Tennessee · Plumbing licensing · official-source guide
Tennessee licenses plumbing at state level through the Board for Licensing Contractors, and it runs two systems at once. The contractor license goes to the business entity with a qualifying agent and is required at $25,000 or more per project. The Limited Licensed Plumber license goes to an individual and covers work under $25,000 where the state Division of Fire Prevention handles permits.
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The Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors sits inside the Department of Commerce and Insurance, Regulatory Boards Division, at 500 James Robertson Parkway, Nashville, Tennessee 37243. It issues five separate credentials, and a plumbing business can touch two of them. The contractor license is the primary one. The board states that a contractor's license is required before contracting, including bidding, offering to engage or negotiating a price, for projects of $25,000 or more when acting as a prime contractor, certain subcontractor, or construction manager. The Limited Licensed Plumber license, or LLP, is the second. The board's own description is narrow: the LLP license is only required by plumbers performing work in a municipality utilizing the Division of Fire Prevention for permits or inspections, and it covers work less than $25,000 per project. General maintenance work under $500 is exempt from the LLP license entirely. The board's instruction to applicants is to check with local government first, because a city may accept the LLP or may run its own licensing. The statutory homes are different too. The contractor program starts at T.C.A. 62-6-101 and the LLP program at T.C.A. 62-6-401, with the board citing T.C.A. 62-6-403 on its LLP page. The rules follow the same split: chapter 0680-01 for licensing generally and chapter 0680-04 for limited licensed plumbers.
The dollar threshold is the single most useful number in Tennessee plumbing. A prime contractor, meaning one who bids or contracts directly with the owner, must hold a contractor license for any project of $25,000 or more. A subcontractor contracting directly with a contractor rather than the owner must hold a contractor license when that portion of the project is $25,000 or more, including materials, equipment and labor, and plumbing is named on that list alongside electrical, mechanical, HVAC and roofing. Construction managers and consultants need the license when the total project value is $25,000 or more. Masonry is the outlier at $100,000 or more. Below $25,000, the contractor license is not required, and that is where the Limited Licensed Plumber sits, covering work less than $25,000 per project in municipalities that use the Division of Fire Prevention for permits or inspections. Two traps follow. The board's application instructions warn that bidding to a homeowner acting as their own general contractor makes you a prime contractor, which pulls you back over the line at $25,000. And the board treats the threshold as applying to the act of bidding, not to the work performed: contracting without a license means bidding, offering a price or negotiating, so a bid submitted before the license issues is already the violation. Splitting a project into phases to get under the limit is specifically called out as circumvention.
Tennessee does not have a license called plumbing contractor. Plumbing is a classification inside the mechanical contracting family, and the board compiles the classification outline from T.C.A. 62-6-112, Rule 0680-01-.12 and Rule 0680-01-.16 of Appendix A. CMC is the full mechanical contracting classification and requires a trade exam. CMC-A is Plumbing and Gas Piping and requires a trade exam. The rest of the family: CMC-B Process Piping, no exam. CMC-C HVAC, Refrigeration and Gas Piping plus Solar HVAC, exam required. CMC-D Sprinklers and Fire Protection, exam required. CMC-E Insulation of Mechanical Work, no exam. CMC-F Pollution Control, no exam. CMC-G Pneumatic Tube Systems, no exam. CMC-H Temperature Controls, no exam. CMC-I Boiler Construction and Repairs, no exam. CMC-J Fuel Gas Piping and Systems, no exam. The board states that mechanical subcontractors performing mechanical work over $25,000 must be licensed as contractors. Medical gas piping is handled outside the CMC family as a specialty classification under T.C.A. 68-11-253, with no trade exam but a certification requirement of at least thirty-two hours of training including eight hours in brazing, based on the current edition of NFPA 99C, from the American Medical Gas Institute or the Piping Industry Progress and Education Trust Fund. Each license carries a classification and a monetary limit, and the classification defines what you may bid.
