor license is three hundred dollars. Contractor renewal is two hundred dollars, and the contractor renewal late fee is one hundred dollars. The journeyman application fee is twenty five dollars. The initial journeyman license is fifty dollars. Journeyman renewal is seventy five dollars, and the journeyman renewal late fee is twenty five dollars. Apprentice application is five dollars and apprentice registration is twenty dollars. There is a one time low income fee waiver described in rule 158:1-3-13, good for one year. Examination fees are handled differently and the rule says so. The board or its designated representative may collect the actual cost of any examination. The cost for each examination must be posted in plain view at the testing site that administers it, and every applicant whose application for examination is approved is told the specific fee before sitting. The unit testing fee is the amount negotiated by the Administrator under the Oklahoma Central Purchasing Act and cannot exceed the maximum allowable fee in 59 O.S. section 1000.5, with documentation of the contractual fee available on request. Reciprocity applicants pay the ordinary fees. Rule 158:30-5-4 requires a journeyman reciprocity applicant to pay the journeyman application fee and the initial journeyman license fee, and a contractor applicant to pay the contractor application and initial contractor license fees, and states those fees are not refundable under any circumstances.
Sourcesoklahoma.gov
An Oklahoma plumbing contractor license sits inactive until the money is filed. The board states it directly: after you pass your exams, the license is inactive until the board receives proof of bond and insurance. Rule 158:30-5-2 and the board's active contractor page agree on the numbers. An active plumbing contractor must carry a five thousand dollar corporate surety bond payable to the Oklahoma Construction Industries Board, with original signatures, seals and power of attorney attached. The bond must be in the individual license holder's name, must be continuous, and must provide thirty days cancellation notice. A contractor may instead file documentation of five thousand dollars in cash or a five thousand dollar certificate of deposit held for bonding purposes and payable to the board. Insurance runs beside it. An active contractor must provide a certificate of insurance evidencing a minimum of fifty thousand dollars of commercial general liability coverage, with the individual license holder's name on the certificate and the Construction Industries Board as certificate holder, added as certificate holder but not as an additional insured. The part worth money to a contractor working several towns is rule 158:30-5-2 subsection (e): a bond filed with the board is in lieu of filing a bond with each municipality where the plumbing contractor works, and the bond is conditioned on complying with municipal ordinances and paying fines imposed by courts for violating them. Two exceptions exist. The requirements are waived for a contractor who chooses inactive status, and for a contractor whose employer files an affidavit assuming financial responsibility for work on property the employer owns.
Sourcesoklahoma.gov 1oklahoma.gov 2
Section 1009 of title 59 sets the cycle. No license is issued for longer than one year, and all licenses expire on the last day of the birth month of the licensee. Licenses may be renewed on application and payment of fees within thirty days preceding or following the date renewal is due. No journeyman or contractor license may be renewed unless the licensee has completed the required hours of continuing education as determined and approved by the Committee. The Committee may renew a license applied for more than thirty days after expiration only on payment of the renewal fee and the additional fee prescribed, and on compliance with continuing education. No renewal penalty is charged to a licensee whose license expired during military service if application is made within one year of discharge. Rule 158:30-9-4 sets the education. No contractor or journeyman license is renewed unless the licensee has completed at least six hours of continuing education every three years, or thirty six months, preceding the license expiration date, with the course and instructor approved in advance by the Committee. A licensee is exempt from the education requirement for three years from the date of passing the current licensing exam. If a license expires before the requirement is met, continuing education completed while expired applies to the prior thirty six month period, and six hours must still be completed for the following period. The board warns that only courses approved by the appropriate industry committee count, and that credits earned through another state agency must still be reviewed and approved.
