South Carolina · Plumbing licensing · official-source guide
South Carolina licenses plumbing through two boards inside the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. The Residential Builders Commission issues the Residential Plumber license for residential work over $500. The Contractor's Licensing Board issues the Mechanical Contractor license with the plumbing PB subclassification for commercial construction over $10,000. Both license the person by examination, and the residential one bonds jobs over $5,000.
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-09-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
South Carolina licenses plumbing twice, through two separate boards that both sit inside the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. The South Carolina Residential Builders Commission handles residential work. It licenses and registers residential builders and residential specialty contractors across building, electrical, gas, mechanical and plumbing trades, from 110 Centerview Dr, Columbia SC. Its plumbing credential is the Residential Plumber license, coded RBP. The South Carolina Contractor's Licensing Board handles commercial work. It issues General Contractor and Mechanical Contractor licenses in classifications and subclassifications, and plumbing is a Mechanical Contractor subclassification. The board's own abbreviation list gives the code: Plumbing is PB. Which board applies is decided by the job, not by the company, and the split runs on two dollar figures. The residential number is $500. Section 40-59-20(7) defines a residential specialty contractor as an independent contractor who contracts with a licensed residential builder, general contractor, or individual property owner to do construction work, repairs, improvement, or reimprovement which requires special skills and involves the use of specialized construction trades or craft, when the undertakings exceed five hundred dollars and are not regulated by the provisions of Chapter 11. The Commission states the same threshold as residential plumbing work exceeding $500. The commercial number is $10,000. Section 40-11-30 provides that no entity or individual may practice as a contractor by performing or offering to perform contracting work for which the total cost of construction is greater than ten thousand dollars for general contracting or greater than ten thousand dollars for mechanical contracting without a license issued in accordance with this chapter. The Commission puts the same line on its Residential Plumber page, noting that commercial plumbing exceeding $10,000 falls under the Contractor's Licensing Board. That $10,000 is recent. The statute's own note records that 2023 Act No. 69, Section 3, substituted ten thousand dollars for five thousand dollars in two places, effective May 19, 2023. Guidance written before that date says $5,000 and is out of date. A plumbing business that does both kinds of work needs both credentials, with different fees, different renewal dates and different rules about what has to appear on your van.
Sourcesllr.sc.gov 1llr.sc.gov 2llr.sc.gov 3llr.sc.gov 4scstatehouse.gov 5scstatehouse.gov 6
South Carolina licenses the human being. The Residential Builders Commission puts it in four words in its plumbing FAQ: we license the individual, not the company. That has consequences a plumbing business owner needs to plan around. The Commission states that a license cannot be shared, because each person doing the work is required to apply for and be issued their own license. If you want your trading name on the license, you submit a request to add your company name to your license together with a photocopy of your Certificate of Existence or Authority from the South Carolina Secretary of State, and you must own a minimum 51 percent of the company in order to list it on your license. Section 40-59-20(7) confirms that plumbers are one of the trades that get a license rather than a registration. It lists plumbers, electricians, and heating and air conditioning installers and repairers as trades that must be issued specialty contractor licenses after passing the required examination, while siding installers, masons, drywall installers, carpenters, stucco installers, painters and wallpaperers and solar panel installers get registrations instead. The same subsection sets a hard scope rule. A residential specialty contractor is prohibited from undertaking work outside the scope of his license or registration, including employing, hiring, and contracting or subcontracting with others to perform such work on his behalf. You cannot subcontract your way past your own classification.
The experience bar for a South Carolina Residential Plumber license is a single year, and the Commission is unusually specific about what it will accept as proof. The requirement is one year of supervised plumbing work. Asked whether it has to be South Carolina experience, the Commission answers no, it can be from any state or country. Geography does not matter. Documentation does. The Residential Plumber page states that work experience must be verified and approved before you are made eligible for the exam. The FAQ lists what goes in the file: copies of W-2s, 1099s, transcripts, certifications, and a complete copy of your credit report. On the credit report the Commission adds a clarification worth quoting, that it accepts TransUnion, Experian or Equifax and that we are not looking at your credit score, we need the complete report. Section 40-59-250 is the statutory basis, requiring an applicant for licensure or registration to submit to a credit report and letting the Commission weigh reputation for timely performance and outstanding judgments. If the tax documents do not exist, there is a fallback. The Commission states that if you do not have W2s or 1099s, a Commission appearance will be required for experience review. A degree does not substitute. The Commission says a college degree will be taken into consideration, but the Commission is looking for hands-on experience doing residential plumbing work. Applications are reviewed for accuracy and completeness within fifteen business days and remain valid for one year.