Sourcestn.gov
Tennessee gates the plumbing trade exam before you can even register for it. The board requires pre-approval to sit the CMC-A plumbing exam or the full mechanical CMC exam, and the request goes in on the Tennessee Plumbing Exam Pre-Approval Request form emailed or faxed to the board. There is a $50 fee associated with the request. The form requires verification of at least three years of plumbing work experience, notarized, and the applicant must certify being at least 18 years of age. Three documentation routes are accepted. You can attach verification from a municipality, county or city permit office of plumbing work, or attach a copy of a plumbing license from another agency in place of that page. You can answer that you are an employee of a plumbing contractor and give the license ID number, or attach copies of W-2s from employment with a plumbing contractor. Or you can attach documentation of an engineering degree in the plumbing or mechanical field, which substitutes for both experience pages. Once approved, the board notifies the exam provider within three days. Separately, the board looks at experience across the whole application and states that it prefers three years, alongside equipment and financial information. The person who sits the Business and Law exam does not have to be the person who sits the trade exam, and up to two people may take each exam for the company.
Every new contractor applicant takes the Tennessee Business and Law exam. A trade exam is required on top for certain classifications, and CMC-A plumbing is one of them. The board states the exam is open book, and that exams are typically valid for two years. Beginning July 1, 2026, Prov administers the exams for the Board for Licensing Contractors. Applicants already scheduled with PSI for a date after July 1 could keep that appointment or move to Prov, and PSI continued administering already-scheduled exams through September. The Business and Law exam is based on the NASCLA reference manual in the Tennessee edition. The board also accepts the NASCLA National Commercial exam. A Restricted Residential Limited License, BC-A/r, lets residential contractors doing work under $125,000 substitute an approved limited license course at a Tennessee community college or vocational school for both the residential trade exam and the Business and Law exam, but that route does not reach plumbing. The board's two published sources on the LLP trade exam do not agree, and both are the board's own. The LLP licensing page says the trade exam is administered through Prov and publishes no fee. The board's LLP application PDF describes a PSI exam of 40 questions with a 73 percent pass mark, 120 minutes allowed, and an exam cost of $55.00 stated as of July 1, 2011. Treat the older figure as unverified.
A Tennessee contractor license carries a monetary limit, and the limit is a financial calculation rather than a classification. The board computes it as ten times the lesser of working capital or net worth, plus required experience. Its own worked example: a $150,000 limit requires $15,000 in both working capital and net worth, and where working capital is $10,000 and net worth is $200,000 the limit is $100,000, because the lesser figure governs. An unlimited monetary limit requires $300,000 in both working capital and net worth plus experience. The statement has to be prepared by a licensed independent accounting firm, must be less than twelve months old at submission and must follow GAAP. A Reviewed statement is required for limits of $3,000,000 or less and an Audited statement for limits above $3,000,000. Beginning July 1, 2026 there is an alternative: contractors may use the Contractors' Surety Bond option instead of the CPA-reviewed or audited statement, and the bond must be in an amount equal to at least 50 percent of the monetary limit requested, on the board-approved form. Where the statement shows a deficiency the board requires an indemnity, either a Guaranty Agreement with a personal or parent company financial statement, or a bond in the board's format at $500,000, or $1,000,000 for unlimited limits. Indemnities expire at renewal and may not exceed two years. The monetary limit carries a 10 percent tolerance.
Sourcestn.gov
Tennessee ties the general liability minimum to the monetary limit rather than to the trade. Rule 0680-6-.02 sets three tiers and the board's Insurance Resource Information document repeats them in a table. A home improvement contractor, or a contractor whose limit runs up to $500,000, needs a general liability policy of not less than $100,000. A limit of $500,001 to $1,500,000 requires not less than $500,000. A limit of $1,500,001 to unlimited requires not less than $1,000,000. Rule 0680-6-.03 adds two procedural duties that get missed: a certificate of insurance must be provided when applying and again at every renewal, and the Board must be named as the certificate holder on the general liability policy. Workers' compensation is required as well unless proof of exemption is supplied. Owners, officers, partners and members of an LLC in the construction industry may register as a Construction Services Provider with the Tennessee Secretary of State to obtain an exemption from covering themselves, subject to the limits in T.C.A. 50-6-903, including no more than three officers of one corporation and a 30 percent ownership threshold for LLC members and partners. The board's insurance summary states plainly that Limited Licensed Plumbers are required to carry no insurance for licensing purposes, and then warns that local permitting agencies and bid awarding authorities may require insurance and bonding anyway.