Oklahoma does not grant plumbing reciprocity on the strength of another state's license alone. Rule 158:30-5-4 requires an applicant to submit an application and confirm that a written reciprocity agreement exists between the applicant's state and Oklahoma for the license sought. The Committee reviews, recommends, and the board or its designee makes the final call. A license by reciprocity may be approved on a showing that the other state's requirements are substantially the same or equivalent, judged on the experience required to sit the exam, the continuing education required, the codes adopted, and the examination itself including the passing score, subject matter and whether it is in written form. The applicant must have lawfully practiced in that state for the year immediately before applying, have no disciplinary matters pending in any jurisdiction, and have obtained the license being reciprocated by examination. The board announced one plumbing agreement in current force. It signed a multi year plumbing reciprocity agreement with the Arkansas Committee of Plumbing Examiners effective October 21, 2024, and states in the same notice that this is not automatic reciprocity. Eligible applicants must have held the Arkansas or Oklahoma license for at least one year, hold at least an unlimited plumbing journeyman license, and have passed a plumbing licensing examination sponsored by either state. An applicant is not eligible if the license is revoked or suspended, if discipline is pending, if a renewal lapsed past the point where retesting is required, or if within the past two years the applicant performed plumbing work in the application state without the required license. Contractor applicants receive a journeyman license by reciprocity and must then pass the Oklahoma Plumbing Contractor Business and Law portion and satisfy bond and insurance.
Sourcesoklahoma.gov 1oklahoma.gov 2
Section 1012 of title 59 creates two separate offenses. It is unlawful and a misdemeanor for any person to act as, or perform the work of, a journeyman plumber until qualified and licensed as a journeyman plumber or plumbing contractor. It is also unlawful and a misdemeanor for any person, firm, partnership, association or corporation to act as a plumbing contractor, or to engage in or offer to engage in, by advertisement or otherwise, the business of plumbing or plumbing contractor, until that person, a bona fide member of the partnership, or a bona fide officer of the firm, association or corporation has qualified and is licensed as a plumbing contractor. Section 1019 sets the money. A person who violates any provision of The Plumbing License Law of 1955, or any ordinance or regulation enacted by a city, town or sewer commission by authority of the act, is guilty of a misdemeanor on conviction and shall be punished by a fine of not less than two hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, together with the costs of prosecution, in addition to possible suspension or revocation of a license. The board has an administrative track that does not require a court. Section 1010.1 allows the Plumbing Hearing Board, after a hearing, to impose an administrative fine of not more than five hundred dollars for each violation, with each day of violation potentially a separate violation and a maximum fine of one thousand dollars, enforceable in the district courts. Both sections also authorize the Plumbing Hearing Board to seek an injunction or restraining order.
Sourcesoklahoma.gov
This is the rule Oklahoma plumbing contractors trip over most often, and it is written in one place. Rule 158:30-5-3 has three subsections. Subsection (a) covers vehicles. All contractors shall, on all vehicles used to transport materials and tools in the operation of the business, display the plumbing firm name and the contractor's license number bearing the initials OK preceding that number issued by the Administrator. Those names and numbers shall be printed in letters and numerals at least two inches in height, in a conspicuous location, on both sides of each vehicle, in a color contrasting with the background color. Subsection (b) covers everything else you publish. The Plumbing Contractor State License Number must be displayed on all advertising, contracts and bids. The rule then defines the edge of that duty: advertising for the purposes of this section does not include uniforms or promotional items including but not limited to pens, pencils, key chains, tape measures and the like. Subsection (c) covers the individual. The pocket license issued by the Administrator shall be on the plumber's person while on the job. The board restates all three on its active contractor requirements page in the same terms, including the two inch height, both sides of each vehicle, and the requirement that contractors display the number on all advertising, contracts and bids. Read together with section 1012, which makes it a misdemeanor to offer to engage in the business of plumbing by advertisement without a contractor license, the wording on a website or a van is itself a licensed act in Oklahoma.
