Plumbing License New Hampshire: Six Months From Journeyman to Master, and Two Licenses on Two Different Calendars (2026)

New Hampshire licenses plumbers at the state level, and it does something most states do not: it licenses the company as well as the person. Both licenses are real, both are mandatory, and they run on two different two-year clocks that have nothing to do with each other. Plenty of otherwise-compliant New Hampshire shops have a current master plumber on staff and a lapsed business license, or the reverse, and only find out when an inspector asks.

This guide walks the full ladder from apprentice to master, the current OPLC fee schedule, the business entity license that sits on top of it, and the rule that stops a company cold the day its licensed plumber walks out the door.

At a glance

• Apprentice to journeyman: 8,000 on-the-job hours plus 600 hours of classroom training (Mec 305.01(b))
• Journeyman to master: as little as 6 months, plus a 75% exam score (Mec 305.01(a))
• Apprentice cap: 2 per licensee, flat, set by the legislature in 2024 (RSA 153:27, XV; Mec 605.02(b))
• Current license fees: $88 apprentice, $198 journeyman, $330 master, $275 business entity (Plc 1002.25)
• Continuing education: 6 hours per endorsement, every 2 years (Mec 404.01(a))

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

The board is not called the Plumbers' Board anymore

This trips up almost every third-party guide. New Hampshire plumbing is regulated by the Mechanical Safety and Licensing Board, administered by the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification (OPLC) at 7 Eagle Square, Concord. The same board licenses fuel gas fitters, domestic appliance technicians and hearth system technicians. There is no separate plumbers' board and no separate gas board.

The governing statute is RSA 153:27 through RSA 153:38. The rules are the N.H. Code of Administrative Rules, Chapters Mec 100 through Mec 800. If you find a guide citing "Saf-Mec" rule numbers, it is reading an older edition: the chapters were re-prefixed from Saf-Mec to Mec by rulemaking Document #13770, effective December 10, 2023, and the core licensing chapters were readopted by Document #14482, effective February 13, 2026, running to February 13, 2036. The rules you are working under were re-adopted this year.

Who has to be licensed

Mec 302.01 is blunt: no person, business entity, or any combination of the two may engage in the business or work as a fuel gas fitter, plumber, fuel gas trainee, or plumbing apprentice unless licensed under RSA 153:27 to 153:38 and the board's rules. Note that the apprentice is licensed too. New Hampshire does not have an unlicensed entry tier.

There is exactly one carve-out. Mec 302.01(b) exempts only individuals meeting the definition of "owner's agent" in Mec 301.03: someone designated by a homeowner to assist with the incidental repair, replacement, maintenance and installation of a plumbing fixture or system component specifically at the owner's residence, and who receives no compensation for the plumbing work performed. The moment money changes hands, the exemption is gone.

Age (Mec 302.02). No individual plumbing or fuel gas fitting license may be granted to anyone under 18. No apprentice or trainee registration license may be granted to anyone under 16.

The New Hampshire plumbing ladder

New Hampshire runs three rungs on the plumbing side.

• Plumbing Apprentice, a registration license. You work under a sponsoring master plumber while you accumulate hours and classroom instruction.
• Journeyman Plumber, the first license that lets you do the work.
• Master Plumber, the license that can stand behind a business. Under Mec 302.09, a master plumber is automatically deemed qualified as a journeyman plumber, so you do not maintain both separately.

Plumbing apprentice

The apprentice application runs on a sponsor letter. The supervising master plumber has to state four things: that the sponsor or a licensed plumber within the same firm will provide direct supervision of the applicant's plumbing work while in their employment; that the sponsor will register the applicant in an approved educational and training program; that the applicant will participate in an employee development program in which the sponsor or firm monitors and records hours of actual service, competency levels and completion of the required formal education courses; and that in the master's opinion the applicant is competent to be trained as a plumber.

The alternative route is a completed apprenticeship under a program approved by the U.S. Department of Labor under 29 CFR 29 for New Hampshire plumbing, with the sponsor supervising under Mec 605.02(a).

