Vermont · Plumbing licensing · official-source guide
Vermont licenses the individual plumber through the Plumbers' Examining Board in the Division of Fire Safety, at master, journeyman and P1, P2 and P3 specialist levels. There is no separate state plumbing contractor license; the master license is the business credential. Licenses run two years and renewal takes eight hours of continuing education, two of them code review.
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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.
Vermont licenses the individual plumber at state level. The license comes from the Plumbers' Examining Board, which sits inside the Division of Fire Safety at the Department of Public Safety. The Board's own page states that by statute it is responsible for the issuance, suspension and revocation of plumbers' licenses, for adopting plumbing rules, and for establishing inspection and permit fees. The Board has five members: an ex-officio chair representing the Commissioner, a public member, a licensed master plumber, a licensed journeyman plumber, and a representative of the Department of Health. It meets six times a year at 45 State Drive in Waterbury, and anything you want reviewed at a meeting has to reach the central office two weeks beforehand. There is no separate state plumbing contractor license in Vermont. The master plumber license is the business credential. The definition in the rules says a master plumber is any person who, as a business, designs or installs plumbing systems, hires or employs people to perform plumbing work, or supervises journeymen and apprentices. So the same wallet card that proves your competency is also what lets you run the company, employ plumbers and sign the work notices. What Vermont adds on the business side is a registration at a different agency entirely, the Secretary of State's Office of Professional Regulation, and licensed plumbers are carved out of it while they work within their scope. Those two pieces are covered further down.
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Vermont issues a master plumber license, a journeyman plumber license and a set of limited specialist licenses. The rules define a master plumber as the person who designs or installs systems, employs plumbers, or supervises journeymen and apprentices. A journeyman installs plumbing and water treatment or heating specialties under the direction of a master, may supervise an apprentice employed by that master, and may not act as a master. An apprentice works under a master or journeyman inside a program registered with the Vermont Apprenticeship Council. The specialist licenses are narrower and are listed by code. P1 Water Heater Specialist covers installation, replacement and repair of residential, industrial or commercial domestic water heaters and hot water supply tanks. P2 Heating System Specialist covers hydronic space heating including radiant and solar, with steam limited to systems not exceeding 15 PSI. A combined P1/P2 license exists and is priced as two specialty fields. P3 Water Treatment Specialist covers potable water treatment and filtration equipment, and also picks up well pressure tanks, pumps and municipal water meter installations. A specialist may work as an employee or as an independent contractor, but only inside the field printed on the license. A specialist may make a supply connection to an existing water supply for test and operation and nothing beyond that. The practical point for anyone bidding work is the inverse rule: a master plumber may perform all aspects of the trade under a specialist license without holding one, and a journeyman may do the same. The specialty license buys entry, not reach.
Sourcesfiresafety.vermont.gov
The Division's plumbing license application sets out the experience each credential needs. For the P1 and P2 specialist fields, the application fee is $50.00 per specialty field and the applicant qualifies either as a registered apprentice with 2,000 hours of experience, or with 4,000 hours of on the job training plus a minimum of 144 hours of formal instruction. For P3 Water Treatment the route is 4,000 hours of experience plus a board certified water treatment course. For the journeyman license the application fee is $90.00 and the standard route is 12,000 hours of on the job training for a completed apprentice, with 8,000 hours recognised for applicants coming in under the universal licensing or military reciprocal provisions. For the master license the application fee is $120.00 and the general pathway is 14,000 hours of experience, with 12,000 hours recognised under the universal licensing or military reciprocal route, and the applicant must have held a journeyman license for at least 12 months. The rules state the same 12 month condition a second time, and add that the Board will accept documented equivalent training and experience obtained in or outside Vermont. That equivalence clause is the door for an out of state plumber whose hours do not map cleanly onto an apprenticeship registered with the Vermont Apprenticeship Council. It is a Board decision, made at a meeting, on documents filed two weeks in advance, not a counter transaction.
