Nashville remodels cross two Tennessee contractor license lines

Tennessee requires a contractor license before a Nashville general contractor bids, offers or negotiates a price on a project of $25,000 or more. Davidson County adds a second line: it is one of nine Tennessee counties where residential remodeling from $3,000 to $24,999 needs a home improvement license, issued by the same Board for Licensing Contractors. The price on your quote decides which license a kitchen, bath or addition needs.

Reviewed on November 10, 2026: we read the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors’ license pages and application package, its rules in chapters 0680-01 and 0680-07, Tennessee Code Title 62, Chapter 6 in NASCLA’s 2018 copy, and Metro Nashville’s Codes and historic zoning pages. Franklin, Brentwood and other cities outside Metro were not checked, and neither were other states.

Which license the contract price calls for

The Board sets the lines by price:

Houzz’s 2026 study put the national median kitchen renovation at $24,000 in 2025 and the median primary bathroom at $15,000. Both sit inside Davidson’s home improvement band, the kitchen $1,000 under the contractor line. The Board says a project “cannot be split into multiple contracts or phases to circumvent the license law”, so a $27,000 kitchen is a contractor-license job however the contract is written.

The contractor license takes more. A qualifying agent passes Tennessee’s Business and Law exam and, for most classifications, a trade exam such as Residential (BC-A). The company files a CPA-reviewed financial statement or, since July 1, 2026, a surety bond of at least 50% of the monetary limit it asks for. The home improvement license page lists a bond, insurance and remodeling experience, and no exam.

Your monetary limit is a ceiling on every quote

Every Tennessee contractor license carries a monetary limit: the most you may contract for on one project. The Board sets it at 10 times the lesser of your working capital and net worth, with a 10% tolerance. The Restricted Residential license (BC-A/r), earned through a community college course in place of the exams, caps residential work at $125,000, counting the contractor’s cost of land and profit, with no tolerance.

The statute makes it unlawful to “engage in or offer to engage in contracting” unless, at the time of the offer, you hold a license “with a monetary limitation sufficient” for the project (T.C.A. § 62-6-103). Our read: a service page that sells “whole-home renovations to $750,000” is an offer, and with a $300,000 limit it offers work your license doesn’t cover. Write the range you can take.

Bids have their own rule. For projects of $25,000 or more, the Board’s application guide says the prime contractor lists its licensed name “as licensed exactly”, license number, classification and expiration date, plus the same for its electrical, plumbing, HVAC and masonry subcontractors (§ 62-6-119).

Where Tennessee asks for the license number

The advertising rule we found is in the home improvement law. T.C.A. § 62-6-510(9) lists as a prohibited act “advertising in any manner that a licensee is licensed” unless the ad includes “an accurate reference to the appropriate current license number”. The Board’s Rule 0680-07-.04 says a licensed home improvement contractor may not advertise in a newspaper, magazine, circular, printed document, or on TV or radio “unless the name and license number of the contractor is stated”. Rule 0680-07-.16 sets $50 to $500 per violation, each day counted separately.

Neither text names websites. “In any manner” is broad, and a footer line costs nothing. For the contractor license, we found no advertising rule in the Board’s chapter 0680-01; there the number goes on bids, and Metro’s permit guide asks for the contractor’s company name “with state license number” at payment.

What to show, and where:

• Footer, every page: the name exactly as licensed, the number, and which license it is. If you hold both, list both.
• Project pages: the classification behind the work, such as BC-A. That’s our suggestion, not a rule.
• Near the quote form: the size of job you take, inside your monetary limit.
• Written bids of $25,000 or more: the four items the bid rule lists.

What Metro Codes permits, room by room

In Nashville and Davidson County, building permits come from Metro’s Department of Codes and Building Safety. Contractors “properly licensed and bonded” with the department can pull them “within the limits established for their licenses.” Metro’s renovation table for one- and two-family homes:

Electrical, plumbing and gas or mechanical work each need a separate permit, pulled by a licensed subcontractor after the building permit is issued. A bathroom page that says which parts of the job need a permit, and that you pull it, answers the question before the call.

Can a homeowner act as their own general contractor?

Yes, for their own home. Tennessee exempts an owner who builds on their own property for individual use, not for resale, lease or rent (T.C.A. § 62-6-103; Rule 0680-01-.26). Metro lets an owner who lives in, or intends to live in, a single-family home pull a “Self Permit” with two notarized affidavits. It can’t be used for a detached accessory dwelling (DADU).

Metro’s own warning is the line to show a homeowner. When the owner pulls the permit, the owner “becomes totally responsible for code compliance including the work of subcontractors – even if a contractor is hired.” Its advice: “If you have hired the services of a contractor, require the contractor obtain the building permit.”

One sentence on your process page saying you pull every permit in your licensed name answers that.

Older homes and historic overlays

Of the 344,794 homes in Nashville-Davidson, 40.8% were built before 1980 and 21.5% in 2010 or later; the median home was built in 1987, and the median owner-occupied home is valued at $413,600 (Census, American Community Survey 2020–2024).

Parts of the older city carry a second review. Edgefield and Germantown are Historic Preservation Zoning Overlays. Lockeland Springs-East End, Belmont-Hillsboro, Hillsboro-West End and Richland-West End are among the Neighborhood Conservation Zoning Overlays. Work there needs a preservation permit from the Metro Historic Zoning Commission, and most projects also need the Codes building permit, which can be applied for at the same time. Pre-approved work that meets the design guidelines generally gets a permit within four days of a complete application. Infill, large additions and demolition of historic buildings are likely to go before the Commission.

How Nashville homeowners look you up

Tennessee’s Verify Public Search, at verify.tn.gov, looks up a license held by a person or a business and shows its status, expiration date and any public disciplinary action. The state says results update daily. Since September 17, 2026, the Board no longer mails license certificates; licensees print them from the state’s CORE portal. The lookup, not a framed certificate, is the proof now.

The name decides whether the lookup matches your site. Rule 0680-01-.25 says a licensee must “enter into contracts and operate its related contracting business under the name in which it is licensed”, and calls contracting under a different name a violation. If your website uses a shorter trade name, put the licensed name next to the number so a homeowner can match the two.

Nashville’s searches and Google Maps

Searches made from inside Nashville, 12-month averages (LocalBiz analysis of DataForSEO data, November 2026):

“Bathroom remodel cost” is the smallest search here and the costliest click. A bath page with your price range, the permit answers and the license behind that range meets it without a charge per visit. As our post on general contractor keywords shows, the bare “general contractor” also catches people who want to become one, so the project searches are the better measure.

We also pulled the top 20 Google Maps results for “general contractor” as seen from Nashville, ads left out. Seventeen link a website and three have none. All 20 show a street address. The median review count is 59 for the top three and 14 across all 20 (same source). It is one query on one day. Our read: with 17 of 20 linking a site, having a website doesn’t set you apart here; the license and permit answers on it can.

What to fix before the next quote

1. Look up your own record on verify.tn.gov and copy the licensed name, number, classification and expiration date exactly.
2. Put the name and number in the footer. If you hold a home improvement license and a contractor license, list both and label each.
3. Read every service page against your monetary limit, and cut the job sizes above it.
4. Add Metro’s permit answers to the kitchen and bath pages, and say you pull the permit.
5. If you work in Edgefield, Germantown or a conservation overlay, write one page on how you handle the preservation permit.
6. Put the four bid items on every written bid of $25,000 or more.

Then count quote requests by page and price band each month. More for the trade is on the general contractors industry page, and if you’d rather have those pages built for you, pricing shows what LocalBiz costs.