New Mexico separates what other states merge. The contractor license is issued only to a business entity; the Qualifying Party is the individual who proves four years of experience, passes the examinations, and is responsible for the licensee’s compliance; and the journeyman certificate is held by the individual who performs the work. The top plumbing tier is the MM-1 Plumbing contractor classification, earned through its Qualifying Party: a 100-question, 250-minute, open-book trade examination tested on the 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code, plus a 50-question, 130-minute Business and Law examination, with 75% required on every examination. The PassProfessor New Mexico MM-1 Plumbing program prepares Qualifying Party candidates for both examinations and the classification system around them.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
The credential, stated correctly
Candidates searching for a New Mexico master-tier plumbing credential will find the term used loosely in secondary material. New Mexico law does not use it. The Construction Industries Licensing Act and Title 14 of the New Mexico Administrative Code contain no such license, certificate, or examination, and this program does not pretend otherwise. What exists — and what this program prepares candidates for — is the real top tier: the MM-1 Plumbing contractor classification, held by a licensed business entity and earned through that entity’s Qualifying Party.
That three-part separation is the key to the whole system. First, the contractor license itself is issued only to a business entity, never to an individual. Second, the Qualifying Party certificate is held by an individual: the person with the requisite experience who takes and passes the required examinations, who is responsible for the licensee’s compliance, and who may act only while validly attached to a validly licensed entity. Third, the journeyman certificate of competence — the JP classification beneath this tier — is held by the individual who may physically perform the work. Passing the MM-1 examinations qualifies a business to hold the classification; the Qualifying Party certificate does not merge with the journeyman tier below.
For the full outline, the retake rules, and the journeyman ladder in depth, read the companion guide at /new-mexico-master-plumber-exam-guide/ alongside this page.
The examinations at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | New Mexico MM-1 Plumbing contractor classification, earned through its Qualifying Party |
| Regulator | Construction Industries Division (CID) of the Regulation and Licensing Department, under the Construction Industries Commission; no standalone plumbers’ board |
| Governing law | Construction Industries Licensing Act, NMSA 1978 §§ 60-13-1 to 60-13-59; rules at Title 14 NMAC, including 14.6.3, 14.6.6 and the New Mexico Plumbing Code at 14.8.2 |
| Administrator | PSI — CID has contracted with PSI for the examination approval process and examination testing; CID preapproval is required before testing |
| Trade examination | MM-1 Plumbing: 100 questions / 250 minutes / open book |
| Business and Law | 50 questions / 130 minutes / open book; required of all new candidates (an approved Business and Law course may be taken in lieu of this examination) |
| Passing standard | 75% on every examination |
| Tested code | Uniform Plumbing Code, 2021 |
| Adopted code | 2024 New Mexico Plumbing Code, effective August 1, 2026 — tested and adopted editions differ; see below |
| Examination fees | $68.88 per examination, payable to PSI — $137.76 for the two-examination Qualifying Party track |
| Practical component | None at the MM-1 tier. The hands-on Practical belongs only to the JP journeyman tier below |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Construction Industries Division |
Tested on 2021, working under 2024: the edition split
New Mexico currently examines on one code edition and enforces another, and candidates must hold the two layers apart.
The tested edition for the MM-1 trade examination is the Uniform Plumbing Code, 2021. The bulletin rule printed in every reference list is that, for code questions, the examinations are based only on the edition of the code book that is listed. Where the New Mexico Plumbing Code and the bare Uniform Plumbing Code conflict, the state-specific code overrides the national one.
The adopted edition is the 2024 New Mexico Plumbing Code at 14.8.2 NMAC, which adopts the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code and all appendices as amended by the rule, effective August 1, 2026. Permits may issue under either the 2021 or the 2024 code until January 1, 2027, and only under the 2024 code after that date; before August 1, 2026, the adopted edition was the 2021 New Mexico Plumbing Code.
The consequence is exact: study the 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code for the examination, even though newly licensed work will increasingly be inspected under the 2024 New Mexico code. Studying the newest code because it is newest means studying the wrong edition for this sitting.
What the MM-1 trade examination covers
The 100 questions of the MM-1 Plumbing trade examination are distributed across a published outline, and the weights tell a candidate where the sitting’s centre of gravity lies:
- Drainage, Waste and Vents — 25 questions. A quarter of the examination, and its largest single area by a wide margin.