Sourcesfiresafety.vermont.gov 1firesafety.vermont.gov 2firesafety.vermont.gov 3
The rules say the Board may contract with a national testing organization to develop and administer a written plumbing exam, and that any test fees charged by that organization are separate from the Board's own examination fee and are paid directly to the testing organization. The candidate information bulletin published on the Division's own site names Prov, Inc. as the contracted vendor and prices every Vermont Division of Fire Safety exam at $80.00. That bulletin is dated 2020.05.01, so confirm the current price with the licensing office before you budget it. Exams are computer delivered, scored at the testing centre, and graded against a cut score of 70 percent. The bulletin gives the Vermont Master Plumber exam as 102 questions in 3 hours, broken into general knowledge and plumbing math, fixtures and fittings, water heaters, water supply and distribution, sanitary drainage and indirect waste, vents, traps and interceptors, storm and roof drainage, plan reading and isometrics, and safety. The Vermont Journeyman Plumber exam is 83 questions in 3 hours across the same subjects. The Vermont Water Treatment Specialist exam is 40 questions in 2 hours and the Vermont Water Heater Specialist exam is 30 questions in 2 hours. The rules add a hard stop that most candidates never read: anyone who fails a plumbing licensing examination three times has to appear before the Board, which will recommend further education, training or tutoring, before a fourth attempt.
Section 10 of the 2025 Vermont Plumbing Rules prints the license and two year renewal fees and cites 26 V.S.A. section 2193(c) as the authority, with a footnote that they are subject to change by legislative process. A master plumber license is $120. A journeyman plumber license is $90. A specialist license is $50 per specialty field. Renewal costs the same as issue: master renewal $120, journeyman renewal $90, specialist renewal $50 per specialty field. A license certificate suitable for framing is $10. The license itself arrives as a wallet sized card, and the framing certificate is an optional extra you request. Because the specialist fee is charged per field, the combined P1/P2 Water Heater and Heating System license carries two specialty field fees rather than one, and the rules say so directly. If a license lapses it can still be renewed within 90 days of the expiry date on payment of a $15.00 reinstatement fee on top of the renewal fee. Past 90 days the license is inactive, and the holder must apply for reinstatement and appear before the Board in person to request it. That is a calendar problem rather than a money problem, because the Board sits six times a year and wants documents two weeks ahead of a meeting. A lapse that runs past the 90 day window can cost a contractor a working quarter.
A Vermont plumbing license is valid for two years. The Division sends a renewal notice and application before expiry, but the rules put the duty on the licensee: if no renewal form arrives before the expiry date, it is the licensee's job to contact the licensing office and ask for one. The renewal application and fee must reach the department before the license expires. Continuing education is eight hours of Board approved education or training completed within the previous 24 month period, and at least two of those eight hours must be code review. A course or training program counts for only one license renewal, so the same class cannot be used twice in a row. A copy of the completion certificate is acceptable evidence. Certificates have to carry the sponsor's name, course title, date and place, hours completed, the instructor's signature, and the attendee's full name and license number. Course sponsors get approval by filing course content, hours, instructor credentials, date and place, and instructional materials. Instructors are expected to be certified master plumbers, engineers, plumbing inspectors, vocational teachers with related experience, or otherwise acceptable to the Board. Subject matter has to deal with the adopted plumbing codes, license renewal protocol, or related material. Tests at training programs are optional. Representatives of the Board and the Department of Public Safety reserve the right to monitor any course. The Division also publishes a master list of approved continuing education on the state open data portal, linked from its plumbing page.
Sourcesfiresafety.vermont.gov 1firesafety.vermont.gov 2firesafety.vermont.gov 3
Section 8(E) of the rules sets out three ways into a Vermont license without sitting the examination. The first is a straight reciprocal license, available to a person already holding a master, journeyman or specialist plumber license from another state or a municipality in one, provided that jurisdiction maintains a standard of requirements equivalent to Vermont's. This route carries a condition many applicants miss: the exemption applies only if the issuing state or municipality grants a like exemption to plumbers licensed in Vermont. It is reciprocal in the literal sense, and a one way state does not qualify. The second route is for service members and veterans. A journeyman license is issued without examination, on payment of the fee, to an applicant who files a complete application, has been designated by the United States Armed Forces as a 12K Plumber or equivalent, and has completed a minimum of 8,000 hours and four years of active duty field work in that role. The third is universal licensing. An appropriate license may be issued without examination to a holder of a master, journeyman or specialty license from another state or municipality if that jurisdiction's standard is equivalent, the applicant supplies a state issued certificate of licensure and a letter of good standing, and the applicant completes the Vermont Energy Goals education module and includes the certificate with the application. The rules say plainly that a printed copy of a license alone is not accepted.