The board publishes one fee page and all of the fees on it are non-refundable. On the contractor side, an initial application, a reinstatement or an ownership change costs $250. Renewal costs $200. The late renewal penalty is $20 per month for up to twelve months. A mode of operation change costs $100. A duplicate license costs $25. Retirement costs $25 per year of renewal for up to seven years, and every seven years a $200 reset fee is required to keep the license in retirement. On the Limited Licensed Plumber side the numbers are smaller: initial or reinstatement $75, renewal $50, late renewal penalty $10 per month for up to three months, duplicate license $5. The plumbing exam pre-approval request carries its own $50 fee. Two transactions cost nothing. A monetary limit increase or revision requested through the CORE account has no fee, though it must be accompanied by a current Reviewed or Audited statement less than twelve months old. A classification modification, which is how an existing licensee adds CMC-A, also has no fee, but requires the exam score or a trade exam waiver, an experience sheet, a certificate of insurance, and a Power of Attorney for a qualifying agent without ownership. Increases requested within the first year of licensure need special permission from the Board under Rule 0680-01-.14(4).
A Tennessee contractor license is issued for two years. The renewal option appears in the CORE account once you are within ninety days of expiration, and the board tells licensees to submit at least thirty days early to avoid working on an expired license. There is no grace period to operate while expired. The board's own example is blunt: if the license expires on July 31, a permit would be denied on August 1. Renewal rights, as distinct from permission to work, run twelve months with the $20 per month late fee. Past twelve months you cannot renew and must reinstate through the full new application process, with the trade exam waived and the Business and Law exam not required to be retaken. At renewal you upload a financial statement, a general liability certificate, workers' compensation or exemption registration, and proof of active status with the Secretary of State for corporations and LLCs. A renewal above $1.5 million needs a Compiled statement from a licensed CPA; below that a self-prepared balance sheet is accepted. Continuing education is narrower than most contractors assume. The board requires eight hours of continuing education with every biannual renewal for BC-A and BC-A/r contractors. Plumbing classifications are not named in that requirement. LLP and LLE licensees get a three month grace period and a $10 per month late fee, and past three months must reapply.
The board states it directly: you cannot operate in Tennessee with a license from another state, and there is no reciprocal agreement that allows working before obtaining a Tennessee license. What exists is a trade exam waiver. If you hold an active license in a participating state, and the Tennessee classification you want requires a trade exam, you may apply for a waiver by having that state complete the board's License Verification form and returning it with your application. The participating states and the licenses they cover are published by the board. Alabama covers General, Electrical, Residential and HVAC. Arkansas covers Commercial and Residential Building only. Louisiana covers Residential, Commercial, Electrical and Mechanical. Mississippi covers Residential, Commercial, Electrical and Mechanical Unlimited. North Carolina covers Residential and Commercial Building and Electrical. Ohio covers Electrical, Plumbing and HVAC. South Carolina covers the Commercial Contractors Licensing Board, commercial only, for Building, Electrical, HVAC and Plumbing. West Virginia covers Residential, Commercial, Industrial Building, Electrical, Mechanical and Masonry. Tennessee also accepts the NASCLA National Commercial exam. Two limits matter for plumbers. Of the eight states, only Ohio and South Carolina are listed as covering plumbing, and South Carolina only on the commercial side. And the waiver agreement applies only to contractors licensed with the Board. It does not apply to Home Improvement, LLE or LLP.
Sourcestn.gov
The board's license application instructions state the consequence in three parts. Contracting without a license, meaning bidding, offering a price or negotiating, is a violation of the law punishable by monetary penalties, and the license may be denied. The law prohibits participating on the project or in any re-bidding of it. And the board holds the offending license or application for up to six months. The citation is T.C.A. 62-6-120 throughout. A second violation is treated separately: a contractor or subcontractor who exceeds the monetary limit on the license gives grounds to reject the bid, and again prohibits rebidding or participating on the project. Bidding in a name other than the exact name as licensed is treated as unlicensed activity. The board's example is a contractor licensed as an individual, John Jones, who bids as John Jones, Inc.; that is an unlicensed entity, and the fix is a mode change through the license revision process or a second license before bidding in the new name. Anyone who has previously bid where a license was required must interview with the Board before licensure, as must anyone with complaints or convictions, and all blocks on the notarized Contractor's Affidavit must be checked with explanations attached. Enforcement reaches permits as well; the board disciplines contracting on an expired license as unlicensed activity.
