Colorado Plumbing License: What Applies and What Does Not
What Colorado requires of a plumbing business in 2026, what the LLC has to file first, and where the license and the entity are two separate steps.
By Edmond Hui · Last updated: September 2026
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Colorado plumbing licensing at a glance
| State credential required for this work? | Yes, statewide |
| What they are called | Master Plumber, Journeyworker Plumber, Residential Plumber, Plumbing Apprentice, Plumbing Contractor |
| Who issues it | Colorado State Plumbing Board |
| Must the business itself be licensed? | Yes |
Does a plumbing business need a license in Colorado?
Colorado issues 5 license classes for plumbers.
Colorado licenses plumbing statewide through the State Plumbing Board in the Division of Professions and Occupations. Individuals hold the residential, journeyworker and master plumber licenses, and the company that contracts for the work separately holds a plumbing contractor registration with a responsible master plumber attached to it.
The plumbing business itself must be licensed or registered, not only the people doing the work.
A business that contracts to perform plumbing work registers with the Board as a plumbing contractor and keeps a responsible master plumber. A Board rule sets a fine for operating as a plumbing contractor without obtaining registration from the Board, citing state law, and a contractor that loses its responsible master plumber has twenty days to hire another before the registration moves to a status in which it cannot practice.
This records what Colorado publishes, not a determination about your business. Scope, thresholds and local requirements are set by the issuing body, so confirm with them before you bid or file.
Verified 2026-09-03 against the primary source listed under Sources.
What the LLC has to do first
Several states license the plumbing company separately from the individual plumber, so the LLC and the license are two filings, not one.
The entity filing is separate from anything the license requires. In Colorado it is made with the Colorado Secretary of State. File directly with the state here. The order matters wherever the license is issued to the company rather than to a person: the entity has to exist before an application can name it.
Forming an LLC as a plumbing business in Colorado covers the filing itself, step by step.
Insurance Colorado plumbers are asked to show
Plumbing license and registration schemes commonly require proof of general liability cover, and water damage from a failed connection is the claim these policies are bought for.
We do not publish Colorado premium figures for this trade, so nothing here is a quote. Our business insurance guide for plumbers covers what each policy does and does not pay for.
This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state licensing board publishes for this trade, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you whether your own work needs a licence: that turns on the scope of the job, the value of the contract, and the city or county you work in, which commonly adds its own registration on top of the state's. Confirm your own position with the board named on this page and with your local building or business licensing office before you bid or start work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
2 documents
Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Colorado sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so. Where we hold the citation but no stable public link, the citation is printed on its own rather than pointed at a guessed address.
- sos.state.co.us/CCR/GenerateRulePdf.do?ruleVersionId=8311&fileName=3+CCR+720-1Colorado plumbers licensing, primary source: Department of Regulatory Agencies, State Plumbing Board, Plumbing, 3 CCR 720-1 (verified 2026-09-03)
- Colorado statute: section 12-155-108(3), C.R.S. (unregistered plumbing contractor fine)
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Form your LLC with Northwest ($39 + state fee)Includes a year of registered agent service. After year one, registered agent service is $125/yr. That enrolls you by default in annual report filing at $100 plus state fees, charged automatically to your saved payment method and cancellable any time.Not sure which service is right? Compare formation services →
Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC
Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.