Plumbing License Vermont: A Two-Year Card, Free Specialties for Masters, and a 12-Month Master Route (2026)

Vermont licenses plumbers at the state level through a single board, the Plumber's Examining Board, and one license covers the whole state. There is no city or county plumbing license layered on top, and no separate company license anywhere in the chapter.

At a glance

• One state license covers master, journeyman, and three specialty fields, issued by the Plumber's Examining Board inside the Division of Fire Safety.
• A Vermont plumbing license runs two years; a master or journeyman pays nothing for the three specialty licenses, 26 V.S.A. § 2193(d).
• Journeyman to master takes as little as 12 months, with no additional hour count stacked on top of that year.
• Exams run $80.00 each through Prov, graded on a 70% cut score, with two free retakes and no waiting period between attempts.
• Vermont issues no plumbing contractor license or company license; the master's license itself is the business's operating authority.

For the national view of how a trade license ladders up to contracting authority in every state, see how to get a contractor license in each state.

The governing law is 26 V.S.A. Chapter 39, not Chapter 17 or Chapter 47, both of which turn up in third-party summaries of Vermont licensing. The working technical standard is the Vermont Plumbing Rules, 2025 Edition V2, adopted by the Board, and it carries forward the state's updated base plumbing code, the 2024 International Plumbing Code, in place of the 2021 edition some older guides still cite. Anyone still citing the 2021 edition as current is working from an outdated code cycle.

Three things about Vermont's plumbing ladder are unusual enough that they change how a person plans a career, or a company plans its staffing, here:

• A Vermont plumbing license runs two years, while a Vermont electrical license from the board down the hall runs three. Same division, same building, different clock.
• A licensed master or journeyman plumber pays nothing for the three specialty licenses. The statute exempts them by name.
• A journeyman can become a master in 12 months flat, with no added hour requirement once that year of licensed journeyman work is logged.

This guide walks the whole ladder, the exam itself, the fee schedule, the work-notice regime that governs when a job can legally start, and the point where an individual's license becomes the thing a company has to have in place to operate at all.

The six plumbing credentials, and the one that is not a license

The Division of Fire Safety issues six plumbing credentials, and its own licensing ledger uses these codes:

• PM, Master Plumber. Defined at 26 V.S.A. § 2172(2) as a licensed person who, as a business, installs plumbing systems, hires or employs people to do plumbing work, or supervises journeyman or apprentice plumbers.
• PJ, Journeyman Plumber. Installs plumbing and water treatment or heating specialties under the direction of a master plumber. Section 2172(3) is direct: a journeyman plumber shall not act as a master plumber.
• PS, Plumbing Specialist. The umbrella designation for the three limited licenses below.
• P1, Water Heater Specialist.
• P2, Heating System Specialist.
• P3, Water Treatment Specialist.

There is also an apprentice plumber, defined at § 2172(4), and it is not a license the Board issues. An apprentice works for or under the direction of a master or journeyman plumber, under an apprenticeship program registered with the Vermont Apprenticeship Council, supervised on the job by that master or journeyman. Registration for that program sits with the Apprenticeship Council, not with the Plumber's Examining Board.

Note what is missing from the list above: there is no plumbing contractor license and no company license in Vermont. The state does not issue a credential to a business at all, only to individuals. That structural fact drives the qualifier discussion later in this guide.

Journeyman plumber: the Board's application form lists four ways in

Per the Division of Fire Safety's plumbing license application instructions, the journeyman application fee is $90.00, and an applicant must document at least one of the following:

• A Certificate of Completion from the Vermont Apprenticeship Council. This is the route the statute is written around. Section 2192 requires documented apprenticeship training that includes both instruction and practice in work processes, verified by the Council.
• The completed-apprentice route. Documentation of instruction, training, and experience in or out of state acceptable to the Board, including at least 12,000 hours of on-the-job training.
• The form's "Universal License" box. Currently licensed outside Vermont at a level equal to a Vermont journeyman, with a certified letter of licensure from the issuing state, proof of any apprenticeship or schooling that license required, and 8,000 hours of experience.
• Reciprocal military license. Under § 2194(b), a journeyman's license issues without examination to a service member or veteran designated by the U.S. Armed Forces as a 12K Plumber or equivalent, who has completed at least 8,000 hours and four years of active duty field work in that role, with a copy of the DD-214. The veteran window in § 2194(c)(2) runs from a discharge no more than two years before the application is filed.

