Drywall & Plaster Contractor

Alabama has a reciprocity provision for out-of-state drywall & plaster contractors, but whether it reaches your credential depends on the terms. See what is actually required below.

Where it applies: Contractor licensing above $100,000 or more including labor and materials, for prime contractors and subcontractors performing $100,000+ contracts under a licensed prime. Swimming pool construction: $5,000. Currency point: the $50,000 figure circulating widely (including on commercial licensing sites dated 2025) is STALE - the Board's own current law page states $100,000.

What's actually required: Alabama waives the trade portion of its examination, and only that portion — the business law portion is never waived, and the Board's own page repeats the point. Five states qualify and there is no general provision for anywhere else: Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and North Carolina. You need a current licence in a comparable classification, held for at least a year and free of disciplinary action over that year, plus written certification from the state that licensed you. One trap worth knowing: the individual named as your qualifying party must be the same person who qualified for the licence in the other state — no substitution is allowed. Get the application on file at least 30 days before issuance, and note the Board meets quarterly. It keeps discretion to waive other requirements for good cause. There is no residency or in-state employment requirement. Authority: Ala. Admin. Code r. 230-X-1-.40, under Code of Ala. 1975 s. 34-8-2. Fee: $300 non-refundable prime contractor application fee; no separate reciprocity fee is published.

Arizona has a reciprocity provision for out-of-state drywall & plaster contractors, but whether it reaches your credential depends on the terms. See what is actually required below.

Where it applies: Less than $1,000 aggregate contract price including labor, materials and all other items, and the work must be of a casual or minor nature, and the exemption is lost entirely if a local building permit is required, or the work is part of a larger operation, or a project is split into sub-$1,000 contracts to evade the chapter (A.R.S. S. 32-1121(A)(14) And (A)(10)(b)).

What's actually required: Arizona can waive the trade exam, but it is discretionary and it is not a named-state list — despite the widely repeated claim that Arizona holds agreements with California, Nevada and Utah. R4-9-106(E), quoted on the Registrar's own page, lets the Registrar 'Decide a trade exam is not required where the qualifying party has been the qualifying party within the preceding five years for a license in good standing in the same classification in this state, or a classification the Registrar deems comparable in another state.' That reaches any state whose classification the Registrar considers comparable, and it is permission rather than an entitlement. The Statutes and Rules Exam is never waived: the Registrar says flatly that it 'Cannot be waived because it has reference to Arizona specific statutes and rules.' Everything else still applies in full — a qualifying party regularly employed by you who meets the minimum years of experience, background checks on that person and on every officer, member or 25% owner, entity registration with the Arizona Corporation Commission, a licence bond, government ID and fees. There is no residency or in-state employment requirement. One caution about sources: California'S published classification map governs credentials going into California and says nothing about what Arizona does with an incoming one. Arizona's own classification codes for these trades were not read off the Registrar'S classifications page and are not asserted here.

Arizona judges an incoming credential against its own requirements rather than a named list of states. See the terms below.

Arkansas has a reciprocity provision for out-of-state drywall & plaster contractors, but whether it reaches your credential depends on the terms. See what is actually required below.

Where it applies: COMMERCIAL: $50,000 or more including labor and materials, and 'Any project that is not a single-family residence is a commercial project.' RESIDENTIAL: more than $2,000 including labor and material, via Residential Builders Licence, Residential Remodeler Licence, or home improvement licence - which the Board defines as the credential 'for a contractor who is only responsible for certain types of work (painting, windows, flooring, etc.)'. A Subcontractor Registration Certificate substitutes for a full commercial licence where the sub holds a contract with a properly licensed prime.

What's actually required: Arkansas waives the business and law examination, which for these trades is the only exam there is. The Board attaches a trade exam to plumbing, electrical and HVACR work, not to painting, drywall and plaster, tile and flooring, concrete or demolition — so waiving business and law waives everything. The Reciprocal Form's certification block puts it plainly: 'Although I am not required to pass an Arkansas Business and Law Examination before becoming licensed in the State of Arkansas...' Four states qualify and no others, with the qualifying period depending on where you come from: Alabama one year, Mississippi one year, Tennessee three years, and Louisiana with no stated period. File the ordinary new application together with the Reciprocal Form. You are personally responsible for routing that form to the verifying state'S board and back, and a form notarised more than 90 days before it is received will be rejected. The Board keeps investigative discretion, and there is no residency or in-state employment requirement. A separate route, not to be confused with reciprocity: an active-duty service member, spouse or veteran applying as an individual or sole proprietor gets expedited processing and, holding a licence in another state, automatically qualifies for a similar Arkansas licence. That one is not limited to the four reciprocal states. Fee: the ordinary non-refundable application fee applies; the exact figure is not stated on the Reciprocal Form or its instructions.

