Does Kansas License Plumbing Contractors? What the Business Needs Instead

Only locally.

Kansas has no state plumbing contractor license: there is no state plumbing board to apply to, and any bond or insurance requirement for plumbing contractors is local too.

Kansas has no state plumbing license at any level — plumbers (journeyman, master) and plumbing contractors are licensed by the counties and cities that choose to require it, under uniform statewide standards in K.S.A.

12-1508 to 12-1511.

So the first stop for a plumbing business is the building or licensing department in the county or city where the work happens.

No state agency issues a plumbing contractor license in Kansas: where licensure is required, the issuing body is the county or city.

The classes are the ones the uniform standards recognize — plumbing contractor, master plumber and journeyman plumber — and a county or city that requires licensure determines the qualification of applicants for each.

Which Kansas jurisdictions run plumbing licensing programs, and under what office, our research did not verify; the local licensing examples our research flagged sit on the mechanical side and went unconfirmed.

Ask the building or licensing department for the city or county where you will work.

Our research did not establish a statewide qualifier rule for Kansas plumbing contractors — with no state contractor license, the statute leaves qualification to the issuing jurisdiction, which is in charge of determining the qualification of persons seeking licensure as plumbing contractors and master and journeyman plumbers.

What the statewide standards do fix is the experience behind the master certificate: a master plumber needs a valid journeyman certificate for a minimum of 2 years or field experience for a minimum of 4 years, verified by the issuing jurisdiction.

Our guide to the license qualifier explains the qualifier's role where a state license requires one.

The trade exams are Kansas's designated standard plumbing competency exams: ICC, IAPMO or Prometric, with a 75% passing score set locally.

Plumbing contractor licensure uses the same designated exams, so where a jurisdiction licenses contractors on them, a contractor applicant sits one of those rather than a state-run test.

Our research found no state business-and-law exam for plumbing contractors in Kansas — with no state license, any contractor exam requirement beyond the trade exam comes from the local jurisdiction, so ask what it requires before you schedule.

Kansas sets no state bond or insurance requirement for plumbing contractors: any bond or insurance rule, and its amount, comes from the county or city that licenses you.

The mechanical trade's statute is written the same way — Kansas sets no state HVAC contractor license, bond or insurance amount either, and any contractor requirements come from the local jurisdiction.

Our research did not confirm examples of local Kansas amounts, so before you bid, ask the building or licensing department where the work will be done what it requires of a plumbing business.

Our guide to contractor license bonds and insurance explains how surety bonds work where a state or city requires one.

There is no state fee to describe: a plumbing contractor license costs whatever the city or county that issues it charges, and our research did not confirm Kansas local fee amounts or renewal cycles.

The uniform piece is continuing education: local Kansas plumbing licensees must complete not less than 12 hours of continuing education every two years, or 6 hours annually, with at least half of it code education.

Confirm the current fee schedule, renewal date and CE acceptance with the licensing department where you hold or plan to hold the license.

Kansas's portability rule runs within the state, not across state lines.

A plumbing license based on the designated standard exams — ICC, IAPMO or Prometric — is valid in any other Kansas county or city that requires examination and licensure of plumbers, so a standard-exam license travels with you in state.

For credentials issued outside Kansas, our research did not find any out-of-state reciprocity agreement for Kansas plumbing licenses, and with no state contractor license there is no statewide reciprocity to join — ask the jurisdiction where you plan to work what it accepts before you bid.

There is no statewide qualifier of record to lose: Kansas issues no state plumbing contractor license, so no state process suspends your authority to contract when the person who qualifies your business leaves.

What happens locally depends on the city or county that issued your license, and our research does not describe any Kansas jurisdiction's process or deadline for naming a new qualifying party.

Before a qualifier gives notice, ask the licensing department what it requires — how the change is reported, and whether your authority to contract continues while the license is amended.

Counties and cities are the licensing bodies: any Kansas county or city may require the licensure of plumbers practicing within it, and the ones that do license plumbing contractors, masters and journeymen under the uniform standards in K.S.A.

12-1508 to 12-1511.

There is also a ceiling on what a city can add on top: a 1999 Kansas Attorney General opinion (1999-42), cited in the statute's annotations, says a city may not use its home rule power to require additional licensure requirements of plumbers, electricians and mechanical contractors beyond the state act.

Our research did not verify named local licensing offices, so before you take a job, ask the building or licensing department for that city or county what it requires of a plumbing business.