Montana Plumbing License: What Applies and What Does Not
What Montana 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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Montana plumbing licensing at a glance
| State credential required for this work? | Yes, statewide |
| What they are called | Master Plumber, Journeyman Plumber, Medical Gas Piping Endorsement |
| Who issues it | Montana Board of Plumbers |
| Must the business itself be licensed? | No, individuals hold it |
Does a plumbing business need a license in Montana?
Montana issues 3 license classes for plumbers.
Montana licenses plumbing statewide through the Board of Plumbers in the Department of Labor and Industry Business Standards Division. A person working at the field of plumbing as a master or journeyman plumber must first obtain a license, and the chapter lists exceptions covering owner occupied single family residences, mines and refineries, and farms or ranches not connected to public water supply and sewage disposal systems.
The license attaches to qualified individuals. Montana does not require the plumbing business itself to hold one.
Title 37, chapter 69 of the Montana Code licenses individual master and journeyman plumbers and creates no plumbing license or registration for the company itself. A licensed master plumber may employ only licensed journeyman plumbers and registered apprentices and is responsible for their work.
This records what Montana 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.
Source: Montana Code Annotated 37-69-301, License required. Verified 2026-09-03.
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 Montana it is made with the Montana 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 Montana covers the filing itself, step by step.
Insurance Montana 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 Montana 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.
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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.