Tennessee does not run its display rule through advertising. It runs it through the bid envelope, and this is where licensed plumbing subcontractors lose work on a technicality. Under the board's bidding instructions, citing T.C.A. 62-6-119, the name, license ID number, classification and expiration date are required to be on the outside of a bid envelope for the prime contractor and also for the subcontractors performing Electrical (CE), Plumbing (CMC-A or CMC), HVAC (CMC-C or CMC) and Roofing (BC-21, BC-12 or BC) when their portion of the bid is $25,000 or more, and Masonry (LMC) at $100,000 or more including materials and labor. Vertical closed loop geothermal projects add the company name, TDEC license number, classification and expiration date. The board notes that the issued license itself carries the same four items plus the monetary limit, so the envelope simply reproduces what the certificate already shows. The second display rule is naming. Contractors who own more than one business may only bid or contract in the exact name as licensed, and may not bid or contract under a separate entity name even though they own both. Checking a plumbing subcontractor before award means reading four fields off an envelope and matching them to the public record.
Metro Nashville and Davidson County issues its own plumbing trade permits through the Department of Codes and Building Safety at 800 President Ronald Reagan Way. The board limits the Limited Licensed Plumber license to plumbers working in a municipality that uses the Division of Fire Prevention for permits or inspections, and tells applicants to check with local government first, so confirm with Metro before relying on an LLP inside Davidson County. Metro's Trades Permits page states the operating rule for plumbing work in the city: only licensed contractors with an e-permit account can apply for a trade permit using the online system, and anyone who is not a licensed contractor or does not hold an e-permit account applies in person at the Department of Codes and Building Safety. Metro publishes a separate Plumbing Trade Permit Application alongside the Electrical and Gas/Mechanical applications, each with its own named contact in Permit Issuance. Nashville also maintains its own trade appeals body. The Mechanical, Plumbing, and Electrical Examiners and Appeals Board is listed among the Related Boards and Commissions of the Codes department, sitting beside the Fire and Building Code Appeals Board and the Property Standards and Appeals Board. For a plumbing contractor, the practical sequence in Nashville is the state contractor license at $25,000 and above, a Metro e-permit account, and a trade permit pulled per job through Metro rather than through the state.
Memphis and Shelby County run a joint permitting and inspection program under the Memphis and Shelby County Plumbing Code, adopted as the 2021 ICC International Plumbing Code with local amendments by joint ordinance of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners and the Memphis City Council. The joint ordinance states outright that a local program rather than state operation is in the community's interest. Section 112.1 requires a license to engage in or work at the business of plumbing, and provides that no state contractor or master plumber's name may appear on more than one plumbing license at a time. Section 112.2 requires a master journeyman plumber or the state contractor to be present on the job and in actual control whenever plumbing work is being done. Section 112.4.1 requires every registered or licensed plumbing contractor doing business in Memphis and Shelby County to file a permit bond with the Building Official in the penal sum of $25,000, issued by an incorporated insurance company authorized in Tennessee, with the total of all bonds capped at $50,000 where one entity holds two or more bonded licenses. A joint Plumbing Code Board of ten members, five appointed by the Memphis mayor and five by the county mayor, adopts the rules for examining license applicants.
This is the requirement a plumbing contractor in Memphis trips over, and it is written into the plumbing code rather than into any advertising ordinance. Section 112.5.5 requires that all advertisement by plumbing contractors or master plumbers, including but not limited to yellow pages, newspaper advertisements and listings, include the city and county license number of the master plumber and the name of the firm. Section 112.8 governs vehicles. All trucks and similar vehicles used by plumbing contractors or their employees must conspicuously display, on both sides of the body, in a color contrasting with the vehicle body, the full name of the firm in lettering at least two inches high on the top line, the wording MSC in lettering at least one and a half inches on the second line, and the contractor's license number. Section 112.8.1 lets a temporary vehicle carry a removable sign or decal letters meeting the same specification. Section 110.10.1 makes it a violation to exhibit any sign or advertise in any media representing yourself to be other than what you are licensed as, and Section 110.10.2 makes it a violation to advertise under any name other than the company name on file with the Office of Construction Code Enforcement. Section 110.10.4 sets the penalty at a fine of not less than $1.00 and not more than $50 per offense, each day a separate offense.
