To check a Colorado electrician or plumber’s company, search the state’s DORA license lookup for an Electrical Contractor or Plumbing Contractor registration and confirm it reads Active. Colorado registers these two trades’ contractors at the state level, and each registration must be tied to one responsible master: a master electrician or a master plumber. DORA’s data has no statewide general contractor category; general contractor licensing, where it exists, is handled by cities and counties.
The status line is the part to read closely. In the state’s Professional and Occupational Licenses data on October 24, 2026, 332 electrical contractor registrations carried the status “Need Master Hire – Cannot Practice,” equal to 6.5% of those either active or in that status. Among active registrations, 5.1% of electrical contractors and 5.7% of plumbing contractors have at least one disciplinary action on record.
At a glance: the responsible-master rules and what the state data showed on October 24, 2026.
| Item | Electrical contractor | Plumbing contractor |
|---|---|---|
| Responsible master | Licensed master electrician; one company per master | Full-time master plumber; one contractor at a time |
| Active registrations | 4,759 | 3,104 |
| “Need Master Hire – Cannot Practice” | 332 (6.5%) | 36 (1.1%) |
| Expiration date on active records | September 30, 2029 (900 still show September 30, 2026) | February 28, 2027 |
| Active with discipline on record | 5.1% | 5.7% |
| First registered in the past 12 months | 7.7% | 8.5% |
| Address outside Colorado | 14.1% | 5.2% |
How to check a Colorado electrical or plumbing contractor
- Open the DORA license lookup and search by business name or registration number.
- Choose the contractor record (Electrical Contractor or Plumbing Contractor), not an individual’s electrician or plumber license.
- Read the status. Active means the company can contract; “Need Master Hire – Cannot Practice” means it has no responsible master on file.
- Check the expiration date and any discipline listed on the record.
- Look up the responsible master’s own license, and confirm it is Active too.
- For plumbing, compare the numbers with the truck, bid or website. Since June 30, 2025, plumbing contractors must display their registration number and their master plumber’s license number there, according to the State Plumbing Board.
Why the responsible master matters
- Electrical: DORA’s Electrical Board page says a contractor must hold or employ a licensed master electrician as the responsible individual, the master and owner sign an Acknowledgment of Responsibility, and a master can be responsible for only one company. Under C.R.S. 12-115-110, the master must notify the board within 15 days of leaving that role.
- Plumbing: C.R.S. 12-155-108, as amended by HB24-1344, says a business cannot operate as a plumbing contractor until registered, must be or employ full time a master plumber who supervises all of its plumbing work, and that master can be responsible for only one contractor at a time.
So a company can look established and lose the right to work if its master leaves. That is the situation the “Need Master Hire” status records.
What Colorado electrical and plumbing contractor records show
We downloaded all electrical contractor, plumbing contractor, master electrician and master plumber records from the state data on October 24, 2026 and counted each registration once. These are our calculations. “Active” includes Active – With Conditions.
- Electrical contractors: 4,759 active registrations and 332 in “Need Master Hire – Cannot Practice.” The median first issue date of the companies in that status is May 2022, newer than November 2016 for active ones.
- Plumbing contractors: 3,104 active registrations and 36 in “Need Master Hire – Cannot Practice” (1.1%).
- Renewal dates: 3,859 active electrical contractors expire September 30, 2029. Another 900 (18.9%) still showed a September 30, 2026 expiration date in the October data, so confirm the current date in the lookup. Active plumbing contractors expire February 28, 2027.
- Discipline on record: 243 active electrical contractors (5.1%) and 178 active plumbing contractors (5.7%) have at least one disciplinary action listed; 102 and 97 had one in the past five years. Across electrical and plumbing licenses, the most frequent action records are stipulations (1,118), letters of admonition (600) and citations (293).
- New and out of state: 7.7% of active electrical contractors and 8.5% of plumbing contractors were first registered in the past 12 months. 14.1% of active electrical contractors list an address outside Colorado, compared with 5.2% of plumbing contractors.
- Masters behind them: the same data lists 7,462 active master electricians and 4,965 active master plumbers.
Checklist before you hire in Colorado
- Electrical or plumbing contractor registration Active in DORA’s lookup, in the company name on your contract.
- No “Need Master Hire” status, and the responsible master’s license Active.
- Expiration date that runs past your project.
- Disciplinary actions read in the record.
- For plumbing, the registration and master numbers on the bid match the lookup.
- For other trades, the city or county contractor license, if the job’s location requires one.
- The building or trade permit pulled before work starts.
For other states, see our contractor license lookup guide and our analysis of Oregon CCB licenses. For permit records south of Denver, see our Douglas County permit records guide.
Counts are our calculations from the Professional and Occupational Licenses in Colorado data on data.colorado.gov, downloaded October 24, 2026, with each license number counted once. DORA and statute pages checked October 24, 2026.