Nevada to Alaska: master plumber license reciprocity

Alaska has no master plumber licence; Mechanical Inspection's FAQ answers 'Does Alaska issue a Master license for the plumbing or electrical trades? No.' The highest person-held plumbing credential is the Mechanical Administrator licence issued under AS 08.40.210-08.40.490 by the Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing (CBPL), which is treated here as the master level. It is a supervisory licence: a person may not act as a mechanical administrator without it, every registered mechanical contractor doing plumbing must hold or employ one, the administrator is responsible for all mechanical work done under the contractor's licence and may qualify only one contractor (AS 08.40.260, 08.40.280; 12 AAC 39.902), and it does not by itself authorise hands-on code work, which still requires a DOLWD certificate of fitness (a person may hold both, which the FAQ says 'allows the holder to function like how a master trades license works in many other states'). The plumbing categories are Unlimited Commercial and Industrial Plumbing (UCIP: journeyman plumber or plumbing field-superintendent experience for four of the last six years, or an ME degree or PE registration plus one of the last three years, where a year is at least 1,500 hours) and Residential Plumbing and Hydronic Heating (RPHH: two of the last four years as a journeyman in residential plumbing and hydronic heating; single-family and duplex dwellings only). Qualification is by a PSI-administered examination passed at 70% within the prior 12 months, or by credentials for administrators licensed in another state. Fees are $150 to apply plus $200 for the licence ($350); the licence is biennial, expires December 31 of odd-numbered years, and renews for $200 with an eight-hour Uniform Plumbing Code workshop per category. The mechanical contractor registration itself is a separate business licence under AS 08.18 from the same division.

Nevada does not issue a master plumber license to individuals, and no county or city was found to issue a master-level plumbing card; Clark County recognizes a 'plumbing qualified individual', which is simply the person who qualifies a contractor's C-1 license with the State Board. The state-level credential is a classification C-1 Plumbing and Heating Contracting license from the Nevada State Contractors Board (NSCB), issued to a sole proprietor, partnership, corporation or LLC and qualified by a named individual rather than held by the plumber personally. An out-of-state master plumber who only wants to work for an employer needs no Nevada license at all (apart from the local journeyman card in Clark County and Reno). To contract, the qualifying individual must show four years of experience as a journeyman, foreman, supervising employee or contractor within the past 15 years (NRS 624.260), pass the PSI-administered Nevada Business and Law exam and the C-1 trade exam within six months of filing (three attempts each), and the business must pay the $300 application fee and $600 biennial license fee, submit a financial statement, fingerprints and background check, and post a bond of $1,000 to $500,000 set by the Board, plus the Residential Recovery Fund assessment ($200 to $1,000) if it does residential work. Under licensure by endorsement (NAC 624.600 and 624.615) the C-1 trade exam and the experience certification are waived for a qualified individual who has held an active license, as the same qualified individual, with no discipline or pending action for the past four years in Arizona (CR-77 Plumbing Including Solar), California (C-36 Plumbing together with C-4 Boiler, Hot Water Heating and Steam Fitting) or Tennessee (CMC Full Mechanical Contractor); a Florida CF Plumbing Contractor gets experience credit but must pass the Nevada C-1 trade exam; the Business and Law exam is never waived. The NSCB equivalency charts contain no Utah chart and no C-1 row for Connecticut, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Mexico, Hawaii, Alabama or West Virginia.