Read the sponsor-letter route again, because it is doing more work than it appears to. The sponsor is not merely vouching. The sponsor is committing the firm to monitor and record the apprentice's hours and competency levels. That is an employment relationship with a paper trail, not a signature of convenience.

Apprentice cap (Mec 605.02(b); RSA 153:27, XV). A plumbing licensee may employ no more than two apprentices, flat, no matter how many licensees the company has. That number is recent and legislative, not a board preference: Senate Bill 372 (2024 session, enacted as Chapter 284, effective September 24, 2024) rewrote RSA 153:27, XV to set the two-per-licensee ceiling and to say a sponsoring master plumber no longer has to register the apprentice in a state apprenticeship program under RSA 278, so long as any apprenticeship the applicant does register still meets U.S. Department of Labor requirements. The board's rule was conformed to match. A five-licensee shop can now carry ten apprentices under the flat cap, a different ceiling than the stepped, headcount-based formula that older guides, and an earlier edition of this one, still describe.

Journeyman plumber

Mec 305.01(b) gives two distinct routes, and you satisfy either one.

Route one, the New Hampshire-trained route. You must meet all three of:

1. Be of good character and professional competence, evidenced by the application form, the supporting materials, and an apprenticeship completion certificate issued by the U.S. Department of Labor or by the sponsoring plumber who sponsored the apprenticeship;
2. Provide proof of successful completion of a minimum of 600 hours of educational training covering fourteen listed subject areas, including drainage, basic and advanced plumbing theory, plan reading, venting, potable water supply protection, material selection, backflow devices, commercial kitchen design, system sizing and fixture calculations, accessibility requirements, testing and disinfecting, the adopted plumbing codes, plumbing code administration under chapter one of the state plumbing code, and New Hampshire statutory and regulatory law governing plumbing; and
3. Provide proof of completion of a minimum of 8,000 working hours of on-the-job experience in the trade relevant to plumbing, as described in RSA 153:27, XIV.

Note what route one does not contain: an examination requirement. The rule as adopted places the journeyman examination in route two.

Route two, the previously-licensed route. Demonstrate previous licensure as a journeyman plumber in another state or jurisdiction responsible for licensing plumbers, take the journeyman plumber examination, and pass by answering at least 70% of the questions correctly.

That is also New Hampshire's answer to reciprocity: there is no agreement that waives the requirements for an out-of-state license holder, but there is a direct exam route that skips the 8,000-hour and 600-hour requirements entirely for someone who already holds a journeyman license elsewhere. That the apprenticeship completion certificate in route one can be issued by the sponsoring plumber, and not only by the U.S. Department of Labor, is a meaningful and under-reported detail. A New Hampshire shop can carry an apprentice to a journeyman-eligible certificate itself.

Master plumber

Mec 305.01(a). You are eligible for the master plumber license if you:

1. Are of good character and professional competence, which the rule defines to include being a journeyman plumber without a history of consumer complaints resulting in any disciplinary sanctions by the board within the past year;
2. Have held a New Hampshire journeyman plumber license for at least six months;
3. Can demonstrate successful completion by examination on the fourteen subject areas listed above; and
4. Passed the master plumber examination by answering at least 75% of the questions correctly.

Six months. That is genuinely short compared with the two, three and four-year journeyman-to-master waits common in other states, and it is the most commercially significant fact on this page. A New Hampshire journeyman who has been licensed half a year and can pass at 75% is six months away from being the person a plumbing company can be licensed around.

The one-year clean-record condition is the counterweight. A disciplinary sanction arising from a consumer complaint inside the past year makes you ineligible for the master license, full stop, regardless of hours.

Current fee schedule

The board's fee rule, Plc 1002.25, was last replaced effective July 1, 2025, and runs through July 1, 2035. It sets one flat fee per license for a 2-year term, covering initial issuance, renewal, and reinstatement within a year. There is no separate application, renewal or certificate line the way older schedules had it.

