Oregon · plumber licensing · verified July 2026
Oregon plumber license requirements
The short answer
As of July 2026, Oregon licenses plumbers statewide through the Building Codes Division (BCD) of the Department of Consumer and Business Services. The core credential is the Journeyman Plumber (JP) license, reached by completing a registered 4-year apprenticeship or by documenting 576 classroom hours plus 3,850 commercial and 3,850 residential on-the-job hours, then passing a 4-hour, 64-question open-book state exam. Licenses renew every three years with 24 hours of continuing education, and Oregon has JP reciprocity agreements with Idaho and Montana.
Do you need a license to work as a plumber in Oregon?
Oregon licenses plumbers statewide, so one credential is valid across the whole state.
BCD also issues limited specialty licenses (e.g., solar heating and cooling installer, residential water-heater installer, water-treatment installer). Plumbing contractor businesses are licensed separately from individual JP licensees. Exam results are mailed within two weeks; applications take 2-3 weeks to process.
What licenses does Oregon issue?
The Oregon Building Codes Division, Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) issues the credentials below for this trade. Boards often list further classes for specialties and business licenses; these are the ones this page covers.
Hours are what each class asks for on its own terms. Where a senior class shows fewer than a journeyman, the board is counting time served after the earlier license rather than from the start; the prerequisite column says which.
| License | On-the-job hours | Classroom hours | Exam |
|---|---|---|---|
| Journeyman Plumber (JP) | 7,700 | 576 | Yes |
Source: Oregon Building Codes Division, Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) (oregon.gov). Verified July 2026.
Journeyman Plumber (JP): Completion of a registered 4-year apprenticeship program, OR 576 classroom hours + 3,850 commercial + 3,850 residential OJT hours, OR 7,700 commercial + 7,700 residential hours under a similar-scope license
How many hours do you need in Oregon?
Oregon requires 7,700 hours of on-the-job experience for a Journeyman Plumber (JP) license, plus 576 classroom hours. At a 40-hour week the on-the-job portion is roughly 3.9 years of full-time work.
What exam does Oregon require?
Oregon Journeyman Plumber examination (4-hour, 64-question, open book). Administered by Oregon Building Codes Division (division authorizes and schedules the exam after application approval).
How much does an Oregon plumber license cost?
Getting a Journeyman Plumber (JP) license in Oregon costs $200 in board fees, before any training. That is the application fee and the initial license fee charged once. No board publishes this total, so it is added up here from the schedule it does publish. An exam is required and its fee is not in that figure, because no amount for it appears in the board material this page is built from. Check the board's current fee schedule before budgeting.
- Application fee$100
- Initial license fee$100
How often do you renew, and what continuing education is required?
Renewal period: 3 years, license renewal is every three years on April 1 (renewal notice mailed ~6 weeks / 45 days before expiration)
Continuing education: 24 total hours of continuing education per 3-year license cycle for Journeyman Plumbers (per the State of Oregon License Directory; BCD publishes the required breakdown, which includes Oregon rule/law and code-change hours)
How does the apprenticeship route work?
The standard route is a registered 4-year plumbing apprenticeship; the certificate of completion (or a referral from the registered training committee/Board-approved program) qualifies the applicant to sit for the JP exam. Applicants without an Oregon apprenticeship may qualify by documented hours (576 classroom + 3,850 commercial + 3,850 residential OJT) in the work categories of OAR 918-695.
Which states does Oregon have license reciprocity with?
Oregon appears in 2 published reciprocal licensing agreements for this trade, covering Idaho, Montana. Boards write these as agreements between two states rather than as a one-way list, and some publish the list while their counterpart does not, so this counts every agreement naming Oregon from either side. Recognition is never automatic: the board you apply to decides, and most require the original license to have been earned by examination and to be in good standing.
Source: reciprocity agreement (oregon.gov). Verified July 2026.
How does Oregon compare to neighboring states?
Requirements stop at the state line, which matters if you live near one or expect to move. Here is what the neighboring states ask of the same trade.
| State | Journeyman hours | Licensing model |
|---|---|---|
| Oregon | 7,700 | Statewide |
| California | not published | Contractor level only |
| Idaho | 8,000 | Statewide |
| Washington | 8,000 | Statewide |
Source: state licensing boards. Verified July 2026.
How does Oregon compare nationally?
21 states publish an explicit hour figure for this trade, and they range from 4,000 to 12,000 hours. Oregon sits 9th of the 21, with 8 below it and 12 above. The full comparison is on the hours by state table.
Sources and verification
Every fact on this page traces to one of these
- State of Oregon License Directory - Journeyman Plumber (JP)
- Oregon BCD - Journeyman plumber license application page
- Oregon BCD - Journeyman Plumber License Application (Form 440-2571)
- Oregon BCD - Reciprocal licenses
Last verified July 2026. Found an error? Report it and it will be corrected and logged on the corrections page.
Other states with published requirements for this trade: Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee.
Price the whole path with the license cost estimator, or weigh earning against paying for school with the apprenticeship comparison. Back to plumbers overview.
Licensing requirements change between our verification sweeps. This page is informational only, so confirm current requirements with Oregon Building Codes Division, Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) before making decisions. Not legal advice.