STATE LICENSE
ConditionalTennessee Board for Licensing Contractors…
Plumbing work of $25,000 or more needs a contractor license with a plumbing classification, CMC-A (plumbing) or CMC (full mechanical: plumbing plus HVAC), whether you work for the owner or as a sub. The Board must pre-approve you to sit either exam, for a $50 fee.
Below $25,000 the state's option is the Limited Licensed Plumber, an individual license with a $75 initial fee. It requires a year of verified plumbing experience and a passed plumbing exam. It is required only where the municipality uses the Division of Fire Prevention for permits or inspections. The exemption list is long: state-licensed plumbing contractors, plumbers licensed by the local government, employees of a licensed plumber, homeowners on their own residence, maintenance work under $500, and 15 exempt counties. Big cities license plumbers themselves.
The state sets the license floor; the county or city permit office controls filing, inspections, and local rules wherever the job site sits.
Plumbing licensing below $25,000 is mostly local in Tennessee's cities. The LLP is not exempt from local licensing, permit and inspection rules, and municipalities may impose stricter testing and fees. Metro Nashville registers state CMC-A/CMC contractors before they pull plumbing permits; its 2019 registration form asks for a $40,000 Metro permit bond and $300,000 general liability. Where no local building code is enforced, the State Fire Marshal's residential program has inspected plumbing at rough-in and final on permits bought on or after October 1, 2011. Tennessee licenses contractors at the state level; the local desk issues the permit and does the inspecting. Every contractor also needs a business tax license for each city or county where it operates. All four big metros sit inside Home Improvement counties: Davidson (Metro Nashville), Shelby (Memphis), Knox (Knoxville) and Hamilton (Chattanooga). Residential remodeling from $3,000 to $24,999 there needs the state Home Improvement license, whether or not the job needs a permit. Memphis & Shelby County Construction Code Enforcement makes every state-licensed general contractor register its license before pulling a permit. The registration costs $50 and needs a Board-issued Qualifying Agent affidavit and a Memphis & Shelby County business license. Knoxville ties every permit applicant to a registration type: state contractor, homeowner, or unlicensed/state limited license. Where a city or county does not enforce its own building code, one- and two-family dwellings fall under the State Fire Marshal's residential permit program, which uses the 2018 IRC and state-contracted inspectors.
The local offices section below names the exact permit desk for every Tennessee county on file.
Each row names the issuing authority, cost, timeline, citation, and status behind the requirement — verified against the official source.
Published fees from the issuing authorities, as of October 2026. Local permit fees vary by project and jurisdiction — the basis is stated where a flat number does not exist.
The Board's LLP package lists Benton, Decatur, Dickson, Giles, Henderson, Henry, Hickman, Humphreys, Lake, Lawrence, Lewis, Obion, Perry, Stewart and Weakley as exempt.
The LLP definition of plumbing covers piping inside residential and commercial buildings. It excludes utility connections and irrigation systems outside the building.
An LLP may not split plumbing portions into phases or separate contracts to avoid the contractor license.
A practical sequence for a new plumbing contractor in Tennessee. Actual agency processing times are noted in the ledger above.
Each item names the issuing authority, cycle, and citation.
Statutory consequences with their citations — not estimates, not “commonly cited” guesses.
Anyone who engages or offers to engage in contracting without a valid license, or outside its classification or monetary limit, may not be awarded the contract or take part in any re-bid of the project. The Board's licensing instructions add that the offender's own license application may be denied or held for up to six months.
The Board may assess $50–$5,000 for violations of T.C.A. § 62-6-120(d) and for unlawful bidding, and $50–$1,000 for other violations of the contractor law. Each day of continued violation counts as a separate violation.
The Board's Executive Director may issue a written citation to anyone contracting without a license, ordering them to cease and assessing a civil penalty.
Inside city limits, the city office listed here issues the permit; the county office serves unincorporated areas. Every office links to its official page.
Every fact in this file was checked against these official sources on October 2026.
Pending verification: Prov's per-exam fee for the Business & Law and trade exams from July 1, 2026 is not published on tn.gov (PSI charged $57 per exam per the Board's Rev. 02/25 application package) · The full text of T.C.A. § 62-6-103/§ 62-6-120 could not be fetched from an official host (the tn.gov statute mirror pages have been removed; the official code is behind LexisNexis). Any statutory cap on what an unlicensed contractor may recover in court, and the criminal grade of unlicensed contracting, are therefore not asserted here · The 15 exempt-county names come from the Board's LLP application form (dated 6/18); the Feb. 2026 Board webinar confirms '15 exempt counties' without naming them · The $500 exemption is worded as 'general maintenance work' on the current Board page but as appliance install/repair labor under $500 on the older LLP form · Metro Nashville's $40,000 permit bond and $300,000 insurance figures come from its 2019 registration form; current amounts not confirmed
General information, not legal advice. Always confirm requirements, deadlines, and forms with the issuing authority before filing or contracting.
Store licenses, permits, policies, and renewal dates in one place.