Section 1020 of title 59 is the provision that turns one state license into a stack of local registrations, and it is easy to miss because it is titled as a savings clause for municipalities. Nothing in The Plumbing License Law of 1955 stops cities and towns from providing full supervision and inspection of plumbing by enacting codes and rules, provided the ordinance is not inconsistent with the Oklahoma Uniform Building Code Commission Act, its rules, the Plumbing License Law or the board's rules. Then comes the obligation. Each state licensed plumbing contractor shall be required to register with the plumbing inspector of every city and town in whose jurisdiction the plumber operates, and each such city or town is authorized to register the contractor, to revoke that registration, and to charge fees for the registration, for permits and for inspections of plumbing and fixtures. The closing sentence has teeth: no plumbing contractor may do business or work in any city or town where the local registration of the plumber has been revoked. Two related provisions soften the load. The state bond under rule 158:30-5-2 stands in place of filing a bond with each municipality, which is why the rule also requires a contractor to notify the surety of the municipalities where work will be performed. Section 1023.1 limits local enforcement in one respect: no state or municipal inspector may issue a citation for work that is exempt from the permit requirement under section 106 of the International Plumbing Code, latest edition.
Sourcesoklahoma.gov 1oklahoma.gov 2
Oklahoma City runs contractor registration through its business licensing program. The city defines a plumbing contractor as any person skilled in the planning, superintending and practical installation of plumbing systems and licensed under state laws and code. You must first hold a current state license from the Oklahoma Construction Industries Board before registering with the city. Registration costs one hundred dollars for the initial registration and one hundred dollars annually. The documents the city asks for are the current state license, a contractor's information sheet, a photo identification, an immigration affidavit and payment, and applications are filed through the city's online access portal. Tulsa works the same way with different paperwork. The city's own guide to doing business states that the State of Oklahoma licenses trade contractors, naming electrical, fire, mechanical and plumbing, who must then register with the City of Tulsa. On receipt of the renewal application the city renews the license unless it has lapsed more than a year. The guide also records a change worth knowing before you send staff to City Hall: the city no longer registers journeymen, apprentices or sign and electrical sign contractors. Contractors may register or renew online through the Self Service Portal, and the guide notes that permits requiring a contractor's license must be applied for by the contractor using the contractor's login, which the city describes as a security feature so that only licensed contractors can apply for permits that require licenses. Tulsa's Development Services Department is reachable at 918-596-9456.
Sourcesokc.gov 1cityoftulsa.org 2
The Construction Industries Board publishes a public licensee search. From the board's consumer page, Are They Licensed, one link searches building and home inspectors, electrical, mechanical and plumbing licensees, and a separate link searches registered roofing contractors. The plumbing search runs at the board's GL Suite public licensee search address. That record is what a homeowner, a general contractor prequalifying a subcontractor, or a city permit clerk will pull, and it is why an inactive status shows up as a problem long before a customer asks about it. Inactive status is not rare by accident. Rule 158:30-5-2 subsection (h) says failure to provide complete information with a current bond and insurance certificate, or failure to maintain bond and insurance, results in an inactive plumbing contractor license being issued temporarily until the requirements are met, and rule 158:30-9-1 subsection (g) requires a contractor license to be renewed annually whether active or inactive. The board's own warning to contractors is worth repeating in the words it uses: it is a violation to contract for services without current insurance and an active license, and it asks licensees to email proof of insurance verification with name and license number whenever a policy is obtained or renewed. Because the license number is required by rule on all advertising, contracts and bids, the number a customer reads on your estimate is the number they will type into the board's search, and the two need to agree.
