State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors
North Carolina licenses individual plumbers. You need a state license in your own name to do this work here, whoever you work for.
Every requirement on this page belongs to a license class the state names itself. Each one has its own experience requirements, fees and exam rules. There are six of them here, so read the one you are aiming at rather than the page as a whole.
What North Carolina licenses
Both answers come directly from the state licensing authority.
| RLP (Restricted Limited Plumbing) Contractor | 1,500 hours on the job |
|---|---|
| P-II (Plumbing-Class II) Contractor | 4,000 hours on the job |
| The exam fee | $150 |
We use the state's published licensing requirements throughout this page. If the state doesn't publish a requirement, we don't guess.
There are two different licensing paths here: one for people working as plumbers, and one for the contracting business. If you're starting your career, focus on the worker license first. You may need the one for the business later, if you decide to run the contracting business yourself.
Each license class below has its own experience requirements, fees and exam rules. Start with the class you're working toward: everything below depends on it. We use the state's official license names, so you'll see the same terms on its forms.
The experience requirements for each license are quoted below exactly as the state publishes them. The licensing authority decides whether your experience qualifies, so keep your own record from day one and make sure your employer can verify your hours.
If your license requires an exam, the exam name and its fee are listed under that license class. The licensing authority and the testing company are often different organizations, so the exam fee is often paid to the testing company. That's why the exam fee may appear in the candidate bulletin instead of the fee schedule.
Each license class below lists the fees the state publishes for it. Renewal varies by class too, so check the renewal period and fee for the class you are working toward rather than for the trade as a whole.
Two of North Carolina's licenses are held by the worker. Each is a separate license with its own experience requirements, fees and exam rules.
Not published for any class here: an application fee or states that recognize it.
Held by the worker · issued by the state
3,000 hours on the job.10 $75 for the license itself.8 $150 to take the exam.7 PSI Services LLC administers the exam.7 You renew this every year, for $75, with no continuing education required.9
The state doesn't list classroom hours.
Held by the worker · issued by the state
2,500 hours on the job.10 $75 for the license itself.8 $150 to take the exam.7 PSI Services LLC administers the exam.7 You renew this every year, for $75, with no continuing education required.9
The state doesn't list classroom hours.
There are five license levels here, and each is a separate license. The hours below are totals for each license, not additional hours on top of the last one. One of them also counts classroom hours, and those are counted apart from the job.
P-I (Plumbing-Class I) Contractor
Two years — 4,000 hours — of on-site full-time experience in the installation, maintenance, service or repair of plumbing systems, whether or not a licence was required for the work performed. Up to one-half of it (2,000 hours, or 45 quarter hours or 30 semester hours) may be academic or technical training directly related to the field.5
P-II (Plumbing-Class II) Contractor
Two years — 4,000 hours — of on-site full-time experience in the installation, maintenance, service or repair of plumbing systems, whether or not a licence was required for the work performed. Up to one-half of it (2,000 hours, or 45 quarter hours or 30 semester hours) may be academic or technical training directly related to the field.5
RLP (Restricted Limited Plumbing) Contractor
1,500 hours of full-time experience in the installation, maintenance, service or repair of plumbing systems, whether or not a licence was required for the work performed; up to one-half of it may be academic or technical training. A holder of a current active North Carolina Irrigation Contractor licence may sit the examination instead on a municipal Backflow Inspector certification or 500 hours of maintenance, service or repair experience.10
PT-I (Plumbing Technician-Class I)
18 months — 3,000 hours — of on-site full-time experience in the installation, maintenance, service or repair of plumbing systems, whether or not a licence was required for the work performed. Up to one-half may be academic or technical training related to the field.10
PT-II (Plumbing Technician-Class II)
15 months — 2,500 hours — of on-site full-time experience in the installation, maintenance, service or repair of plumbing systems, whether or not a licence was required for the work performed. Up to one-half may be academic or technical training related to the field.10
The state doesn't say whether the hours it requires can be earned online.
30 registered apprenticeships train North Carolina plumbers. At the largest, recent apprentices started at a recorded median of $20.37 an hour.
See every program and what they payAmong the plumbers on a payroll in North Carolina, half earn more than $27.44 an hour and half earn less. The federal wage survey puts the annual figure at $57,080.4
These figures cover every experience level, from first-year apprentices to workers with decades on the job, so this is not what an apprentice earns. The survey counts 14,510 of these jobs. Self-employed workers are not included in the survey.4
The yearly figure assumes 2,080 paid hours, which is full time with no long gaps. Actual earnings can be lower where work is interrupted or seasonal.
Figures from the federal wage survey for May 2025, read 2026-08-16. The survey’s state file is a spreadsheet in a zip, not a web page.
