Plumbing Contractor License in Michigan: Requirements, Qualifier, Bond and Exams

Yes — statewide.

Michigan licenses plumbers through LARA's Bureau of Construction Codes (BCC), and the Plumbing Contractor license is one of four plumbing credentials the bureau lists: Apprentice Plumber registration, Journey Plumber, Master Plumber and Plumbing Contractor.

The contractor license is the one a contracting business runs on: its applicant must be a sole proprietor, partner, corporate officer or LLC member, and the journey and master plumbers who do the work hold their own credentials from the same bureau.

This page covers what the business needs.

Individual plumber licensing — how a hire moves from registered apprentice to journey to master — is its own topic.

The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) issues the license through its Bureau of Construction Codes.

The credential is a single Plumbing Contractor license; our research shows no class split within it.

One scope rule matters for staffing: Michigan does not recognize a medical-gas certification as a license, and med-gas work requires a plumbing license, so a medical-gas certification alone does not put a technician inside the license.

To check a license, LARA labels its Accela lookup as the place to find or verify a BCC licensed professional or business; we did not open the lookup itself, so confirm it covers Plumbing Contractor licenses before relying on it.

Michigan ties the business license to a master plumber.

Only a sole proprietor, partner, corporate officer or LLC member may apply, and the applicant must either hold a master plumber license or employ the holder of a master plumber license as its representative; the bureau will not issue the license without master plumber representation.

The experience behind that master license is specific.

A Journey Plumber must be at least 18 and have at least 6,000 hours over at least 3 years as an actively registered plumbing apprentice under a licensed master or journey plumber, passing both a written (PSI) and a hands-on practical exam on one application.

A Master Plumber then needs 4,000 hours as a journey plumber over at least 2 years immediately preceding the application, with no lapse in licensure, plus an exam.

Both steps carry their own exams, so qualifying a new master from inside your crew is a multi-year project, not a paperwork exercise.

The plumbing contractor applicant must pay the examination fee and pass the examination — LARA's application information page lists that as a condition of licensure.

Our research does not name a separate business-and-law examination for this license, and it does not describe the contractor exam's content or vendor, so confirm both with LARA BCC before you book study time.

The exams on record sit on the ladder beneath the contractor license: journey plumber candidates take a written exam through PSI plus a hands-on practical exam on one application, and the master plumber step adds its own exam.

So the master who represents your business has passed exams at both the journey and master steps; the contractor examination is the one on top.

Our research did not find a Michigan bond or insurance requirement for the Plumbing Contractor license: the LARA page we read states no bond amount and no insurance minimum.

That is a gap in our research, not a confirmed absence — ask LARA BCC what bond or insurance, if any, it requires before you apply or bid.

If a bond does turn out to be required, HVACHires' separate guide to contractor license bonds and insurance explains how these instruments work.

The license renews every three years by April 30 for $300, and a contractor who also holds the qualifying master license renews both licenses by entering the plumbing contractor license number, which starts with 80.

The master license itself renews on the same three-year, April 30, $300 cycle, and the credentials beneath it renew at $40 a year for a journey plumber and $15 a year for the apprentice registration.

Continuing education is light — journey and master plumbers have no routine CE and take a code update course only within one year of a new plumbing code being adopted, which does not happen every year.

Our research captured no CE rule stated for the contractor license itself; the no-routine-CE rule is written for journey and master plumbers.

The initial application and examination fee for the contractor license was not captured in our research, so ask LARA BCC for the current fee schedule.

We did not find a reciprocity provision for plumbing licenses on the LARA pages we read, so we cannot tell you whether Michigan accepts another state's master plumber license, waives exams for out-of-state holders, or credits out-of-state experience toward the 6,000-hour and 4,000-hour minimums.

Treat the Michigan requirements as fully applying to you until LARA BCC says otherwise, and confirm with the bureau before you staff a job around an agreement you have not verified.

The rule on record is at issuance: the license is not issued without master plumber representation.

What the bureau requires when your representative leaves is exactly what our research does not establish — we did not find a Michigan replacement deadline, so we cannot tell you how many days you have to substitute a new one.

Get that from LARA BCC before you need it, not after.

Our research also did not find whether one master plumber may represent several contractor licenses, so do not plan around sharing one.

And growing a replacement internally is slow by design: 4,000 hours as a journey plumber over at least 2 years, with no lapse in licensure, before that person can sit the master exam — and a journey license lapse of more than 60 days restarts the time accrual toward master, so keep the journey plumbers you are grooming continuously licensed.

Once the license is in place, crew staffing has its own ratio rule.

Since April 2, 2025, Michigan law (MCL 339.6117a) has limited direct on-site supervision to 1 journey or master plumber per 2 registered plumbing apprentices, on all plumbing work.

Apprentice registration is not a formality either: a plumbing apprentice may not be on a job site without an active registration, and time worked without one does not count toward the journey hours.

For a contractor that makes registration checks a scheduling task — confirm the active registration before the apprentice rolls, because the hours do not accrue while it lapsed.