Memphis Plumbing: Licensing, Permits & Water

Section 112 of the 2022 joint plumbing code is the local rulebook: plumbing contractors register with the Chief Plumbing Inspector and file a twenty-five-thousand-dollar permit bond, masters sit a written exam after four years as a journeyman (or an engineering degree plus four years), journeymen a written exam after three years in the trade, and apprentices work only as supervised assistants. State-license holders are welcome once they register with the joint office like everyone else.

• Authority. Memphis and Shelby County Office of Construction Code Enforcement (joint city-county office), with a joint Plumbing Code Board that receives exam applications, advises on the code and disciplines license holders
• Structure. Local credentials under Section 112 of the joint plumbing code: Plumbing Contractor (registration with the Chief Plumbing Inspector plus a twenty-five-thousand-dollar permit bond filed with the Building Official), Master Plumber license (written exam after four years as a journeyman, or an engineering degree plus four years), Journeyman Plumber (written exam after three years of experience) and registered Plumbing Apprentice; Tennessee state contractors are recognized but must also register with the office
• Worth knowing. The plumber's-presence rule is unusual and strict: wherever plumbing work is under way, a master or journeyman plumber (or the registered state contractor) must be on the job and in actual control at all times, including during any inspection that tests the system.

Checked against the official source, September 2026: www.shelbycountytn.gov.

This is a contractor-only permit town: the code instructs owners who want plumbing work to hire a registered contractor first, and issues the permit to the contractor who performs it. The owner-builder allowances that exist for general construction never extend to the plumbing chapters. The code's operational rules reward doing it right the first time: emergency repairs may be permitted the next business day after the fact, but unpermitted starts pay triple, and covered-up work gets fully exposed for its missed inspection.

• Permit office. Memphis and Shelby County Office of Construction Code Enforcement. Permits are processed through the joint Develop901 portal; the office serves Memphis, Arlington, Germantown, Lakeland, Millington and unincorporated Shelby County
• Homeowner rule. Effectively no owner self-performance for plumbing: the joint code requires an owner wanting plumbing work to first hire a registered contractor, and states plainly that permits are issued only to the contractor who performs the work. No owner-occupant plumbing exception appears anywhere in the plumbing code.
• Process. Emergency repairs get a pragmatic carve-out (the permit application may follow by the next working business day), while jumping the queue is expensive: work started before a permit runs at triple the usual fee, and anything concealed before its rough-in inspection must be uncovered in its entirety.

Checked against the official source, September 2026: www.develop901.com.

MLGW pumps every drop from the Memphis Sand Aquifer through wells sunk hundreds of feet below the city, and the result is genuinely soft water: the utility's 2025 quality report averages 48 mg/L, the figure on our Tennessee page. Scale-clogged heater elements and crusted aerators are largely someone else's problem here; the local pipe agenda is instead about age and materials, with MLGW's completed lead service line inventory searchable by address and free tap-water lead test kits on request. Local work follows the 2021 International Plumbing Code as amended into the 2022 joint city-county code.

• Utility. Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW), a division of the City of Memphis
• Supply source. The Memphis Sand Aquifer: one hundred percent groundwater from more than 142 wells at depths of 350 to 1,100 feet, aerated and filtered on the way to ten pumping stations
• Hardness. 48 mg/L (≈2.8 gpg), soft; utility report, 2025

Utility information: www.mlgw.com. The hardness figure is the same record shown on the Tennessee page.

• Drain Cleaning
• Water Heater Repair

  Soft 48 mg/L aquifer water largely spares Memphis heaters from scale.

• Sewer Line Repair
• Septic Tank Pumping
• Leak Detection & Repair

  Emergency repairs in Memphis may be permitted the next business day, after the fact.

• All services →

This page explains how plumbing is regulated in Memphis; it is not a provider directory. For the job itself, describe the problem and your ZIP: a license-checked plumber who covers Memphis gets the details and contacts you with next steps and a quote.

• Nashville
• Tennessee statewide →