For Job Seekers
For Career Exploring
Become a Partner
Search
Register as an apprentice with the state board
Two years as a registered apprentice
$58,670 a year, about $28.21 an hour
Alabama plumbers install and repair water supply lines, drains, vents, gas piping, and fixtures in homes, hospitals, schools, and the auto plants, shipyards, and chemical plants that line the state’s industrial corridors. They read plans, cut and join pipe, set water heaters, and trace leaks and blockages on service calls.
The Alabama Plumbers and Gas Fitters Examining Board registers every apprentice plumber, and the registration renews each year. You submit the registration packet, along with a copy of your photo ID and the fee, and the board issues an annual certificate that you carry on the job.
As an apprentice, you work directly under the supervision of a journeyman or master plumber. Your two years toward the journeyman exam count from the date of your registration, so file it before your first day.
To qualify for the journeyman plumber exam, you show two years of current experience in one of three ways:
The exam tests the 2021 International Plumbing Code. Once you pass, you have 90 days to pay the certification fees and receive your journeyman certificate.
The master plumber exam opens after one year as a certified journeyman. Since January 1, 2026, master's applicants have also had to pass a business law exam.
Alabama certifies gas fitters on their own track, with apprentice, journeyman, and master levels that mirror the plumbing ones. The gas fitting exam tests the 2021 International Fuel Gas Code.
A plumbing certificate alone does not cover gas work. A certified plumber who also wants to fit gas holds at least an apprentice gas fitter registration.
Hospitals and clinics need medical gas piping, and Alabama certifies the plumbers who install it. The board issues a medical gas endorsement to anyone registered or certified as a plumber or gas fitter, at any level, who also holds an ASSE 6010 installer certification from a third-party organization.
Apprentices with the endorsement still work under a master or journeyman who holds it too.
Alabama employs about 6,950 plumbers, and the median annual salary is $58,670, or $28.21 an hour.
SkillUp houses short, low-cost programs in one place, so you don’t have to call around. Our training catalog lists only programs we have checked for cost, length, and whether they lead to work.
A journeyman or master plumber licensed in another state can take the Alabama exam at the same level, provided three things hold: your license came from an exam with a passing score of at least 70 percent, it is active with no unresolved discipline, and your licensing agency verifies it on the board’s form or its own letterhead.
Yes. Every plumber in Alabama registers or is certified with the Plumbers and Gas Fitters Examining Board, beginning with an annual apprentice registration. Journeymen and masters hold board certificates.
Two years as a registered apprentice, then the journeyman exam. A board-approved training program, combined with registered apprentice time totaling 2 years, also qualifies you.
One year as a certified journeyman plumber. Since January 1, 2026, master's applicants have also had to pass a business law exam.
The 2021 International Plumbing Code. Gas fitting exams use the 2021 International Fuel Gas Code.
No. Alabama certifies gas fitters separately, and a plumber who wants to fit gas holds at least an apprentice gas fitter registration.
Hold an ASSE 6010 installer certification from a third-party organization, plus any Alabama plumbing or gas-fitting registration or certificate, and then apply to the board for the medical gas endorsement.
You can take the Alabama exam at the same level if your license came from an exam with a passing score of at least 70 percent, is active with no unresolved discipline, and your licensing agency verifies it.
The median is $58,670 a year, about $28.21 an hour. The top quarter earns above $64,730, and the top ten percent above $76,690. Helpers have a median of $37,440.
