Can a handyman do this plumbing job? By state
| State | Handyman limit | Plumbing rule | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $1,000 per project, labor and materials | Any job that needs a permit is outside the exemption | CSLB, AB 2622 |
| Nevada | $1,000 repair or maintenance | Excludes work "of a type performed by a plumbing, electrical, refrigeration, heating or air-conditioning contractor" | NRS 624.031(6) |
| Utah | $7,000 per project | System work needs a licensed plumbing contractor; a licensed journeyman may swap a faucet or toilet | Utah Code 58-55-305 |
| Arizona | $1,000 per project | Not if the job needs a permit | A.R.S. 32-1121 |
| Florida | $2,500, "casual, minor, or inconsequential" | Permitted work "typically not considered minor" (DBPR) | F.S. 489.103(9) |
| North Carolina | $40,000 (general contractor line) | Plumbing license at any price, except "minor repairs and service work" | G.S. 87-1; NC plumbing board |
| Washington | $500 per project | A registered contractor above that | RCW 18.27.090(9) |
| Texas | No state handyman license | Plumbers licensed by the State Board of Plumbing Examiners | TSBPE |
In practice: if your city wants a plumbing permit for the job, you want a licensed plumber. Swapping a faucet or a toilet like for like is the main grey zone, and the answer depends on your state.
Hire a handyman or a plumber? The quick table
| Job | Who |
|---|---|
| Replace a faucet, showerhead or toilet, same location | Handyman where your state allows it (Utah, California under $1,000 with no permit); otherwise a plumber |
| Unclog a drain, replace a trap under a sink | Handyman, if no permit is needed and the price is under your state's line; not in Nevada |
| Connect a dishwasher, ice-maker line or garbage disposal to the existing supply and drain | Handyman, where no new piping and no permit are needed and the price is under your state's line; not in Nevada |
| Burst pipe, water through a ceiling, sewage backing up | Shut the main valve, then a licensed plumber: the fix is usually inside a wall or on the line itself, past any handyman exemption in Nevada and North Carolina and often a permit job elsewhere |
| Move a sink, add a bathroom, reroute a drain | Licensed plumber, permit |
| Replace a water heater | Licensed plumber, with a permit where your city requires one (every city in the water-heater table below does) |
| Gas line, gas water heater, gas range hook-up | Licensed plumber or gas fitter, permit |
| Boiler or hydronic heating | Licensed plumbing/heating contractor, permit |
| Sewer line or side sewer | Licensed contractor, permit |
What plumbing permits look like in our cities
| City | Plumbing permits | Firms | Usual filed value | Firms with an active license match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami, FL | 7,927 | 1,002 | $4,900 | 92.5% |
| New York City | 11,396 | 709 | $28,000 | 96.5% |
| Arlington, VA | 6,454 | 448 | $3,000 | 93.1% |
| Orlando, FL | 6,075 | 468 | $4,639 | 95.3% |
| Cape Coral, FL | 1,461 | 186 | $4,985 | 84.4% |
| Sacramento County, CA | 1,506 | 175 | $9,000 | 87.4% |
| Elk Grove, CA | 875 | 134 | $7,000 | 89.6% |
In every one of these cities, at least 84.4% of plumbing firms matched an active state license. The permit file is mostly licensed plumbers, which is what the rules above predict. A handyman doing permit-level plumbing does not show up in it at all, which is the problem: no permit, no inspection, and nothing on the record when you sell.
New York City's usual value ($28,000) is far above the others. It comes from Department of Buildings filings, a different kind of record from the trade permits in most of our cities, so do not compare it directly.
See every Miami plumber with license status →
Water heaters: the most common plumbing permit a handyman is asked to do
| City | Water-heater permits | Firms | Usual filed value | Usual days to final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elk Grove, CA | 2,078 | 143 | $3,150 | 23 |
| Sacramento County, CA | 3,553 | 365 | $3,695 | 38 |
| Cary, NC | 1,519 | 117 | $4,253 | 16 |
| Boulder, CO | 1,267 | 125 | $3,518 | 137 |
| Citrus Heights, CA | 938 | 158 | $3,195 | 40 |
At $3,150 in Elk Grove, a usual water-heater job is well over California's $1,000 handyman line, and it needs a permit, which takes it out of the exemption twice. Our tankless vs tank guide covers the choice of heater.