South Carolina makes every plumbing applicant pass two examinations on the residential side, and the second one is not about plumbing. The Commission states that you must pass both the Business Management and Law Exam and the Residential Plumbers portions of the exam. Both are administered by PSI Examination Services at www.psiexams.com. The attempt limit is the part that catches people. Applicants receive three attempts to pass the exam within a twelve month period. Plan the study time before you file, because the clock runs on the calendar and not on your availability. On the commercial side the structure is similar but the mechanism is different. Section 40-11-230 requires a qualifying party to submit proof of having attained a grade of seventy percent or better on a technical examination where required for each classification or subclassification of licensure applied for, and to attain a grade of seventy percent or better on an examination of South Carolina law regulating general and mechanical contracting. Plumbing is one of the mechanical subclassifications with a technical exam, alongside air conditioning, electrical, heating, lightning protection, packaged equipment, process piping and refrigeration. The Contractor's Licensing Board directs commercial candidates to PSI as well, and states that qualifying parties must complete the exam requirements for certification prior to the entity or individual submitting an application to the Board for licensure. Certification of the person comes first, licensure of the entity second. Filing them in the wrong order is the most common commercial delay in this state.
South Carolina publishes a short and specific reciprocity position on the residential side, and a discretionary one on the commercial side. The Residential Builders Commission states that you may waive the technical portion of the examination only if you hold a license by examination from a state with which the Commission has an Exam Waiver Agreement, and it names exactly two: North Carolina and Mississippi. Even then, applicants must still take and pass the Business and Law portion of the South Carolina examination. There is a second waiver that matters more to plumbing companies already working here. The Commission states that a person holding a South Carolina Mechanical Contractors license by exam with a plumbing classification can obtain a Residential Plumbing license without the technical exam, but must still pass the Business Management and Law exam. So the commercial PB license is a partial ticket into the residential system, in that direction. On the commercial side, section 40-11-290 lets the board grant a license or certificate to an applicant holding a license in good standing in another state whose requirements are equal to or greater than those required by this chapter, if the board has authorized an exam waiver agreement with that state, and lets an applicant exempt the technical examination by verifying passage of an examination in another state. Note the shape of both rules. The waiver reaches the technical paper. Neither board waives its own law examination for anyone.
The Residential Builders Commission publishes a plain fee table, and the plumbing line is Residential Specialty Plumbing, coded RBP. For RBP the application is $135.00, the license is $220.00, renewal is $220.00, late renewal is $50.00 and reinstatement is $480.00. The Residential Plumber page carries the same five numbers. The surrounding lines are useful for comparison and for planning a multi-trade business. Residential Builder, coded RBB, and Residential Specialty Contractor Electrical, coded RBE, carry the same $135.00, $220.00, $220.00, $50.00 and $480.00. Residential Specialty Heating and Air, coded RBH, is cheaper to apply for at $100.00 with the same $220.00 license and renewal. The Residential Specialty Contractor Registration, coded RBS, which covers the trades that register rather than test, is $100.00 to register, $100.00 to renew, $20.00 late and $290.00 to reinstate. The Certificate of Authorization, coded COA, is $100.00 for the license and $100.00 to renew. That is the firm-level credential dealt with below. The FAQ adds the payment mechanics. The initial application processing fee of $135.00 goes in by certified check or money order. The fee to receive a license after passing the exams is $220. Online renewal needs a checking account or Master Card, Visa or American Express, plus your user id, password and current email address.
