All states › Oregon (Construction Contractors Board)
Most states set one continuing-education number and apply it to everybody. Oregon sets four, and which one you owe depends on facts about your business that have nothing to do with the work you do: how long the Construction Contractors Board has licensed you, whether you carry a residential endorsement or a commercial one or both, and — if commercial — how many supervisory people you employed at the thinnest point of the last two years.
The result is that two Oregon contractors doing identical work can owe 8 hours and 80 hours for the same renewal. Neither number is a mistake. And underneath all of it sits a rule that matters more than any hour count: the CCB licence is issued to the business, but the qualification belongs to one individual — the Responsible Managing Individual — who may only be attached to one licence at a time, and whose departure starts a 14-day clock.
| Item | Oregon |
|---|---|
| Licence term | Two years |
| Renewal fee | $400 (every two years, via the contractor portal) |
| Initial application fee | $400 beginning July 1, 2025 (it was $325 for applications received by June 30, 2025) |
| Endorsement change | $20 |
| Inactivation / reactivation | $20 each |
| Oregon contractor exam | $60, paid to the exam provider (PSI). 80 multiple-choice questions, open book, three hours, passing score 70% (56 correct) |
| Hard lapse cliff | Lapse of more than 24 months → retake the 16-hour pre-license training and pass the exam again |
Separate credentials keep their own clocks and fees: Home Inspector (OCHI) certification renews every two years at $150; Home Energy Assessor (HEA) renews annually at $100; the lead-based paint credential renews annually at $50, and the CCB mails that renewal form roughly eight weeks before expiration.
The CCB states the residential requirement as a base plus a variable, per two-year licence period:
| Component | Hours | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| CCB laws, regulations and business practices (LRB) classes | 3 | Always. Take one live 3-hour class (in person or live webinar) or three one-hour classes through your online services account |
| Other approved courses | 13 | If the CCB has licensed you less than six years → 16 hours total |
| Other approved courses | 5 | If the CCB has licensed you six or more years → 8 hours total |
Two limits sit on top of that. The CCB says plainly that you will not get credit for more than three hours of CCB classes — you cannot fill the "other approved courses" bucket by taking more of the agency's own material. And generally only courses listed in the CCB's Course Catalog count, with one exception the agency names itself: courses from accredited colleges and universities, or from state or federal government agencies, may not appear in the catalog but are accepted for credit if they pertain to business practices or help you improve your trade and run at least an hour.
Three specialty (limited) licences carry no continuing-education requirement at all: home services contractors, residential locksmith services contractors, and home energy performance score contractors.
Separately, the CCB exempts residential and commercial contractors who hold certain other Oregon credentials. The list, as the agency publishes it: architects (if an owner or officer is an Oregon-licensed architect); developers; engineers (if an owner, officer or employee is an Oregon-licensed engineer); electricians and plumbers (if an owner, officer or employee holds the Oregon licence); boiler contractors; elevator contractors; renewable energy contractors; pump installation contractors; limited sign contractors; and landscape contractors who are construction contractors. Home inspectors are exempt from the CCB licence CE but must still complete home inspector continuing education for the certification itself.
Note the phrasing carefully on two of these. For architects the CCB writes "owner or officer"; for engineers, electricians and plumbers it writes "owner, officer or employee." An employed licensed electrician can carry the exemption; an employed architect, on the published wording, cannot. Confirm your own facts with the CCB rather than reasoning by analogy across the list.
This is the trap that costs the most hours. The CCB states it twice on its own page, in both the residential and commercial sections: contractors licensed for both commercial and residential work are subject only to the commercial continuing education requirements.
So a residential contractor who adds a commercial endorsement to bid one large job does not add commercial CE on top of residential CE. They stop owing the residential 8-or-16 and start owing the commercial number, which is calculated an entirely different way:
| Commercial status | Hours per two-year period |
|---|---|
| Level 2 general or specialty | 32 |
| Level 1 — 1 key employee | 16 |
| Level 1 — 2 key employees | 32 |
| Level 1 — 3 key employees | 48 |
| Level 1 — 4 key employees | 64 |
| Level 1 — 5 or more key employees | 80 |
Read the measurement rule, not just the table. Level 1 hours are based on the lowest number of key employees employed during the renewal cycle — the thinnest point of two years, not headcount on renewal day. A firm that ran four supervisors for twenty-three months and dropped to two for one month owes the two-employee number, which is good news; a firm that grew from two to five owes the two-employee number too, which surprises people who assumed the requirement tracked their current size.
A key employee is an owner or employee who is a corporate officer, manager, superintendent, foreperson, lead person, or "any other person who supervises construction activities." One key employee or several may complete the hours — the requirement is on the firm, not per person. The CCB gives its own worked example: three supervisory workers attending the same five-hour safety training counts as 15 hours of continuing education.
