HVAC licensing in Colorado
Licensed locally, not statewide
Colorado has no statewide license for this trade. The city or county decides — check the jurisdiction the job is actually in before you travel.
✓ Verified 18 August 2026 · mixed
Bringing your license from another state
Colorado has no state HVAC license — Title 12 of its own statutes carries an Electricians article and a Plumbers article and no mechanical article at all — so nothing transfers at state level. The card that matters is DENVER's, and Denver is mapped in full: 18 individual mechanical certificates with published scopes, experience minimums and ICC exam numbers.
Whether another Colorado city honors a Denver certificate is unmapped — Colorado has no Kansas-style statute forcing its jurisdictions to honor each other — so treat each city as its own gate.
Can you work while it is pending?
Nothing pending at state level. In Denver the certificate is a prerequisite, not something worked under while pending — whether any Colorado city grants provisional permission is not established.
The exam and the hours
Set by the city, and Denver publishes everything: Heating and Ventilating Journeyman takes 4 years (7,000 hours) of field installation and ICC F31; Refrigeration Journeyman the same; Gas Service Journeyman F34; the supervisor tiers sit on F29 (commercial) and F32 (residential); Refrigeration Operator ICC 228, Stationary Engineer ICC 227. Your personal floor is EPA 608.
How apprenticing works here
No state apprentice card, and Denver's route is experience-based rather than a walk-up registration — 7,000 documented hours qualifies you for the journeyman exam. Registered apprenticeship runs through the workforce system.
The local picture
Denver is verified and complete; Colorado Springs, Aurora, Fort Collins, Boulder, Lakewood, Jefferson County and the resort towns are NOT mapped. Two jobs an hour apart can sit under different rules — verify the destination city before every placement.
If you want to contract for yourself
Denver's contractor license requires a supervisor-certificate holder behind it — or a Colorado electrical or plumbing license, the one place the state credential touches the city regime. The certificates themselves say the holder may perform the work 'only in the employ of' the right contractor type, so the individual card and the company license are separate instruments that need each other.
Watch the scope line: electrical and plumbing ARE state-licensed here, individuals included.
Checked against the state board or statute. Rules change — confirm with the board before you travel or accept work. This is information, not legal advice.
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