South Carolina does not bond every residential plumber. It bonds the job, above a threshold, and the threshold is not the same as the licensing threshold. Section 40-59-240(D) states that when the total cost of materials and labor for an undertaking performed by a residential specialty contractor for an individual property owner exceeds five thousand dollars, the residential specialty contractor shall obtain an executed bond with a surety in an amount approved by the commission and shall furnish a signed original to the commission. Section 40-59-220(D) says the same thing in the licensing provision. The statute leaves the amount to the Commission. Regulation Chapter 106 fills it in: when the cost of an undertaking to be performed by a licensed residential specialty contractor exceeds five thousand dollars, the licensee must obtain an executed surety bond in an amount approved by the Commission not less than ten thousand dollars. The plumbing FAQ states it in operational terms. A surety bond is required if undertaking projects that exceed $5000 in labor and materials when added together, and the bond is a $10,000.00 surety bond, an original bond signed by the applicant with the power of attorney attached. The FAQ adds a detail that trips people up at the surety's office: the bond must be issued in your name as principal and not a company or business name. So the trigger is a $5,000 job measured on labor and materials together, and the instrument is a $10,000 bond in the licensed individual's own name.
Two South Carolina primary sources describe residential renewal differently, and a plumbing company should know about the gap rather than pick one. The Residential Builders Commission states in its plumbing FAQ that the Residential Plumbing License is renewable every two years before June 30, of each odd year, giving 2021, 2023 and 2025 as examples. Section 40-59-230(A) reads differently. Unless otherwise provided under the provisions of this chapter, the commission shall annually renew all licenses upon the applicant's submission to the commission of the completed renewal application, proof of financial responsibility or bond, acceptable to the commission and payment of all applicable fees. Section 40-59-220(A) points at the Commission's regulations rather than at a fixed period, stating that residential builders and specialty contractors are licensed or registered for a period established by the commission in regulation. Those two are not the same statement, and neither cancels the other on its face. Section 40-59-220(A) gives the Commission power to set the period by regulation, which is the likely reconciliation, but the published statutory language in 40-59-230(A) still reads annually. The practical course is to treat the Commission's own published cycle as operative, diary the June 30 date in odd-numbered years, and confirm your personal expiry on your own license record before relying on either. One further rule is unambiguous. The FAQ states that your license may remain inactive for up to three years before being required to reapply and retest, and section 40-59-230(A) says a license inactive for more than three years requires a new application and a fresh examination.
Above $10,000 of commercial construction, plumbing is regulated as mechanical contracting under Title 40 Chapter 11. Section 40-11-20(16) defines a mechanical contractor as an entity that performs or supervises, or offers to perform or supervise, mechanical construction. Section 40-11-410(5) lists the mechanical subclassifications, and plumbing is one of them. The scope of the plumbing subclassification is written out and it is broad. It includes the installation, replacement, alteration, and repair of all plumbing including solar water heating when performed solely within property lines and not on public easements or rights-of-way except to make connections to water meters or sewer taps as allowed by the utility owner. It covers piping, fixtures and appliances related to water supply including pressure vessels and tanks, venting and sanitary drainage systems for all fluid and semi-fluid and organic wastes, roof leaders, water-conditioning equipment, and piping and equipment for swimming pools. If the equipment is gas-fired, the necessary gas lines may be installed under this subclassification. It also grants a fire-adjacent permission most plumbers do not know they have. Plumbing contractors in license groups three, four, and five are not required to be licensed under Chapter 45, Title 23 to install standpipe systems, including water hose connections, water hose cabinets, and related branch lines, if the water hoses do not supply water to automatic fire protection sprinklers. The board has also ruled on gas. To perform natural gas piping in commercial installation, alteration or repair, an entity must hold a South Carolina Mechanical Contractors license with a plumbing PB classification.
