To hold a Florida Certified General Contractor license you must meet an experience-and-education requirement, pass three examinations (Business & Finance, Contract Administration and Project Management), show proof of financial responsibility, and carry general liability and workers' compensation insurance. Licensure is governed by Chapter 489 F.S. and Rule 61G4 F.A.C., administered by the CILB under the DBPR.
What a Certified General Contractor may build
The reason people sit the general exam rather than an easier one is scope. Of the three Division I licenses, the general contractor's is the only unlimited one: any building, any occupancy, any height, including structural work, structural steel, and the excavation and foundations that go with a building of any size. If a project can be built in Florida, a CGC can contract for it.
The other two Division I licenses are the same trade, cut down:
- Certified Building Contractor (CBC). Commercial buildings and single- or multiple-dwelling residential buildings that do not exceed three stories, with their accessory structures — or remodeling, repair and improvement of a building of any size, as long as the work does not affect its structural members (s. 489.105(3)(b), F.S.). A building contractor can run most mid-size commercial jobs and stops where the high-rise and heavy structural work begins.
- Certified Residential Contractor (CRC). Construction, remodeling, repair and improvement of one-, two- and three-family residences of no more than two habitable stories above no more than one uninhabitable story, plus accessory structures (s. 489.105(3)(c), F.S.). The narrowest of the three.
Everything else — roofing, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, pool, specialty structures — is Division II, licensed separately by trade. A general contractor subcontracts that work; holding a CGC does not let you self-perform a trade that requires its own license. Check the current statutory language before you commit to a category: the difference between CBC and CGC is precisely the projects you will be allowed to bid.
Certified statewide, or registered locally
Chapter 489 creates two kinds of contractor license. A certified contractor is licensed by the state and may work anywhere in Florida. A registered contractor holds a local competency card from a city or county and may work only where that jurisdiction's license is recognized. Registration is a legitimate route for someone working in one market, but it does not travel.
Either way, the local building department still has a say. Jurisdictions maintain their own registration, insurance filing and permit-pulling requirements on top of the state license, and they do not all read a scope question the same way. Before your first permit in a new county, call the building department and ask rather than assume.
Experience and education
The board wants evidence that you have actually run construction work, not just studied it. Eligibility is set by s. 489.111(2), F.S., and the routes are the same for all three Division I licenses. You must be 18, of good moral character, and qualify under one of these:
- A degree plus one year. A bachelor's degree from an accredited four-year college in civil engineering, building construction or architecture — the three fields Rule 61G4-15.001, F.A.C., accepts for Division I — plus 1 year of proven experience in the class you are applying for. A year means at least 2,000 person-hours.
- Four years in the trade. At least 4 years of active experience as a skilled worker able to command a mechanic's rate, or as a foreman, of which at least 1 year must be as a foreman. Time as an unskilled laborer does not qualify.
- Experience plus college credit. 1 year as a foreman with 3 years of college credits; or 1 year as a skilled worker, 1 year as a foreman and 2 years of credits; or 2 years as a skilled worker, 1 year as a foreman and 1 year of credits. Junior and community college courses count.
What kind of experience counts — where the three licenses part ways
The routes are shared; the experience the board accepts is not. Rule 61G4-15.001 defines it class by class, and it must have been gained under a contractor licensed in that class or one whose scope covers it:
- General and building contractors need commercial construction experience in at least four of six areas: foundations or slabs over 20,000 square feet, masonry walls, steel erection, elevated slabs, column erection, and formwork for structural reinforced concrete.
- General contractors only must also show at least one year of that experience on structures of four stories or more. That single requirement is what separates a general contractor applicant from a building contractor applicant.
- Residential contractors need experience on detached one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses no more than three stories above grade, in at least three of five areas: foundations, slabs and structural formwork; masonry walls; structural demolition; structural wood framing including trusses (platform framing does not count); and column erection.
Experience that is all single-family work does not qualify you directly for building or general. The statute provides a ladder instead: an active certified residential contractor can move up to building after 3 years of proven experience in that license, or to general after 4, and a certified building contractor to general after 4 — each by passing the higher license's examination (s. 489.111(2)(c)4., F.S.). The license comparison sets the three side by side, and the step-by-step licensing process page walks through the paperwork once you know you qualify. The rule quoted here took effect on May 16, 2024; rules are amended from time to time, so confirm with the DBPR before you file.
Examinations, financial responsibility and insurance
Division I contractors sit three examinations. Business & Finance is 120 questions in 6.5 hours; Contract Administration and Project Management are 60 scored questions in 4.5 hours each. All three are open book, all three require 70%, and the DBPR does not round. Division II applicants take Business & Finance plus a single General Trade Knowledge exam instead. Building and Residential candidates sit the same two trade parts at shorter lengths — 50 questions each for CBC, 45 each for CRC — so the three licenses are tested the same way at different depth.
Already licensed and adding a category? Candidates who have passed may be exempt from retaking Business & Finance, leaving only the two trade parts. Our sister site flbizfinprep.com covers the Business & Finance exam if you still need it.
Financial responsibility is the other half of the application. The board reviews credit history and financial standing to establish that you can carry a job — meet payroll, pay suppliers and finish what you start — because an undercapitalised contractor is how consumers end up filing recovery-fund claims. Applicants who fall short of the standard financial test may still be licensed through an alternative involving a bond. Thresholds and bond amounts are set by rule; get the current figures from the DBPR rather than from a forum post.
Insurance means general liability at minimum limits set by the board, and workers' compensation coverage. Florida allows certain officers and owners in construction to file for an exemption from workers' compensation on themselves, but an exemption is personal and narrow — it does not cover employees, and using it wrongly is a fast way to lose a license. Finally, a license is held by a person. To have a company contract under it you must be its qualifying agent, which makes you personally responsible for that entity's construction work, its permits and its finances. Qualifying a business you do not actually control is one of the most common ways contractors get into disciplinary trouble.
If you are past eligibility and into preparation, start with the study guide and then test yourself on the practice test.
Meet the requirements? Start on the exams
Eligibility is the easy half. The three exams are what stands between you and the license. 20 questions free, every answer explained — no account.