Independent research · Pennsylvania · statewide only
Pennsylvania Contractor & Home Improvement Intelligence
Pennsylvania does not have a universal statewide general-contractor license. The primary statewide residential credential is HICPA Home Improvement Contractor registration with the Office of Attorney General. Registration is not an endorsement, recommendation, or competency finding. Asbestos and lead certifications are separate specialty credentials. Public-works debarment is a separate adverse grain. Municipal contractor licensing is decentralized. Missing or search-only evidence is not zero. This is not a ranking, recommendation, or Trust Score.
Snapshot contractor-pa-state-intel-v1 · retrieved 2026-09-17T13:04:02Z · HICPA sourceAsOf unknown
Snapshot metrics
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No statewide general-contractor license census
Pennsylvania does not impose a universal state contractor license. HICPA registration is OPEN_SEARCH_ONLY. Missing bulk is not zero contractors.
283
DLI certified asbestos abatement contractor firms
Firm certification. Not HICPA. Not unique companies.
148
DLI certified lead abatement contractor firms
Firm certification. Not HICPA and not asbestos.
6
Current prevailing-wage debarment listing rows
Public-works debarment rows. Not complaints and not HICPA.
Trace this number
- Source
- PA OAG HIC search; DLI asbestos/lead contractor lists; DLI prevailing-wage debarments
- Source date
- 2026-09-17
- Denominator
- Separate official datasets. Classes are not added.
- Calculation
- HICPA bulk is OPEN_SEARCH_ONLY. Specialty firm counts are distinct certification numbers.
- Reporting grain
- HICPA registration number; DLI contractor CERT #; debarment listing row
- Coverage
- Statewide Pennsylvania intelligence only. No Philadelphia or Pittsburgh pages.
- Caveat
- Search-only is not zero. Daily specialty-list cadence is not a row-level sourceAsOf.
HICPA registration is not a general contractor license
Contractors performing at least $5,000 of home-improvement work a year generally must register. The public search displays active registrations and can export a completed search as Excel, but Search is gated by Cloudflare Turnstile. A statewide HICPA row census was not acquired. Confirm an exact PA registration number on Home Improvement Contractor Search. Registration under HICPA is not an endorsement. See also OAG consumer guidance.
The OAG registration system had an extended outage beginning August 2025. Online search was restored in March 2026, the replacement PA-HICRS application became operational on April 24, 2026, and a transition/grace period ended June 8, 2026. Retrieval date is not registration effective date. System restoration is not sourceAsOf. Gaps during the transition are not historical non-registration.
Type of Work is a newer field and incomplete for much of the existing population. Missing Type of Work does not mean the contractor does not perform that trade. Business name is not the primary applicant. An address row is not a unique company.
Asbestos and lead contractor certifications stay separate
DLI certified asbestos abatement contractor firms: 283 distinct CERT #s from 299 list rows. Individual asbestos certifications: 4,985 person rows. Firm certification is not person certification. Official list: Certified Asbestos Abatement Contractors.
DLI certified lead abatement contractor firms: 148 distinct CERT #s from 155 list rows. Individual lead certifications: 943 person rows. Lead contractor certification is not HICPA registration. Official list: Certified Lead Abatement Contractors.
Prevailing-wage debarment is not a HICPA profile
Current DLI listing: 6 debarment rows, 8 firm respondents and 8 person respondents. Listed persons and firms are barred from public contracts for the statutory period after the listed date. A debarment is not a complaint and not a criminal conviction. Firm is not person. No name-only attachment to HICPA identities. Official list: Debarments and Settlements.
Settlements: current source observation is none. That is not a historical clearance that Pennsylvania has never had prevailing-wage settlements.
Municipal licensing and UCC permits are not statewide
DLI states the Commonwealth currently has no licensure or certification requirements for most construction contractors. Some of Pennsylvania’s 2,562 municipalities establish local contractor, electrical, or plumbing requirements. The state does not maintain a universal municipal repository. Philadelphia licensing is not statewide. Pittsburgh licensing is not statewide. Absence from this page is not zero. Official note: DLI contractor licensing.
Uniform Construction Code permit functions are mostly municipal or third-party. There is no comparable statewide building-permit census on this page. No manufactured permit total.
What these numbers do not mean
- HICPA registration != general contractor license != specialty certification.
- Asbestos contractor firm != asbestos-certified person. Lead contractor != lead-certified person.
- Debarment row != HICPA registration. Public-work eligibility != residential quality.
- No Trust Score. No star-rating markup. No best or safest contractor ranking.