Every hour on the experience routes has to be documented on the Board's Employer Affidavit of Experience form, signed by a licensed master plumber, notarized, and submitted as a signed original. The affidavit form warns the person signing it directly: providing false information to the Plumber's Examining Board about the experience claimed is grounds for disciplinary action against that person's own license.

The statutory endorsement route the form doesn't spell out

The application form's "Universal License" checkbox is not the only door for an out-of-state plumber. Underneath it sits 26 V.S.A. § 2194(a)(2), added by 2017, No. 119 (Adj. Sess.), titled in the statute itself "Uniform process for endorsement from other states." It requires the Board to issue a master, journeyman, or specialist license to anyone who has been licensed in good standing in another U.S. jurisdiction for at least three years, regardless of whether that jurisdiction extends reciprocity to Vermont licensees, a materially different and more lenient standard than either the traditional reciprocity in § 2194(a)(1) or the form's own 8,000-hour and 12,000-hour documentation requirements. The Commissioner can tighten the rule for a specific jurisdiction found not protective enough of the public, and can also waive the three-year practice requirement on a showing that the public stays adequately protected. An applicant whose documented hours don't match the form's figures, but who has held an out-of-state license in good standing for three years or more, should raise § 2194(a)(2) directly with the Board rather than assume the 8,000-hour or 12,000-hour path is the only option.

Master plumber: 12 months, or 14,000 hours

This is the tier that surprises people coming from other states. The master plumber application fee is $120.00, and the application's qualifying routes are:

• Hold a valid Vermont journeyman license for at least 12 months. That is the statutory floor under § 2191, not a guideline, with no extra hour count layered on top of it.
• Be currently licensed outside Vermont, for one year, at a level equal to a Vermont journeyman, with proof of the schooling and experience that license required.
• The form's "Universal License" box for master. A certified letter of licensure from the issuing state (a photocopy alone is not accepted) plus proof of required schooling and 12,000 hours of experience.
• Reciprocal military license. Discharge documentation, 12K course completion or equivalent, and 12,000 hours.
• The pure-experience route. Documented instruction, training, and experience acceptable to the Board, including at least 14,000 hours.

The same § 2194(a)(2) endorsement right covers master-level applicants too: three years of good-standing licensure elsewhere, regardless of reciprocity, is a separate statutory path from the form's hour-based "Universal License" box. After qualifying on any of these paths, the applicant still has to pass the master examination and pay the license fee.

Two things worth sitting with here. First, 12 months as a Vermont journeyman is a single statutory year with no additional hour count stacked on top of it, a flat calendar requirement rather than an hours-based one. Second, look at the gap between the two experience routes: journeyman-by-experience takes 12,000 hours, master-by-experience takes 14,000. Only 2,000 hours, roughly one working year, separates the two tiers on paper.

The three specialty licenses, and why they cost masters and journeymen nothing

Specialty licenses are authorized at 26 V.S.A. § 2192a. The application fee is $50.00 per specialty field, and each specialty has its own qualification path:

• P1 Water Heater Specialist and P2 Heating System Specialist. Either register as an apprentice with the Vermont Apprenticeship Council, required since September 1, 2011, and document 2,000 hours covered by a Vermont Department of Labor completion certificate; or document 4,000 hours of on-the-job training by affidavit from a licensed P1, P2, or master plumber, plus at least 144 hours of formal instruction, roughly one year of school. An applicant checks both boxes on the application to pursue P1 and P2 together.
• P3 Water Treatment Specialist. Either 4,000 hours documented by affidavit from a P3 specialist or master plumber plus a board-certified water treatment education course, or documented instruction, training, and experience acceptable to the Board.