Notes on the table:

• License verification is a separate $10 fee (Plc 1001.15), not part of the license fee above.
• A replacement or original pocket card or ID card is $10 (Plc 1001.17).
• A sole proprietor who employs no licensed plumbing or fuel gas technicians owes no business entity fee until they take on staff (Mec 307.03(g)); the license itself is still required.
• These fees are set by rule and are subject to change. Verify the current schedule with the OPLC before you send money.

The business entity fee of $275 sits between the journeyman and master fees rather than below both, which tells you the same thing the old schedule did: it is a real, separately-priced credential, not a registration formality. There is still no separate examination fee line in the fee rule, because New Hampshire's licensing examinations run through board-approved training programs and testing organizations, not a single statewide testing vendor. If a guide tells you to book a New Hampshire plumbing exam through a national testing company by name, check it against the board's approved-program list first.

The business entity license, the part that gets missed

Mec 302.05 requires that all business entities, corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, sole proprietors, and limited liability partnerships performing fuel gas fitting or plumbing in New Hampshire be licensed under the board's rules, and be either registered with the New Hampshire Secretary of State or, if a foreign entity, registered with the Secretary of State as a foreign business entity doing business in New Hampshire.

Sole proprietors are named in that list. A one-person plumbing shop in New Hampshire needs a business entity license, not just a master plumber license.

The offsetting mercy is in Mec 307.03(g): a mechanical business owner who is the sole licensee for the entity, meaning they employ no plumbing or fuel gas fitting technicians, is exempt from the licensing fees, until such time as they take on apprentices, trainees, or licensed plumbers or fuel gas fitting technicians. The license is still required. The fee is waived until you hire.

Mec 302.06 then routes the permit through the entity: a licensed business entity applies for and obtains the municipal permit under RSA 153:29-a, V. The company pulls the permit, on the strength of the company's license.

Mec 307.04(a)(3) is the qualifier rule. A business is eligible for licensure only if it employs at least one corporate officer, or responsible managing employee, who currently holds a New Hampshire fuel gas fitting license, master plumber license, domestic appliance technician license, or hearth system installer license specific to the discipline for which licensure is sought.

That single sentence is why the master plumber license is worth more than the work it authorizes, and it is covered in full in our guide to New Hampshire's responsible managing employee rule. What a qualifying agent is covers the general version of the same idea: a qualifying agent is the person whose license qualifies the company, and the role has to be filled by an owner or by a genuine full-time W-2 employee who actually supervises the work, not a name used only to satisfy a rule. When a New Hampshire plumbing company does not have an owner holding the master license, hiring a qualifying agent or using contractor qualifier services are the two lawful ways to meet Mec 307.04(a)(3).

Two licenses, two different expiry calendars

This is still the trap, it just does not run on birthdays the way some guides assume.

Individual licenses (RSA 310:8, II; Mec 402.01(a)), fuel gas fitting, domestic appliance technician, hearth system installation and service technician, master plumber and journeyman plumber licenses expire every two years on the last day of the month the license was issued. The clock starts on the day OPLC issues the license and resets at every renewal after that, not on the licensee's birth month.

Business entity licenses (RSA 153:29-a, II; Mec 406.01(a)), mechanical business entity licenses expire biennially on the last day of January, regardless of when the entity was first licensed.

So a master plumber issued a license in June renews personally every other June. The company's license, even if issued the same week, still renews every other January 31. Two dates, on two different two-year cycles, that have nothing to do with each other and nothing to do with anyone's birthday. A company can be perfectly current on one and lapsed on the other, and nothing in either renewal notice says a word about the other one.

Initial terms for both are two years (Mec 302.03 and Mec 302.04).

