Idaho Journeyman Plumber Exam Prep

About the Idaho Journeyman Plumber license

Idaho licenses plumbers through the Idaho Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses. The Journeyman Plumber license authorizes you to perform plumbing work, as an employee of a licensed plumbing contractor (Idaho has no master plumber tier). You earn it by meeting the experience-and-education requirement — documented on-the-job hours plus approved instruction, or completion of an approved apprenticeship — and passing the trade exam.

Your exam is the Idaho Plumbing Journeyman paper. PSI bulletin 12220 lets you bring one book: the 2015 Uniform Plumbing Code (ISBN 9781938936647) or the 2017 Idaho State Plumbing Code (ISBN 9781938936951). Both are not required in the room. The Idaho book is the safer carry, because twenty-five items are the Idaho block and the amendment is where Idaho changed a model row. Do not bring a newer UPC, the International Plumbing Code, or the contractor business-and-law manual. Re-check the bulletin the week you schedule. If a later bulletin changes the book, the later bulletin controls.

Know these scope facts cold: the license is held by the individual; most work requires a permit and inspection (rough-in/top-out and final); you must work within the classification you hold; and unlicensed or out-of-scope plumbing work is a violation that can cost you the license and carry penalties. Plumbing protects public health — the exam constantly returns to the two core purposes of the code: deliver safe potable water and remove waste without contaminating that water.

How Idaho licensing works

• Experience: two paths qualify you to sit for the Journeyman exam — 8,000 hours of supervised on-the-job apprentice experience plus 576 hours of board-approved classroom instruction, or 16,000 hours of plumbing work experience with no classroom requirement (IDAPA 24.39.20). Pipe-fitting/appliance specialty work does not count toward these hours.
• Application: submit the application, fees, and proof of experience (signed off by your employing plumbing contractor or supervising journeyman) before you are approved to sit.
• Exam vendor: PSI. PSI bulletin 12220 sets this journeyman paper at 100 questions, 70 percent, and 180 minutes. Seventy-five percent is the contractor cut and the specialty appliance cut, not this one. The contractor paper is a different appointment: 100 questions, 75 percent, 240 minutes, code plus the business-and-law manual. Do not bring that manual here.
• Renewal: certificates of competency are issued for 3 years (Idaho Code §54-2617). Journeyman and contractor renewal requires proof of the continuing education the board has set. That sentence of the statute does not print an hour count. Do not invent one.