State ladder: apprentice → journeyman → master
Building Codes Division (BCD), Department of Consumer and Business Services runs plumbing licensing in Oregon. Below: the exact ladder, the transfer doors into Oregon from all 50 states, the renewal and lapse lines, and the master-of-record rule for opening a company — every figure from the board's own publications, checked October 22, 2026.
State ladder: apprentice → journeyman → master Primary sources Checked October 22, 2026
| The ladder | Oregon |
|---|---|
| Journeyman credential | Journeyman Plumber (JP) |
| Total hours required | 7,700 |
| Classroom hours | 576 |
| Apprentice registration | Required — hours count only while registered |
| Exam | Oregon Building Codes Division — Exam is required: 4-hour, 64-question, open-book examination (BCD license directory, accessed 2026-10-22). The $100 figure in the state license directory is the license fee, not a separate exam fee, so exam.fee is null. |
| License fee | $100 |
| Renewal | Every 3 years — all JP licenses renew on April 1 (next renewal April 1, 2029, per BCD) |
| Continuing education | 24 hours of approved continuing education per 3-year cycle for journeyman plumbers (BCD continuing-education pages and state license directory, accessed 2026-10-22) |
| Master credential | No master plumber license in Oregon — the step above journeyman is the Plumbing Contractor business license |
| Hour category | Minimum hours |
|---|---|
| Commercial hours | 3,850 |
| Residential hours | 3,850 |
Registration, in the board’s terms: The standard route is completion of a registered 4-year Oregon apprenticeship program (registered through the Bureau of Labor and Industries system); BCD requires the apprenticeship completion certificate or a referral letter from the registered training committee or an Oregon Plumbing Board-approved training program. hoursTotal records the 7,700-hour equivalency total (3,850 commercial + 3,850 residential) that defines the non-apprenticeship routes. Subject splits inside each 3,850-hour half (OAR 918-695-0030(2)(b)): sewerage 300, DWV 1,300, soldering/brazing/welding 200, water 1,100, fixtures/appliances/trim 700, miscellaneous/repair 250.
No master plumber license in Oregon — the step above journeyman is the Plumbing Contractor business license: Oregon does not issue a master plumber license. A journeyman who wants to contract must obtain the BCD plumbing contractor business license and the associated Construction Contractors Board (CCB) plumbing specialty contractor registration; a journeyman license alone does not authorize contracting.
Contractor application/exam fee amounts were not recorded in this pass because the BCD contractor pages were not fetched to the fee table; no figure is asserted.
If a license is not renewed by the expiration date it falls into 'expired-renewable' status; the holder is not eligible to work under the license until all renewal requirements, including continuing education, are met (BCD continuing-education page, accessed 2026-10-22).
Reinstatement: Renew from expired-renewable status by completing all renewal requirements including CE (BCD, accessed 2026-10-22); BCD's pages checked state no outside deadline, so no month figure is recorded.
Past the line: Not stated on the BCD pages checked 2026-10-22.
Oregon endorses journeyman licenses from: Idaho, Montana. BCD lists a reciprocal license agreement with Idaho and Montana only for the Journeyman Plumber license (BCD individual licenses page, accessed 2026-10-22). Reciprocal applicants must have tested in the state they are reciprocating from.
| Licensed in | Door into Oregon | |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Alaska | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Arizona | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Arkansas | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| California | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Colorado | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Connecticut | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Delaware | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| District of Columbia | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Florida | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Georgia | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Hawaii | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Idaho | Endorsement available | Run the pair → |
| Illinois | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Indiana | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Iowa | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Kansas | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Kentucky | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Louisiana | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Maine | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Maryland | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Massachusetts | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Michigan | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Minnesota | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Mississippi | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Missouri | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Montana | Endorsement available | Run the pair → |
| Nebraska | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Nevada | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| New Hampshire | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| New Jersey | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| New Mexico | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| New York | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| North Carolina | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| North Dakota | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Ohio | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Oklahoma | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Pennsylvania | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Rhode Island | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| South Carolina | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| South Dakota | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Tennessee | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Texas | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Utah | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Vermont | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Virginia | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Washington | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| West Virginia | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Wisconsin | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
| Wyoming | No endorsement — exam route | Run the pair → |
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The seat: Licensed plumbing contractor business (BCD) with CCB plumbing specialty registration. Contracting requires the business-level plumbing contractor license/registration, not merely employing a journeyman; journeymen perform installations, alterations and remodels but do not hold the contracting credential themselves (BCD, accessed 2026-10-22). Detailed qualifying-individual and bond/insurance amounts for the contractor tier were not fetched from a primary page in this pass and are not asserted here.
Licensing is statewide through BCD; Oregon does not run a separate city journeyman license system in the BCD material checked 2026-10-22.
Run the owner gate for your situation →
Rules as published by Building Codes Division (BCD), Department of Consumer and Business Services and the statutes it administers, checked October 22, 2026. Board: https://www.oregon.gov/bcd/licensing/pages/individual-licenses.aspx?wp8482=se%3A%22plumber%22