On the commercial side South Carolina does not ask for a bond in place of financial strength. It reads your financial statement and assigns a bid limit. Section 40-11-260(B) applies to a mechanical contractor's license or renewal where the total cost of construction is greater than ten thousand dollars, and requires an acceptable financial statement with a balance sheet date no more than twelve months before the application. Five groups follow. Group One allows bids and jobs not to exceed thirty-five thousand dollars per job and requires net worth of seven thousand dollars or working capital of three thousand five hundred dollars. Group Two allows one hundred thousand dollars per job on net worth of fifteen thousand dollars or working capital of ten thousand dollars. Group Three allows two hundred thousand dollars per job on net worth of thirty thousand dollars or working capital of twenty thousand dollars. Group Four allows four hundred thousand dollars per job on net worth of sixty thousand dollars or working capital of forty thousand dollars. Group Five is unlimited and requires net worth of three hundred thousand dollars or working capital of two hundred thousand dollars. The accounting standard rises with the group. Groups One and Two accept an owner-prepared financial statement on a board form with an affidavit of accuracy. Group Three requires a statement compiled by a licensed certified public accountant under generally accepted accounting principles on initial application. Group Five requires an audited balance sheet prepared by a licensed certified public accountant on initial application. Section 40-11-280 lets you apply to revise the group, and existing bidding limitations remain in effect until the revision has been approved.
Sourcesscstatehouse.gov
The Contractor's Licensing Board publishes its general and mechanical contractor fees as a short schedule, and the renewal date is fixed by license type rather than by the licensee. The initial license is $350. The board's licensure page states the same licensure fee of $350. Biennial renewal is $135. Late payment is tiered by month. November 1 to 30 adds $100. December 1 to 31 adds $150. January 1 to 31 adds $200. After January 31 the fee to reinstate is $350. Other published lines include an annual inactive certificate status fee of $10 per year for up to four years, an annual inactive license status fee of $110 per year, a biennial certificate fee of $10, $10 to replace a lost or destroyed certificate and $5 to replace a lost or destroyed license. The dates are set by classification. All Mechanical Contractor licenses expire October 31st in odd-numbered years. All General Contractor licenses expire October 31st in even-numbered years. So a plumbing company holding a PB mechanical license renews in odd years and the late fee ladder above runs from that November. Section 40-11-250 adds the recovery rule. A lapsed license may be renewed within ninety days of expiration by filing a renewal application and paying renewal and late fees, and if approved the renewal is retroactive to the expiration date. Past that window, the entity must apply as a new applicant and meet all qualifications for initial licensure.
Both South Carolina systems separate the person who passes the examination from the entity that holds the credential, and both have caught contractors out. On the commercial side the person is the qualifying party. Section 40-11-20(23) defines a qualifying party as an individual who has been issued a certificate to qualify an entity for a license by way of examination in a license classification or subclassification. The board describes the primary qualifying party as the qualifying party designated by the applicant as the principal individual responsible for directing or reviewing work performed. Section 40-11-240 requires the entity to have a certified qualifying party in a responsible management position, and to name the primary qualifying party for each classification applied for. Section 40-11-240(D) adds an administrative trap. A change of an entity's name, organizational status, or federal employer identification number must be reported to the department within fifteen days, and failure to do so results in license cancellation fifteen days from the date of change, with the new entity required to submit an initial application. On the residential side the entity credential is the residential business certificate of authorization under section 40-59-410. A firm practicing through a fictitious name needs one, and the firm must obtain an executed surety bond approved by the commission in the sum of fifteen thousand dollars initially. An individual practicing in their own name, or who holds at least fifty-one percent of the ownership interest and is the sole resident licensee, does not need one.
This is where South Carolina is different from most states, and where a plumbing company can save itself a wrap redesign. Section 40-11-270 was amended in 2016 to add display rules for mechanical contractors. Subsection (B) states that each person holding a license in the mechanical contractor subclassification of air conditioning, heating, or packaged equipment shall display the mechanical contractor license in a conspicuous manner at his principal place of business. Subsection (C) states that all commercial vehicles used by mechanical contractors licensed in the subclassification of air conditioning, heating, or packaged equipment exclusively in the daily operation of their business shall have prominently displayed on them the mechanical contractor license number issued by the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, and that each invoice and proposal form also shall contain the mechanical contractor license number. Read the list. Air conditioning, heating, packaged equipment. Plumbing is a separate subclassification under section 40-11-410(5) and it is not named in either subsection. The statute's own history note confirms 2016 Act No. 193 added subsections (B) and (C) relating to display of license. On the residential side Chapter 40-59 contains one advertising provision, section 40-59-570, and it applies to home inspectors. It requires an advertisement by a licensed home inspector to include the name, business name, address, and license number of the licensee. No equivalent provision names residential plumbers. The safe practice is still to publish your license number. But in South Carolina a plumbing contractor should know that the vehicle lettering mandate its HVAC competitors carry is not, on the face of the statute, aimed at plumbing.
