Indiana Plumbing License: Requirements, Fees, and the Corporate Qualifier Rule (2026)

Indiana is one of the cleanest plumbing licensing states in the country, and one of the most misreported. Plumbing is licensed at the state level by the Indiana Plumbing Commission under the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, the requirement is written into statute at Indiana Code 25-28.5-1, and a single state license carries you into every city and county in Indiana. No other construction trade in Indiana gets that treatment.

At a glance

• One state license, issued by the Indiana Plumbing Commission, works in every Indiana city and county.
• The four-year experience rule is real, and the Commission's own rule quantifies it at 6,400 hours, not the 6,800 or 8,000 figures that circulate online.
• The plumbing contractor application fee is $50, not the $100 that gets repeated everywhere.
• Cities can require registration and charge a fee for it, but cannot require a second plumbing license.
• A plumbing corporation cannot be licensed, or stay renewed, without a named officer or employee holding an individual contractor license.

The problem is that most of what ranks for "Indiana plumbing license" is wrong in ways that will cost you time. You will see an "8,000 hour" or "6,800 hour" apprenticeship requirement repeated as fact. You will see a ladder that says you must become a journeyman first and then log two more years to become a contractor. You will see a $100 contractor application fee. Most of that is wrong, though the true story on the hour count is more specific than "there is no hour count at all," which is its own kind of oversimplification.

This guide is built from the current Indiana Administrative Code (Title 860, the Indiana Plumbing Commission's own rules), the text of Indiana Code 25-28.5-1, the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency's plumbing licensing page, and Prov's current Candidate Information Bulletin for the state exams. Where the state's own materials disagree with each other, which happens and matters, that is flagged rather than smoothed over.

All fees below are set by the Indiana Plumbing Commission and the testing vendor and are subject to change. Verify current amounts with the Commission before you pay anything.

New to licensing in Indiana? Start with the Indiana contractor license requirements, and for every other state see how to get a contractor license in each state.

The Three Indiana Plumbing Licenses

The Indiana Plumbing Commission issues three individual credentials plus two business-level ones.

Plumbing Apprentice. Registration, not a license to work independently. Minimum age 17. You must be enrolled in a Commission-approved apprenticeship program, and your program sponsor certifies you on a form signed by both the program and your supervising journeyman plumber or plumbing contractor. Application fee $10.

Journeyman Plumber. Minimum age 18. Authorizes you to perform plumbing work under the supervision contemplated by the statute. Application fee $30.

Plumbing Contractor. Minimum age 18. This is the license that lets a business hold itself out as a plumbing contractor, bid work, and be responsible for the plumbing on a project. Application fee $50.

Plumbing Corporation. A separate license for the business entity. Covered in its own section below, because this is where Indiana quietly requires a qualifier.

Temporary Plumbing Contractor. A narrow emergency license under Indiana Code 25-28.5-1-18.5, also covered below.

Four Years, and What "Four Years" Actually Means

Indiana Code 25-28.5-1-12(c) is the controlling provision, and it is written in years, not hours.

To qualify to sit for the journeyman plumber examination, an Indiana resident must show either:

• completion of at least four years in an apprenticeship program approved by the Commission, or
• a notarized statement showing at least four years of experience in the plumbing trade in employment described in Indiana Code 25-28.5-1-32(2), (6), or (7).

To qualify to sit for the plumbing contractor examination, an Indiana resident must show either of the two routes above, or that the applicant "has worked in a plumbing business under the direction of a licensed plumbing contractor for at least four (4) years."

The "6,800 hours" and "8,000 hours" figures circulating on licensing blogs are not sourced to the Indiana Plumbing Commission, and you should not plan your apprenticeship around hitting either number.