Now the part almost nobody publishes. Section 2193(d) states plainly that master and journeyman plumbers are exempt from paying license or renewal fees as specialists. A Vermont master or journeyman can hold all three specialty licenses, water heater, heating system, and water treatment, at no license or renewal cost at all. Section 2193(f)(1) stacks a second exemption on top: a master or journeyman who completes the state's energy-goals education module once is not required to complete it again for any additional specialty license.

The scope limits still apply, and they matter in practice. Under § 2192a(b)(2), the Heating System Specialist covers residential, industrial, or commercial hydronic space heating, including radiant and solar design, but any work on steam systems is limited to an operating pressure not exceeding 15 PSIG. Section 2192a(d) is just as firm in the other direction: a specialist may make a supply connection to an existing water supply to test and operate the system, but at no time may a specialist perform plumbing or heating work outside the field named on the license.

The exam: $80, a 70% cut score, and what happens if you fail

Exams are administered through Prov, Inc., the testing vendor the Division contracts with, and the Division's own licensing page links Prov's current candidate information bulletin for testing instructions. Under § 2193(a)(1), when an outside testing service administers the exam, the exam fee may be paid directly to that service rather than to the Board.

The bulletin, dated 2026.01.01, spells out numbers the statute leaves to the Board:

• Every exam costs $80.00, computer-administered, whether it is the journeyman exam, the master exam, or a specialty exam.
• The passing cut score is 70% on every Division of Fire Safety trade exam, plumbing included.
• Vermont Journeyman Plumber runs 80 questions in 3 hours; Vermont Master Plumber runs 97 questions in 3 hours. The P1 exam runs 30 questions in 2 hours, P2 runs 50 questions in 2.5 hours, the combined P1/P2 exam runs 60 questions in 3 hours, and P3 runs 40 questions in 2 hours.
• A failed candidate gets two more attempts within the eligibility period, with no mandatory waiting period between sittings; the retake fee matches the original $80.00.
• A review of missed questions is available only after failing the same exam category at least twice, and only to candidates who scored within 10 points of the 70% cut score; the review costs the same as the exam itself.
• A hand-score recheck costs $25.00, and the request form must be received by Prov within 90 days of the test date.
• Testing happens at Prov centers nationwide, including two Vermont sites, Northern Vermont University's Lyndon campus in Lyndonville and the Manchester Tutorial Center in Manchester Center, or remotely through Prov's Examroom proctoring service for candidates whose computer and internet meet Prov's minimum specifications.

Process details that cost people weeks when missed, on the application side rather than the exam side:

• Applications must be notarized. Unsigned, un-notarized, or whited-out applications are returned. An applicant can bring an unsigned application and photo ID to the Division's Central Office in Waterbury and have it notarized there.
• Applications must be postmarked or dropped off two weeks before the Board meeting date. Miss that window and the application lands on a future agenda. There is no way to shortcut it.
• Only original copies are accepted, in blue or black ink. The Employer Affidavit can be emailed or faxed to an employer for completion, but the signed, notarized original has to come back and go into the packet.
• Three references, unrelated to the applicant, with knowledge of the applicant's plumbing background, are required.
• Four compliance questions must be answered and signed: child support (15 V.S.A. § 795), taxes (32 V.S.A. § 3113), unemployment compensation (21 V.S.A. § 1378), and judicial bureau fines (4 V.S.A. § 1110). These cover Vermont obligations only, and an unresolved one can hold up a license that is otherwise fully qualified.

