Pennsylvania to District of Columbia: journeyman HVAC technician license reciprocity

How local licensing works. Pennsylvania licenses no HVAC workers at the state level, so each city decides for itself whether to license the trade, and licensing is done under local ordinances by city trade boards or code offices. Most municipalities require only a permit pulled by a contractor plus the statewide Home Improvement Contractor registration for residential work.

Philadelphia. No HVAC or mechanical license of any kind. Mechanical permits must be performed by a business holding L&I's general Contractor License ($126 a year, insurance and OSHA 30, no exam), and 'sheet metal work must be performed by a registered sheet metal technician or apprentice employed by the contractor'. The Sheet Metal Technician License ($189 for three years) is the only person-held HVAC-related credential; it requires a completed U.S. DOL or state-registered sheet metal apprenticeship (8,000 hours of work plus 800 hours of instruction) and has no exam and no out-of-state provisions.

Pittsburgh. No journeyman license. The Mechanical/HVAC Trade License is issued to an individual who passes an ICC master mechanical exam and shows four years of experience; other workers perform mechanical work as employees under a licensee.

Reading. Issues a Journeyman Mechanical Installer license ($50 a year). Applicants must be employed by a registered mechanical contractor and registered with the Pennsylvania apprenticeship bureau, complete a four-year approved apprenticeship with at least 216 hours of instruction per year (or eight years under a registered mechanical contractor), and pass the ICC F31-N Journeyman Mechanical exam or its successor. A reciprocal journeyman license ($150, including a one-time reciprocation fee) may be issued to the holder of an equivalent license from a first-, second- or third-class U.S. city issued by an equivalent board with standards equal to Reading's; the applicant attaches the other jurisdiction's current requirements. Reading's list names Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Scranton, Lancaster and Pittsburgh and 'most, if not all, surrounding states with a state license'.

Erie. The Bureau of Building Standards and Safety issues master licenses for Mechanical and HVAC Installers and a separate Refrigeration license, and the contractor licensing ordinance defines a journeyman as one qualified 'through formal apprenticeship, on-the-job experience and after successful completion of the International Code Council (ICC) Journeyman Certificate Exam', with apprentices completing 8,000 working hours and 800 classroom hours before testing. Scranton and Altoona license HVAC/mechanical contractors at the master or business level (see the master level) and have no journeyman license.

Out-of-state holders. No city publishes a reciprocity path for out-of-state journeyman licenses except Reading, whose reciprocal license depends on the origin credential coming from a city (or a state) with equivalent standards. Elsewhere a journeyman from another state simply works for a locally licensed contractor.