But it is not accurate to say the four years carries no hour count at all. 860 IAC 1-1-9, the Commission's own administrative rule implementing section 12(c), spells it out: "four (4) years of experience" means a minimum of six thousand four hundred (6,400) hours in the plumbing trade over at least four years, and a "four (4) year apprenticeship program" means satisfactory completion of 576 hours of classroom instruction plus 6,400 hours of related on-the-job training, over the same four years. Neither route lets you count more than 40 hours in any given calendar week toward the total, so the clock cannot be compressed by working doubles. 6,400 is close enough to the "6,800" figure that blogs circulate that it is probably where that wrong number started, likely a transcription slip rather than a different source.

And note what subsection (c) does not say. It does not say you must hold a journeyman license before you can sit for the contractor exam. The four-year threshold is the same for both credentials, and the contractor path has a third qualifying route the journeyman path does not have. Sites that describe Indiana as a strict apprentice to journeyman to contractor ladder requiring six years total have invented a step. If you have four qualifying years, the contractor examination is available to you directly.

What the Commission actually wants in the file depends on which route you used:

• Approved apprenticeship route: the Plumbing Apprenticeship Certificate of Completion, with the approved-school section completed and signed by the sponsor.
• Plumbing trade route: the out-of-state licensed plumber section of the experience form completed against a current, active license showing four years, plus an Affidavit of Experience in Plumbing Trade signed by your employer, required under 860 IAC 1-1-10. If you cannot get the employer affidavit, the Commission will accept an affidavit explaining why, or your W-2s.
• Plumbing business route (contractor only): Section 4 of the experience form, plus a letter from your employer on company letterhead stating your job duties and dates of employment. Do not submit the employer affidavit of experience in the plumbing trade if you are applying through a business; the Commission's instructions say so explicitly.

If you answer yes to any background question on the application, you must submit a full written explanation with the violation, location, date, cause number, and disposition, plus supporting court documents for each instance.

The Practical Examination Inside the Apprenticeship

This is an Indiana-specific detail almost nobody publishes, and it catches apprentices off guard.

Under 860 IAC 2-1-7.1, an approved apprenticeship school must give every student a practical examination within the first four years of the program, and a student is not considered to have completed a four-year apprenticeship without passing it. The practical has three parts:

1. The copper pipe assembly project
2. The cast iron assembly project
3. The plastic pipe assembly project

You must score at least 70% on all three to pass. The school must allow at least seven attempts. The Commission may monitor administration of the practical in response to a complaint, for random sampling, or to collect data.

So the four years is not purely a clock. There is a hands-on gate inside it, administered by your school rather than the state.

The Examination: Prov, Fees, and a Conflict That Is Still Live

Your application for examination must be reviewed and approved for eligibility by the Plumbing Commission before you may register for the exam. You do not schedule first and sort out eligibility later.

Testing runs through Prov, Inc., under contract with the state. Prov's current Candidate Information Bulletin, dated June 2026, lists the exam fee at $100 for the plumbing contractor exam and $75 for the journeyman plumber exam, paid directly to Prov. Each exam is 90 questions over three hours, offered in English or Spanish, and open book against a named reference list: the 2006 International Plumbing Code (Indiana edition), the 2012 Indiana Amendments at 675 IAC 16-1.4, and either the NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business, Law and Project Management or Prov's own Indiana Plumbing Supplement.

To get from eligibility to a test date:

1. Submit your experience documentation to the Commission and wait for written eligibility approval.
2. Once approved, register with Prov online through its examination scheduler or by phone, using the Candidate ID printed on your Commission approval letter.
3. Test at one of Prov's fifteen Indiana testing centers, or from home through Prov's remote-proctoring service if your computer meets the published requirements.
4. Prov grades the exam immediately and forwards your results to the Commission the same day.
5. A passing score is not itself a license. Contact the Commission to complete issuance once you have passed.

Here is the conflict worth knowing before you spend money. The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency's current plumbing licensing page states, for both the journeyman and the contractor, that applicants register for the exam through Prov. The same page's FAQ section still says, as of this writing, that to reschedule an exam "you will have to contact ICC, the exam administrator." That is not an old typo buried in an archive; both statements sit on the Commission's live page today.

