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, both expire on their own two-year clock, and the two clocks do not run on the same calendar. 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 verified 2026 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.

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 153:27–153:38 and the board's rules. Note that the apprentice and the trainee are 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 agreement signed and authorized by the U.S. Department of Labor for the New Hampshire plumbing apprentice program, placed on file with the board before the first renewal date.

Read the first 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 ratios (Mec 605.02). Except as approved by the apprenticeship council under RSA 278, plumbing licensees may employ at any one time no more than:

• One apprentice per licensee where there are between one and five licensees; and
• Where there are more than five licensees, one additional apprentice for each three additional licensees.

That is a hard cap on how fast a plumbing company can grow its own bench. A five-licensee shop can carry five apprentices. Getting to a sixth apprentice means adding three more licensed plumbers, not one. This is the single most important number for any New Hampshire owner planning headcount, and almost nobody publishes it.

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 the apprenticeship completion certificate 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.

Verified 2026 fee schedule

These are the fees published by the OPLC for the Mechanical Safety and Licensing Board as of this writing.

• Apprentice Plumber — application $90.00 · renewal $80.00 · reinstatement $90.00 · certificate $20.00 · license verification $10.00
• Journeyman Plumber — application $190.00 · renewal $180.00 · reinstatement $190.00 · certificate $20.00 · license verification $10.00
• Master Plumber — application $310.00 · renewal $300.00 · reinstatement $310.00 · certificate $20.00 · license verification $10.00
• Mechanical Business Entity — application $250.00 · renewal $250.00 · reinstatement $250.00 · certificate $20.00 · license verification $10.00
• Plumber Water Treatment Business — application $250.00 · renewal $250.00 · reinstatement $250.00 · certificate $20.00 · license verification $10.00
• Fuel Gas Fitting Trainee — application $90.00 · renewal $80.00 · reinstatement $90.00
• Fuel Gas Fitter — application $190.00 · renewal $180.00 · reinstatement $190.00
• Domestic Appliance Technician — application $170.00 · renewal $160.00 · reinstatement $170.00
• Oil Heating Technician Certification — application $50.00 · renewal $50.00 · reinstatement $50.00

These fees are set by the board and the OPLC and are subject to change. Verify the current schedule with the OPLC before you send money.

Two things worth noticing. The business entity license at $250 is more expensive than a journeyman license and nearly as expensive as a master license — it is a real, separately-priced credential, not a registration formality. And there is no separate examination fee line in the OPLC schedule, because New Hampshire's licensing examinations are administered through board-approved training programs and testing organizations under Mec 308, not through a single statewide testing vendor. If a guide tells you to book a New Hampshire plumbing exam with a national testing company, 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 307.05(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.

Two licenses, two different expiry calendars

This is the trap.

Individual licenses (RSA 153:30, I; 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 of the licensee's birth.

Business entity licenses (RSA 153:29-a, II; Mec 402.02(a) and 406.01(a)) — mechanical business entity licenses expire biennially on the last day of January.

So a master plumber born in September renews personally at the end of September, and renews the company at the end of January. Two dates, four months apart, on separate two-year cycles. A company can be perfectly current on one and four months lapsed on the other, and nothing in either renewal notice tells you about the other.

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

What lapsing actually costs

• The first 30 days are free of late fees. A late fee is not required during the first 30 days of expiration, but is assessed for each portion of every calendar month thereafter (Mec 402.01(d), 402.02(d)).
• You can defer the fee, once, for $50. An individual who has completed the application and educational components for renewal may remain licensed by requesting a deferral of the renewal fees for up to 90 days past the expiration date, on a one-time payment of $50.00 (Mec 402.01(e)). Do the continuing education, and cash-flow timing stops being a licensing problem.
• Past 365 days you retest. An individual licensee who fails to renew any portion of a mechanical license within 365 days after expiration has that portion reinstated only on proof of successful completion of the licensing examination for each category of license being renewed, plus the late fee and renewal fee (Mec 402.01(f)).
• A lapsed business entity has to stop working. Mec 406.01(b) 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, and is subject to RSA 153:37, I if it does.

Continuing education

Mec 404.01: 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 service technician 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). And no student receives credit for a repeated seminar — each licensee must complete both 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, and must display their license plus a passport, valid driver license or valid non-driver ID showing the same name. Renewal also requires a photograph of the applicant's face not less than 2 inches by 2 inches, reusable for no more than four renewal periods or ten calendar years, whichever comes first (Mec 403.04(b), 401.05).

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). 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). 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 lend the license, and do not sub out to the unlicensed (Mec 607.01). Licensees and business entities shall not allow any other individual or entity to use the licensee's license "for the purpose of facilitating the issuance of permits or for any other purpose," and shall not sub-contract any plumbing or fuel gas fitting work to any unlicensed individual or entity.

That first clause is New Hampshire's anti-license-rental rule, and it is written more broadly than most. It is not limited to permits — it ends with "or for any other purpose." We cover why arrangements of that shape fail in is it legal to rent a contractor license.

Discipline (Mec 604.02). 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. They are served by a formal "Notice of Violation" or "Written Warning," delivered in hand by a mechanical inspector under RSA 153:34.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to get a plumbing license in New Hampshire? The board fees are published above and are the same for everyone: $90 for an apprentice registration, $190 for a journeyman license, $310 for a master license, and $250 for the business entity license (waived while you are a sole licensee with no employees). What you cannot predict from a fee table is the cost of the 600 hours of educational training and the code books, which are set by the approved training providers, and the two years-plus of paid apprentice time it takes to reach 8,000 hours. Fees are set by the board 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 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 153:27–153:38, 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 and our consultation packages are the next step, or browse guidance for other states.

Last reviewed September 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.