Plumbing in Michigan: licenses, permits, water and weather

Licensing: who may do plumbing work

Under the Skilled Trades Regulation Act (2016 PA 407, MCL 339.6107), nobody may work as a plumbing contractor, master, journey or apprentice plumber in Michigan without a license or registration, and only a licensed master or journey plumber may do the plumbing itself. The exceptions are narrow: minor repair, a building sewer or water service pipe with a permit and inspections, domestic water treatment equipment with a permit, and a homeowner doing their own work in their own single-family home with a permit.

Working without a license is a misdemeanor under MCL 339.5601, with a fine up to $500 or up to 90 days, or both; a third offense is a felony. You can check any license on the LARA lookup, and complaints go to LARA's Bureau of Construction Codes in writing. Our guide to checking a Michigan plumber's license shows the steps.

Permits: who issues them and what is exempt

Plumbing work may not start until the enforcing agency has issued a permit. LARA exempts only repairs to the working parts of a faucet or valve and the clearing of stoppages, as long as the existing piping and fixtures are not altered. A water heater replacement is not in that exemption, and local building departments such as Sterling Heights and Delta Township say so in their own FAQs. For a gas water heater, LARA's mechanical FAQ says the job also needs a mechanical license class and a mechanical permit; confirm that with LARA before you rely on it.

Who issues the permit depends on your address: the state, a county or a city. Some counties, including Washtenaw, Livingston, Eaton, Clinton and Grand Traverse, run a building department for part of their area, and the Statewide Jurisdiction List says which office covers which unit. Fees are local and change each year. As examples, the water heater line in Grand Rapids is $21 on top of a $52 application, in Sterling Heights $40 on top of $55, in Flint $15 on top of a $95 base fee, and in Dearborn $15 per tank on a $180 minimum. We could not read the fees for Detroit, Warren, Lansing, Ann Arbor, Livonia or Kalamazoo, so none are printed here.

Water and ground: hardness, lead lines and where it floods

"Michigan water is hard" is not one number. Great Lakes Water Authority plants reported 2025 total hardness between 96 and 130 mg/L across three plants, which is moderately hard. Grand Rapids reports an average of 142 mg/L from Lake Michigan, Lansing's BWL softens at the plant to a typical 98, and Ann Arbor's average is 126. Kalamazoo's city quoted about 20 grains per gallon to a public radio station in 2016, which is far harder, and is a newspaper quote rather than a current report. Read your own utility's annual water quality report for your address.

On lead, the State's inventory summary, as reported by water suppliers, counts about 203,050 service lines as lead and 315,372 as unknown out of the statewide total, and suppliers have to replace an average of 5 percent of lead service lines a year for 20 years unless EGLE approves another schedule. The action level for lead in tap samples fell from 15 to 12 parts per billion for samples collected from January 1, 2025. Your city page links to its own inventory where we found one.

Winter and spring: frozen pipes, snowmelt and storm floods

The State's winter preparedness page says pipes in crawl spaces and attics are the most likely to freeze. It tells you to insulate, seal air leaks near pipes, and shut off the water at the main if one freezes, and never to use a torch or open flame to thaw it. Michigan's 42-inch figure is the footing and foundation rule in R 408.30522, not a depth for burying water lines, and the building official may change it for local conditions.

In spring the problem is water from below. Michigan State Police say many floods follow snowmelt or heavy spring rain, and that basement flooding more often comes from sump pumps failing in power cuts than from sewer water backing up. The National Weather Service recorded 4 to 6 inches of rain in four hours across Wayne, southern Oakland and Macomb counties on August 11, 2014, and 3 to 5 inches across Metro Detroit in June 2021. The State's insurance regulator says water and sewer back-up is not automatically covered by a homeowners or renters policy, so ask your agent before it happens.

What plumbing costs in Michigan: our estimates and the evidence behind them

The first eleven rows are our estimated ranges, one per service. Each is a model, not a quote: national published ranges, adjusted by Michigan's plumber wage ratio to the US (1.07, BLS May 2025), plus the permit fee for work that needs a permit. The rows after them are what plumbers are paid, the permit fees we could read, and the prices Michigan companies publish. Each service page shows its own estimate beside those prices.

Estimated ranges. Built from national published ranges, adjusted by Michigan's plumber wage ratio to the US (1.07, BLS May 2025), plus the local permit fee where the city publishes one. Not a quote. Where Michigan companies publish prices we show them separately. Published company prices were read on Oct 19, 2026 from 11 Michigan companies' own websites (5 for drain cleaning, 5 for service-call fees, 4 for water heater replacement); permit line items from 7 forms. Full method.

Questions about plumbing in Michigan

• DetroitWayne · 636,644 · 90% pre-1980
• Grand RapidsKent · 197,768 · 75% pre-1980
• WarrenMacomb · 138,128 · 83% pre-1980
• Sterling HeightsMacomb · 133,473 · 58% pre-1980
• Ann ArborWashtenaw · 121,179 · 64% pre-1980
• LansingIngham · 112,546 · 80% pre-1980
• DearbornWayne · 107,846 · 84% pre-1980
• LivoniaWayne · 94,058 · 78% pre-1980

Michigan guides

• Buying a home7 min read

  A sump pump in the house you want to buy: what it tells you and what to ask

• Winter and emergencies6 min read

  Frozen pipes in Michigan: thaw one safely, stop the next one

• Hiring7 min read

  How to check a Michigan plumber's license, and what to do if something goes wrong

• Digging and permits7 min read

  MISS DIG 811 in Michigan: when a plumber has to call before digging

• Permits and licensing7 min read

  Plumbing work a Michigan homeowner can do without a permit

• Permits and licensing7 min read

  Replacing your own water heater in Michigan: what the law lets you do

• Floods and backups8 min read

  Sewer backup after heavy rain in Michigan: what to do and who to tell

• Sump pumps7 min read

  Sump pump failing in spring: a Michigan checklist before the thaw

• Water heaters8 min read

  Tankless or tank water heater in Michigan: what the federal data says

• Water heaters6 min read

  Water heater lifespan: what the Department of Energy says and what it leaves out

• Water heaters7 min read

  Water heater pilot light won't stay lit: causes, and who should relight it

• Permits and code7 min read

  Water heater replacement permits in Michigan: what the state text says

• Sewer and drains7 min read

  What a main sewer line replacement costs in Michigan, and who pays for it

• Costs7 min read

  What a Michigan plumber charges by the hour, and what we can and cannot tell you