The application instructions are the operative, forward-looking part of the page and they name Prov; the FAQ language appears to be older and unrevised. Confirm the current vendor with the Plumbing Commission when your eligibility approval comes through, and do not assume from a third-party site. Indiana has switched trade exam vendors before, and so have neighboring states.

What the FAQ gets right, regardless of which vendor name attaches to it, is the retake math. 860 IAC 1-3-2 gives a candidate up to six additional attempts after an initial failure, seven total, within two years of the date you were first scheduled to test. Exhaust those and you must file a new application and retake the entire exam.

Exam fees are non-refundable and non-transferable. If you miss an exam date, including for weather, the Commission's published answer is that the fee does not move with you.

Fees: Three Separate Money Events, Not One

Indiana's fee structure trips people up because the application fee is not the license fee, and the license fee depends on what year you are issued in, not what year you applied in. The Commission spells this out: issuance fees are determined by the year the license is issued, so a December application issued in January pays the new year's rate.

Notes on the table and what it leaves out:

• Biennial renewal, payable before December 1 of each odd year: Journeyman $30, Contractor $100, Corporation $100, Apprentice $10.
• Renewal received after December 31 and before March 1 of the next even year adds a flat $15 reinstatement fee to the renewal above, totaling $45 for a journeyman and $115 for a contractor or corporation.
• Renewal received after March 1 of the next even year through December 31 of the following odd year adds a reinstatement fee of $100 (journeyman) or $200 (contractor or corporation), totaling $130 for a journeyman and $300 for a contractor or corporation.
• A license expired three years or more cannot simply renew. Reinstatement requires a letter of work history and a personal appearance before the Commission; the reinstatement fee is $20 for an apprentice, $60 for a journeyman, $150 for a contractor, and $200 for a corporation, confirmed directly on the PLA's own fee schedule and reinstatement form.
• Temporary plumbing contractor: $25 per six-month increment.
• Exam fee, paid separately to Prov, not to the Commission: Contractor $100, Journeyman $75.

The frequently repeated claim that the Indiana plumbing contractor application fee is $100 is wrong. The application fee is $50. One hundred dollars is the even-year issuance fee and the biennial renewal fee, which are different charges at different times.

Renewal Dates, and Why a Late Renewal Is a Criminal Matter in Indiana

Journeyman, contractor, and corporation licenses all expire December 31 of every odd-numbered year. That is a two-year cycle. Apprentice registrations run on a different clock and expire October 1 of every even-numbered year, and apprentices must confirm at renewal that they are still enrolled in their Indiana-approved program.

The Commission does not currently require continuing education for plumbers.

Renewal notices go out roughly 90 days ahead, by email if the Commission has a valid address for you. The Commission's published position is blunt: once it has sent the notice to the address of record, its duty is discharged, and it has no way of knowing whether the notice arrived. Keep your email current with the Commission.

Now the part that matters more than the late fee. Under Indiana Code 25-28.5-1-31(b), a person who fails to renew and continues to act as a plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber after the license has expired commits a Class B misdemeanor. Acting or advertising as a plumbing contractor or journeyman without ever obtaining a license, or continuing after a license has been suspended, revoked, or restricted, is a Class A misdemeanor under subsection (a).

In Indiana, working through a lapse is not a paperwork problem with a $115 surcharge attached. It is a criminal offense with a civil fee sitting on top of it.

Three Enforcement Provisions That Change the Math

Indiana attaches consequences to unlicensed plumbing work that go well past a fine, and none of the three below is commonly reported.

You cannot sue to get paid. Indiana Code 25-28.5-1-36 states that no action or suit may be instituted in any court in Indiana to recover compensation for plumbing contracting services, or for wages for work that constitutes plumbing under the chapter, by a person who is not licensed or registered under the chapter. Complete the job, do it well, invoice it, and if you were unlicensed, the Indiana courthouse is closed to you. The customer keeps the work and keeps the money.

