Oregon Plumbing License (2026): Journeyman, Supervising Plumber and PB Requirements

Oregon runs its plumbing licensing through the Building Codes Division (BCD) of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, under the State Plumbing Board. That single sentence corrects the most common error on page one of Google for this search: most guides tell you to register your apprenticeship with, and submit your journeyman paperwork to, the Construction Contractors Board (CCB). That is wrong. The CCB licenses the business. The BCD licenses the person. Apprentices register through the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) Apprenticeship and Training Division, a third agency entirely.

Three agencies, three jobs. Get that straight and the rest of Oregon's plumbing ladder is unusually clean.

This guide covers the individual Journeyman Plumber license, the Supervising Plumber credential, the Plumbing Business license, and the CCB contractor license that has to sit underneath all of it, plus the 2026 law changes that nobody else has written up yet.

The three agencies, and who does what

• BCD (State Plumbing Board)**, What it issues: Journeyman Plumber (JP), Supervising Plumber, limited specialty plumbing licenses, Plumbing Business (PB) license · Who needs it: The individual plumber; the plumbing business
• CCB (Construction Contractors Board)**, What it issues: The contractor license and endorsement, plus the Responsible Managing Individual designation · Who needs it: Any business contracting for construction work
• BOLI (Apprenticeship and Training Division)**, What it issues: Registers apprenticeship programs and apprentices · Who needs it: Anyone working through a plumbing apprenticeship

You cannot hold a BCD Plumbing Business license without an active CCB license. OAR 918-030-0015 requires BCD-registered contractors to maintain one, and the BCD contractor/business application asks for your CCB number and expiration date on the first line. That dependency runs one direction only, plenty of CCB-licensed businesses have no BCD license at all.

Journeyman Plumber (JP): the real requirements

Oregon's journeyman qualifications live in OAR 918-695-0030. There are two routes, and a third that appears on the state's own license directory.

Route 1, the Oregon apprenticeship

Satisfactory completion of a minimum four-year plumbing apprentice program in Oregon. The rule states this in years, not hours. Your certificate of completion from a registered four-year program (or a referral letter from the registered training committee or an Oregon Plumbing Board approved training program) is what the division wants to see.

Route 2, the equivalency

Four years of academic training and on-the-job experience as an apprentice plumber, a lawful journeyman plumber, or a combination, meeting these minimums:

Academic: 144 hours per year for at least four years, 576 hours total, generally covering materials/tools/equipment, mathematics and science, soldering and brazing, plumbing and related codes, DWV installations, water systems, safety and first aid, blueprint reading, and seismic restraints.

On the job, split by subject and by residential vs. commercial:

• Sewerage: sanitary and storm piping, disposal, Residential: 300 · Commercial: 300
• Drainage, waste and vent piping (DWV), Residential: 1,300 · Commercial: 1,300
• Soldering, brazing, welding, Residential: 200 · Commercial: 200
• Water: supply, services, mains, appurtenances, Residential: 1,100 · Commercial: 1,100
• Fixtures, appliances, trim and supports, Residential: 700 · Commercial: 700
• Miscellaneous plumbing, piping, repair, maintenance, Residential: 250 · Commercial: 250
• Total minimum subject hours, Residential: 3,850 · Commercial: 3,850

That is 7,700 hours, not 8,000. Nearly every competing guide publishes "8,000 hours of on-the-job training." The number does not appear in the rule. Oregon's requirement is 3,850 residential plus 3,850 commercial, and, more importantly, the split is what actually trips people up. A candidate with 9,000 hours of nothing but residential service work does not qualify, because the commercial column is empty. Hours in the wrong column are not fungible.

There is one narrow relief valve. Under OAR 918-695-0030(2)(c), someone with more than the minimum in any single specific-item category may substitute up to 20 percent of the excess hours toward the related minimum in the same category on the other side of the residential/commercial line. Twenty percent of the excess, in the same category only. That is a much tighter rule than "extra hours count."