Boilers
Boiler work is plumbing and heating at once, and it carries a permit. In Seattle, 37 firms pulled 428 boiler permits over three years, usually filed at $15,000; 92.5% reached a final, and 86.5% of the firms matched an active L&I license. That is a small, specialised group; a handyman is not in it.
Limits
Our files contain only permitted work, so they show who does plumbing with a permit, not how many handymen do it without one. License status is matched by business name on our snapshot date, and "no match" can be a trading name. The handyman lines are the statutes' and boards' as read on 20 October 2026; our general contractor vs handyman guide has the full 16-state table.
How we know this
Plumbing, water-heater and boiler counts and usual filed values come from each city's permits over its three-year window (Cape Coral from January 2025). The active-license share is the share of firms whose permit name matched an Active record in the state register (Florida DBPR, NYC DOB, Virginia DPOR, California CSLB, Washington L&I) on the snapshot date. State rules are quoted from the statutes and board pages under Sources, read 20 October 2026.
Numbers come from City of Miami building permits (since 2014); Arlington County, VA building and trade permits; City of Elk Grove TRAKiT building permits on single-family, duplex, mobile-home and ADU homes; City of Seattle (SDCI) building, trade and electrical permits on single-family and duplex homes (the city's open-data exports); Sacramento County building permits on single-family, duplex and townhouse homes in the unincorporated county (the County's Accela permit layer), data through October 17, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
Questions
- Can a handyman replace a faucet or a toilet?
In some states. Utah's exemption lets a licensed journeyman swap a faucet, toilet, outlet or switch, but system work needs a licensed plumbing contractor. Nevada's exemption excludes any work "of a type performed by a plumbing ... contractor" at any price. In California, a like-for-like swap under $1,000 that needs no permit can fall within the handyman exemption.
- Can a handyman replace a water heater?
Usually not legally where a permit is required, as it is in the cities in our water-heater table, because permit jobs are outside the handyman exemption in California, Arizona and Nevada. Elk Grove alone recorded 2,078 water-heater permits, with a usual filed value of $3,150.
- Is a plumber more expensive than a handyman?
We do not hold hourly rates. Per job, the comparison is rarely like for like, because the job that needs a plumber is also the job that needs a permit. The usual filed value of a plumbing permit was $3,000 in Arlington, VA and $4,900 in Miami; each city's cost page shows the spread.
- How do I check that a plumber is licensed?
On the state board: in Texas the State Board of Plumbing Examiners, in North Carolina the plumbing and heating board, in California CSLB (C-36), in Florida DBPR. Our firm pages show whether the name on the permit matched an active license.
- Who can install a boiler?
Treat it as plumbing and heating work that needs a permit. In Seattle, 37 firms pulled 428 boiler permits, usually filed at $15,000, and 86.5% of them matched an active L&I license.
Build your own list
Every firm with that kind of permit on record. Pick what you value. The list moves.
Related guides
- Tankless vs tank water heater: what homeowners actually filed
- General contractor vs handyman: where your state draws the line
- Contractor didn't finish the job: what to do, and what the permit file shows
- Do I need a permit? 13 common home projects, checked against city rules and permit files
- Hiring a plumber: 5 red flags and 10 questions, checked against plumbing permits in 43 cities
For one city
- Handyperson Exemption to Increase to $1,000 in 2025 (CSLB press release, AB 2622) (2026-10-20)
- NRS Chapter 624 Contractors (NRS 624.031) (2026-10-20)
- Utah Code 58-55-305 Exemptions from licensure (effective 5/7/2025) (2026-10-20)
- NC General Statutes Chapter 87, Article 1 (G.S. 87-1) (2026-10-20)
- Consumer Awareness (NC State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating & Fire Sprinkler Contractors) (2026-10-20)
- Florida Statutes 489.103 Exemptions (2026) (2026-10-20)
- Construction Industry FAQs (Florida DBPR) (2026-10-20)
- A.R.S. 32-1121 Persons not required to be licensed (Arizona) (2026-10-20)
- RCW 18.27.090 Exemptions (Washington) (2026-10-20)
- Free Licensee List and Public License Search — Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners (2026-10-20)