Fees, the two-year clock, and the 90-day cliff

License and renewal fees, set at 26 V.S.A. § 2193(c):

Notes on the table: renewal fees match the initial license fee in every row, specialist renewals are free for a licensed master or journeyman under § 2193(d), and a late reinstatement inside 90 days costs $15.00 on top of the renewal fee under § 2195(b). Exam and retest fees run $80.00 each, paid to Prov directly, separate from the license fees above. These amounts are set by the Legislature, the Board, and the testing vendor, and they change; verify the current figures with the Division of Fire Safety at 802-479-7564 before sending a check.

The renewal calendar. Section 2195(a) sets every license to expire on the last day of a month the Board designates, and a license is valid for two years. There is no statewide common expiration date; the month is assigned, so two plumbers hired the same week can land on different renewal months entirely.

The 90-day cliff. This is the detail to circle on a calendar. Under § 2195(b), a licensee who misses the expiration date may reinstate within 90 days by paying the $15.00 reinstatement fee plus the renewal fee. Under § 2195(c), a licensee who fails to renew within 90 days must appear before the Board to request reinstatement. Not a bigger fee. Not a form. A personal appearance in front of a five-member board that meets on its own schedule, with the same two-weeks-before-the-meeting filing rule governing that request. Ninety-one days late is a materially different problem than ninety days late.

Continuing education. Section 2195(d) requires renewal applicants to provide evidence of eight hours of continued training or instruction, approved by the Board, within the previous 24-month period. Separately, § 2193(f) requires an energy-goals education module, capped at two hours, as a condition of both initial licensure and renewal, a requirement added by S.220 in the 2020 session and applied to applications filed on or after July 1, 2021.

Section 2181(f) also requires the Board to review its own continuing-education requirements at least once every five years and report the results to the Commissioner, who may order them changed within 45 days of that report. Vermont's CE rules are built to be revisited, so re-check them before each renewal window rather than relying on what applied two cycles ago.

Before a wrench turns: the work notice

Vermont does not let plumbing work start on a whim. Under § 2175(a), work in installations subject to the Board's rules shall not commence until a work notice has been received and validated by the Department of Public Safety, with the fee paid in advance:

• $10.00 per fixture, with a total not less than $50.00, for washing machines, dishwashers, grease traps, oil interceptors, sand interceptors, sewage ejector pumps, water closets, urinals, bidets, disposals, drinking fountains, water coolers, lavatories, bathtubs, showers, sinks, hose bibs, floor drains, and similar devices.
• $15.00 per fixture for water heaters, hydronic heating units, domestic hot water coils, and water treatment devices.
• $50.00 flat for plumbing work not identified as an inspection priority.
• Double the whole schedule when an owner or installer requests an inspection outside normal working hours.

Enforcement sits right behind the fee schedule. On finding a violation, the Commissioner may order correction, invalidate the work notice, issue a cease-and-desist order, order the water or sewer utility to disconnect service, order the fuel supplier to cut the fuel supply, issue an administrative citation, or combine several of those at once. Section 2175(d) allows an administrative penalty of up to $1,000.00 per violation against a person licensed or unlicensed. Section 2175(f) makes violation of a Board rule prima facie evidence of negligence in a civil damages action arising from it, meaning a code violation does part of a plaintiff's work in court before the case even starts.

Vermont's plumbing rules do not reach every building. They apply to all public buildings, whether or not connected to public water or sewer, and to any other building connected to a public water or sewage system. Owner-occupied single-family residences not on public water or public sewer sit outside the rules entirely. Section 2198 adds further carve-outs: work by an owner or the owner's regular employees in an owner-occupied, freestanding single-family dwelling and its accessory outbuildings; laboratory installations for experimentation only; a property owner who regularly employs their own maintenance person; vocational-school training projects, inspected if the building is later sold; miscellaneous manual labor on one's own property; buildings used exclusively for agricultural purposes and animal housing on owner-occupied farms; and water-company employees working on supply pipes, meters, or control valves.