Commercial courses do not need CCB pre-approval, must run at least an hour, and may come from community colleges, colleges, universities, trade schools, trade or business associations, professional societies, private companies, public agencies, or in-house training — including safety meetings, which the CCB notes may require a form with a date, provider name, topic, sign-in sheet and start/end times.
Residential and commercial contractors face opposite proof burdens, and the residential one is the one that stops a renewal dead.
| Residential | Commercial | |
|---|---|---|
| When is proof required? | Before renewal. The CCB states that residential contractors "cannot renew a license until the CCB has proof they met the continuing education requirements" | After renewal, if selected. You certify at renewal that you did it; the CCB may audit |
| What does the CCB already know? | Only the three hours of courses taken from the CCB. Some outside providers report completions; others do not | Some providers report; otherwise nothing until an audit letter arrives |
| How do you close the gap? | Email completion certificates to cecerts@ccb.oregon.gov — with your CCB number on the certificate or in the email. Mail-in renewers may attach certificates to the form | Keep records. Under OAR 812-020-0072 you must retain key-employee education records for at least 24 months after renewal, produce them on request, and the rule authorises suspension for failure to comply |
| Audit mechanics | — | On the first of every month a portion of recently renewed contractors is randomly selected. You fill out a worksheet and may be required to send actual certificates. Each audit covers the previous two-year cycle |
The practical instruction for a residential contractor is therefore: do not treat your CE certificates as receipts to file. Treat them as a submission. Send each one to cecerts@ccb.oregon.gov the week you earn it, with your CCB number attached, rather than discovering at renewal that the board has record of three hours and none of the other thirteen.
The CCB flags this at the top of its continuing education page, in bold, because people get it backwards and waste money: if your licence expired or lapsed — including lapsing for lack of bond or insurance — more than two years ago, do not take continuing education classes. You must re-apply for a licence and take the pre-license training and test. CE hours will not resurrect a licence that is past the 24-month door; they are a renewal condition, not a reinstatement mechanism.
The same 24-month figure appears twice more in Oregon's licensing rules and it is worth holding all three together, because they are different clocks that happen to share a number:
Oregon's renewal has at least four separate expiry dates in most firms — the CCB licence, the bond, the liability certificate, and any home inspector, energy assessor or lead-paint credential on annual cycles. LicenseLedger keeps them on one calendar and warns you before the CE window closes, not after.
See how it works →Most endorsements must have a Responsible Managing Individual: an owner, officer, partner or employee with management or supervisory authority over the business's construction activities. The RMI is the person who completed the 16-hour pre-license training and passed the Oregon exam (or passed the NASCLA commercial exam plus the Oregon laws-and-rules exam, or can show continuous Oregon licence association from before July 1, 2000 with no lapse over 24 months).
Four rules about that person decide whether the business keeps operating:
One more RMI consequence reaches past the business entity. Under Oregon law, if a contractor fails to pay its obligations and incurs construction-related debt, the RMI as well as the business owners are prevented from obtaining a new CCB licence until the debt is satisfied. Dissolving the company does not clear the path; the individual carries it.
Endorsements that do not require an RMI: Residential Developer, Residential Locksmith Services Contractor, Home Inspector Services Contractor, Home Services Contractor, Home Energy Performance Score Contractor, and Residential Restoration Contractor.
| Endorsement | Bond | Liability insurance |
|---|---|---|
| Residential general contractor | $25,000 | $500,000 per occurrence |
| Residential specialty contractor | $20,000 | $300,000 per occurrence |
| Residential limited contractor | $15,000 | $100,000 per occurrence |
| Residential developer | $25,000 | $500,000 per occurrence |
| Home services / locksmith / home inspector / home performance score | $15,000 | $100,000 per occurrence |
| Commercial general contractor, Level 1 | $80,000 | $2,000,000 aggregate |
| Commercial general contractor, Level 2 | $25,000 | $1,000,000 aggregate |
| Commercial specialty contractor, Level 1 | $55,000 | $1,000,000 aggregate |
| Commercial specialty contractor, Level 2 | $25,000 | $500,000 per occurrence |
| Commercial developer | $25,000 | $500,000 per occurrence |
If your firm carries a home inspector credential, that certification runs its own continuing education programme and its own risk. You must complete 30 continuing education units in the 24 months prior to your certification expiration date, from approved providers in approved subject areas. Oregon allows some unusual ways to earn them: accompanying a BCD-licensed plumbing, electrical or heating/air conditioning contractor on a repair or maintenance job lasting at least four hours; hosting ride-alongs for home inspector applicants; and serving as an officer of an Oregon or national home inspector trade association, at one unit per year of service.
The consequence of missing it is stated flatly by the CCB: the certification expires, and the CCB "may fine you up to $5,000 for each home inspection performed while the inspector is not certified." That is per inspection, not per lapse.