Your truck and your advertising are evidence. Indiana Code 25-28.5-1-31(c) makes it unlawful for a plumbing contractor to omit either the contractor's own name or the name of the associated business from written or printed advertising for plumbing services and from vehicles used to provide those services. An unmarked van is itself a violation, and a marked one tells an investigator, or a homeowner, exactly who to look up in the Commission's public register.

Letting someone else do licensed work under your name is also a violation. 860 IAC 1-5-5 bars a plumbing contractor from allowing any employee or subcontractor to act as a plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber unless that person actually holds the license. The rule carves out helpers, laborers, registered apprentices, and other employees who do not hold themselves out to the public as plumbers, so the dividing line is holding out, not job title.

The Local Layer: Registration, Not a Second License

This is the single most valuable thing to understand about plumbing in Indiana, and it is what separates plumbing from every other trade in the state.

Indiana Code 25-28.5-1-33 does two things. It preserves local power to regulate the quality and character of plumbing work through building codes and inspections. Then it says that "no political subdivision shall require any licensee under this chapter to submit to any other form of licensing."

A city or county may require you to register with a designated public official so its plumbing inspectors have the records they need to inspect your work, and it may charge a reasonable fee for that registration. What it may not do is make you take its exam, hold its separate license, or clear its own board.

The registration obligation has teeth pointed back at your state license. If a political subdivision certifies your failure to register to the Commission, the Commission may treat that as a basis for suspension of your plumbing contractor's license. Repeated and intentional violation of local registration requirements may be a basis for revocation.

So the practical rule for an Indiana plumbing contractor is: one state license, then a registration in each jurisdiction you work in, then permits and inspections under the local building code. Budget for registration fees and calendar them, but do not let anyone sell you a second plumbing license in Indiana. Under Section 33 they cannot require one.

Indiana HVAC contractors get no such protection, which is why the same company can hold one plumbing license good statewide and simultaneously need separate mechanical licenses in Indianapolis, Allen County, Evansville, and South Bend. That contrast is covered in the Indiana HVAC license guide.

Out-of-State Applicants and the Corporate Route

Indiana Code 25-28.5-1-12(a) says that a natural person over 18 who resides in Indiana, and any corporation meeting the chapter's requirements, may be licensed as a plumbing contractor. The journeyman provision in the same subsection has no residency language.

Subsection (d) then sets out how a non-resident may qualify to take an examination: an applicant holding a license in a state with no reciprocity agreement with Indiana presents that license to the Commission to be eligible to sit, and an applicant residing in a state with no licensing requirements must meet the ordinary qualification requirements before testing.

One correction worth making, because several sites promise otherwise: while subsection (e) contemplates automatic issuance where a reciprocity agreement exists, the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency's published FAQ states plainly that reciprocity is not available for journeyman and contractor plumbers, and that you must apply, pay the fee, go before the board, and pass the exam. Plan on testing.

For an out-of-state company, the practical entry into Indiana is usually not an individual license at all. It is the corporate plumbing license, which brings us to the requirement most operators do not see coming.

The Corporate License and Indiana's Qualifier Requirement

Indiana never uses the phrase "qualifying agent" in its plumbing statute. It does not need to. The requirement is there anyway, and it is one of the more explicit versions in the country.

Under Indiana Code 25-28.5-1-13, a corporation engaged in the business of a plumbing contractor must itself be licensed as a plumbing contractor. And a corporation may not be licensed unless one of its officers or employees holds a valid plumbing contractor license issued by the Commission. That individual must be designated in the application and named in the license.

The Commission enforces it again at renewal. Per its published renewal instructions, plumbing corporations "must confirm and indicate the responsible licensed Plumbing Contractor on file with their license in order to renew." A corporation that loses its named contractor does not just lose a person. It loses the ability to renew.

When that named individual leaves, the clock is thirty days. Under 860 IAC 1-1-7, the officer or employee named on a corporate plumbing license stays responsible to the Commission for use of that license until the corporation gives written notice of removal or resignation, and the corporation must send that notice, identifying any replacement, within 30 days of the change. This is the provision that matters most when a plumbing company changes hands or a named officer exits. Notify late, or not at all, and the obligation does not simply disappear with the person who left.