The penalty clause that reaches the employer

Most state plumbing penalty statutes punish the unlicensed worker alone. 26 V.S.A. § 2197 reaches three separate people, and the second one is the one business owners need to read twice. A fine of not more than $1,000.00 for each offense applies to any person who:

1. installs plumbing or a specialty installation, or advertises as such, without first holding the appropriate license;
2. employs a person to perform plumbing work for which that employee is not licensed; or
3. procures a license wrongfully or by fraud.

Clause two is an employer-liability clause. A Vermont company that puts an unlicensed person on licensed plumbing work is exposed on its own, separately from whatever happens to the worker. Pair it with § 2192a(c), which states that a specialty business may hire or employ only people licensed in the specialty of the business, and Vermont has written the same rule twice: the people doing licensed work must actually hold the license, and must actually be the company's employees.

Where the qualifying agent fits in a state with no company license

Vermont never issues a plumbing license to a business, so the question "how does my company get licensed?" has no direct answer here, and that gap is exactly where owners get caught out.

What Vermont does instead is put the business inside the definition of the individual license. Section 2172(2) defines a master plumber as a person who, as a business, installs plumbing systems, hires or employs people to do plumbing work, or supervises journeymen and apprentices. Section 2172(3) says a journeyman works under a master's direction and shall not act as a master plumber.

Read together, the master's license is not merely a personal credential in Vermont. It is the operating authority of the plumbing business, and there is nothing else for the company to hold.

That has a consequence owners discover the hard way. If the master plumber anchoring a Vermont company retires, resigns, or dies, the company does not lose "a license"; it loses the only license there ever was, and work stops. Unlike states with an entity license and a statutory replacement window, Vermont's plumbing chapter gives no notification clock and no grace period, because there is no entity license for a clock to attach to.

The lawful way to solve that is to bring a licensed Vermont master plumber into the business as a full-time W-2 employee who genuinely directs and stands behind the company's plumbing work. That is what a qualifying agent is: a licensed professional who QUALIFIES the company, either as an owner or as a full-time employee who actually supervises the work the license covers. Vermont's own statutory language supports the point well, because § 2172(2) is written around a person who hires or employs, and § 2192a(c) is written around a business that may hire or employ only people licensed in its specialty. The statute describes employment, not a paper arrangement standing in for it.

The Licensing Company places qualifying agents strictly as full-time W-2 employees, never on a percentage, a flat fee, a per-project basis, or a 1099. That employment structure is the only one that matches what Vermont's plumbing chapter actually asks for. A business that needs a master in place to keep a Vermont plumbing company operating can look at hiring a qualifying agent or our contractor qualifier services; a Vermont master plumber weighing the other side of that market can look at becoming a qualifying agent.

Where residential contractor registration, and the insurance question, come in

Vermont has no general contractor license, but since April 1, 2023 it has run a residential contractor registration through the Secretary of State's Office of Professional Regulation, created by Act 182 of 2022 and codified at 26 V.S.A. § 5501. Any residential contractor performing residential construction valued at $10,000 or more, inclusive of labor and materials, has to register.

Registration runs $75.00 for individuals and $250.00 for business organizations, renewed on a biennial cycle, and requires proof of liability insurance of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, submitted at initial registration and at each renewal, under § 5509.

This is also where a search for "plumbing insurance Vermont" gets its real answer. 26 V.S.A. Chapter 39, Vermont's plumbing licensing chapter, does not itself set an insurance minimum for a master, journeyman, or specialist license. The million-dollar liability figure belongs to the separate residential contractor registration, not to the plumbing license. Plumbers get a carve-out from that registration, too: OPR's own exemption language excludes any tradesperson licensed, registered, or certified by the Department of Public Safety while working within the scope of that license. A licensed Vermont plumber doing plumbing work does not separately register, and does not owe that $1,000,000/$2,000,000 minimum on the strength of the plumbing license alone.