South Carolina punishes unlicensed work under whichever chapter the job fell into, and the second consequence is worse than the fine. On the residential side, section 40-59-30(A) makes a person or firm who engages or offers to engage in the business of residential building or residential specialty contracting without first registering with the commission or procuring a license, or who knowingly presents false information to obtain one, guilty of a misdemeanor punishable on conviction by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars or more than ten thousand dollars, or imprisonment for not less than thirty days, or both. Section 40-59-30(B) is the provision that ends jobs. Notwithstanding Section 29-5-10 or another provision of law, a person or firm who has not procured a license or registered and is required to do so may not file a mechanics lien or bring an action at law or in equity to enforce the provisions of a contract for residential building or residential specialty contracting entered into in violation of the chapter. Unlicensed work is unpaid work with no legal route to collection. On the commercial side, section 40-11-200(A) makes practicing or offering to practise in violation of the chapter, or knowingly submitting false information to obtain a license, a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment of not more than one year or a fine of not more than five thousand dollars. Subsection (B) reaches the other side of the table, making it a violation for an awarding authority, owner or contractor to consider a bid, sign a contract, or allow a contractor to begin work unlicensed.
A South Carolina license does not exempt a plumbing company from city hall, but it does cap what city hall can ask for. Section 40-59-240(C) states that residential specialty contractors are not exempt from complying with county and municipal business license ordinances or other regulatory ordinances, and that a county or municipality may require a residential specialty contractor to be examined and licensed in accordance with standards adopted by the county or municipality. Then it draws the line: however, if a residential specialty contractor has passed an examination in his area of contracting and approved by the commission, no additional examination may be required by a county or municipality. So a city can require a local license and charge for it. It cannot make a Commission-examined plumber sit a second plumbing examination. The local business license itself is standardized statewide. Section 6-1-400 provides that unless otherwise specifically provided by state law, a county or municipality that levies a business license tax must comply with the article, and that a business license must be issued for a twelve-month period beginning May first and ending April thirtieth, expiring April thirtieth, and renewed before May first of the year in which it expires. The tax is computed on gross income for the preceding calendar year or fiscal year, or on projected income for a business trading less than a year. One option in that section is built for contractors. A business license related to construction contract projects may be issued on a per project basis, at the option of the taxpayer, and such a license expires at completion of the construction project.
The Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation publishes an online licensee lookup, and the Residential Builders Commission links to it directly from its own page. The residential lookup runs at verify.llronline.com, and the Commission also links an online license verification service through eservice.llr.sc.gov. That is the record a homeowner, a general contractor or an awarding authority checks before they hire you, and in South Carolina the check has teeth beyond reputation. Section 40-11-200(B) makes it a violation for an awarding authority, owner, contractor or their agent to consider a bid, sign a contract, or allow a contractor to begin work unless the bidder or contractor has first obtained the licenses required by the chapter, and it bars a bid submitted by an improperly licensed contractor from being reconsidered or resubmitted. Your license status is therefore something the other side of the table has its own reason to verify. On the residential side section 40-59-30(B) gives the customer the mirror image of that incentive, since an unlicensed contractor cannot file a mechanics lien or sue on the contract. Two practical points follow. Make sure your record carries your company name correctly, which on the residential side means filing the request to add the company name with the Secretary of State certificate and the 51 percent ownership. And publish the license number yourself on your estimates and site, so a customer who wants to confirm you can do it in one step rather than searching by name.