A business providing plumbing services that must file a certificate of assumed business name under Indiana Code 23-0.5-3-4 also has to register the business name, address, and telephone number with the Commission.

The statutory phrase to sit with is "officers or employees." Indiana gives you exactly two lawful ways to attach a licensed plumbing contractor to a company: make that person an officer of the corporation, or employ them. There is no third category. Anyone offering to let you list their license on your corporate application while working somewhere else as an independent contractor is proposing an arrangement the statute does not authorize, and their own name is what prints on the license at risk.

We have written that requirement up in full, alongside the Wisconsin, Missouri, New Jersey, and Hawaii equivalents, in Indiana's plumbing corporation license and the qualifier requirement hiding in IC 25-28.5-1-13.

The Temporary License: Indiana's Written-In Contingency Plan

Most states leave you to improvise when the licensed person holding up a company dies or becomes incapacitated. Indiana wrote an answer into the statute.

Indiana Code 25-28.5-1-18.5 lets the Commission issue a temporary plumbing contractor's license to an applicant who has an ownership interest in or is an officer of the contracting business when the plumbing contractor licensee operating that business has died or is physically or mentally unable to operate it. The license runs for the period needed to dispose of the business or otherwise meet the emergency, and it may not exceed two years including all renewals. Under 860 IAC 1-1-8 it is issued in six-month increments at $25 each, and the applicant's current or future employer must submit a letter confirming employment. A personal appearance before the Commission or the agency's executive director may be required, and 860 IAC 1-1-8(d) provides that no temporary license issues to an applicant who fails to appear when asked.

Read the eligibility line carefully, because it is the whole point. The bridge is available to an owner or officer. It is not available to a company whose only connection to a plumbing contractor license was a name on a form. If your licensed contractor is a genuine part of your business, Indiana hands you a two-year runway. If they were not, Indiana hands you nothing, and your corporate license cannot renew.

That is the same exposure we walk through in what happens when your qualifier leaves.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to get an Indiana plumbing contractor license? The experience requirement is the long pole: four years of approved apprenticeship (6,400 hours of on-the-job training plus 576 hours of classroom instruction), four years of qualifying plumbing trade experience (6,400 hours), or four years working in a plumbing business under a licensed plumbing contractor. After that, the Commission must review and approve your application for examination before you can register to test, then you pass, then you are issued. Applications are abandoned without any Board action if you do not submit all requirements within one year of filing, so once you start, keep the file moving.

How much does it cost to get licensed as a plumber in Indiana? The state charges are modest and public: $50 application plus $50 or $100 issuance depending on the year, then $100 every two years to renew. Add the Prov exam fee ($100 for the contractor exam, $75 for the journeyman exam), any local registration fees in the jurisdictions you work in, and your insurance and bonding costs, which Indiana sets at the local level rather than statewide for plumbing. All state and vendor fees change; verify before paying.

Can I get an Indiana plumbing license without doing an apprenticeship? Yes. Indiana Code 25-28.5-1-12(c) treats the apprenticeship route and the plumbing-trade-experience route as equals: four years in a Commission-approved apprenticeship, or four years of trade experience proven with a notarized statement and an employer affidavit under 860 IAC 1-1-10. A contractor applicant has a third option on top of those two, four years working in a plumbing business under a licensed plumbing contractor. None of the three routes is mandatory over the others.

What should I look for when hiring a plumber in Indiana? Ask for the plumbing contractor's license number and check it against the Commission's public register. Indiana Code 25-28.5-1-31(c) requires that number to appear, recognizably displayed, on the contractor's advertising and on every vehicle used to provide plumbing services, so a marked truck should match a real, current license. Also ask whether the contractor is registered with your city or county; Section 33 lets local governments require that registration even though they cannot require a second state license.