- General Knowledge and General Regulations — 15 questions. The code’s general framework and the regulatory ground beneath the classification.
- Plumbing Fixtures, including Water Heaters and Accessibility — 10 questions.
- Water Supply Systems — 10 questions.
- Isometric Analysis — 10 questions. A written content area inside the trade examination: reading and analysing isometric drawings on paper, not a drawing-production test and not a hands-on practical.
- Backflow Prevention — 9 questions.
- Interceptors and Traps — 9 questions.
- Storm Drainage Systems — 6 questions.
- Septic and Sewer — 6 questions.
The Business and Law examination’s 50 questions are distributed as: Licensing Requirements 8; Business Organization and Financial Management 8; Contracts 8; Estimating and Bidding 5; Tax Laws 5; Project Management and Lien Law 5; Labor Laws 4; Risk Management 4; and Environmental and Safety 3. The Qualifying Party must pass the trade examination and satisfy the Business and Law requirement within one year of each other. Both examinations are open book, delivered by computer at PSI examination centers, with the score given immediately on screen. Candidates bring their own bound references, highlighted, underlined and indexed before the session only — references may not be written in before or during the session — with permanent tabs only, and a silent, non-printing, non-programmable calculator is permitted. The references allowed for the MM-1 trade examination include the 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code, the New Mexico Plumbing Code as listed, the 2021 Uniform Mechanical Code, IPT’s Pipe Trades Handbook (2016), the New Mexico Mechanical Code as listed, the New Mexico Liquid Waste Disposal Regulations, and NFPA 30A (2015 or earlier). Two familiar books are expressly not allowed for MM-1 — Mathematics for Plumbers and Pipefitters and OSHA 29 CFR Part 1926 — and that exclusion is specific to this examination, not a general New Mexico rule.
Who may qualify: the four years behind the Qualifying Party
A Qualifying Party for MM-1 must prove four years of experience — 8,000 hours — in the classification, within the ten years immediately before application, documented to the Construction Industries Division before sitting. Accredited technical training counts at one-half year per year of training, capped at one-half of the total requirement. Qualifying Party certificates issue only to individuals 18 years of age or older.
Every license must have at least one Qualifying Party for each classification of work it covers. The Qualifying Party may not qualify more than one licensed entity — other than a joint venture — absent at least 30 percent common ownership. CID preapproval is required before testing; the candidate must test within six months of eligibility, and passing scores are valid for one year.
Beneath this tier sits the journeyman ladder, as ladder context only. The JP journeyman certificate requires two years of experience (4,000 hours) within the prior ten years, at age 18 or older, and both a written examination and a separate hands-on Practical examination — a journeyman-tier requirement, examined in the companion guide, with no counterpart at the MM-1 tier. New Mexico has no apprentice registration or certificate, and no standalone backflow-tester credential.
What MM-1 authorizes
The MM-1 classification’s scope, at 14.6.6.11 NMAC, is broad: to install, alter, repair, service and maintain plumbing, plumbing fixtures and piping, including incidental concrete supports and excavating, trenching and backfilling; hot water heating systems not exceeding 30 p.s.i. or 400,000 b.t.u. per hour input; piping for fuel, oil and gasoline; solar thermal piping and appurtenances; potable water irrigation sprinkler systems; swimming pools and spas; pneumatic and electric controls and control wiring not greater than 24 volts; and septic tanks, manholes and sewer lines. MM-1 does not include installation of natural gas fired appliances or natural gas piping — natural gas fitting is the separate MM-2 classification.
The sibling classifications frame the tier: MM-2 Natural Gas Fitting, MM-3 HVAC and MM-4 Heating, Cooling and Process Piping each carry their own four-year requirement and trade examination, and the umbrella MM-98 Mechanical classification spans the MM classifications together with specified specialty work. Each is qualified separately, through its own Qualifying Party.
The money layer, kept in its two parts
New Mexico’s dollars sit in two distinct layers, and this page keeps them separate. At the examination layer, PSI charges $68.88 per examination, for a first attempt or a retake, not refundable or transferable; the two-examination Qualifying Party track therefore costs $137.76 at the vendor layer. At the licensing layer, the contractor-license and Qualifying Party-certificate application total is $36, the license fee is $150 per MM-1 classification, and a contractor code bond of $10,000 is required. Late renewal runs $1 per day for the first 30 days. The license and certificate term is three years, expiring the last day of the issuance month.
