Texas: what plumbing, HVAC and electrical ads must show

Texas advertising rules put a license number on almost everything a plumbing, HVAC or electrical company uses to sell work: the website, the truck, the bid and the invoice. Three boards write the rule three ways, and the differences decide what goes in your footer. This post quotes each rule, lines up the exceptions, and prints the penalties from the boards’ own schedules.

Which Texas rule applies to your trade

Reviewed on 2026-09-23 against the rule and statute text as published on that date. Plain reading, not legal advice; the boards amend these rules, and your facts may differ.

Plumbing sits with the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners. Air conditioning and electrical work sit with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. TDLR counted 60,552 air conditioning licenses in fiscal 2025, 19,163 of them contractors, and 227,117 electrical licensees of all types. A 2021 bill analysis put the plumbing side at roughly 60,000 licensed plumbers.

Two things stand out. The plumbing rule is the only one that says anything about media. The electrical rule is the only one that wants the company name in the ad, not just the number.

Does the number have to be on a website?

For plumbing, the text answers it. §367.10© covers “all advertisements by a plumbing company designed to solicit plumbing business … regardless of the type of media used”, and the only internet carve-out is “Internet advertising by a franchisor on behalf of its franchisees”, provided the franchisor says local license numbers are available on request. A carve-out for one kind of internet advertising only makes sense if the rest is in.

For air conditioning and electrical, the rules say “all advertising … designed to solicit” business and then list what is excused. Read the lists in the next section: they are national TV, phone-book listings, trade ads, phone calls, giveaways, office forms and the sign on your building. A website is on none of them.

One more plumbing detail matters for profiles. Exception (6) excuses “telephone book listings or other company information aggregated by a third party for which the plumbing company does not possess editorial control or influence over the content”. A directory that scraped you is exempt. A Google Business Profile you claimed, wrote and edit is the opposite of that description, so treat it as an advertisement and put the number in the business description. That last step is my reading of the exception, not a line the board has written.

What each trade may leave out

“Not listed” means the rule does not name it, not that it is forbidden. The plumbing rule also names what is inside: “business cards, ‘flyers,’ referral coupons, or other handouts”. The electrical rule names business cards. Nobody’s list mentions a yard sign, a wrapped trailer or a paid search ad, so those get the number.

Trucks: two inches, both sides, and the prefix

Every Texas board wants the same picture on a service vehicle. The details are where the citation goes.

The plumbing rule reaches vehicles “otherwise used in conjunction with providing plumbing work by, or on behalf of, the company”, which is the subcontractor’s van as well as yours. The air conditioning rule goes further: when an unlicensed subcontractor is on site without a marked vehicle, the site needs a temporary sign with your license number and company name, readable from the nearest public street. TDLR’s compliance guide lists TSCL for a sign contractor and TICL for a residential appliance installation contractor alongside TECL.

Bids and invoices: the sentence Texas makes you print

This is the part that never makes it into the ad discussion, and it is where two of the three boards ask for more than a number.

Plumbing, §367.10(b): the first page of “each written or electronic proposal, invoice or contract”, in at least twelve-point type, carries the RMP’s first and last name, the RMP’s license number, the phrase “regulated by the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners”, and the board’s mailing address, phone number and website. Paragraph (5) stretches the three nouns to cover “written estimates, service invoices, billing invoices, receipts or any document, written or electronic, which defines the services and cost”. Occupations Code §1301.302 says the same in the statute and adds that the customer gets an invoice or completed contract when the job is done, fee or no fee.

Air conditioning, §75.71(i): company name, address and phone on all proposals and invoices; the licensee’s number on all proposals and invoices; and this line on proposals, invoices, written contracts and, if customers come to your shop, a sign in the place of business: “Regulated by The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, P.O. Box 12157, Austin, Texas 78711, 1-800-803-9202, 512-463-6599, www.tdlr.texas.gov”.

Electrical, §73.51(f): name, address, phone number and license number on proposals, invoices and written contracts, plus the same Department line ending “website: www.tdlr.texas.gov”. TDLR’s electricians compliance guide prints the line with “www.tdlr.texas.gov/complaints” at the end; the rule text has the shorter address. Use the rule’s wording and, if you want, add the complaints page after it.

If your site produces the estimate, whether as a PDF a customer downloads or a form that emails a quote, the first page of that document is inside the plumbing rule’s “written or electronic”. The template is the place to fix it once.

What a missing number costs in Texas

The boards publish schedules, so the amounts are not a guess.

• TSBPE, §367.17(k), Class B violations: “Failing to display or state RMP license number in an advertisement for plumbing”, $1,000. The truck and the paperwork rows are $1,000 each. Subsection (l) says the amounts “are guidelines only” and the board may raise them for multiple violations.
• TDLR air conditioning matrix: “Failed to include license number in advertisement which requires the license number”, Class A, $500 to $1,000. Same range for the truck, the proposal and the missing Department line.
• TDLR electrical matrix: “Failed to include contractor name and license number in advertising”, Class A, $500 to $2,000. Same range for vehicles and paperwork.

Unlicensed advertising is the bigger exposure. §367.9(a) says a company “shall not advertise, contract for or otherwise offer or agree to perform plumbing work” unless it has secured a responsible master plumber, and Occupations Code §1305.151 bars offering to perform electrical work without a license. A site that keeps selling after the RMP leaves, or after the license lapses, is an offer.

One license, the whole state

Texas licenses these three trades at the state level and says so in the statute. Occupations Code §1301.359(a): a plumbing license “is valid throughout this state”. §1302.251(b): an air conditioning contractor license “is valid throughout the state”, and the holder “is not required to hold a municipal license” anywhere in Texas.

For your website that means a service-area page for a city across the county line is not an offer you are barred from making. The Texas question is only whether the page has something true to say about the place, the test service area pages already sets out.

The line runs the other way for trades with no state number. The Roofing Contractors Association of Texas states that TDLR “does NOT currently administer licensure for roofing contractors” and that “anyone can call themselves a roofer in Texas”. So a Texas roofing site saying “state licensed” is claiming a credential that does not exist. Print what you do hold: insurance, a city registration, a voluntary certification with the program named.

A footer for each trade

Fictional companies, fictional numbers, in the shape each agency prints.

The footer does the advertising job on every page at once. The plumbing rule’s twelve-point, first-page, name-plus-number requirement belongs on the estimate template, not the footer; a footer line in nine-point type does not satisfy it.

Ten minutes on your own site

1. Look yourself up in TDLR’s Active License Search or the TSBPE public search. Write down the number as the record prints it, with its prefix.
2. Open your homepage, one service page and the contact page. Confirm the number renders in the footer on all three. Electrical: confirm the company name is next to it.
3. Open your estimate or quote template. Plumbing: RMP name, number, the “regulated by” phrase and the board’s contact details on page one, twelve-point. Air conditioning and electrical: name, address, phone, number and the TDLR line.
4. Check the invoice template the same way. Plumbing includes receipts.
5. Walk to the trucks: both sides, two inches; for plumbing and electrical, a contrasting color and the prefix. Air conditioning: check the subcontractor’s van or plan the job-site sign.
6. Read your Google Business Profile description, your last five social posts and your current paid ads.
7. Search your own site for “state licensed” on any trade Texas does not license.
8. Put the next check in the calendar for March, before the summer season.

For the playbook above this post, the complete guide to local SEO for plumbers covers the profile, the pages and the reviews for one of these trades, and the Florida sibling of this post, what a contractor’s website and ads must show, shows how differently a state can write the same rule. Pricing shows what a generated site with your number in the footer costs to run.