Step outside that scope, taking on the general remodel around the bathroom that plumber was hired to plumb, and the exemption stops covering that part of the job, pulling the registration and its insurance requirement back in. The fuller picture of that second layer is in our Vermont contractor license guide.

What this costs

Vermont's own charges are small and public: $120 for a master license, $90 for a journeyman, $50 per specialty, each covering a two-year term, plus $80 per Prov exam and the work-notice fees that apply on every job. Where cost actually becomes a question is the business layer: what it takes to have licensed authority standing behind a Vermont plumbing company when the owner does not personally hold the master credential.

There is no list price for that, and any figure published elsewhere is unlikely to fit most situations. It moves with the trade, the scope of work, the risk profile, the volume of work being qualified, and how quickly a company needs someone in place. A two-person residential shop and a commercial mechanical operation are not the same engagement. For a straight answer on a specific situation, talk to a qualifying agent specialist about the actual case.

Your Vermont plumbing roadmap

1. Register an apprenticeship with the Vermont Apprenticeship Council and start logging supervised hours under a master or journeyman.
2. Finish the apprenticeship and get the Council's Certificate of Completion, or assemble 12,000 hours on Employer Affidavit of Experience forms signed by a licensed master plumber.
3. File the notarized journeyman application ($90.00) at least two weeks before a Board meeting, then pass the journeyman exam ($80.00) through Prov, scoring 70% or better.
4. Work 12 months as a licensed Vermont journeyman, then file the master application ($120.00) and pass the master exam. On the hours route instead, plan for 14,000 hours rather than 12,000.
5. Add P1, P2, and P3 at no license fee once licensed as a master or journeyman; § 2193(d) exempts specialty fees for both tiers.
6. Renew every two years with eight hours of Board-approved continuing education in the previous 24 months, plus the energy-goals module. Do not cross the 90-day line.
7. Qualify the business. A Vermont plumbing company needs a licensed master plumber genuinely employed by it and directing its work, whether that is the owner or a qualifying agent.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a plumbing contractor license in Vermont? No. Vermont issues plumbing licenses to individuals only: master, journeyman, and the three specialties. There is no entity or company plumbing license anywhere in 26 V.S.A. Chapter 39. The master plumber's license, defined in § 2172(2) as a person who installs plumbing as a business and hires or employs others to do the work, is what stands behind a Vermont plumbing company.

How long does it take to become a master plumber in Vermont? The statutory minimum after holding a Vermont journeyman license is 12 months, under § 2191, a flat calendar requirement with no added hour count once that year is logged. Getting to journeyman is the longer part: a registered apprenticeship, or 12,000 documented on-the-job hours. Coming in entirely on hours instead of a Vermont apprenticeship, master requires 14,000.

How much does a Vermont plumbing license cost? Under § 2193(c): $120 master, $90 journeyman, $50 per specialty field, with renewals at the same amounts and a $15 reinstatement fee for renewals filed within 90 days of expiration. A framing certificate costs $10. The Prov exam adds $80 per attempt, including retakes. All of these figures are set in statute, by the Board, or by the testing vendor, and are subject to change, so verify with the Division of Fire Safety before applying.

What score do I need to pass a Vermont plumbing exam? 70%. Prov's current candidate information bulletin sets a 70% cut score on every Division of Fire Safety trade exam. A candidate who fails gets two more attempts with no required waiting period, at the same $80 fee each time, and can request a review of missed questions after failing the same exam twice, provided the score was within 10 points of passing.

Do master plumbers in Vermont have to pay for specialty licenses? No. Section 2193(d) exempts master and journeyman plumbers from paying license or renewal fees as specialists. Section 2193(f)(1) also excuses them from repeating the energy-goals education module for any additional specialty license. The scope limits on each specialty still apply regardless of the fee exemption.

