Contractors Insurance – How to obtain your Electrical Contractors License

Quite often we get asked on how our clients need to go about getting licensed with the state of Washington for the contractors license.  Below you will find useful information and links provided from the Contractors licensing site for Washington State.

Electrical Contractor’s License

You’ll have to take an exam to get an electrical contractor’s license. The Department issues these electrical contractor licenses:

General — journeyman, includes all types of wiring 
Specialty —  residential, pump and irrigation, signs, limited energy, HVAC/refrigeration limited energy, non-residential maintenance, non-residential lighting maintenance, door/gate systems

You must apply to the Department of Labor and Industries before you can take the exam. Once you receive your approval letter to test, you will be referred to the exam agency:

PSI (Formerly LaserGrade) 2950 N. Hollywood Way, Suite 200 Burbank, CA 91505 (800) 367-1516 http://lasergrade.com/

The application will ask you to include:

• a UBI number (issued by the Master Business License Division of the Department of Licensing)
• corporation, limited liability corporation or limited liability partnership registration (contact the State Corporations Division to register) 
• application fee
• industrial insurance account number, if you have employees or plan to hire employees (issued by the Industrial Insurance Division)
• administrator designation or master electrician (the administrator/master must either be an owner/principle or a supervisory employee)
• electrical/telecommunications contractor’s bond in the amount of $4000 or assignment of savings account (for the amount of $4,000 to the State of Washington)

To qualify for a specialty exam, you must provide proof of two years experience in that specialty. To qualify for the general journeyman exam, you must have 4 years of electrical installation experience with a minimum of 2 years in new commercial/industrial electrical installation.

Contractor Exams

• General journeyman electrician
• Residential
• Pump and irrigation
• Domestic well
• Signs
• Limited energy system
• HVAC/Refrigeration limited energy system
• Non-residential maintenance
• Non-residential lighting maintenance/retrofit
• Residential maintenance
• Door, gate and similar systems

Electrical contractor’s license fees: The license will cost $306.10 ($266.20) for the license and a $39.90 charge for administrator/master designation). The license is good for two years. 

Applicants who register to take exams at a LaserGrade Public Testing Center will be charged per hourly schedule. Exams based on separate sections will be billed at the rate for total exam time. Prices are as follows:

1 hour – $40.00
2 hours – $50.00
3 hours – $60.00
4 hours – $70.00
5 hours – $80.00
6 hours – $90.00
7 hours – $100.00

For more information on your contractors insurance needs or to get a quote contact us.

Source – http://www.contractors-license.org/wa/Washington.html