What happens if you miss a renewal

• An expired license is a violation the moment it happens. Mec 402.01(b) ties practicing on an expired individual license straight to RSA 153:37, I and II, the statute's penalty provisions. Mec 406.01(b)(2) ties an expired business entity license to RSA 153:37, I. Neither rule writes in a grace period.
• Reinstatement within one year is a renewal, not a restart. Mec 405.01(a) lets a former licensee reinstate within one year of expiration through the standard renewal process in Plc 308: show the continuing education requirement is current, and pay the fee set in Plc 1002.25.
• Past one year, you apply as a new applicant. Mec 405.01(b) requires anyone whose license lapsed more than a year ago to apply for initial licensure under Plc 304, the same track a first-time applicant uses, and pay the fee again.
• A lapsed business entity has to stop working. Mec 406.01(b)(1) provides that a business entity whose license has not been renewed before expiration shall not engage in plumbing or fuel gas fitting until the license has been renewed, with Mec 406.01(b)(2) tying that to the same RSA 153:37, I penalty.

Continuing education

Mec 404.01(a): to be eligible for renewal, individual mechanical licensees must complete no fewer than 6 hours of continuing education for each plumbing and/or fuel gas fitting endorsement, in every two-year licensing cycle, from a board-approved seminar provider.

Read "for each endorsement." A master plumber who also holds a fuel gas fitter license carries a separate six-hour obligation for each. That is the most commonly missed compliance item in the chapter.

Seminars are a minimum of three contact hours each, in a classroom setting (Mec 404.03(a)). And no student receives credit for a repeated seminar (Mec 404.03(f)); each licensee must complete separate board-approved three-hour sessions within the two-year cycle for each endorsement sought. Sitting the same annual class twice does not satisfy the six hours.

Two practical requirements from the same rule: each student must bring the current code book for the discipline being taught (Mec 404.03(e)), and must display their license plus photo identification (Mec 404.03(c)).

Rules New Hampshire enforces that other states do not

Report jobs in towns with no code enforcement (Mec 605.01(c)). Whenever a mechanical licensee, certificate holder or business entity begins a plumbing, fuel gas fitting, oil heating or water treatment project, installation or replacement in a location where there is no local code enforcement authority under RSA 155-A:2, VIII, they must report to the board's office by fax, email or letter: the name of the licensee or entity beginning the job, the address of the job site, and whether the job is remodeling, rehabilitation, or new construction. In a state with as many small unorganized towns as New Hampshire, this is a live obligation, and it is essentially unreported outside the rulebook.

Put the license number on the truck (Mec 606.01(a)). Any licensee, certificate holder or business entity displaying its business name on the exterior of a vehicle and representing services using the words "mechanical," "plumbing," "heating," "fuel gas," or "propane" must also display the appropriate mechanical license number in legible type at least 2 inches in height, on the front left and front right side of the vehicle, or in the area where the name or offer of service is displayed.

And on everything else (Mec 606.02(a)). License numbers must appear on televised advertising, billboards, press advertising, visual advertising on the internet, advertising in movie theatres, and on business cards and stationery, and must be stated at least once in every instance of radio advertising, auditory television advertising, auditory web advertising and auditory movie-theatre advertising.

Do not let anyone else use the license, and do not sub out to the unlicensed (Mec 607.01(b) and (c)). Licensees and business entities shall not allow any other individual or entity to use the licensee's license (Mec 607.01(b)), and shall not sub-contract any plumbing or fuel gas fitting work to any unlicensed individual or entity (Mec 607.01(c)).

The first of those is New Hampshire's rule against license sharing, and it is written more broadly than most, with no limit to permits alone. We cover why arrangements of that shape fail in is it legal to let someone else use your contractor license.

Discipline (Mec 604.02(a)). Sanctions available to the board are a reprimand held on file for not less than one year; probation with monthly reports to the board for regulated work performed in New Hampshire; suspension, limitation or restriction of the license for up to five years; revocation; and mandatory continuing education in the deficient area. Mec 604.03 requires prior notice and an opportunity to be heard before a sanction is imposed.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to get a plumbing license in New Hampshire? The board's current fee rule, Plc 1002.25, effective July 1, 2025, sets one two-year fee per license: $88 for an apprentice, $198 for a journeyman, $330 for a master, and $275 for the business entity license, waived while you are a sole licensee with no employees (Mec 307.03(g)). What you cannot predict from a fee table is the cost of the 600 hours of educational training and the code books, set by the approved training providers, and the two-plus years of paid apprentice time it takes to reach 8,000 hours. Fees are set by rule and change; verify before you apply.