Route 3, the out-of-state installer license

The state's Business Xpress license directory entry for the Journeyman Plumber license (last updated 02/06/2026) lists a third path: verified proof of 7,700 hours of lawful commercial and 7,700 hours of lawful residential on-the-job experience while holding a license with a scope of work similar to an Oregon journeyman plumber. Read the numbers carefully, that is double the equivalency route on each side. If you are coming in on an out-of-state individual installer license and expect it to shorten the road, it does the opposite.

The application, the exam, and what it costs

Application: BCD form 440-2571, submitted as a single packet by mail. Every page (1, 2 and 3) plus a Plumbing Experience Verification Form (440-2571a) for each employer you list. The division is explicit: do not email documents.

Also required:

• Proof of a high school diploma, GED or equivalent, a college degree substitutes
• Official transcripts of classroom training, and proof of completion for any out-of-state apprenticeship recognized by Oregon
• A passport-style photo, 2" x 2", with your name written on the back
• Payment

Fee: $100 for the Journeyman Plumber license. Processing runs about 2–3 weeks; incomplete applications are the usual cause of delay.

The exam is where Oregon diverges hardest from the rest of the country. BCD does not hand plumbing exams to PSI, Prov or Pearson VUE. Once your application is approved, the division mails you a Letter of Authorization and you schedule directly with the testing location.

• 4 hours, 64 questions, open book. The Letter of Authorization comes with the list of approved material you may bring in.
• Passing score is 75 percent.
• You must sit the exam within 60 days of the Letter of Authorization date.
• The testing location forwards your exam to BCD for grading. Allow about two weeks. Results are not given over the phone.
• Fail, and you wait 30 days before retesting, and reapply on form 440-2574 ($100 for the Journeyman Plumber retake). In-person exam review has been eliminated.
• Test locations include Bend, Eugene, Hermiston, Klamath Falls, Ontario, Pendleton, Portland, Roseburg, Salem and White City.

You must bring the Letter of Authorization and photo ID. No exam is given without both. Bring your own pencils and a silent, non-programmable, non-printing calculator.

No bond and no insurance are required for the individual JP license. Those attach to the business, through the CCB.

Renewal and continuing education

The JP renews every three years on April 1, a three-year cycle on a fixed statewide date, not a rolling anniversary. BCD mails a renewal notice roughly six weeks out. 24 total continuing education hours are required across the cycle, split among Oregon rule and law (ORL), code change (CC), and code-related (CR) categories.

BCD's warning on this is worth repeating: a portion of your credits must come specifically from code-change courses, and you have not met the renewal requirement if you are short on that category, even if your total hour count is fine. Plenty of licensees discover this at renewal. You can check your posted credits through the BCD license holder search before you file.

A lost or replacement license is form 440-2523 and a $10 fee.

Supervising Plumber: Oregon's version of a master

Oregon has no "Master Plumber." The credential above journeyman is the Supervising Plumber, authorized by ORS 693.095. The State Plumbing Board may issue it to journeyman plumbers who:

1. Demonstrate competency, to the board's satisfaction, in the supervision of plumbing work and in the laws, rules, ordinances and practices relating to plumbing;
2. Comply with the board's licensing rules adopted under ORS 455.117; and
3. Pay the application fee set under ORS 693.135.

Note what the statute actually tests: supervision and the legal framework, not more pipe. That is the tell. Oregon designed this credential to be the person who answers for a company's work, which is exactly the role a plumbing business needs filled to hold its BCD license.

ORS 693.030 puts the duty on the business side in plain terms. A licensed plumbing contractor, or anyone required to be licensed as one, may not:

• (a) Permit or suffer any person to work as a journeyman plumber without a valid journeyman plumber license;
• (b) Permit or suffer any person to work as an apprentice plumber who does not meet the ORS 660.002–660.210 apprenticeship requirements;
• (c) Employ an apprentice plumber on plumbing work while representing the apprentice to be a journeyman; or
• (d) Charge a journeyman plumber's wage for services performed by an apprentice.