California has a reciprocity provision for out-of-state drywall & plaster contractors, but whether it reaches your credential depends on the terms. See what is actually required below.

Where it applies: Less than $1,000 aggregate contract price for labor, materials and all other items, the work being of casual, minor or inconsequential nature - raised from $500 effective January 1, 2025 by AB 2622 (Ch. 240, Stats. 2024), amending B&P Code ss. 7027.2 and 7048. The catch, in CSLB's own words: the exemption does not apply at all if the minor work is subject to a permit requirement of any kind, or if the unlicensed person hires one or more workers, even if the project is under $1,000. Any source still citing $500 is stale.

What's actually required: California's headline is that it reciprocates with several states, but its published classification map decides each trade separately, and this one splits in half. Lathing and plastering (C-35) maps from Nevada'S C-17, and from nowhere else. Drywall (C-9) appears on no reciprocal table for any state, so the drywall side of this trade has nothing to reciprocate. What reciprocity buys, in the Board's own words: 'The CSLB may waive the trade portion of the exam, but retains the right to require the exam. The applicant will still be required to take the business law portion.' It is a discretionary trade-exam waiver, never a licence transfer — the bond, workers' compensation, fingerprinting and the full original application all remain. The Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina tables reach only 'B - General Building' (and B-2 for North Carolina), each conditioned on the NASCLA Commercial Building exam and five years in good standing, so none of them reaches a specialty classification. Two cautions about the source itself: the Board's heading says 'California and three other states: Arizona, Louisiana, Nevada, or North Carolina' while the page carries five tables including Mississippi; and a general five-year active-and-good-standing precondition is widely asserted elsewhere but could not be verified — the only five-year requirements on the Board'S own page are footnotes attached to the NASCLA-based General Building waivers.

Louisiana has a reciprocity provision for out-of-state drywall & plaster contractors, but whether it reaches your credential depends on the terms. See what is actually required below.

Where it applies: Contractor licensing above $50,000 (labor + materials) for commercial/subcontractor specialty-trade licensure; $75,000 for new residential construction; $7,500 for Home Improvement (renovation/demolition/addition on existing residential structures)

What's actually required: Genuine but discretionary and narrow. Per LSLBC's own FAQ, the Board has formal reciprocal agreements with the Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors, the Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board, the Mississippi Board of Contractors, the Tennessee Board for Licensing General Contractors, and the Utah Construction Trades Bureau — not with any other state. Conditions: the firm must be domiciled in one of those 5 states and have held a comparable-classification license there for a minimum of 3 consecutive years with no disciplinary record; on that showing, LSLBC 'Will consider' (not automatically grant) waiving the standard 60-day out-of-state waiting period and 'May consider' waiving the trade examination — reciprocity is not automatic and requires a written request. The Business & Law exam is NEVER waived, for anyone. Since this trade is a sub-classification under LSLBC'S general commercial/building framework, the same reciprocal-agreement mechanism applies to all of them.

Mississippi has a reciprocity provision for out-of-state drywall & plaster contractors, but whether it reaches your credential depends on the terms. See what is actually required below.

Where it applies: Contractor licensing above $50,000 (labor + materials) for commercial, industrial or public works Building Construction licensure

What's actually required: Genuine, classification-specific, and confirmed on MSBOC's own reciprocity page. MSBOC recognizes exam credit for holders of: Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors (waives all exams but Mechanical, 1+ year licensed); Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board (waives all exams but Mechanical and Electrical); Louisiana Licensing Board for Contractors (waives all exams but Mechanical and Plumbing - notable directional detail: LSLBC and MSBOC no longer have a mutual agreement, but MSBOC unilaterally continues to honor Louisiana exam scores); Florida CILB (Building/Residential Building only); Georgia Board of Residential and General Contractors; and North Carolina State Licensing Board for General Contractors (explicitly names Concrete, Building Construction, Residential Building, Grading/Excavating, Roofing, Swimming Pools, Water Lines/Sewer, Marine/Freshwater Construction and Railroads). Since the Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana waivers are broad, they functionally reach Painting, Drywall, Concrete, Tile/Flooring and Demolition as Building Construction sub-classifications; North Carolina'S waiver additionally and explicitly names Concrete. The Mississippi Business and Law exam is NEVER waived for anyone, and each agreement 'may not cover all classifications of licensure' - MSBOC reviews scope case by case.

Nevada has a reciprocity provision for out-of-state drywall & plaster contractors, but whether it reaches your credential depends on the terms. See what is actually required below.

Where it applies: Contractor licensing above $1,000 (labor + materials) - NRS 624.031, unless a building permit is required regardless of value

What's actually required: Nevada waives the trade exam for contractors licensed four or more years in good standing in Arizona, California or Utah — five or more years for Arizona, according to some summaries. The waiver depends on your out-of-state classification mapping to an equivalent Nevada one, and the Board reviews that mapping case by case rather than automatically. Drywall is C-3e/C-4e in Nevada, and it has counterpart classifications in Arizona or California on California's published mapping table, so this trade is generally reachable from at least one of the three states. The Nevada Law and Business exam is never waived.

