Story · age 29 · Virginia

Zoe

Richmond journeyman electrician mapping the DPOR master exam and the Class A contractor ladder with her husband, because the plan is a small residential-commercial shop

The situation

Zoe is 29 and lives in Richmond. She earned her Virginia DPOR Journeyman Electrician license in 2023 after logging the required trade hours and passing the state exam. She has worked the last two years as a journeyman on residential remodels and light-commercial tenant fit-outs.

She and her husband, a licensed HVAC journeyman, have been talking about opening a small residential-commercial electric shop in the Richmond metro. Before they incorporate or rent a yard, Zoe is reading the Virginia regulations cold so she knows which license and which contractor class the business actually needs.

The Master exam calendar

Per 18VAC50-30-39, a journeyman electrician in Virginia is eligible to sit for the Master Electrician exam after at least one year of practical experience as a licensed journeyman. Zoe has been licensed since 2023, so she meets the experience threshold.

DPOR contracts the Master exam through PSI Services. Per the DPOR Tradesman fee schedule, the master exam fee is $125 (exam-only fee; license issuance fees are separate). The application requires proof of the journeyman license and the one-year experience documentation.

The tradesman license (journeyman and master) renews on a 2-year cycle, and tradesmen are required to complete 3 hours of continuing education per renewal cycle per 18VAC50-30-39. Zoe is tracking her current CE hours so the master license, once issued, lines up cleanly with her renewal window and not a second one.

Class A vs Class B vs Class C for what we want to do

A Virginia tradesman license lets Zoe do the electrical work. A Virginia contractor license is a separate thing entirely and is what the business itself holds to bid and perform contracts. Per Code of Virginia §54.1-1100, the contractor tiers are set by project size and annual revenue.

Class C: any single project from $1,001 to $29,999 and total annual gross revenue under $250,000. This is the smallest tier and is the lightest application.

Class B: any single project from $30,000 to $149,999 and total annual gross revenue between $250,000 and $999,999. Class B adds financial-responsibility and experience requirements beyond Class C.

Class A: any single project of $150,000 or more, or total annual gross revenue of $1,000,000 or more. Class A has the highest financial, experience, and exam requirements of the three.

For a first-year residential-commercial shop, a Class B or even a Class C is often where small operators actually start. A single kitchen rewire or a tenant fit-out rarely crosses $150,000 in year one. Zoe and her husband are modeling what size jobs they realistically expect to land in year 1 and year 2 before they pick a tier. Operating above a tier's threshold without the correct class is an enforcement issue with DPOR.

What the partner track looks like

The contractor license is held by the business entity, not by Zoe personally. The entity designates a Qualified Individual for each trade classification it contracts in. For an electrical specialty, the Qualified Individual typically must hold a Virginia Master Electrician license, which is why Zoe's master application is the critical-path item.

Her husband's HVAC journeyman license lets him perform HVAC work personally, but for the business to hold an HVAC specialty, it would need a Master HVAC-licensed Qualified Individual. If the plan is an electric-first shop that may later add HVAC, the sequencing matters: electrical specialty gets added first (once Zoe passes the master exam), HVAC specialty gets added later.

DPOR registered new designations recently (the Residential Plumber designation launched April 1, 2025), which Zoe is tracking because the same Board periodically adjusts scope definitions. She is keeping an eye on any rulemaking that would touch the electrical or HVAC designations she and her husband rely on.

What is on the table

BLS OES reported a median annual wage of $61,590 for electricians nationally in May 2024. For the Richmond VA metro (OES area 40060), the OES table publishes an area-specific median. Zoe is comparing her current W-2 against the Richmond metro median as one input into the go/no-go on self-employment.

The master exam is $125 at PSI. Initial contractor license fees, surety and financial-responsibility documentation, and classroom hours for the business-and-law exam vary by tier per DPOR's contractor fee schedule. These are one-time and cycle costs, not ongoing operating costs.

Zoe is reading the regulations because the regulations are the business plan's load-bearing wall. The site's role is to put the exact citation (18VAC50-30-39, §54.1-1100, the DPOR fee schedule, the OES table) within two clicks of where she is reading.

Start your own path

Virginia electrician licensing →Launch a trades business in Virginia →

Sources cited in this story