Pennsylvania · Plumbing licensing · official-source guide
Pennsylvania does not license plumbers at state level. The Department of Labor and Industry states the Commonwealth has no licensure requirement for most construction contractors, and no plumbing board sits under the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs. What applies statewide is Home Improvement Contractor registration with the Office of Attorney General. Plumbing licensing itself is municipal, and Philadelphia and Allegheny County run the two biggest systems.
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Pennsylvania has no state plumbing board and no state plumbing license. The Department of Labor and Industry says it plainly on its contractor licensing page: the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania currently has no licensure or certification requirements for most construction contractors or their employees. The same page adds that some of Pennsylvania's 2,562 municipalities have established local licensure or certification requirements for contractors or construction trades people, and that these local requirements typically reach home improvement, electrical and plumbing contractors. The second half of the proof is the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs inside the Department of State. BPOA is where Pennsylvania keeps its licensing boards. Its published list runs to 29 boards and commissions, covering accountancy, architects, barbers, cosmetology, crane operators, engineers, funeral directors, medicine, nursing, real estate and veterinary medicine among others. No plumbing board appears on it. No mechanical trades board appears on it either. Labor and Industry goes further and explains why you cannot get a list of which towns license plumbers. Since the Commonwealth has no jurisdiction in this matter, the Department maintains no records concerning municipalities that have established licensure or certification requirements. That sentence is the practical problem for a plumbing company here. There is no single register to check. You confirm the rule municipality by municipality, and the two systems that matter most by volume are run by the City of Philadelphia and by the Allegheny County Health Department.
The one credential the Commonwealth does require of a residential plumbing company is registration as a Home Improvement Contractor with the Office of Attorney General. The Attorney General states that all contractors who perform at least $5,000 worth of home improvements per year must register. The Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act sets the rule at section 517.3(a): no person shall hold himself out as a contractor, nor shall a person perform any home improvement without first registering with the bureau. Section 517.2 defines home improvement around work on private residences where the total cash price of all work agreed upon between the contractor and owner is more than $500, and it exempts a person whose total cash value of all of that person's home improvements is less than $5,000 during the previous taxable year. New home construction is excluded from the definition, as is the sale of goods or materials by a seller who neither arranges to nor performs the work. The Attorney General answers the plumbing question directly. Master plumbers performing home improvements must register and comply with the act if their work involves repairs, replacements or installations on private residences. Holding a city plumbing license does not substitute for it. Registration is handled through the PA-HICRS application at hic.attorneygeneral.gov, or by mail-in application. So a Pennsylvania plumbing company doing residential service work faces two separate questions: does my municipality license plumbers, and am I registered with the Attorney General. They are answered by different agencies and neither one covers the other.
Sourcesattorneygeneral.gov 1attorneygeneral.gov 2attorneygeneral.gov 3hic.attorneygeneral.gov 4
The Attorney General charges $100 every two years for home improvement contractor registration. The same $100 applies to a new application and to a renewal. Updates to existing information carry no cost. Registrations are valid for two years, and must be renewed biennially. Insurance is the substantive condition. The Attorney General states that contractors need at least $50,000 of personal injury liability coverage and $50,000 of property damage coverage. The statute carries the same two numbers at section 517.4(a)(1)(ix), which requires proof of liability insurance covering personal injury in an amount not less than $50,000 and insurance covering property damage in an amount not less than $50,000. Note what is absent. There is no state experience requirement, no trade examination, no continuing education and no surety bond attached to home improvement contractor registration. It is a registration, not a competence test. The Attorney General says so in its own disclaimer on the public search tool: registration under HICPA is not an endorsement, recommendation, or approval by the Office of Attorney General. There is a second exemption worth knowing beyond the $5,000 floor. The Attorney General lists retailers with a net worth of $50 million as exempt from registration. That is a large-retailer carve out and will not apply to a plumbing company, but it explains why some national sellers you compete against for water heater and fixture installs do not carry a PA number of their own.