North Carolina has a reciprocity provision for out-of-state drywall & plaster contractors, but whether it reaches your credential depends on the terms. See what is actually required below.

Where it applies: Contractor licensing above $40,000 total cost of the undertaking - not just the licensee's own scope - per N.C. Gen. Stat. 87-1

What's actually required: Genuine trade-exam waiver reciprocity, confirmed in North Carolina's own administrative code: 'Applicants based on reciprocity shall submit with the application form a copy of the applicant's license in the other state... Applicants shall have taken and passed the exam offered in the state from which they are seeking reciprocity, or an examination offered by NASCLA. Applicants shall also be required to take and pass the Board'S North Carolina law, rule, and building code examination prior to licensure.' Secondary sources list reciprocal partner states as South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia, Arkansas and Florida, with figures varying slightly by source; NCLBGC'S own rule does not name specific states within the text found, so the exact list should be confirmed directly with the Board. North Carolina's law and building-code exam is never waived.

North Carolina judges an incoming credential against its own requirements rather than a named list of states. See the terms below.

South Carolina has a reciprocity provision for out-of-state drywall & plaster contractors, but whether it reaches your credential depends on the terms. See what is actually required below.

Where it applies: CLB (commercial/general): $5,000-$10,000 depending on source - secondary sources conflict; SC Code 40-11-410 should be checked directly for the exact current figure. RBC: $5,000 for the Residential Builder licence, $500 for a single-trade Residential Specialty registration

What's actually required: Genuine, but structured differently at each level. At the CLB (commercial) level, 'license holders in good standing in states with reciprocating exams can qualify for a technical exam waiver' and NASCLA exam results are accepted for reciprocal recognition - the SC Business Law exam is always still required. At the RBC (residential) level, South Carolina holds bilateral written reciprocity agreements with Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and Utah, confirmed by an official LLR-hosted bilateral agreement PDF establishing the pattern of formal exam-waiver agreements the RBC maintains, allowing licensed applicants from those five states to waive the RBC technical exam. South Carolina explicitly does not have blanket reciprocity with any other state beyond these named agreements - an out-of-state contractor from a non-agreement state must complete the full SC licensing process. Note the two-regulator structure means the answer depends on whether the job is residential or commercial, as in Mississippi landscape.

Tennessee has a reciprocity provision for out-of-state drywall & plaster contractors, but whether it reaches your credential depends on the terms. See what is actually required below.

Where it applies: Contractor licensing above $25,000 (labor + materials, single contract or combined contracts for one project) for the full TBLC contractor licence; a Home Improvement Licence applies instead for $3,000-$24,999 residential work, but only in Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Haywood, Knox, Marion, Robertson, Rutherford and Shelby counties

What's actually required: Tennessee waives the trade exam and nothing else, and the Board states the distinction on its own page more clearly than most: 'A Tennessee license is first needed before offering to perform or bid work. Reciprocation is not with the license and is only a TRADE EXAM waiver with out of state participating agencies.' So the Business & Law exam is never waived, and neither is the requirement to hold a Tennessee licence in the first place. Nine states qualify for contractors in good standing: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia. The scope varies by where you are coming from — Arkansas reaches commercial and residential building only, South Carolina the general classification only, and West Virginia covers Residential, Commercial, Industrial Building, Electrical, Mechanical and Masonry. The NASCLA national exam is accepted as well. The waiver applies only to the Contractor licence programme. It does not extend to the separate Home Improvement, Limited Licensed Electrician or Limited Licensed Plumber programmes.

Utah has a reciprocity provision for out-of-state drywall & plaster contractors, but whether it reaches your credential depends on the terms. See what is actually required below.

Where it applies: Contractor licensing above $7,000 (labor + materials); a one-time handyman affirmation covers $3,000-$6,999, documenting liability insurance and workers' comp with no licence needed. This replaced the older $1,000/$3,000 structure effective with 2024 law changes

What's actually required: Utah will usually accept a national PSI-administered trade exam score as equivalent and waive its own trade exam, for applicants coming from Nevada or Arizona — both states use PSI's national exam. California licensees generally cannot use this route. California'S own exam is proprietary and state-specific, so Utah does not treat it as equivalent, and a California-licensed contractor moving to Utah 'will ordinarily need to sit for the applicable national exam.' What decides it is which exam vendor your home state uses, not how demanding its licence is — so a highly qualified California contractor fares worse here than a Nevada one. Bond, insurance and background-check requirements are never waived. There is also no multi-state compact: a contractor working in Utah, Colorado and Nevada must independently maintain a full licence in each.