Sourcesllr.sc.gov 1verify.llronline.com 2scstatehouse.gov 3scstatehouse.gov 4llr.sc.gov 5
These are common details other guides publish about South Carolina, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes, and it does it twice. The South Carolina Residential Builders Commission issues the Residential Plumber license, coded RBP, for residential work. The South Carolina Contractor's Licensing Board issues the Mechanical Contractor license with a plumbing subclassification, coded PB, for commercial work. Both boards sit inside the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, and a company doing both kinds of work needs both.
Residential plumbing work exceeding $500 needs a Residential Plumber license, matching the residential specialty contractor definition in section 40-59-20(7). Commercial plumbing needs a Contractor's Licensing Board license once the total cost of construction is greater than ten thousand dollars, under section 40-11-30. The commercial figure was raised from five thousand dollars by 2023 Act No. 69, effective May 19, 2023.
One year of supervised plumbing work, and the Commission states it can be from any state or country. Experience must be verified and approved before you are made eligible for the exam. The file includes W-2s, 1099s, transcripts, certifications and a complete credit report. If you have no W2s or 1099s, a Commission appearance will be required for experience review. A college degree is considered but does not replace hands-on experience.
On the residential side, both the Business Management and Law Exam and the Residential Plumbers portion, both administered by PSI Examination Services. You get three attempts to pass within a twelve month period. On the commercial side, section 40-11-230 requires a grade of seventy percent or better on the technical examination for the classification and seventy percent or better on the South Carolina law examination.
Only from two states. The Residential Builders Commission has exam waiver agreements with North Carolina and Mississippi, and the waiver covers the technical portion only. You must still take and pass the South Carolina Business and Law portion. Holding a South Carolina Mechanical Contractors license by exam with a plumbing classification also waives the residential technical exam, but not the Business Management and Law exam.
The application is $135.00 and is paid by certified check or money order. The license on passing is $220.00. Renewal is $220.00, late renewal is $50.00 and reinstatement is $480.00. The Certificate of Authorization for a firm is $100.00 to obtain and $100.00 to renew. Renewals can be paid online with a checking account, Master Card, Visa or American Express.
Yes, once a job crosses the threshold. Section 40-59-240(D) requires a bond when the total cost of materials and labor for an undertaking for an individual property owner exceeds five thousand dollars. Regulation Chapter 106 sets the amount at not less than ten thousand dollars. The Commission's FAQ specifies a $10,000.00 surety bond, signed by the applicant with power of attorney attached, issued in your name as principal and not a company name.
The Commission's plumbing FAQ states the license is renewable every two years before June 30 of each odd year. Section 40-59-230(A) of the statute reads differently, saying the commission shall annually renew all licenses, while section 40-59-220(A) leaves the period to be established by the commission in regulation. Those primary sources do not agree, so diary the Commission's published cycle and confirm the expiry on your own license record.
The initial license is $350 and biennial renewal is $135. All Mechanical Contractor licenses expire October 31st in odd-numbered years, and General Contractor licenses expire October 31st in even-numbered years. Late fees run $100 in November, $150 in December and $200 in January, with $350 to reinstate after January 31. A lapsed license can be renewed retroactively within ninety days of expiration.
Your financial statement does, through the license groups in section 40-11-260(B). Mechanical Group One caps bids and jobs at thirty-five thousand dollars per job on net worth of seven thousand dollars. Group Two is one hundred thousand, Group Three two hundred thousand, Group Four four hundred thousand and Group Five unlimited on net worth of three hundred thousand dollars or working capital of two hundred thousand dollars.
Not on the face of the statute. Section 40-11-270(B) and (C) require display at the place of business, on commercial vehicles and on invoices and proposals only for mechanical contractors in the air conditioning, heating, or packaged equipment subclassifications. Plumbing is a separate subclassification and is not named. Chapter 40-59's only advertising provision, section 40-59-570, applies to home inspectors, not plumbers.
On the residential side, section 40-59-30(A) makes it a misdemeanor with a fine of not less than five hundred dollars or more than ten thousand dollars, or imprisonment for not less than thirty days, or both. Worse, section 40-59-30(B) bars an unlicensed contractor from filing a mechanics lien or suing to enforce the contract. On the commercial side, section 40-11-200(A) sets imprisonment of not more than one year or a fine of not more than five thousand dollars.
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