Sourcesattorneygeneral.gov 1attorneygeneral.gov 2attorneygeneral.gov 3attorneygeneral.gov 4hicsearch.attorneygeneral.gov 5
This is the rule Pennsylvania plumbing companies break most often, and it is the one with your marketing directly in its path. Section 517.6 of the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act requires a registered contractor to include its registration number in all advertisements distributed within this Commonwealth and on all contracts, estimates and proposals with owners. The Attorney General restates it as a clearly and conspicuously displayed requirement across advertisements, contracts, estimates and proposals, and notes that the law does not specify where on the page it has to sit. The format is prescribed. The Attorney General says you must include the abbreviation PA and the number assigned to you, and gives PA123456 as the example. So it is not enough to have a number on file. The published form is PA followed by the digits, and that string belongs in the footer of your website, in your Google Business Profile description if you use one, on your service vehicles' printed estimates, on every written quote and on every signed contract. The statute also sets contract content. The Attorney General lists the total price of the project, estimated start and completion dates, and a description of the work as required contract terms. An advertisement in Pennsylvania is read broadly. If you print it, mail it, drive it around or publish it, and it offers home improvement work in the Commonwealth, section 517.6 reaches it. The number costs you nothing to display and its absence is documentary evidence against you.
Sourcesattorneygeneral.gov 1attorneygeneral.gov 2attorneygeneral.gov 3
The Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act does not only tell you what to display. It also tells you what you may not claim. Section 517.9(8) lists as a prohibited act advertising or offering to perform work if the person does not intend to accept a home improvement contract, perform the home improvement, or charge at the price advertised. That is the bait provision, and it catches the low teaser price used to get the truck in the driveway. The Attorney General's own description of penalties for operating unregistered is that unregistered contractors face legal action, including civil penalties of $1,000 or more. The criminal side is heavier. The Attorney General states that the law creates a criminal penalty for home improvement fraud as defined by the statute, and section 517.8(c)(1) grades it: a felony of the third degree if the amount involved exceeds $2,000, or a misdemeanor of the first degree if the amount involved is $2,000 or less. For a plumbing company that quotes five figures on a repipe or a sewer lateral replacement, the $2,000 line is easy to cross. The grading turns on the amount involved, not on intent proven after the fact. The practical reading is narrow and useful. Advertise work you will actually do, at prices you will actually honor, under a number you actually hold, and the prohibited acts section has nothing to bite on.
Sourcesattorneygeneral.gov 1attorneygeneral.gov 2attorneygeneral.gov 3
When the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act took effect it stripped most local contractor registration schemes. Section 517.12 provides that registration under this act shall preclude any requirement of payment of a fee or registration by any political subdivision. That wiped out a lot of borough contractor permits. It did not touch plumbing. The same section preserves existing licensing standards with respect to electricians and plumbers and other trades. The Attorney General states the carve out in the same terms: political subdivisions cannot separately license home improvement contractors after July 1, 2009, with the limited exception of licensing standards with respect to electricians, plumbers and other trades where licensing is conditioned on requirements of testing or possession of certificates. Read the condition closely, because it explains the shape of Pennsylvania plumbing regulation. A local plumbing license survives HICPA when it is conditioned on testing or on possession of a certificate. A local scheme that is only a fee and a form does not survive. That is exactly why the surviving systems are examination systems: Philadelphia runs International Code Council examinations, and Allegheny County runs its own spring and fall examinations. So the state preemption you may have heard about is real, and it is the reason a plumbing company crossing county lines in Pennsylvania meets fewer registration desks than it would have in 2008. It is also the reason the two examination-based systems it does meet are the ones that matter.
Philadelphia licenses the individual plumber through the Department of Licenses and Inspections, at the Permit and License Center, 1401 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Philadelphia, PA 19102. The route in is the journeyman license. An applicant must have been registered as a Philadelphia Journeyman Plumber for a minimum of one year, or provide equivalent authorization from another jurisdiction with equal or greater requirements, subject to L&I approval. The examination is the Philadelphia Master Plumber Examination administered by the International Code Council. It must reference the current Philadelphia Code, and the result must be submitted within 12 months of successful completion. The money is published. The application and license together run $303, which includes a $50 non-refundable application fee. Renewal is $253. The license must be renewed annually, and renewal requires current City tax compliance. Renew more than 60 days late and L&I adds 1.5 percent of the license fee for each month. Insurance is a condition of issue. The certificate of insurance must show general liability of at least $500,000 per occurrence, automobile liability of $300,000, and workers compensation of $100,000 per accident, $100,000 per employee and a $500,000 policy limit. That set of numbers is the real Philadelphia entry cost for a plumbing business: a year as a city journeyman, an ICC examination against the Philadelphia Code, $303 to start, $253 a year to keep, and a half million dollar general liability policy that has to stay live through every renewal.
