When a job needs a licensed trade, and when it does not

What Georgia licenses, and what it does not

The trade licenses attach to the type of work rather than the price of it. The state licenses plumbing and conditioned air contractors separately, and a single failing shutoff valve is plumbing in exactly the way a repipe is. Patching drywall, hanging a door, repairing deck framing or laying flooring is in none of those trades, and Journey Home Services holds no trade license for that reason. Size is a separate question from trade, and it is settled by the value of the whole undertaking rather than by what the work touches.

Size is the second line, and it answers to a different board. Georgia licenses residential and general contracting too, and that requirement is scoped by the total value of the undertaking rather than by what the work touches, with state law setting the point below which it does not apply. Ordinary repair sits under it. A remodel, an addition, or work that alters structure is where it starts to matter, and the figure is fixed in statute rather than by whoever is quoting the job, so the licensing board is the place to confirm where the line falls.

Ask what the job makes contact with.

• Supply pipe, waste pipe, a shutoff valve, or anything that has to be drained down before you touch it: plumbing.
• Low-voltage cable, meaning a doorbell, thermostat, network, speakers, cameras or alarm: licensed separately from line voltage, and licensed all the same.
• Adding, moving or rerouting a supply line or a drain, or opening a wall to reach either: plumbing.
• Refrigerant, a furnace, a flue or a gas line of any kind: conditioned air and gas. Gas is the one nobody should improvise on.
• Framing, drywall, plaster, trim, doors, floors, paint, decking, siding or gutters: general repair, no trade license involved.

The jobs that sit right on the line

Every one of these looks simpler than it is.

In an older Rome house with plaster walls rather than drywall, opening one for any trade leaves a much bigger patch, so agree where a wire or pipe runs before anybody cuts.

• A toilet reset on a fresh wax ring is a fixture change. Moving the flange it sits on is not.
• A faucet or toilet swapped like for like on existing supply and waste is a fixture change and ordinary repair. Moving the valve, drain or pipe behind the wall is plumbing.
• A water heater is plumbing plus a fuel or a supply behind it, and a building department may want a permit for it.
• A bath fan splits down the middle. The unit and its switching are their own trade. The duct run, the framing and the soffit termination are carpentry.
• A video doorbell or a smart thermostat reads as a gadget and is low-voltage work, which Georgia licenses on its own.
• A grab bar, a handrail, an attic pull-down ladder, a storm door: no license anywhere near them.

A license and a permit are different pieces of paper

A license says who is legally allowed to perform a class of work. It comes from the state and it is trade specific. A permit says the local building department wants to see this particular job and inspect it, and it applies to plenty of work that needs no license at all.

The permit half is the one homeowners hear about last. What needs one is set locally, so the office covering your address is the only place that answer is real. A new deck is the standard example: height above grade, how the ledger attaches to the house and what the frame carries are all things an inspector has a view on.

The contractor normally pulls it, and it attaches to the property rather than to him. A permit gets inspected and closed out, and one that never got closed sits on the record until the house sells.

Checking a license takes a few minutes

A number on a truck is a claim, and it is the one credential a homeowner can check without knowing the trade. The Georgia Secretary of State's office runs the professional licensing boards, and its license search is open to the public. Read more than whether it comes back.

A license record says nothing about insurance. That is the separate ask, and what makes it real is a certificate naming you, sent by the agent, rather than a verbal yes. Journey Home Services carries general liability insurance and will send the certificate over on request.

• The class. A plumbing license is not a conditioned air license, and a residential contractor license is neither of them.
• The status. Active, expired, lapsed or suspended. A number that was good once is still a number.
• The name. Licenses are issued to people and companies work under them, so ask whose name it is in and whether that person is on your job.

What it means for a mixed list

Sort the list before anyone is called, because it decides how many people you need at the house. Group it by what each item touches rather than by which room it is in: the repair items travel together and go on one visit, and anything sitting in a licensed trade comes off that list and gets booked on its own.

Plumbing past a fixture swap, HVAC, gas, roofing, garage doors and their openers, and load-bearing or foundation work go elsewhere. Some of that is licensing and some is specialization. Either way you get told what trade to call when you send the list, and whether the rest groups into one visit is a separate question.

What you can sort out yourself

Triage is free and it saves a wasted trip. Walk the list once and mark each item wire, water, air or wood. What is left in the wood column is one call.

The wood column has no gatekeeping in it. Patching drywall, hanging a door or replacing a deck board is the same work whoever does it. The difference is tools and practice, not permission.

Plenty of the water column is yours too. A shower head, a faucet aerator, a toilet flapper or fill valve, a slow p-trap under a sink. All of it is fitting work on existing rough-in, a wrench and a bucket, and none of it is licensed.

The licensed-trade column is much shorter, and the boundary is the point where you would have to open something up. Changing a bulb, resetting a tripped breaker and running a shutoff valve closed are household maintenance. Behind the cover plate or inside the pipework is somebody else's job.

What you may do in your own home is a separate question from who you can pay to do it. On the panel, a gas line or a permit, your county building office will say where they stand.

What waits, and what does not

Sorting the list can wait, and most of what is on it can wait too.

Three things do not wait. Anything that is warm to the touch when it should not be, discolored, or smells hot: stop using it and get the right trade out the same day. Water running where it should not: shut it off at the fixture valve or the meter first, then call a plumber. If you smell gas, leave the house and call the gas utility from outside.

For the rest, the useful order is trade first and quote second. A number from the wrong trade is a number for a job that trade cannot legally finish. A permit, where one applies, is easier to get before work starts than after.

The one that turns into a scar is paper. Work done without a permit that needed one, or a permit opened and never closed, sits quietly and then surfaces when the house goes on the market. It is not urgent and it does not resolve itself.

Questions that come with this one