Subsection (d) is unusual and almost never mentioned. Oregon polices the billing of apprentice labor, not just the supervision of it. Marking an apprentice's hours out at journeyman rates is a statutory violation independent of whether the work was properly supervised.

And ORS 693.180, "Denial of right to court action for unlicensed plumber or unqualified apprentice", closes the loop the way Indiana's collection bar does: the courthouse door is part of the enforcement scheme, not just the fine schedule.

The Plumbing Business (PB) license

The business-side license from BCD is the Plumbing Business (PB), applied for on form 440-2888 (single or combination contractor/business license). Per that form's fee schedule, the single PB is $150. Combination licenses that fold plumbing together with other BCD scopes run higher, for example plumbing and boiler business (BP) at $645, plumbing plus limited maintenance specialty contractor (PM) at $225, plumbing and boiler business plus limited maintenance specialty contractor HVAC/R (PBH) at $720, and plumbing and boiler business plus electrical contractor (PBE) at $1,020.

A caution competitors do not give you: form 440-2888 carries a revision stamp of 1/15, so its fee table is a decade old on its face. The $75 figures on it for the limited maintenance licenses still match the state's license directory as updated in February 2026, which is reassuring, but confirm the current PB and combination fees with BCD licensing before you write the check.

BCD's published prerequisites for its contractor/business licenses are short and pointed:

• Register the business name with the Secretary of State
• Hold an active Construction Contractors Board (CCB) license
• Employ an appropriate full-time signing supervisor for the license chosen

Renewal is every three years on July 1, a different cycle and a different date from the individual JP license. Businesses holding these licenses are exempt from continuing education; the CE obligation rides with the individual license holder.

One documented wrinkle worth raising with BCD directly: form 440-2888 instructs boiler/pressure vessel (BB) and plumbing business (PB) applicants to skip the signing-supervisor designation chart, and its general instructions state that single plumbing business applicants "do not need to complete the qualifying person experience verification form." The "qualified person" (QP) route, where a business qualifies through someone whose experience is merely verified rather than licensed, is available for the limited electrical-family licenses (CRE, LMS, LHR, CPI), not for plumbing. Plumbing runs on an actual licensed supervisor. Ask BCD which document your specific configuration requires; the answer differs between a single PB and a combination license.

Underneath all of it: the CCB license

You cannot hold the BCD plumbing business license without an active CCB license, so here is the layer beneath.

The RMI. Most CCB endorsements require at least one Responsible Managing Individual. Under ORS 701.005(16), an RMI is an individual who is an owner or an employee of the business, exercises management or supervisory authority over the business's construction activities, and has completed the required training and testing (or demonstrated the required experience).

Training and test. For most licenses the RMI completes a 16-hour pre-license training course from a CCB-approved provider, then passes a test based on the NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business, Law and Project Management (Oregon version). Passing score is 70 percent; the CCB guide lists the test fee at $60. You have 24 months from passing the test to apply for the license.

Bonds. HB 2922 (2023) raised every CCB minimum bond by $5,000 effective January 1, 2024:

• Residential General Contractor, $25,000
• Residential Specialty Contractor, $20,000
• Residential Limited Contractor, $15,000
• Residential Developer, $25,000
• Commercial General Contractor Level 1, $80,000
• Commercial Specialty Contractor Level 1, $55,000
• Commercial General Contractor Level 2, $25,000
• Commercial Specialty Contractor Level 2, $25,000
• Commercial Developer, $25,000

A plumbing company doing residential service work is most often a Residential Specialty Contractor, $20,000 bond. If you take a residential and a commercial endorsement, you file two bonds but only one certificate of insurance, in the higher of the two amounts.