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Before any plumbing work covered by the rules begins, a work notice has to be filed with the department and validated. The rules make the translation explicit: the term permit as used in the 2024 International Plumbing Code has the same meaning as a work notice validated by the department. A license holder's listed duties include not beginning plumbing work until the work notice has been validated. The department can refuse to validate one if the license holder has other ongoing work with no notice filed, if fees or penalties are owed, or if the Plumbers' Examining Board asks it to. Three categories of work need no notice: replacing a fixture or appliance with a similar one on existing water supply, waste lines, fuel source and venting termination where the existing unit meets current code and is not being moved; maintenance or repair within an existing fixture; and replacing water supply and waste lines without relocating or adding fixtures. For ongoing work in an existing building the department may accept an annual plumbing work notice naming the building, its location, the responsible licensed plumber and the minimum fee. A validated notice expires if the plumber of record stops work under it, and becomes invalid if work has not started or has been suspended or abandoned for 180 days. A new notice is required when a different plumber of record takes over an existing project, which matters on any job you inherit from another contractor.
Sourcesfiresafety.vermont.gov
Section 15 of the rules prints the schedule, citing 26 V.S.A. section 2175(a), and it is charged per device rather than per job. For plumbing work identified as a priority for inspection and review under Section 18, the fee is $10 for every fixture, appliance or device in the first list, which covers washing machines, dishwashers, grease, oil, sand or neutralizing interceptors, sewage ejector pumps, water closets, urinals, bidets, disposals, drinking fountains and bottle fillers, water coolers, lavatories, bathtubs, showers, sinks, hose bibbs, eye wash and emergency showers, floor drains, roof drains, floor sinks, water meters, backflow prevention devices, and pressure reducing valves or similar devices. The total may not be less than $50. The fee is $15 for every item in the second list, which covers water heaters, domestic hot water coils, plate exchangers, boilers, hydronic fan coils, kick space heaters, unit heaters, solar panels, geothermal heat pumps, water treatment, well pump thermal expansion tanks, pressure tanks, thermostatic mixing valves, and domestic fire sprinkler heads or systems. That total also may not be less than $50. For plumbing work not identified as a priority, the fee is a flat $50. At the Commissioner's discretion, where an owner or licensed plumber asks for an inspection outside normal working hours for their own benefit, all fees payable under the section are doubled. Price that into any night or weekend schedule you promise a commercial client.
Sourcesfiresafety.vermont.gov
Section 11 lists the work that falls outside the licensing requirement, and knowing the list keeps you from bidding against people who are legally allowed to be there. A license is not required for plumbing and specialty work performed by an owner or the owner's regular employees in an owner occupied freestanding single family dwelling or its accessory outbuildings. It is not required for plumbing systems installed in laboratories for experimental purposes only. It is not required of a person who regularly employs a maintenance person whose duties include maintaining plumbing on that person's own property. It is not required for plumbing or specialty installations performed as part of a training project of a vocational school or other educational institution, although the installation must be inspected if the building is to be sold as a private dwelling or public building. It is not required of a person doing miscellaneous manual labor on their own property during which plumbing repairs or alterations are made. It is not required for construction, repair or maintenance of buildings used exclusively for agricultural purposes and animal housing on owner occupied farms. Finally it is not required of employees of any public or private water company who, in the main course of their employment, install, maintain or repair water supply pipes, meters or control valves. The scope rule sits alongside this: the rules apply to all public buildings whether or not connected to public water or sewer, and to all other buildings connected to public water or sewer, including owner occupied single family residences, which do not need a work notice when they are on private water and septic.
Sourcesfiresafety.vermont.gov
Vermont wrote the advertising violation straight into the penalty statute. Under 26 V.S.A. section 2197, any person who installs any plumbing or specialty installation, or who advertises as such, except as provided in section 2198, without first having obtained an appropriate license under the chapter, or who employs a person to perform plumbing work for which the employee is not licensed, or who procures a license wrongfully or by fraud, shall be fined not more than $1,000.00 for each offence. The phrase to read twice is or who advertises as such. The fine attaches to the advertisement itself, before a wrench is picked up. A website, a truck wrap, a directory listing or a service page that holds the business out as a Vermont plumber is exposed if the license behind it is not current, and each offence is counted separately. Vermont does not publish a rule that requires the license number to appear in advertising, and none was found in the 2025 rules. The obligation runs the other way: do not say it unless the license is live. On the disciplinary side, section 13 of the rules lets the Board revoke, suspend or refuse to renew a license for fraud or deceit in obtaining one, for gross negligence, incompetency, misrepresentation or misconduct by a licensee, for violating Department of Health or Department of Public Safety rules, or for failing to comply with a written notice issued under sections 2173, 2174 or 2175.
