State ladder: apprentice → journeyman → master

Maine plumber license: requirements, reciprocity & renewal

Plumbers' Examining Board, Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation runs plumbing licensing in Maine. Below: the exact ladder, the transfer doors into Maine from all 50 states, the renewal and lapse lines, and the master-of-record rule for opening a company — every figure from the board's own publications, checked October 22, 2026.

State ladder: apprentice → journeyman → master Checked in part Checked October 22, 2026

How you qualify in Maine

• Trainee route: at least 2 years / 4,000 hours as a licensed Trainee Plumber under a licensed Master Plumber, then pass the journeyman examination.
• Journeyman-in-Training route: at least 2,000 hours as a licensed Journeyman-in-Training (the work must be obtained within 4 years of the JIT license), then pass the journeyman examination.

Registration, in the board’s terms: Maine licenses its entry level as a Trainee Plumber (fee $100 + $21 criminal background check, 2-year term), who must work under the direct supervision of a licensed journeyman or master plumber. A second entry license, Journeyman-in-Training ($200 + $21, 4-year non-renewable term), is for graduates of a board-approved 1-year/2-semester community-college plumbing program or a 2-year CTE / U.S. DOL apprenticeship program.

Run my Maine numbers in the eligibility checker

Plumbing license reciprocity into Maine

Maine endorses journeyman licenses from: none. 32 M.R.S. 3403-A authorises the Board to adopt reciprocity rules with states maintaining standards equivalent to Maine's, but the Board's licensing page names no reciprocal state, so any endorsement is by board review of equivalence, not from a published state list. (A secondary claim of a New Hampshire agreement was not confirmed on a primary source and is not used.)

Check your exact pair