Public works. Any contractor on a qualifying public works project with a total project cost over $100,000 must file a separate $30,000 public works bond with the CCB before work starts. It does not replace your license bond.

Commercial experience. Level 1 commercial endorsements require 8 years of construction experience among the business's key employees; Level 2 requires 4 years. Completing an apprenticeship substitutes for up to 3 years, a bachelor's degree in a construction-related field up to 3 years, a bachelor's or master's in business/finance/economics up to 2 years, and an associate's in construction or building management up to 1 year. Level 1 and Level 2 commercial contractors may perform the same work, the difference is bond, insurance and experience, not scope.

All fees, bond amounts and insurance minimums above are set by the board or the legislature and change. Verify current figures with BCD, the CCB and your surety before relying on them.

Two 2026 law changes affecting Oregon plumbers

HB 4089, license-number misuse is now a felony. Enrolled and assigned chapter 53, Oregon Laws 2026 (passed the House February 27, 2026 and the Senate March 5, 2026), HB 4089 amends ORS 701.990 to convert two offenses from Class A misdemeanors to Class C felonies:

• Intentional use of a contractor's license number without the authorization of the licensed contractor; and
• Use of a contractor's license number, with or without authorization, with the intent to deceive the public.

Per the legislature's own summary, each is punishable by up to five years' imprisonment, a $125,000 fine, or both. The same act makes it a Class A misdemeanor for a direct contractor or subcontractor to knowingly contract with an unlicensed construction labor contractor, and a Class C felony on a second conviction.

Read the second bullet again. It reaches use of a license number even with the license holder's permission, if the purpose is to deceive the public about who is actually standing behind the work. That is the exact fact pattern in every arrangement where a company "borrows" someone's credential to look qualified. Oregon just moved it into felony territory.

HB 2688, off-site fabrication becomes prevailing-wage work. Passed in 2025 and confirmed in BCD's own legislative report, HB 2688 expands the definition of public works for prevailing wage purposes to include bespoke off-site fabrication, preconstruction, assembly or construction performed to specification for a public works project, explicitly naming plumbing systems or components and mechanical/HVAC/refrigeration ducting and piping. It applies to procurements solicited, or contracts entered into, on or after July 1, 2026. If your shop prefabs assemblies for public jobs, your shop hours may now be prevailing-wage hours.

What this costs, and where the money actually goes

There is no single number, and any guide that hands you one is guessing. Your real cost depends on which endorsement you take (the residential-to-commercial jump changes the bond fivefold at Level 1), whether you need one BCD license or a combination, your credit, which is what actually prices a surety bond, your insurance limits, and whether you carry employees and therefore workers' compensation coverage.

The government-side items are knowable: the $100 JP license, the $150 PB license, the CCB test fee, the CCB application fee, and the bond amount your endorsement requires. Everything else is priced to your situation.

The same is true of putting a qualified person in place. If you are weighing whether to promote from within, hire, or bring in an outside qualifier, talk through the specifics rather than working from a published number that was never built for your risk profile, your volume or your state mix.

Frequently asked questions

Does Oregon have a Master Plumber license? No. The credential above Journeyman Plumber is the Supervising Plumber, issued under ORS 693.095. Guides that reference an "Oregon Master Plumber" are importing a title from another state.

How many hours do I need for an Oregon journeyman plumber license? Under the equivalency route, 3,850 residential plus 3,850 commercial on-the-job hours, 7,700 total, plus 576 hours of classroom training over at least four years. The widely published "8,000 hours" figure does not appear in OAR 918-695-0030. The apprenticeship route is stated in years: a minimum four-year Oregon program.

Who administers the Oregon plumbing exam? The Building Codes Division does. Oregon does not route its plumbing exams through PSI, Prov or Pearson VUE. BCD issues a Letter of Authorization, you schedule with an approved test location, and BCD grades the exam.