The license is issued as a wallet sized card, and the rules say the same thing three times, once for masters, once for journeymen and once for specialists: the license shall be carried at all times while performing the licensee's trade and shall be displayed upon request. A specialist license has to state each specialty field the holder is approved for, and the rules note that a specialist license does not take the place of any other license required by law. A framing certificate is available on request for $10. A licensed plumber who has filed a work notice picks up three more duties: keep records showing who accomplished the work covered by the notice, give the plumbing inspector at least five working days notice for any required inspection, and provide the inspector access to all plumbing work and records subject to inspection. Complaints go to the Board in writing, and the rules warn that once a complaint is filed the investigation is not limited to the matter raised and may extend to any act that comes to the Board's attention. The procedure in Appendix C is worth knowing before you need it. The department verifies the license number of the person complained about. If that person is unlicensed and the complaint alleges criminal conduct, the department refers it to the Office of the Attorney General. If the person is a licensee, an investigating panel of a department investigator and an assistant attorney general is formed, with the assistant attorney general heading the panel.
Sourcesfiresafety.vermont.gov
Vermont added a second, separate registration at a different agency. Under 26 V.S.A. section 5501 a person must register with the Office of Professional Regulation before contracting with a homeowner to perform residential construction for consideration of more than $10,000.00. The Secretary of State's own guidance puts the trigger at an estimated value of $10,000 or more inclusive of labor and materials. Residential construction is defined broadly and the list expressly names installation or repair of plumbing systems, alongside heating, solar, electrical, water and wastewater systems, and it covers dwelling units and buildings with four or fewer units. Section 5502 then exempts a tradesperson licensed, registered or certified by the Department of Public Safety while working within the scope of that license. A Vermont licensed plumber doing plumbing is inside that exemption. Other exemptions cover employees of a registered business organization, professional engineers and licensed architects, businesses working primarily through individually exempt employees, delivery or installation of consumer appliances and audio visual, telephone or computer network equipment, landscaping, work on structures not attached to a residential building, and emergency work where registration is sought within a reasonable time afterwards. The exemption is scope bound, which is the part that trips contractors. It protects the plumbing. It does not follow you into the bathroom remodel around the plumbing, the framing, the tile or the finish carpentry on the same invoice.
Sourceslegislature.vermont.gov 1legislature.vermont.gov 2sos.vermont.gov 3legislature.vermont.gov 4
If your work runs past the plumbing exemption, the Office of Professional Regulation prices individual registration at $75.00 and business registration at $250.00, with biennial renewal applications. The statute attaches real obligations. Section 5509 requires minimum liability insurance coverage of $1,000,000.00 per occurrence and $2,000,000.00 aggregate, and requires a person registered under the chapter to execute a written contract before receiving a deposit where the work exceeds $10,000.00. Section 5510 lists unprofessional conduct, which includes failing to use written contracts, failing to maintain the required insurance, deceptive acts in commerce, falsely claiming certification, and fraudulently obtaining registration documents. Section 5503 is candid about what the system is and is not: mandatory registration is intended to protect against fraud, deception, breach of contract and violations of law, and it does not establish workmanship standards. Section 5505 makes the Director responsible for receiving applications, issuing registrations and certifications to qualified applicants, and maintaining a registry of all registrants. An unregistered contractor may be subject to an injunction or a civil penalty, or both, for unauthorized practice. The general professions statute puts a number on that: 3 V.S.A. section 127 allows a civil penalty of not more than $5,000.00 per violation, whether the matter is brought in Superior Court or before a board or administrative law officer, and treats unauthorized practice as punishable by a fine of not more than $5,000.00 or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.
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Burlington is the clearest example of the municipal layer, and its own page is blunt about it. The City of Burlington adopts the State of Vermont Plumbing Rules, and states that its adoption of the rules and codes is no different and the same as the State of Vermont without exception. Then it adds reach. Burlington's City Charter oversees all structures including owner occupied single family homes, and State of Vermont Master Licensed Plumbers must secure permits where and when required before working in the city. Plumbing licenses are required to perform plumbing work in Burlington on all public buildings, and the city says that includes rental single family homes. In the home you actually live in, you may do your own plumbing work, secure your own plumbing permit, and follow the inspection process. The inspection sequence is set out: underground inspection before covering with clean earth or other approved permanent material, rough inspection before any walls are closed in, and a final inspection confirming completion and operation. Mechanical inspections are required for all HVAC permits, with a rough inspection before walls close and final plumbing inspections required to close out permits before the Building Official approves occupancy. The Building and Trades Division issues trades permits for mechanical, electrical and plumbing work separately from building permits. For inspections at rental properties, tenants must get 48 hours advance notice and the inspector must be met by the owner or local property manager, and by the contractor for MEP permits. State law backs the arrangement: 26 V.S.A. section 2174 requires municipal inspection standards to be at a minimum equal to state standards and lets the legislative body set reasonable inspection fees in lieu of fees charged by the State.
