Nevada to Louisiana: master plumber license reciprocity

Louisiana licenses Master Plumbers statewide through the State Plumbing Board of Louisiana (SPBLA). A Master Plumber may perform plumbing work and employ registered apprentices and licensed journeymen; each plumbing company must designate one Responsible Active Master Plumber who keeps the company's insurance on file with the Board under La. R.S. 37:1361 et seq. To sit the master exam an applicant must hold a current Journeyman Plumber license (or a Louisiana professional engineer license) and file a notarized application with $110 ($100 exam + $10 processing). The exam is a three-part open-book written test scored at 70% per part: 80 questions on the 2021 IPC/IRC, a part on Title 51 Public Health-Sanitary Code Part XIII (sewage disposal), and 40 questions on the NASCLA Louisiana Master Plumbers and Master Natural Gasfitters Guide to Business, Law, and Project Management. The initial license is $190 active (associated with a plumbing company that has insurance on file) or $40 inactive; licenses expire December 31 and active masters complete 5 hours of CPE a year (3.5 hours for an inactive master working as a journeyman). The Board states that it 'does not reciprocate Master licenses'; out-of-state masters enter through the journeyman license. Act 908 of the 2026 session transfers plumbing licensing to the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, which was holding public discussions on the transition in late 2026.

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.