Do I need a CCB license and a BCD license? If you are a plumbing business, yes, both. BCD will not issue or maintain a Plumbing Business license for a company without an active CCB license. If you are an individual plumber working for someone else, you need only the BCD individual license.

How long does an Oregon plumbing license take? Realistically, four years to build the experience, then roughly 2–3 weeks for BCD to process the application, up to 60 days to sit the exam after the Letter of Authorization, and about two weeks for results. The business-side licenses process much faster, BCD lists 1–3 days for contractor/business applications once everything is in order.

What happens if my company loses its supervising plumber or RMI? On the CCB side, the consequences are immediate and specific, see the section below. On the BCD side, the business license is conditioned on employing an appropriate full-time signing supervisor, so operating without one puts the license at risk. This is the failure mode that takes companies offline, and it is worth planning for before it happens rather than after.

The part most Oregon plumbing companies underestimate

Oregon does not let a plumbing business drift without a qualified person, and the CCB rules on this are among the strictest in the country.

OAR 812-006-0100(5) requires that when an RMI leaves a business, the business must immediately appoint another RMI or a temporary one, and immediately notify the agency in writing. Not within 30 days. Immediately.

OAR 812-006-0110 governs the temporary appointment: notify the board within 3 calendar days, and a temporary RMI may serve no more than 14 days from the date of notification. By day 14 you must have a fully qualified RMI in place. And subsection (5) states the consequence without hedging: "Failure to maintain an RMI will result in suspension of the license of the contractor or business."

Fourteen days is not enough time to find, vet, train (16 hours), test and onboard a qualified person from a standing start. It is barely enough time to complete paperwork on someone you already know.

There is a second constraint that catches growing companies. OAR 812-006-0100(3) provides that an individual who is not an owner may not be designated as the RMI of more than one licensee. The rule restricts non-owners only; read on its face, it does not impose that cap on owners. If your qualifier is an employee rather than an owner, that person can hold your license and no one else's, which means the moment you open a second licensed entity, you need a second qualified person.

That statutory structure is why Oregon rewards planning the qualifier role deliberately instead of treating it as a form field. If you are building an Oregon plumbing operation, expanding a licensed entity into a second one, or facing a departure you can already see coming, see how a qualifying agent placement works, and read what happens when a qualifier leaves before you need it.

Where to go next

• New to the role entirely? Start with what a qualifying agent is.
• Building a plumbing company across state lines? Plumbing contractor qualifying agent requirements covers the trade nationally.
• Already licensed in Oregon on the electrical side? See the companion Oregon electrician license guide.
• Doing HVAC work too? Oregon handles that very differently, see the Oregon HVAC license guide.
• Want the wider Oregon picture? The Oregon contractor licensing state guide and the full state directory map the rest.
• Tracking what changed this year? 2026 contractor license law changes by state.
• Considering a shortcut? Read is it legal to rent a contractor license first, especially now that Oregon has moved license-number misuse to a felony.
• Thinking about becoming the qualifier yourself? Become a qualifying agent.

Primary sources for this guide: OAR 918-695-0030; OAR 918-030-0015; ORS 693.030, 693.095, 693.135, 693.180; ORS 701.005; OAR 812-006-0100 and 812-006-0110; BCD forms 440-2571, 440-2571a, 440-2574, 440-2888 and 440-2523; the BCD journeyman plumber licensing page, exam information sheet and plumbing continuing education page; the Oregon Business Xpress license directory entries for Journeyman Plumber (updated 02/06/2026) and Combination BCD Contractor Licenses (updated 02/11/2026); the CCB licensing and HB 2922 bond pages; the CCB Guide to Becoming a Licensed Contractor; BCD's 2025 Legislative Update; and enrolled HB 4089 (chapter 53, Oregon Laws 2026). Fees, bond amounts, hour requirements and deadlines are set by the boards and the legislature and are subject to change, verify current figures with BCD, the CCB and BOLI before acting on them.