Does Vermont require insurance for a plumbing license? No. 26 V.S.A. Chapter 39 sets no insurance minimum for a master, journeyman, or specialist plumbing license. The $1,000,000 per occurrence, $2,000,000 aggregate liability minimum that does appear in Vermont law belongs to the separate residential contractor registration under § 5509, and licensed plumbers working within the scope of their plumbing license are exempt from that registration entirely.

What happens if a Vermont plumbing license expires? Within 90 days of expiration, reinstatement requires a $15.00 fee plus the renewal fee. Past 90 days, § 2195(c) requires an appearance before the Plumber's Examining Board to request reinstatement. Because applications must be filed two weeks before a Board meeting, missing the 90-day window can cost far more time than the fee alone suggests.

Can a journeyman plumber run a plumbing business in Vermont? No. Section 2172(3) states that a journeyman plumber shall not act as a master plumber. The business-facing conduct, installing as a business, hiring or employing plumbers, and supervising journeymen and apprentices, is reserved to the master license under § 2172(2). A Vermont plumbing company runs on a master's license, either the owner's own or that of a licensed master employed full time as its qualifying agent.

Is there a faster way for an out-of-state plumber to get licensed in Vermont? Possibly. Beyond the application form's hour-based "Universal License" option, 26 V.S.A. § 2194(a)(2) requires the Board to issue a license to anyone licensed in good standing in another U.S. state for at least three years, regardless of whether that state reciprocates with Vermont. It is a separate statutory right from the form's 8,000-hour and 12,000-hour documentation routes, and worth raising directly with the Board if an applicant's hours do not fit the form's categories.

Does a Vermont plumber need to register as a residential contractor? Not while working within the scope of the plumbing license. OPR exempts tradespeople licensed by the Department of Public Safety when they work within that scope. Work beyond the plumbing license's scope, on a residential job of $10,000 or more contracted directly with the homeowner, brings the registration requirement, and its insurance minimum, back into play.

What plumbing code does Vermont currently use? The Vermont Plumbing Rules, 2025 Edition V2, adopted by the Plumber's Examining Board. That edition carries the 2024 International Plumbing Code as Vermont's base code, in place of the 2021 edition, with Vermont-specific amendments layered on top.

Sources

• 26 V.S.A. Chapter 39, Plumbers and Plumbing, Vermont Statutes Online, sections 2172, 2175, 2181, 2191, 2192, 2192a, 2193, 2194, 2195, 2197, and 2198, retrieved 2026-10-22
• 26 V.S.A. Chapter 106, Residential Contractors, Vermont Statutes Online, sections 5501, 5502, 5507, and 5509, retrieved 2026-10-22
• Division of Fire Safety, Plumbing licensing, retrieved 2026-10-22
• Division of Fire Safety, Plumbers License Application and Instructions, retrieved 2026-10-22
• Division of Fire Safety, adopted codes and standards, retrieved 2026-10-22
• Vermont Plumbing Rules, 2025 Edition V2, State of Vermont, retrieved 2026-10-22
• Prov, Vermont Division of Fire Safety Trade Licensing Candidate Information Bulletin, dated 2026.01.01, retrieved 2026-10-22
• Vermont Secretary of State, Office of Professional Regulation, Residential Contractor FAQs, retrieved 2026-10-22

Last reviewed October 2026. License classes, hours, exam arrangements, and fees are set by the Vermont Plumber's Examining Board, the Division of Fire Safety, the Vermont Legislature, and the contracted testing service, and are subject to change. Verify current requirements with the Division of Fire Safety, 802-479-7564, before applying.

Still working out who needs to be licensed, or who can stand behind a Vermont plumbing company's work? Call 615-219-2110, or start with hiring a qualifying agent.

*Neighboring New England ladders for comparison: New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. For Vermont's other trades, see the Vermont electrician guide and Vermont HVAC guide. For the national view of how a trade license ladders up to contracting authority, read our guide to the plumbing contractor license, or browse licensing guidance for other states.