These credentials apply if you plan to take work in your own name. Each is issued to the business itself rather than to any one person.
Held by the business · issued by the state
4,000 hours on the job.5 $150 for the license itself.8 $150 to take the exam.7 PSI Services LLC administers the exam.7 You renew this every year, for $150, with no continuing education required.9
The state doesn't list classroom hours.
Held by the business · issued by the state
4,000 hours on the job.5 $150 for the license itself.8 $150 to take the exam.7 PSI Services LLC administers the exam.7 You renew this every year, for $150, with no continuing education required.9
The state doesn't list classroom hours.
Held by the business · issued by the state
1,500 hours on the job.10 $150 for the license itself.8 $150 to take the exam.7 PSI Services LLC administers the exam.7 You renew this every year, for $150, with no continuing education required.9
The state doesn't list classroom hours.
Held by the business · issued by the state
6 hours in a classroom.10 PSI Services LLC administers the exam.7 You renew this every year, with no continuing education required.9
(LWH) Limited Plumbing Water Heater Replacement Contractor
A heating or fuel piping technician or contractor licence held for a minimum of two years, good standing with the Board, and a 6-hour Board-approved course covering North Carolina State Residential Plumbing code requirements, sizing and installation techniques for replacing existing potable water heaters.10
The state doesn't list job hours, an exam fee or a license fee.
PSI Services LLC administers every exam listed on this page. The exam provider sets the exam content, publishes the study material and sets retake fees. Use the official exam names below when you look for study material, application instructions or retake information. Exam fees are listed with each class above.
The State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors issues all worker and contractor credentials covered on this page.
State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors1
North Carolina recognizes no other state's license toward a license here, and the state says so. You know where you stand before you spend anything. Moving to North Carolina? Contact State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors and ask whether your current license will be recognized. Leaving? Contact the licensing authority in the state where you plan to work.
North Carolina licenses individual plumbers. You need a state license in your own name to do this work here, whoever you work for. North Carolina licenses plumber contractors as well. Taking work in your own name, rather than working for somebody who holds that license, needs a second and different one.
North Carolina publishes an hours figure for two of the six license classes here: PT-II (Plumbing Technician-Class II), 2,500 hours on the job and PT-I (Plumbing Technician-Class I), 3,000 hours on the job. Each figure belongs to the class it is named under and to no other. The state does not publish a working week, so nothing here turns hours into months. How fast you get there depends on how many you work in a year.
The middle half of the plumbers on a payroll in North Carolina earn between $22.38 and $30.43 an hour, and half of all of them earn more than $27.44. These are straight-time figures, before any overtime, at every experience level, counted by the federal wage survey in May 2025. Self-employed workers are not included in them.4
The top tenth of plumbers on a payroll in North Carolina earn above $36.47 an hour, which over a 2,080-hour year comes to more than $75,850. Those are straight-time figures: overtime pay is outside them, and so are self-employed workers. The federal wage survey counts what the top tenth earn above, not how many reach any figure past it. So at these rates, at most one in ten reach $100,000 on straight time.4
The state publishes these: $150 to be issued P-I (Plumbing-Class I) Contractor, $150 to be issued P-II (Plumbing-Class II) Contractor, $150 to be issued RLP (Restricted Limited Plumbing) Contractor, $75 to be issued PT-I (Plumbing Technician-Class I) and $75 to be issued PT-II (Plumbing Technician-Class II). Each is per class, not per trade. None of them is the exam: where a vendor administers the exam, that fee is the vendor's and lives in its own bulletin.
No. North Carolina recognizes no other state's license toward a license here, and the state says so in as many words. Bringing a license in and taking one out are two separate agreements, signed and published separately. Contact the licensing authority in the state where you plan to work and ask what it will recognize.
There is no national answer. Any page that gives you one is averaging states whose requirements differ by thousands of hours. Licensing is set state by state, and in some states city by city, so the honest version of this question has a place in it. What is the same everywhere is the shape: you learn on the job, the hours that count are the ones somebody signs for, and the clock starts the day the work does.
Yes, and that is the ordinary way in. These trades are learned at work rather than before it, which is why boards mostly require time on the job. What you cannot skip is the paperwork: the hours that count are the ones somebody signs for, so the question to ask an employer is who signs, not whether they will train you.
No. Boards set a minimum age, not a maximum. No board on these pages sets an upper limit, and where age shows up at all it is a floor. The real question at 30 is money: an apprenticeship pays you while you learn and school charges you while you learn. That difference usually decides it.
None of the boards on these pages publishes a pass rate. The useful question is who administers the exam: that organization sells the reference material for it and sets what a retake costs.