Sourcesphila.gov
Below master, Philadelphia licenses two more levels, and the apprentice registration is where the clock starts. A Plumber Apprentice license is open to anyone performing apprentice plumbing work under a master plumber. The filing is short: an employment statement on company letterhead signed by the licensed master plumber, and a two inch by two inch color photo identification. The license costs $25, of which $20 is a non-refundable application fee, and renewal is $25. Renewal requires federal tax records showing continued employment and a statement of employment confirming apprenticeship status, and L&I must be told of any change in employment. The Journeyman Plumber license requires four years as a registered Philadelphia apprentice plumber, or proof of a similar authorization granted by any other state or local jurisdiction with equal or greater qualification requirements, subject to departmental approval. The Journeyman Plumber Examination is again administered by the International Code Council against the current Philadelphia Code, and the result must be submitted within 12 months of passing. A journeyman does plumbing work under a licensed master plumber. The journeyman license costs $126, including a $25 non-refundable application fee, and renews annually at $126. The same 1.5 percent per month late charge applies past 60 days. Added up, the Philadelphia path is four years registered as an apprentice, a journeyman examination, one year licensed as a journeyman, then the master examination. Every step is registered with L&I, which is why out of town experience has to be approved rather than simply asserted.
Sourcesphila.gov 1phila.gov 2
A Philadelphia master plumber license on its own does not put you in business in the city. L&I says many trades licenses require a Commercial Activity License, and that contractors working in Philadelphia must follow specific contractor requirements. The Commercial Activity License is needed by any person or legal entity that does business in Philadelphia, including a business located outside the city limits that operates inside it. There is no cost for a Commercial Activity License and it does not require renewal. The conditions are tax conditions: the applicant must be current on all City taxes, the legal entity must be named exactly as registered with the matching Philadelphia tax account, and the application needs a federal employer identification number or social security number plus a Business Income and Receipts Tax identification number. The general Contractor License is a different question. L&I is explicit that plumbers do not need it, because plumbing is a specialized trade license in its own right. The Contractor License is for a business doing construction, demolition or repair work that does not require specialized licensing, it costs $126 including a $20 non-refundable application fee, renews annually at $126, and carries the same insurance minimums as the master plumber license. L&I also flags the state overlap. A business that only does work on existing one or two family dwellings, with no specialized trade requirement, submits as a Home Improvement Contractor after registering with the Commonwealth instead of taking the city contractor license.
Pittsburgh surprises contractors who expect a city plumbing license. The City of Pittsburgh Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections issues two contractor licenses, and neither is for plumbing. The city's contractor licensing page lists General Contractor licenses and Sign Contractor licenses. The general license covers commercial building work, new one and two family dwellings, renovations to rental and investment properties, and demolition permits. The sign license covers erecting, altering, repairing and maintaining signs. The city adds that all Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections fees change annually and directs applicants to the current fee schedule. Plumbing in Pittsburgh runs through the Allegheny County Health Department Plumbing Program instead, at 2121 Noblestown Road, Suite 207, Pittsburgh, PA 15205, telephone 412-578-8036. The program inspects and permits new or modified residential and commercial plumbing installations to assure compliance with the Health Department's Plumbing Code Article XV, and carries out roughly 40,000 inspections a year. It issues licenses for Apprentice, Journeyman and Master Plumbers on passage of the examination. Permits are filed through the county's Citizen Access Portal, and commercial plans need pre-approval through commercial plan review before a permit application is filed. So a plumbing company working the Pittsburgh market holds an Allegheny County master plumber license, not a Pittsburgh one, and pulls its plumbing permits from the county health department rather than from city hall.
