Florida Licennse- One per county or per state

[007quality]

hello gentlemen,
i have a question for you based on your living in FL. I currently live in CT and have often thought of taking my business down there.... Is there one license for your whole state or do they have separate ones per county? :? Also what would be the required actions? would i have to take the journeyman exam first and hold it for a set time or can I start by taking my contractors? Feedback appreciated thanks.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I believe it is per state but let one of our Florida resident members respond.

 

[chris kennedy]

You can lincense for contracting by county, state or both. The gentleman I work for has his state and many counties. I once asked him why pay to keep your counties current when you have a state. He told me that if he loses any one license I would still have a job, works for me.

 

[texie]

hello gentlemen,
i have a question for you based on your living in FL. I currently live in CT and have often thought of taking my business down there.... Is there one license for your whole state or do they have separate ones per county? :? Also what would be the required actions? would i have to take the journeyman exam first and hold it for a set time or can I start by taking my contractors? Feedback appreciated thanks.

In Florida you can do this 2 ways. The best way, by far, but the most difficult, is to become a State Certified EC. All counties and municipalities honor a State Certified EC license by law. The FL Certified EC process is pretty rigorous. Mike Holt is the best place to go for prep and application help (remember he is a Florida guy). You can also get a license in most counties, which then makes you a State Registered EC, but then you can only work in that county as an EC. Your Connecticut license(s) will help you quailfy to sit for the exam, but FL has no recipocity to speak of. It's been many years since I did it and it was tough then, but I'm told by some that have recently done the State Certified EC route, that is even worse now. In fact, there are now a few firms that specialize in getting you through the application process. I know of one in the Naples area that has a link from Mike Holt's site, but check with Holt's people first to be sure they are credible. Expect it to be about a 6 month project to get it all done.

 

[donburde]

There is no recognized journeyman for the state of FL. Journeyman is a county exam. Also, you can get your "masters" in Broward county, where I live, after holding your journeyman card for a number of years, I believe its 2. But I know they will let you go straight for the masters exam if you appeal to the county board. Right now I'm in the process of going for my statewide unlimited contractors license, this is the STATE level exam and will allow you to contract in any county in FL. You do not have to have a journeymans to go for this license as the Jman card is only on the county level. To get a FL Statewide License, you need to pass 2 exams, 1st one is business exam... 55 questions in 3 hours and then a technical exam on another day in two two and a half hour blocks. The business portion was pretty easy. I found that the questions were pretty easy to find in the Florida COntractors Manual even though the book is horrendous. Ive been taking a lot of practice exams for the technical part but Im not scheduled to take that until March. The questions don't seem too bad, but youll need to know some alarms and lightning protection in addition to everything you know about electrical and safety. All the exams are open book so if you know your calculations and you know where to find things in the books, you should be fine.