Ohio Contractor License Types and Trade Credentials

Ohio classifies credentials by trade, not by job size or a general scope: 7 rows are seeded here across the OCILB contractor licenses (ORC ch. 4740 — electrical, HVAC, hydronics, plumbing, refrigeration) and the State Fire Marshal fire-protection credential. There is no statewide general or residential contractor license; local building and health departments regulate residential contractors. A local registration is deliberately NOT seeded as a state row.

Verified 2026-10-057 classifications2 credential shapesno statewide GCIndexation gate: passed

01 Five commercial trades, one assignment

OCILB LICENSE ch. 4740 (5 trades)+FIRE PROTECTION (Fire Marshal)≠NO STATEWIDE GC

Five licensed trades — 4740.01(A): electrical, HVAC, hydronics, plumbing, refrigeration. (Rule OH-TRADE-LICENSE.) S-OH-4740-13
Commercial only — a "construction project" excludes a residential building (4740.01(F)). S-OH-4740-01
Issued to an individual, assigned to a company — 4740.07. (Rule OH-COMPANY-ASSIGNMENT.) S-OH-4740-07
No statewide GC licence — only the trades are state-licensed. S-OH-OCILB-HOME

02 OCILB contractor licenses — ORC ch. 4740 (five commercial trades)

Code	Credential	Classification	Official scope	Citation	Source
ELECTRICAL-CONTRACTOR	OCILB Contractor License / Master License (individual — ORC ch. 4740; five COMMERCIAL trades electrical, HVAC, hydronics, plumbing, refrigeration; PSI examination; $500,000 contractor liability insurance; assigned to a contracting company; commercial only — residential buildings are excluded from ch. 4740 and are regulated by local building and health departments)	Electrical Contractor License (OCILB)	ORC 4740.01(A) verbatim: 'License' means a license the board issues to an individual as a '... electrical contractor ...'; 4740.02(C) gives the electrical section 'primary responsibility for the licensure of electrical contractors'. The license authorizes the electrical trade for a COMMERCIAL construction project — a 'construction project' expressly does not include a residential building (4740.01(F)).	ORC 4740.01(A), 4740.02(C)	S-OH-4740-01
HVAC-CONTRACTOR	OCILB Contractor License / Master License (individual — ORC ch. 4740; five COMMERCIAL trades electrical, HVAC, hydronics, plumbing, refrigeration; PSI examination; $500,000 contractor liability insurance; assigned to a contracting company; commercial only — residential buildings are excluded from ch. 4740 and are regulated by local building and health departments)	HVAC Contractor License (OCILB)	ORC 4740.01(A) verbatim: a license issued to an individual 'as a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning contractor'; 4740.02(D) gives the heating, ventilating, air conditioning and refrigeration section 'primary responsibility for the licensure of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning contractors and refrigeration contractors'.	ORC 4740.01(A), 4740.02(D)	S-OH-4740-01
HYDRONICS-CONTRACTOR	OCILB Contractor License / Master License (individual — ORC ch. 4740; five COMMERCIAL trades electrical, HVAC, hydronics, plumbing, refrigeration; PSI examination; $500,000 contractor liability insurance; assigned to a contracting company; commercial only — residential buildings are excluded from ch. 4740 and are regulated by local building and health departments)	Hydronics Contractor License (OCILB)	ORC 4740.01(A) verbatim: a license issued to an individual 'as a ... hydronics contractor'; 4740.02(B) gives the plumbing and hydronics section 'primary responsibility for the licensure of plumbing contractors and hydronics contractors'.	ORC 4740.01(A), 4740.02(B)	S-OH-4740-01
PLUMBING-CONTRACTOR	OCILB Contractor License / Master License (individual — ORC ch. 4740; five COMMERCIAL trades electrical, HVAC, hydronics, plumbing, refrigeration; PSI examination; $500,000 contractor liability insurance; assigned to a contracting company; commercial only — residential buildings are excluded from ch. 4740 and are regulated by local building and health departments)	Plumbing Contractor License (OCILB)	ORC 4740.01(A) verbatim: a license issued to an individual 'as a ... plumbing contractor'; 4740.02(B) gives the plumbing and hydronics section 'primary responsibility for the licensure of plumbing contractors and hydronics contractors'.	ORC 4740.01(A), 4740.02(B)	S-OH-4740-01
REFRIGERATION-CONTRACTOR	OCILB Contractor License / Master License (individual — ORC ch. 4740; five COMMERCIAL trades electrical, HVAC, hydronics, plumbing, refrigeration; PSI examination; $500,000 contractor liability insurance; assigned to a contracting company; commercial only — residential buildings are excluded from ch. 4740 and are regulated by local building and health departments)	Refrigeration Contractor License (OCILB)	ORC 4740.01(A) verbatim: a license issued to an individual 'as a ... refrigeration contractor'; 4740.02(D) assigns refrigeration contractors to the heating, ventilating, air conditioning and refrigeration section.	ORC 4740.01(A), 4740.02(D)	S-OH-4740-01
CONTRACTING-COMPANY	OCILB Contractor License / Master License (individual — ORC ch. 4740; five COMMERCIAL trades electrical, HVAC, hydronics, plumbing, refrigeration; PSI examination; $500,000 contractor liability insurance; assigned to a contracting company; commercial only — residential buildings are excluded from ch. 4740 and are regulated by local building and health departments)	Contracting Company License (assigned OCILB license)	ORC 4740.07(B) verbatim: 'All individuals applying for a license under this chapter shall request, at the time of applying for a license that the individual's license be assigned to a contracting company with whom the individual is employed. If the individual is issued a license and meets the requirements of this section for the assignment of the license to a contracting company, the administrative section shall assign the license to and issue a license in the name of the contracting company.' A license not assigned to a company is placed in inactive status.	ORC 4740.07(B)	S-OH-4740-07