Sourcespittsburghpa.gov 1alleghenycounty.us 2alleghenycounty.us 3
Article XV is the Allegheny County Health Department's plumbing and building drainage regulation, and it contains the sentence that decides who may work. Section AC-106.5.8 states that no person, other than a licensed master plumber, a licensed journeyman plumber in the employ of a licensed master plumber, a registered plumbing apprentice in the employ of a licensed master plumber, or a bonafide owner presently occupying an existing single-family building shall install, alter, or make connections with any sewer, water, drain, or any pipe connected therewith. Read the owner exemption narrowly. It reaches a bonafide owner presently occupying an existing single-family building. It does not reach a landlord. The county states the landlord rule separately: in Allegheny County, landlords must hire a Master Plumber to make repairs or modifications to the plumbing in their rental units. For a plumbing company that sells to small landlords, that is a selling point written into county regulation. Section AC-106.7.9 sets the journeyman bar. No journeyman plumber's license shall be granted a registered apprentice plumber until he has acquired a minimum four years experience or the equivalent of 8,000 hours worked, and successfully completed 576 hours of plumbing training at an accredited school, preferably within six years of the beginning of the apprenticeship training. Enforcement runs through section AC-104.7.1, which makes a person who violates any of the provisions of this Article subject to a civil penalty in accordance with the Department's Rules and Regulations, Article XVI.
The county publishes its plumbing license numbers, and they are unusual in two ways: renewal is annual, and it falls on your birthday rather than on a common date. Three licenses exist. The apprentice card allows the candidate to do plumbing as long as a journeyman plumber is present, and all cards issued in a calendar year expire on September 30th. The journeyman license follows school, stated by the county as 576 hours, and a period of employment of four years with a registered master plumber. Journeymen wanting to take the Master Plumber Examination must complete two full years of work experience as a journeyman and make an application to the Plumbing Program. Examinations run twice a year, spring and fall. The county lists the journeyman examination at $133.00 and the master examination at $265.00, each per examination. Renewal is where the annual cost sits. The Journeyman Plumber license is renewed annually on the plumber's date of birth for a fee of $125.00. The Master Plumber's license is renewed annually on the plumber's date of birth for a fee of $375.00. That $375 a year is the highest recurring individual plumbing license fee in either of Pennsylvania's two big systems, and it buys the right to hold permits across the county including inside the City of Pittsburgh. Diary it against the license holder's birthday, not against a fiscal year, because the county will not move it.
Sourcesalleghenycounty.us
Pennsylvania spreads the penalty across three books, and which one applies depends on which rule you broke. On the state side, operating without home improvement contractor registration draws what the Attorney General describes as legal action, including civil penalties of $1,000 or more. Home improvement fraud is criminal under section 517.8(c)(1): a felony of the third degree if the amount involved exceeds $2,000, or a misdemeanor of the first degree if the amount involved is $2,000 or less. Failing to put your registration number in advertisements, contracts, estimates and proposals is itself a breach of section 517.6. In Allegheny County the exposure is regulatory. Section AC-104.7.1 of Article XV makes a person who violates any provision of the Article subject to a civil penalty under the Health Department's Article XVI, and section AC-106.5.8 makes performing the work without the right license a violation on its own. In Philadelphia the exposure is your license. L&I's public contractor tool lists actively licensed contractors and any licensing violations they have, alongside a published list of suspended and revoked licenses. Renewal depends on staying current on all City of Philadelphia taxes and fines and on keeping insurance active. The combination worth noticing is that the state penalty attaches to the registration and the advertisement, while the local penalty attaches to the work itself. A plumbing company can be compliant on one and exposed on the other.
Sourcesattorneygeneral.gov 1attorneygeneral.gov 2alleghenycounty.us 3phila.gov 4phila.gov 5
Pennsylvania gives customers three separate places to look, and a plumbing company should be findable in all of the ones that apply to it. The statewide tool is the Home Improvement Contractor Search run by the Office of Attorney General at hicsearch.attorneygeneral.gov. It searches by registration number, business name, primary applicant, address, city, state, zip, county, phone number and type of work, with plumbing among more than 40 work categories. Results can be downloaded in Excel. The Attorney General cautions that because the type of work field is new there is limited data for most existing contractors, so make sure your own record carries the plumbing category. A helpline is published at 1-888-520-6680. The disclaimer stands on the page: registration under HICPA is not an endorsement, recommendation, or approval by the Office of Attorney General. In Philadelphia the tool is L&I's licensed contractor lookup at phila.gov/li/find-a-licensed-contractor, which contains a listing of all actively licensed contractors in Philadelphia and any licensing violations they have. A second tool, the contractor permit lookup, lets a customer confirm the permits for their job after hiring. In Allegheny County the health department publishes a Master Plumber Search, mirrored as an open dataset through the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center, on the stated basis that all master plumbers must be registered with the Allegheny County Health Department.