Sourcesoklahoma.gov 1okcibv7prod.glsuite.us 2oklahoma.gov 3oklahoma.gov 4
Oklahoma publishes a statement on the Construction Industries Board home page that changes how a plumbing company should think about its own credentials. General contractors are not currently required to have a state license in Oklahoma for general contracting. Trade licenses and registrations are required for performing, or offering to perform, licensed or registered trade work, and the board directs contractors to local jurisdictions for any local requirements. For a plumbing business this cuts two ways. The plumbing contractor license is the credential that authorizes the company to contract for plumbing, so there is no separate state business license standing between the license and the work, and no state general contractor examination to pass before bidding a project that includes plumbing. On the other side, the trade license is the only state gate, so it carries the full weight of enforcement. Section 1012 makes offering to engage in the business of plumbing by advertisement without the contractor license a misdemeanor, and section 1020 makes local registration mandatory in each city and town where the contractor operates. The board also administers electrical, mechanical, roofing, home inspector and building inspector programs, each with its own chapter of title 158, so a company adding a service line adds a separate license rather than expanding an existing one. The board's industry committees approve the continuing education for each trade separately, which is why plumbing credits earned for another program or in another state do not count until the Plumbing Examiners Committee approves them.
Sourcesoklahoma.gov 1oklahoma.gov 2oklahoma.gov 3oklahoma.gov 4
These are common details other guides publish about Oklahoma, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes. The Oklahoma Construction Industries Board licenses plumbing under The Plumbing License Law of 1955 at 59 O.S. sections 1001 to 1023.1 and the rules at Oklahoma Administrative Code title 158, chapter 30. The board is at 2401 NW 23rd Street, Suite 2F, Oklahoma City.
The individual. Apprentice, journeyman and plumbing contractor are all held by a person, and rule 158:30-5-2 requires the bond and the insurance certificate to be in the individual license holder's name. A licensed plumbing contractor may then operate as a firm, partnership, limited liability company or corporation.
A journeyman must be employed and supervised by a licensed plumbing contractor and may not contract or furnish labor, or labor and materials. A plumbing contractor may contract for plumbing work. Section 1003 notes that the person formerly called a master plumber is now called a plumbing contractor.
Three years in the plumbing trade while employed by a licensed plumbing contractor, or three verifiable years in the trade while serving in the United States military, or a current out of state plumbing license in good standing. Applicants must be eighteen or older.
In part. An associate degree or Career Tech diploma certifying a plumbing program of at least one thousand classroom hours from a Committee approved school substitutes for two years of experience. A Career Tech diploma for a program of at least five hundred classroom hours substitutes for one year. Hours must be verified with a transcript.
Rule 158:30-9-1 gives each part a maximum grade value of one hundred points and requires seventy five percent or more on each part. A first failure carries a thirty day wait before retesting, and any later failure carries a ninety day wait under 59 O.S. section 1005.
Rule 158:30-9-2 sets a thirty dollar contractor application fee, a three hundred dollar initial contractor license and a two hundred dollar renewal, with a one hundred dollar renewal late fee. Journeyman figures are twenty five, fifty and seventy five dollars, with a twenty five dollar late fee.
An active plumbing contractor must carry a five thousand dollar corporate surety bond payable to the board, or five thousand dollars in cash or a certificate of deposit, plus a certificate of insurance showing at least fifty thousand dollars of commercial general liability with the board as certificate holder.
On the last day of the licensee's birth month. Section 1009 allows renewal within thirty days before or after that date, and blocks renewal of a journeyman or contractor license unless the required continuing education is complete.
At least six hours every thirty six months preceding the license expiration date, with the course and instructor approved in advance by the Plumbing Examiners Committee. A licensee is exempt for three years from the date of passing the current licensing exam.
The board signed a plumbing reciprocity agreement with the Arkansas Committee of Plumbing Examiners effective October 21, 2024, and states that it is not automatic. Applicants must apply, have held the license at least one year, hold at least an unlimited journeyman license and have passed a sponsored examination.
Rule 158:30-5-3 requires the firm name and the contractor's license number with the initials OK preceding it on both sides of every vehicle used to carry materials and tools, in letters at least two inches high in a contrasting color, and the license number on all advertising, contracts and bids.
We can review the local market, your current search visibility, and paid-search fit before recommending any marketing work.