The licence belongs to the individual, not the company

Each license is issued to an individual and ASSIGNED to one contracting company; work under it is deemed conducted under that individual's supervision, reassignment waits 90 days, and a license not assigned to a company goes inactive (4740.07). S-OH-4740-07

03 Fire protection — Ohio State Fire Marshal

Code	Credential	Classification	Official scope	Citation	Source
FIRE-PROTECTION	Fire Protection License (State Fire Marshal Testing & Registration Bureau — fire protection individuals and fire protection companies; separate from the ch. 4740 OCILB license; fee/exam/CE details NOT_VERIFIED)	Fire Protection Individual / Fire Protection Company (State Fire Marshal)	State Fire Marshal verbatim (page read 2026-10-05): 'The Testing and Registration Bureau in the State Fire Marshal issues licensing credentials for: Fire Protection Individuals and Fire Protection Companies'. A credential family SEPARATE from the ch. 4740 OCILB license.	Ohio State Fire Marshal — Testing & Registration Bureau	S-OH-FM-LICENSING

A separate credential family

The State Fire Marshal's Testing & Registration Bureau issues fire-protection individual and company credentials, apart from ch. 4740; the fee/exam/CE details were not read (NOT_VERIFIED). S-OH-FM-LICENSING

04 Deterministic scope limits

ohio:electrical-contractor — commercial electrical construction work lit by ohio 4740 (ORC 4740.13(A); 4740.01(A)/(F)) S-OH-4740-13
Electrical contracting is its own license (rule OH-ELEC-LICENSE) — the low-voltage carve-out is SCOPE-OH-ELEC-LOWVOLT.
ohio:electrical-contractor — low voltage systems under 50 volts excluded from electrical licensure (ORC 4740.13(D); 4740.13(C)) S-OH-4740-13
The electrical licensure boundary; fire alarm/communication work falls outside (rule OH-LOW-VOLTAGE).
ohio:hvac-contractor — commercial hvac construction work under ohio 4740 (ORC 4740.01(A)/(F); 4740.02(D)) S-OH-4740-01
The HVAC license is commercial-only like the other four trades (rule OH-COMMERCIAL-ONLY).
ohio:hydronics-contractor — commercial hydronics construction work under ohio 4740 (ORC 4740.01(A)/(F); 4740.02(B)) S-OH-4740-01
ohio:plumbing-contractor — commercial plumbing construction work under ohio 4740 (ORC 4740.01(A)/(F); 4740.02(B)) S-OH-4740-01
A COMMERCIAL plumbing contractor license; residential plumbing is locally regulated and governed by ch. 4722 contract rules.
ohio:refrigeration-contractor — commercial refrigeration construction work under ohio 4740 (ORC 4740.01(A)/(F); 4740.02(D)) S-OH-4740-01
ohio:contracting-company-license — residential building work under the ch 4740 license (ORC 4740.01(F); OCILB board page) S-OH-4740-01
Not an outright prohibition on licensed contractors doing residential work — it is that ch. 4740 does not COVER the work; residential is a local matter and a locality may require the state license (rule OH-COMMERCIAL-ONLY).
solar-installation — electrical contractor license no solar specific credential (ORC 4740.01(A); 4740.13(A)) S-OH-OCILB-HOME
Project-scope row (no solar classification exists). 'reported' because the conclusion is assembled from the electrical scope plus the absence of a solar credential (rule OH-SOLAR-CREDENTIAL).
ohio:fire-protection-company — state fire marshal fire protection credential (Ohio State Fire Marshal — Testing & Registration Bureau) S-OH-FM-LICENSING
A credential family SEPARATE from ch. 4740; the fee/exam/CE details were not read (NOT_VERIFIED). Low-voltage fire-alarm work is also carved out of electrical licensure (4740.13(D)).

These limits feed the deterministic rules (OH-TRADE-LICENSE, OH-COMMERCIAL-ONLY, OH-LOW-VOLTAGE, OH-SOLAR-CREDENTIAL) that project pages evaluate — missing facts return NOT_DETERMINED, never a forced answer. There is no state bond to price: S-OH-OCILB-CONTRACTORS

05 Sources

S-OH-4740-01statute

Ohio Legislative Service Commission — Ohio Revised Code / Ohio Administrative Code (codes.ohio.gov)

ORC 4740.01 — Construction industry licensing board definitions (FindLaw mirror)

https://codes.findlaw.com/oh/title-xlvii-occupations-professions/oh-rev-code-sect-4740-01/