Independent research · North Carolina · statewide only
North Carolina Contractor Licensing & Regulatory Intelligence
The North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors (NCLBGC) licenses general contractors when total project cost is $40,000 or more. That threshold is not a rule that every construction job requires an NCLBGC license. Specialty boards independently license electrical and plumbing/heating/fire-sprinkler work. A license number identifies the licensed entity. A qualifier is not the contracting business. Classification is not limitation. Unlimited is not best. Missing or search-only evidence is not zero. This is not a ranking, recommendation, or Trust Score.
No Charlotte, Raleigh, Mecklenburg, Wake, or other local North Carolina contractor pages are published from this statewide page.
Snapshot contractor-nc-state-intel-v1 · fingerprint 17bd03c18651 · retrieved 2026-09-17T17:30:00Z. Retrieval is not a license status date. The April 2026 ~38,523 mixed-record Board figure is not a current active census.
Snapshot metrics
—
Current NCLBGC general-contractor census
OPEN_SEARCH_ONLY. Not 38,523 mixed records. Search-only is not zero.
49
Licensed case-summary licenses in recent Board PDFs
Distinct L. numbers in two recent Board PDFs. Not a complete 2022–2026 census.
43
Unlicensed injunction cases in Spring 2026 PDF
Unlicensed respondents. Not NCLBGC licensees.
236
NC DOA debarred-vendor rows
Source revised 6/1/2021. Not licensing discipline.
Trace this number
- Source
- NCLBGC public search; Board case-summary PDFs; NC DOA debarred vendors; PHFS Attorney’s Report
- Source date
- 2026-09-17
- Denominator
- Separate official datasets. Classes are not added.
- Calculation
- NCLBGC/NCBEEC/PHFS bulk rosters remain OPEN_SEARCH_ONLY. Numeric grains are named PDFs, the current PHFS attorney page, and the 2021 DOA CSV.
- Reporting grain
- NCLBGC license number; complaint/case number; DOA vendor row
- Coverage
- Statewide North Carolina intelligence only. No Charlotte or Raleigh pages.
- Caveat
- Search-only is not zero. Profile-linked discipline covers 2022+ complaints that resulted in discipline.
NCLBGC general-contractor licensing
Current NCLBGC licensee and qualifier search is OPEN_SEARCH_ONLY. A complete active list is a paid mailing-list request; this ticket did not purchase data. Search-only is not zero contractors. Identity is the NCLBGC license number (example format L.53462). A qualifier’s examination credential supports a license; it is not a second contracting company. Core classifications are Building, Residential, Highway, Public Utilities, and Specialty (plus Unclassified). Building and Residential classifications can include work that also exists as a specialty, including roofing. Do not treat S(Roofing) as the only licensed roofing path. Limitations are Limited (single project up to $750,000), Intermediate (up to $1,500,000), and Unlimited (no single-project value restriction). Limitation is not quality. Verify on NCLBGC Licensee and Qualifier Search. Consumer threshold: NCLBGC consumer FAQ. Classifications: classifications and limitations.
Discipline and unlicensed enforcement
Starting July 2026, licensee profiles may link Consent Orders or Final Decisions for complaints filed in 2022 or later that resulted in disciplinary action. No disciplinary link is not a clean historical record. A complaint is not discipline. Statewide profile-link census was not scraped. Recent Board PDFs name 49 distinct licensed respondents in Oct–Dec 2025 and Jan–Mar 2026 summaries — a partial period, not 2022–2026 completeness. Unlicensed injunctions are a separate grain (43 unique cases in the Spring 2026 PDF). Do not attach unlicensed respondents to current licenses by name. The Homeowners Recovery Fund is last-resort consumer context, not a contractor-level adverse index (Recovery Fund). A hearing is not an award.
Electrical and plumbing / heating / fire sprinkler
Electrical contractors are licensed by NCBEEC, not NCLBGC. Active-license search is OPEN_SEARCH_ONLY; a paid listing exists and was not purchased. Person records are not business counts. NCBEEC active-license search. Plumbing, heating, fuel piping, and fire sprinkler are a separate board. Contractor classes are not technician classes. Roster search is OPEN_SEARCH_ONLY. PHFS license search. The current Attorney’s Report page lists 91 allegation rows; licensed discipline is not an unlicensed injunction. PHFS Attorney’s Report.
State procurement debarment
NC DOA publishes 236 debarred-vendor rows last revised 2021-06-01. No later revision is not currently verified clean. Debarment is not contractor-license discipline. Vendor is not an NCLBGC licensee. Name-only attachment is unsafe. NC Debarred Vendors.
Building permits
North Carolina building-permit administration is local and fragmented. This ticket does not publish a statewide permit census and does not start Charlotte, Raleigh, Mecklenburg, or Wake harvests.
What these numbers do not mean
- $40,000 threshold ≠ every construction job requires an NCLBGC license.
- ~38,523 mixed Board-news records ≠ active contractors.
- Licensee ≠ qualifier. Classification ≠ limitation. Unlimited ≠ best.
- Roofing may be Building, Residential, or S(Roofing). Do not manufacture “all roofers in NC.”
- Electrical ≠ plumbing/HVAC/fire sprinkler ≠ general contractor.
- Complaint ≠ discipline. Unlicensed injunction ≠ licensed order. Debarment ≠ license action.
- Search-only and missing evidence is not zero. No Trust Score or best-contractor ranking.