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Memphis and Shelby County license plumbers by grade locally. Section 112.7.1 requires a master plumber applicant to be a graduate engineer from an accredited college or university with at least four years of experience in the design and installation of plumbing systems, or a licensed journeyman plumber with a minimum of four years of experience installing plumbing systems as a journeyman. Section 112.7.2 requires a journeyman applicant to show a minimum of three years of experience installing or helping install plumbing installations. Section 112.7.3 requires every license holder to carry the license registration on their person while working. Section 112.10.1 expires every license on September 30, with renewal made during September, a $10 late fee after expiry, and a new application plus examination required if the license is not renewed within two years. Section 112.10.2 sets annual and renewal fees at $150 for a master plumber, $30 for a journeyman plumber, $12 for an apprentice plumber and $100 for a septic tank cleaner and installer, and Section 112.10.3 charges $15 per year to hold a license inactive. Statewide verification is separate and simpler. The board directs consumers to verify.tn.gov to look up a license or credential, check status and expiration dates and see public disciplinary actions, with results updated daily, plus a Verify a Qualifying Agent tool.
These are common details other guides publish about Tennessee, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes, through the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors in the Department of Commerce and Insurance. It runs two separate programs: a contractor license required at $25,000 or more per project, under T.C.A. 62-6-101 and following, and the Limited Licensed Plumber license under T.C.A. 62-6-401 and following for smaller work.
Both, separately. The contractor license is issued to the business entity and a Qualifying Agent sits the exams for it; the Qualifying Agent may be an owner, full-time employee or officer. The Limited Licensed Plumber license is issued to an individual who passes the LLP trade exam.
At $25,000 or more per project. A prime contractor needs the license at that figure, and a plumbing subcontractor contracting with a contractor rather than the owner needs it when the plumbing portion is $25,000 or more including materials, equipment and labor. The LLP covers work less than $25,000 per project.
The board states it is only required by plumbers performing work in a municipality that uses the Division of Fire Prevention for permits or inspections. General maintenance work under $500 is exempt. The board tells applicants to check first whether their local government accepts the LLP or runs its own licensing.
CMC-A, Plumbing and Gas Piping, which requires a trade exam. The full mechanical classification CMC also covers plumbing and requires a trade exam. The remaining CMC subcategories run from CMC-B Process Piping through CMC-J Fuel Gas Piping and Systems, and most of them require no trade exam.
At least three years of plumbing work experience, verified and notarized on the board's Plumbing Exam Pre-Approval Request form. Pre-approval is required before you can register for the CMC-A or CMC exam, and there is a $50 fee. A permit office verification, W-2s from a plumbing contractor, or an engineering degree in the plumbing or mechanical field can serve as proof.
An initial application, reinstatement or ownership change is $250 and renewal is $200, with a $20 per month late fee for up to twelve months. An LLP license is $75 initial or reinstatement and $50 to renew, with a $10 per month late fee for up to three months. All board fees are non-refundable.
It depends on your monetary limit. Rule 0680-6-.02 requires not less than $100,000 for a limit up to $500,000, not less than $500,000 for $500,001 to $1,500,000, and not less than $1,000,000 for $1,500,001 to unlimited. The Board must be named as certificate holder. LLP licensees are not required to carry insurance for licensing.
Ten times the lesser of working capital or net worth, plus required experience. An unlimited limit requires $300,000 in both. A Reviewed financial statement covers limits of $3,000,000 or less and an Audited statement is required above that. From July 1, 2026 a surety bond equal to at least 50 percent of the requested limit can replace the CPA statement.
Not for the license itself. The board states you cannot operate in Tennessee with another state's license. It does waive the trade exam for active licensees from eight states, and of those only Ohio and South Carolina cover plumbing, South Carolina on the commercial side only. The waiver does not apply to the LLP.
Under the board's bidding instructions citing T.C.A. 62-6-119, the name, license ID number, classification and expiration date go on the outside of the bid envelope for the prime contractor and for the plumbing subcontractor when the plumbing portion is $25,000 or more. You must also bid in the exact name in which you are licensed.
Yes. Section 112.5.5 of the Memphis and Shelby County Plumbing Code requires all advertisement by plumbing contractors or master plumbers, including yellow pages, newspaper advertisements and listings, to include the city and county license number of the master plumber and the name of the firm. Vehicles must carry the firm name, the wording MSC and the license number.
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