How Do You Get a Plumbing License in Maine?

Yes.

Maine requires a license for any individual who is engaged in plumbing or performing plumbing installations, and that license is a state license issued by the Plumbers' Examining Board.

Municipalities may not require plumbers to be municipally licensed, so the state license is the plumbing license everywhere in Maine.

One exemption the statute names is a homeowner working on their own single-family residence.

Maine's levels are Trainee Plumber, Journeyman-in-Training, Journeyman Plumber and Master Plumber.

A trainee assists and makes plumbing installations under the direct supervision of a journeyman or master plumber, and the statute caps that supervision: a master or journeyman may not have more than 3 trainees under their direct supervision.

Journeyman-in-Training is a single non-renewable 4-year license for plumbing-school, two-year high-school CTE and registered-apprenticeship graduates who have passed the journeyman exam.

At the top, the Master Plumber license is the license to engage in the business of installing plumbing: Maine has no separate plumbing contractor license.

The Trainee Plumber license is the entry point: the board may issue it without examination, it costs $100 plus a $21 criminal background check, and it requires employment by a licensed master plumber or an entity that employs one.

For the journeyman exam you need at least 2 years and 4,000 hours as a licensed trainee under a master plumber, or completion of a Maine two-year high school CTE plumbing program or a one-year community-college plumbing program.

The school routes lead first to the Journeyman-in-Training license ($200, one non-renewable 4-year term), which becomes a journeyman license after 2,000 hours under a master within those 4 years.

For the master license you need 1 year and 2,000 hours as a licensed journeyman, or 4 years and 8,000 hours as a licensed trainee under a master.

Journeyman and master licenses each cost $200 plus the $21 background check.

The journeyman and master plumber examinations are the Plumbers' Examining Board's, and the pass marks are set in statute: 70% for the journeyman exam, and no less than 75% for the master exam.

Our research did not capture the exam vendor or the code edition the exams test, so the board's examinations page is the place to confirm both before you schedule.

Maine plumbing licenses renew every two years.

Journeyman and master renewals cost $200, and a $50 late fee applies to licenses renewed up to 90 days after the expiration date.

On continuing education, our research found no CE requirement on the board's license or renewal pages, but the board's rules chapters were not part of what we read, so confirm the current CE rule with the board before you renew rather than assuming there is none.

Maine's plumbing statute authorizes licensing by reciprocity for plumbers licensed in another state or territory when that state's licensing standards and experience requirements are at least equivalent to Maine's and it grants similar privileges to Maine licensees.

Our research found no list of the states that meet that test, so ask the board directly which route applies to your license.

An out-of-state plumber can also apply to take the Maine exams: the board's journeyman and master examination application includes a pathway for applicants whose experience is out of state.

Maine's licensee search sits on the state's professional licensing site at maine.gov/pfr/professionallicensing, which the Plumbers' Examining Board's pages link to as the search for a licensee; a more exact search URL was not found in our research.

Start from the board's pages and follow that link before you hire, or before you take a job with an employer who says they are licensed.

Yes.

Propane and natural gas work is licensed separately from plumbing, by the Maine Fuel Board rather than the Plumbers' Examining Board: a Propane and Natural Gas Technician license carries one or more specific authorities (appliance connection and service up to 500,000 BTU is one), requires a board-approved training program before the exam, and gas helpers need no exam but must be directly supervised on site.

The plumbing statute then carves the fuel trades into the plumbing law: licensed oil burner technicians and propane and natural gas installers may make hot and cold water connections to existing piping in the same room as their installation without a plumbing license, and that exception goes no further than those same-room connections.