Sourceshicsearch.attorneygeneral.gov 1phila.gov 2phila.gov 3data.wprdc.org 4
These are common details other guides publish about Pennsylvania, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. The Department of Labor and Industry states that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania currently has no licensure or certification requirements for most construction contractors or their employees, and no plumbing board appears among the 29 boards and commissions listed by the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs. Plumbing licensing in Pennsylvania is done by municipalities and, in the Pittsburgh area, by the county health department.
Two things, answered by different agencies. If you do at least $5,000 of home improvements a year on private residences, you need Home Improvement Contractor registration with the Office of Attorney General. Separately, you need whatever license the municipality where the job sits requires. In Philadelphia that is a Department of Licenses and Inspections trade license. In Allegheny County it is an Allegheny County Health Department plumbing license.
The Office of Attorney General charges $100 every two years, the same amount for a new registration and for a renewal. Registrations are valid for two years and must be renewed biennially. Updating information already on file costs nothing. You register, renew or update through the PA-HICRS application at hic.attorneygeneral.gov, or by mail-in application.
The Attorney General requires proof of at least $50,000 of personal injury liability coverage and $50,000 of property damage coverage. The statute carries the same two figures at section 517.4(a)(1)(ix). Philadelphia sets its own higher numbers for a trade license: general liability of $500,000 per occurrence, automobile liability of $300,000, and workers compensation of $100,000 per accident, $100,000 per employee and a $500,000 policy limit.
Section 517.6 requires the registration number in all advertisements distributed within the Commonwealth and on all contracts, estimates and proposals with owners. The Attorney General says it must be clearly and conspicuously displayed and prescribes the format: the abbreviation PA plus your assigned number, for example PA123456. That means website, printed advertising, written estimates, proposals and signed contracts.
No. The Attorney General states that master plumbers performing home improvements must register and comply with the act if their work involves repairs, replacements or installations on private residences. The city license and the state registration are separate requirements and neither one satisfies the other.
Because the preemption has a trade exception. Section 517.12 says registration under the act precludes any requirement of payment of a fee or registration by any political subdivision, but preserves existing licensing standards with respect to electricians and plumbers and other trades where licensing is conditioned on testing or possession of certificates. Both surviving systems are examination based, which is why they survived.
The application and license together are $303, which includes a $50 non-refundable application fee. Renewal is $253 and the license renews annually. Renewing more than 60 days late adds 1.5 percent of the license fee for each month. Renewal also requires being current on City taxes and keeping the required insurance active.
Four years registered as a Philadelphia apprentice plumber, then the Journeyman Plumber Examination administered by the International Code Council against the current Philadelphia Code, then a minimum of one year registered as a Philadelphia journeyman plumber before you may sit the Master Plumber Examination. Equivalent authorization from another jurisdiction with equal or greater requirements can be substituted, subject to L&I approval.
No. The City of Pittsburgh issues General Contractor and Sign Contractor licenses, not plumbing licenses. Plumbing in the Pittsburgh market is licensed and permitted by the Allegheny County Health Department Plumbing Program, which issues Apprentice, Journeyman and Master Plumber licenses on passage of its examination and runs the plumbing permit and inspection system.
The journeyman examination is $133.00 and the master examination is $265.00, each per sitting, with examinations held twice a year in spring and fall. The Journeyman Plumber license renews annually on the plumber's date of birth for $125.00 and the Master Plumber's license renews annually on the plumber's date of birth for $375.00. Apprentice cards issued in a calendar year expire on September 30th.
Statewide they use the Home Improvement Contractor Search at hicsearch.attorneygeneral.gov, which searches by registration number, business name, address, county, phone and type of work. In Philadelphia they use the Department of Licenses and Inspections lookup at phila.gov/li/find-a-licensed-contractor, which shows actively licensed contractors and any licensing violations. In Allegheny County the health department publishes a Master Plumber Search.
We can review the local market, your current search visibility, and paid-search fit before recommending any marketing work.