Bonds & Surety› Contractor License Bonds › Texas
No. Texas issues no state general contractor license, so there is no state license bond for general contracting. Electrical, plumbing and HVAC are licensed trades, and cities impose their own registration and permit requirements.
No, not at the state level. No state general contractor license. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) licenses specific trades, and plumbing sits with the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners. Texas does not license general contractors at state level. If your scope includes electrical, plumbing or HVAC work, that work requires a state trade license.
Texas licenses the trades, not the general contractor. There is no state general contractor license and no state license bond that goes with one, which surprises contractors moving in from California, Arizona or Nevada where the licence is the gate. What Texas does license, through TDLR, includes air conditioning and refrigeration contractors and electricians, with plumbing handled by the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners. If your scope touches those trades you need the trade licence, whether or not you self-perform - and a licensed air conditioning and refrigeration contractor is not separately required by the state to hold an electrician licence for the work within that scope.
Because there is no state credential, the requirement that actually applies to a general contractor in Texas is municipal - registration, permits and sometimes a bond, set city by city. Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth each run their own programmes. Confirm with the city before you bid.
Texas is where the distinction between a license bond and a contract bond matters most, because the licensing side is nearly empty and the contract side is enormous. There is no state financial screen on a Texas general contractor, so the screening happens entirely at the project: public work in Texas requires a payment bond on contracts over $25,000 and a performance bond over $100,000 under the Government Code, and private owners impose their own. A contractor who reads "no license required" as "no bonding required" finds out on the first public bid. In Texas the bonding conversation is a contract conversation from day one, which is why the financial file should be built before you need it rather than when a bid is due.
This is the distinction that costs Texas contractors work. A license bond is what the state or the city requires before it will let you operate. It is a fixed amount, it renews annually, and it protects the public. It says nothing about whether you can bond a job.
A performance bond is different. That is job-specific, written at the full contract value, and it is what an owner requires before awarding you the work. Contractors who assume their license bond makes them "bonded" find out otherwise the first time they try to bid public work.
The two are connected in one direction that matters: the financial file that gets you a license bond easily is the same file a surety underwriter reads when you ask for a performance bond. Building it properly now is what makes the bigger bond reachable later. See how contractors qualify for bonds and how a bond program gets built.
A license bond is also not insurance. It does not protect you - if a claim is paid, you reimburse the surety. See surety bonds versus insurance.
Our team writes contractor license bonds nationally and we never decline a submission - our job is to find the path to yes. Tell us the classification you are applying for and we will tell you what it takes. If you are building toward bigger work, we will look at the whole program, not just the bond in front of you.
Call the Grit team: (801) 505-5500
No. Texas issues no state general contractor license, so there is no state license bond for general contracting. Electrical, plumbing and HVAC are licensed trades, and cities impose their own registration and permit requirements.
There is no statewide amount because there is no statewide requirement, and for most building contractors there is no city bond either. Cities require general liability insurance instead, commonly $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate. The bond attaches to right-of-way work: Fort Collins requires $100,000, or $250,000 for directional boring, and Denver's paving bond is $50,000 under DRMC 49-626.
In the jurisdictions we verified, generally no. Fort Collins requires no bond on general or specialized trade licenses, and the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department requires none either. Both require general liability insurance. Aurora is the exception we confirmed, with a $20,000 license and permit bond on some classes. Confirm with the city you are pulling the permit in.
No. A license bond is a fixed annual requirement to hold your license and it protects the public. A performance bond is job-specific, written at the full contract value, and required by the project owner before award. Holding a license bond does not mean you can bond a job.
No. A surety bond protects the party the bond runs to. If a claim is paid on your bond, you reimburse the surety. Liability insurance protects your business; a bond does not.
A note on the details: Bond amounts, licensing thresholds, and filing rules change, and they vary by classification and by the agency issuing the license. Use this page as a starting point, not as legal advice. Confirm the current requirement with the licensing authority before you file, and confirm your own bond requirement with a licensed member of our team.
Already licensed and looking for work to bid? See where to find public construction work to bid on in Texas, and the national guide to contractor license and permit bonds.