How to Choose a Licensed Commercial Plumber in Shreveport

If you manage a commercial property in Shreveport, Bossier City, or anywhere in Caddo or Bossier Parish, you'll eventually need a plumber for something bigger than a leaky faucet: a re-pipe, a lift station repair, a new build-out. Before you hire anyone, it's worth understanding what Louisiana actually requires, because there are two separate licenses in play, not one, and a lot of property managers only know about the first.

The plumbing license

The State Plumbing Board of Louisiana issues two credentials that matter here: Journeyman Plumber and Master Plumber. This is the license that says a person is qualified to do plumbing work, full stop. Any legitimate plumbing company working in Louisiana should have Master Plumbers on staff holding this credential. Our own license number is LMP1321, and we've had it printed on every job we've done since long before most of our current customers were born.

The contractor license, for the bigger jobs

Here's the part property owners usually don't know. If a commercial plumbing job is going to run over $10,000 in combined labor and materials, Louisiana requires the company doing the work to also hold a commercial contractor license through the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, separate from the plumbing license itself. A $10,000 threshold sounds like a lot until you're pricing a re-pipe on an older building, a full sewer line replacement, or a new backflow assembly for a commercial kitchen. Those jobs cross that line routinely.

What this means practically: a plumber can be a licensed Journeyman or Master Plumber and still not be legally qualified to run a large commercial job on their own, if the company behind them doesn't also carry the LSLBC contractor license. Ask both questions before you sign anything. A company that's been doing commercial work for decades will have the answer ready without having to check.

Checking a license costs nothing and takes a few minutes

Both boards let you verify a license for free on their own websites. There's no reason to take a contractor's word for it when the state makes the lookup public. Before a job of any size, ask for the license number and check it yourself. If a company won't give you a number, or gets vague about which license covers which part of the job, that's your answer.

What to ask a commercial plumber before you hire one

• What is your SPBLA plumbing license number, and is it current?
• If the job is likely to run over $10,000, do you or your company hold an LSLBC contractor license, and what's the number?
• Who is actually doing the work on site: a licensed Journeyman or Master Plumber, or an unlicensed helper working under someone else's number?
• Is pricing given up front, before work starts, in writing?
• Who do I call if something goes wrong after the job is finished?

Why this matters more on commercial property than at home

A botched residential repair is a headache. A botched commercial job can shut down a kitchen, flood a leased space you don't own, or put you in a dispute with a landlord or insurer over who's responsible. Licensing exists because plumbing mistakes on a commercial scale get expensive fast, and the paperwork is there to protect you as much as it protects the plumber.

Backflow prevention has its own layer of requirements

Commercial properties, especially anything with a commercial kitchen, an irrigation system, or a fire suppression line, usually have a backflow prevention assembly that keeps what's inside your plumbing from siphoning back into the public water supply. Those assemblies typically need periodic testing, and a lot of municipalities require that testing to be logged and reported. It's a smaller, more specific credential question than the general licensing above, and it's worth asking a commercial plumber directly whether they test and install backflow assemblies, rather than assuming every licensed plumber does.

We've been doing commercial and residential plumbing in Shreveport since 1962, through three generations of the same family, and we still get asked for our license number on jobs, which is exactly how it should work. Don't skip the question because the person you're talking to seems friendly and capable. Ask, verify, then hire.

If you've got a commercial plumbing job coming up in Shreveport, Bossier City, Benton, Haughton, Greenwood, or Stonewall, call us at (318) 631-4533 and we'll walk you through what your job needs before anyone shows up with a wrench.