No reciprocity position is stated for New Mexico plumbing, because none appears in the primary record: no plumbing journeyman reciprocity and no contractor-license reciprocity appears in the sources read, and no state is named for either.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
The MM-1 trade examination, keyed to the tested edition. Original written practice across the published 100-question outline — drainage, waste and vents at full weight, general knowledge and regulations, fixtures and water heaters, water supply, isometric analysis, backflow, interceptors and traps, storm drainage, and septic and sewer — built on the 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code and the New Mexico Plumbing Code layer that overrides it where the two conflict.
The Business and Law examination, as its own paper. Licensing, business organization and financial management, contracts, estimating and bidding, tax, project management and lien law, labor, risk management, and environmental and safety — the commercial half of the Qualifying Party’s responsibility, taught as a separate examination with its own outline, because CID examines it as one.
The classification system as operating knowledge. What a Qualifying Party is and is not, the entity-only license, the one-entity limit and its common-ownership exception, the four-year documentation duty, and the MM-1 scope — including its natural-gas boundary — taught as the rules a Qualifying Party will actually be held to.
The limit of this tier, stated plainly. The MM-1 examinations have no hands-on practical and no drawing-production component, so the documented MM-1 format is one a written program can cover completely. The hands-on Practical that candidates may have heard about belongs only to the JP journeyman tier beneath this one; it is not part of this program and is not part of the MM-1 route.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Construction Industries Division or the Regulation and Licensing Department, and this program is not a CID course. Completing it confers no license, no certificate, and no exemption; CID alone licenses, and candidates apply and sit through PSI under CID’s approval process.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The New Mexico MM-1 Plumbing Contractor — Qualifying Party program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program. No date is promised.
Frequently asked questions
Does New Mexico issue a master plumber license?
No. New Mexico law contains no such license, certificate, or examination. The top plumbing tier is the MM-1 Plumbing contractor classification, held by a business entity and earned through its Qualifying Party — the subject of this program.
What is a Qualifying Party?
The individual who has the requisite experience, takes and passes the required examinations, and is responsible for the licensee’s compliance. The Qualifying Party certificate is held by the individual; the contractor license itself is issued only to a business entity, and the Qualifying Party may act only while validly attached to a validly licensed entity.
What examinations must an MM-1 Qualifying Party pass?
Two: the MM-1 Plumbing trade examination (100 questions, 250 minutes, open book) and the Business and Law examination (50 questions, 130 minutes, open book), which is required of all new candidates — an approved Business and Law course may be taken in lieu of that examination. The trade examination and the Business and Law requirement must be satisfied within one year of each other.
What score passes in New Mexico?
75% on every examination. The rule layer, the bulletins, and CID’s own published position agree on the figure.
Which code does the MM-1 examination test?
The Uniform Plumbing Code, 2021. The adopted code is now the 2024 New Mexico Plumbing Code, effective August 1, 2026 — tested and adopted editions differ, and examination preparation should key to the 2021 tested edition.
Is there a practical examination for MM-1?
No. The MM-1 tier has no hands-on practical and no drawing-production component; Isometric Analysis is a written content area of ten questions inside the trade examination. The hands-on Practical belongs only to the JP journeyman tier below.
What experience does a Qualifying Party need?
Four years — 8,000 hours — in the classification within the ten years immediately before application, documented to CID before sitting. Accredited technical training counts at one-half year per year of training, capped at half the requirement. Qualifying Parties must be 18 or older.
What does MM-1 authorize?
Installing, altering, repairing, servicing and maintaining plumbing, fixtures and piping, with the related work stated in the classification’s scope — including hot water heating within its stated limits, fuel, oil and gasoline piping, solar thermal piping, potable water irrigation sprinklers, pools and spas, low-voltage controls, and septic tanks, manholes and sewer lines. It does not include natural gas piping or natural gas fired appliances; that work is MM-2.
What does the route cost?
At the examination layer, $68.88 per examination to PSI — $137.76 for the two-examination track. At the licensing layer, the application total is $36, the license fee is $150 for the MM-1 classification, and a $10,000 contractor code bond is required. The term is three years.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with CID?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider. The Construction Industries Division alone licenses contractors and certifies Qualifying Parties.
When does enrollment open?
The program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address on this page and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.