Plumber License: California → Florida

A step-by-step breakdown of what it takes for a licensed plumber in California to become licensed in Florida, based on Florida's current certification by endorsement — 10-year licensure history (option c) — reciprocity not available for this classification rules.

Certification by Endorsement — 10-Year Licensure History (Option C) — Reciprocity Not Available for This Classification

Source: Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Construction Industry Licensing Board (DBPR CILB) ↗

Updated September 30, 2026

Portability Score

55/100

Moderate Effort

PermitBridge's own estimate, based on the exam, fee, and processing-time factors below — not an official government rating.

Exam: Not required
Processing: Processing time not published by the board
Fee: $350
Extra Hours: None

Step-by-Step Process

1
Florida's Reciprocity form (DBPR CILB 32, limited to Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina) offers no Plumbing category at all — the current form contains no plumbing classification in any form — so reciprocity is unavailable to plumbing contractors regardless of home state.
2
The applicable route is DBPR CILB 10, Certification by Endorsement (Section 489.115(3), Florida Statutes), which lists Plumbing as a selectable category.
3
The NASCLA-based route within CILB 10 does not apply: the form restricts it to General, Building, and Residential licenses. The practical route for a California C-36 contractor is Option C: hold a valid, current out-of-state contracting license for at least 10 years, active now or within the last 2 years, of a license type 'the same or similar as the license type being applied for.'
4
California's C-36 and Florida's certified Plumbing Contractor are both unlimited, statewide plumbing contractor licenses with heavily overlapping scopes, so C-36 appears to meet the 'same or similar' condition — but applying it is CILB's decision, and the scopes are not identical.
5
Options A (substantially equivalent exam) and B (substantially equivalent licensing criteria) also exist, but CILB 10 itself warns that comparisons of state-specific tests are 'very stringent and rarely approved.'
6
needs_review: CILB 10's 2-hour Florida Building Code course requirement is scoped to General, Building, Residential, and Roofing applicants only — Plumbing is not listed. Whether Plumbing applicants face this same requirement, a different one, or none is not stated in the document and is not assumed here.
7
Submit verification of licensure showing at least 10 years and any discipline, a copy of California's statutes/rules defining the C-36 license type, electronic fingerprints, a FICO-derived credit report, and proof of satisfaction of any liens, judgments, or bankruptcy.
8
Pay the $350 Endorsement application fee to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
9
Await processing — DBPR does not publish a guaranteed timeline; budget for several weeks to a few months.

Note: Florida-side forms confirmed 2026-09-30 by antiword extraction of the versions incorporated in Rule 61-35.010, F.A.C. (effective 2026-06-28), downloaded from flrules.org: CILB 32 (Reciprocity, Ref-17723) contains zero occurrences of 'plumb' — its categories are General/Building/Residential only for Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina; CILB 10 (Endorsement, Ref-17718) lists Plumbing as a category, $350 fee, Options A/B/C apply to all categories, NASCLA limited to General/Building/Residential, 2-hour Building Code course scoped to General/Building/Residential/Roofing. Florida's statewide certified Plumbing classification is confirmed by Rule 61G4-15.001, F.A.C. (effective 5/16/2024), which sets a separate Plumbing Classification for certification. License-type comparison for Option C's 'same or similar' condition: California C-36 per 16 CCR Division 8, Article 3 (CSLB cites the article, not a section number, on its classification page) (read in full on CSLB's site) is a contractor classification covering waste removal and on-site disposal, piping for gases and liquids including medical gases and compressed air, gas appliances and connections, water and gas piping from the meter, water heating including solar, and related safety devices. Florida's definition, §489.105(3)(m), F.S.: 'a contractor whose services are unlimited in the plumbing trade and includes contracting business consisting of the execution of contracts requiring the experience, financial means, knowledge, and skill to install, maintain, repair, alter, extend, or, if not prohibited by law, design plumbing,' with a scope that includes drainage, water supply, venting, septic tanks, pool piping, irrigation, solar water heating, air piping and medical gas systems, fire sprinklers, fuel piping, and pneumatic control piping. PROVENANCE: this Florida statute text is official text from flsenate.gov, retrieved and extracted by a helper tool (WebFetch) on the user's side, not read directly by Claude Code — flsenate.gov and leg.state.fl.us refused connections from this environment; visual verification against the statute is recommended when access allows. The scope list beyond the quoted definition sentence came from that same extraction as a summary, not verbatim. Assessment: 'similar' (not identical — Florida includes fire sprinklers, irrigation, and pool piping; C-36 explicitly includes gas appliances, which the Florida extraction does not mention), which satisfies the form's 'same or similar' wording; CILB makes the final determination.

Plumber Transfers From California to Other States

State	Pathway	Exam?	Score	Link
New York	Universal License Recognition (Endorsement)	Yes	50	View
Ohio	Out-of-State Licensee Examination Route — No Reciprocity; Ohio Exam Still Required	Yes	40	View
Texas	No Direct Path — California's C-36 Is a Contractor License, but Texas Licenses Only Individual Plumbers	Yes	10	View

Frequently Asked Questions About This Transfer

Can I transfer my plumber license from California to Florida?+

Yes, via certification by endorsement — 10-year licensure history (option c) — reciprocity not available for this classification. No additional trade exam is required in most cases. The licensing board does not publish a processing time.

How much does it cost to transfer a plumber license to Florida?+

Budget approximately $350 for the Florida application fee alone. Exam fees, if required, and any additional continuing-education hours are typically separate costs charged by third-party providers.

Can a master plumber license transfer to any state?+

No. Master plumber classifications and hour requirements differ enough between states that most receiving states require verification of experience hours and, frequently, a local trade or business/law exam even for master-level applicants.