How long does it take? Realistically, the 8,000-hour journeyman requirement is the pacing item, roughly four years of full-time work, running alongside the 600 hours of classroom instruction. After that, six months as a licensed New Hampshire journeyman makes you eligible to sit for master. New Hampshire's back half is unusually fast; its front half is not.

Does New Hampshire have plumbing license reciprocity? No formal agreement waives New Hampshire's requirements for an out-of-state plumber. Mec 305.01(b) gives a direct exam route instead: show proof of previous licensure as a journeyman plumber in another state that licenses plumbers, then sit and pass the New Hampshire journeyman exam at 70%. The same structure applies at master level under Mec 305.01(a). The exam is the gate, not a waiver.

Does New Hampshire have a general contractor license? No. New Hampshire issues no statewide general contractor license. The construction trades New Hampshire licenses at state level are plumbing, fuel gas fitting and the related mechanical endorsements under RSA 153:27 to 153:38, and electricians under RSA 319-C. Be careful with third-party guides here: at least one page ranking for New Hampshire contractor licensing claims you "must register as a Home Improvement Contractor under RSA 332-A." RSA 332-A is titled "Licensing Standards Established" and contains exactly two sections, 332-A:1, Licensing Questions Restricted, and 332-A:2, Licensing and Employment of Aliens. It is not a home improvement contractor registration statute, and New Hampshire has no such registration.

What does my company do if the master plumber quits? It stops plumbing. Mec 307.04(b) requires notice to the board within 30 days and provides that the business shall not act as a plumber or fuel gas fitter until some other officer, member or designee has obtained a licensed master plumber or fuel gas fitter as the responsible managing employee. There is no grace period to keep working through. That is the whole subject of our New Hampshire responsible managing employee guide.

Where this leaves you

The individual ladder in New Hampshire is demanding at the bottom and generous at the top: 8,000 hours and 600 classroom hours to reach journeyman, then six months to master. The business layer on top of it is where companies actually get caught, a separately-priced, separately-expiring license that is only valid while a licensed master plumber sits inside the company as an officer or responsible managing employee, and that stops the work the day that person leaves.

If you are an owner without the master credential, or you have just lost the person your business license was built on, the lawful fix is to put a licensed master plumber into the company as a genuine full-time W-2 employee who serves as the responsible managing employee. That is what Mec 307.04(a)(3) describes and what Mec 607.01(b) rules out any substitute for. The Licensing Company places qualifying agents on that basis only, full-time W-2 employment, never a percentage, flat fee, per-project or 1099 arrangement.

Start with what a qualifying agent is if the concept is new, read the New Hampshire-specific mechanics in our responsible managing employee guide, see the gas side in HVAC licensing in New Hampshire and the electrical side in New Hampshire electrician licensing. When you are ready to talk specifics, hiring a qualifying agent is the next step, or call 615-219-2110, or browse guidance for other states.

Last reviewed October 2026. Fees, hours, cut scores, expiry dates and rule numbers are set by the New Hampshire Mechanical Safety and Licensing Board and the OPLC and are subject to change. Always verify current requirements directly with the OPLC before applying.

Sources

• RSA 153:27, Definitions, retrieved October 11, 2026
• RSA 310:8, Term and Renewal of Licenses, retrieved October 11, 2026
• Mec 300, Initial Fuel Gas Fitting Licensing, Plumbing Licensing, retrieved October 11, 2026
• Mec 400, Renewal, Reinstatement and Continuing Education, retrieved October 11, 2026
• Mec 500, Fees, retrieved October 11, 2026
• Mec 600, Professional Standards, retrieved October 11, 2026
• Plc 1000, Office of Professional Licensure and Certification Fees, retrieved October 11, 2026
• RSA Chapter 332-A, Licensing Standards Established, retrieved October 11, 2026