Contractor-license state (no state journeyman license)
Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board (OCILB), Division of Industrial Compliance, Department of Commerce runs plumbing licensing in Ohio. Below: the exact ladder, the transfer doors into Ohio 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.
Contractor-license state (no state journeyman license) Checked in part Checked October 22, 2026
Checked in part. The contractor-only model and the 5-year tradesperson qualification are from ORC 4740.06 and OAC 4101:16-2 (accessed 2026-10-22). Fee amounts, the PSI exam fee, renewal CE hours and reciprocity states appear only in secondary guides that conflict with each other (reciprocity listed as SC/TN/WV in one, AR/WV in another), so those figures are null and reciprocity is marked review rather than filled.
| The ladder | Ohio |
|---|---|
| Journeyman credential | No state journeyman license |
| Total hours required | not published |
| Classroom hours | not published |
| Apprentice registration | No state registration system |
| Exam | No state journeyman examination — Examination in Ohio begins at the contractor level (trade exam plus Ohio Business and Law exam). |
| License fee | Not published |
| Renewal | Every No state journeyman license to renew |
| Continuing education | No state journeyman CE; CE duties in Ohio attach to the OCILB contractor license |
| Master credential | Plumbing Contractor (OCILB) — Ohio's only state plumber license; there is no master license |
Registration, in the board’s terms: Ohio issues no state apprentice registration, journeyman license or master license for plumbers. The only state credential is the OCILB plumbing contractor license (see master field). Journeyman cards, where they exist, are issued locally — for example by cities such as Cincinnati and Columbus — or through apprenticeship programs, and are sometimes used as one form of documentation toward the state contractor application.
Plumbing Contractor (OCILB) — Ohio's only state plumber license; there is no master license: To qualify to take the examination under ORC 4740.06 / OAC 4101:16-2-01 (accessed 2026-10-22): age 18 or older; U.S. citizen or legal resident; and either 5 years as a tradesperson in plumbing immediately before the application, or current Ohio registered-engineer status with 3 years of business experience in the construction industry in the trade, or other experience acceptable to the Board's plumbing section; plus state and federal background checks and no disqualifying violations. The licensee must maintain contractor liability insurance in the amount the Board section determines, in only one contracting company name. The widely published $500,000 insurance figure comes from OCILB application guidance as reported by secondary sources and was not in the statute/rule text fetched in this pass, so it is noted here rather than recorded in ownerGate.
Trade exam plus Business and Law exam (PSI). Application and exam fee amounts were not stated in the primary statute/rule text fetched 2026-10-22, so examFee is null; secondary guides consistently report a $25 application fee but conflict on other amounts.
A lapse/reinstatement window for the OCILB contractor license was not stated in the primary statute/rule text checked 2026-10-22.
Reinstatement: Not confirmed on a primary source checked 2026-10-22.
Past the line: Not confirmed on a primary source checked 2026-10-22.
Ohio endorses journeyman licenses from: none. No journeyman reciprocity exists because there is no state journeyman license. Contractor-level reciprocity claims in secondary guides conflict (SC/TN/WV as full reciprocity vs AR/WV as a business-and-law waiver only) and were not confirmed on an OCILB primary page in this pass, so accepts is empty pending a primary check.
| Licensed in | Door into Ohio | |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Alaska | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Arizona | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Arkansas | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| California | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Colorado | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Connecticut | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Delaware | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| District of Columbia | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Florida | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Georgia | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Hawaii | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Idaho | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Illinois | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Indiana | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Iowa | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Kansas | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Kentucky | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Louisiana | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Maine | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Maryland | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Massachusetts | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Michigan | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Minnesota | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Mississippi | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Missouri | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Montana | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Nebraska | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Nevada | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| New Hampshire | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| New Jersey | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| New Mexico | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| New York | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| North Carolina | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| North Dakota | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Oklahoma | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Oregon | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Pennsylvania | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Rhode Island | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| South Carolina | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| South Dakota | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Tennessee | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Texas | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Utah | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Vermont | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Virginia | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Washington | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| West Virginia | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Wisconsin | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
| Wyoming | No endorsement — experience credit toward the contractor route | Run the pair → |
Included in the $49 PlumberLicenseCheck Kit
One payment. Yours to keep. The checkers above stay free either way.
The seat: OCILB-licensed Plumbing Contractor assigned to the company. The state license is held by an individual and may be maintained in only one contracting company name (ORC 4740.06, accessed 2026-10-22); the licensed contractor is the qualifying individual for that company. OCILB licensing is aimed at commercial contracting work, and local building departments commonly require the OCILB license before issuing commercial plumbing permits.
Journeyman-level credentials and most residential plumbing regulation are local in Ohio. Cities including Cincinnati and Columbus run their own journeyman/contractor registration or licensing, so the credential needed for a specific job depends on the city — the state OCILB contractor license alone is not a journeyman credential.
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Rules as published by Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board (OCILB), Division of Industrial Compliance, Department of Commerce and the statutes it administers, checked October 22, 2026. Board: https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-4740.06