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The Division of Fire Safety publishes its license file as an open dataset rather than as a search form. The DFS Licensing MasterList on the state open data portal is attributed to the Division of Fire Safety and described as a master list of all active licenses with the Division. The columns are last name, first name, street address, city, state, zip code, license number, license expiry date, type description and level description. A plumber appears with a type description of Plumber and a level description such as Master, and a license number in the form PM-00000. The same file carries the other Division trades, so gas installers and oil installers show under their own type descriptions with their own number prefixes. That is the file a customer, a general contractor or a procurement officer can check your name against, and it is the file that shows an expiry date in plain text. Keep your name, address and expiry current in it, because the rules require a license holder to notify the department of a change of address and to provide all information requested by the department. Renewals for existing plumbing licenses can be filed through the Division's trade licenses web portal, but the portal page states that initial licenses for plumbing, electrical and elevator or conveyance are not available there. Licensing questions go to the Division at 802-479-7564 and the Board at 802-479-7561.
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These are common details other guides publish about Vermont, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes. The Plumbers' Examining Board, inside the Division of Fire Safety at the Department of Public Safety, issues master, journeyman and specialist plumbing licenses. The Board's page states that by statute it handles issuance, suspension and revocation of plumbers' licenses, adopts the plumbing rules, and sets inspection and permit fees.
No. The master plumber license is the business credential. The rules define a master plumber as a person who, as a business, designs or installs plumbing systems, hires or employs people to perform plumbing work, or supervises journeymen and apprentices. There is no second state plumbing contractor license to obtain.
Section 10 of the 2025 Vermont Plumbing Rules sets the master plumber license at $120 and the two year master renewal at $120. A journeyman license and renewal are $90 each. A specialist license and renewal are $50 per specialty field. A framing certificate is $10.
The Division's plumbing license application gives 14,000 hours of experience on the general pathway, and 12,000 hours for applicants coming through universal licensing or the military reciprocal route. The applicant must also have held a journeyman license for at least 12 months.
They are limited specialist licenses. P1 covers water heaters and hot water supply tanks. P2 covers hydronic space heating, with steam limited to 15 PSI operating pressure. P3 covers potable water treatment and filtration, plus well pressure tanks, pumps and municipal water meter installations. A combined P1/P2 license is priced as two fields.
Two years. Renewal requires eight hours of Board approved continuing education or training completed within the previous 24 months, at least two hours of which must be code review. A course counts toward only one renewal, so the same class cannot be repeated for the next cycle.
Within 90 days of the expiration date it can still be renewed on payment of a $15.00 reinstatement fee plus the renewal fee. Past 90 days the license is inactive, and the holder must apply for reinstatement and appear before the Board in person to request it.
Yes, under three routes. A reciprocal license requires an equivalent standard in the issuing state or municipality and a like exemption for Vermont plumbers there. Universal licensing requires a state issued certificate of licensure, a letter of good standing and the Vermont Energy Goals module. A veteran route covers 12K Plumbers with 8,000 hours and four years.
Under 26 V.S.A. section 2197, installing plumbing or a specialty installation without a license, advertising as such, employing an unlicensed person to do plumbing work, or procuring a license wrongfully or by fraud carries a fine of not more than $1,000.00 for each offense.
No rule requiring the number in advertising was found in the 2025 Vermont Plumbing Rules. The statutory exposure runs the other way. Section 2197 makes advertising as a plumber without a license a fineable offense in its own right, before any work is performed.
Not for plumbing. 26 V.S.A. section 5501 requires registration before contracting with a homeowner for residential construction over $10,000.00, but section 5502 exempts a tradesperson licensed, registered or certified by the Department of Public Safety while working within the scope of that license.
The Division of Fire Safety publishes the DFS Licensing MasterList on the state open data portal. It lists every active Division license with the holder's name, address, license number, expiration date, type description such as Plumber, and level description such as Master.
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