What happens to a corporate plumbing license when the company is sold or the named officer leaves? Nothing happens automatically, and that is the risk. Under 860 IAC 1-1-7, the individual named on a corporate plumbing license stays responsible for it until the corporation notifies the Commission in writing, and that notice, naming a replacement if there is one, is due within 30 days of the departure. A sale that changes who holds the plumbing contractor license inside the business should trigger that notice the day the relationship changes, not at the next renewal cycle.

What does it cost to bring in a licensed plumbing contractor to qualify a company? That one has no published number, because it is not a fee. It depends on the state, the trade, the license class, how much risk the licensed individual is taking on, the volume of work being qualified, and how long the arrangement needs to run. Anyone quoting you a flat national price has not looked at your situation. Talk to us about your specific situation.

Can I do plumbing work in Indiana without a license? No. The Commission's own answer is that it is unlawful to act in the capacity of a plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber without a license. Doing so is a Class A misdemeanor under IC 25-28.5-1-31(a), and under IC 25-28.5-1-36 you cannot sue in an Indiana court to collect for the work.

Do I need a separate license for each Indiana city? Not for plumbing. IC 25-28.5-1-33 bars political subdivisions from requiring a state plumbing licensee to submit to any other form of licensing. Cities and counties may require registration and charge a reasonable fee for it, and failing to register can put your state license at risk of suspension or revocation, so register everywhere you work. HVAC is the opposite: no state license and full local licensing, city by city.

My application was denied. What are my options? The Commission's published answer is that you may either reapply or appeal by petition within 18 days of the date of the denial letter. A petition filed after 18 days is considered untimely. That is a short window, so read the denial the day it arrives.

Is a journeyman license required before the contractor license? No. IC 25-28.5-1-12(c) applies the same four-year threshold to both examinations, and gives the contractor applicant an additional qualifying route through work in a plumbing business under a licensed plumbing contractor. Many plumbers do go journeyman first, and there are good reasons to, but the statute does not require it as a prerequisite.

Where This Leaves You

Indiana plumbing is a genuinely good deal for a licensed individual: one state license, statutory protection from being licensed again by every city you enter, a two-year renewal cycle, and fees measured in tens and hundreds rather than thousands.

For a company, the picture is different, and it is the part the state's plain language makes unavoidable. Your corporation cannot be licensed, and cannot renew, without an officer or employee who holds an individual Indiana plumbing contractor license and is named on the corporate license, and that relationship must be reported to the Commission within 30 days if it ever ends. That is a staffing requirement, not a paperwork requirement, and Indiana's own emergency provision confirms how it is meant to work by limiting the temporary bridge license to owners and officers.

A qualifying agent qualifies the company as an owner or as a full time W-2 employee who actively supervises the licensed plumbing work, a genuine employment relationship rather than a name on a form. Start with what a qualifying agent actually is, then see how we place qualifying agents as full-time W-2 employees, or review our contractor qualifier services if you need a specific Indiana classification filled. If you already hold an Indiana plumbing contractor license and want to understand what it is worth to a company that needs one, see becoming a qualifying agent.

Related Indiana and Midwest guides: Indiana electrician license, Indiana HVAC license, Illinois plumbing license, Michigan plumbing license, Ohio plumbing license, and Wisconsin plumbing license. For the broader picture, see state versus local contractor licensing and the full state licensing directory.

Ready to Talk About an Indiana Qualifying Agent

If your company needs a qualifying agent for an Indiana plumbing contractor or corporation license, talk to us. Call 615-219-2110 to start the conversation.

Sources

• Indiana Administrative Code, Title 860 (Indiana Plumbing Commission), Article 1, General Provisions, retrieved 2026-10-11
• Prov, Inc., Indiana Plumbing Examinations Candidate Information Bulletin, updated 2026-06-24, retrieved 2026-10-11
• Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, Plumbing Licensing Information, retrieved 2026-10-11
• Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, Journeyman Plumber Reinstatement form, retrieved 2026-10-11
• Indiana Code Title 25, Article 28.5, Chapter 1 (Plumbing Commission), Indiana General Assembly, cited by section throughout this guide, retrieved 2026-10-11

Need help with a different trade or state? See our full contractor license guides.