How to Document Plumbing Hours in Maine

Why Documentation Matters More Than Hours

Logging 4,000 hours as a Trainee (or 2,000 as a JIT, or 8,000 for direct-to-Master) is only half the requirement. The other half is proving those hours actually happened. When you submit a Journeyman or Master exam application through an experience pathway, the Plumbers' Examining Board requires notarized Supervisor's Experience Affidavits — legal attestations from the Master Plumber who supervised your work. Education pathways use the required transcripts instead.

An affidavit that's incomplete, un-notarized, or impossible to obtain because your supervisor moved away can stall your career indefinitely. The Board doesn't estimate hours and doesn't accept "I was definitely working there" without documentation.

The Experience Affidavit

The official affidavit form is enclosed within the Journeyman & Master Plumber Examination Application packet available from the Plumbers' Examining Board. Your supervising Master Plumber fills it out, attesting to the total hours you worked under their direct supervision, the nature of the work performed, and the time period covered.

The affidavit must be notarized. An unsigned or un-notarized affidavit will cause the Board to return your entire application without processing.

Keep Your Own Records

The Board doesn't track your hours for you, and neither does your employer (in most cases). Maintain a personal log with:

• Date of each shift
• Hours worked
• Type of work performed (installations, repairs, what systems)
• Name and license number of the supervising plumber on site
• Job site address

This log serves two purposes: it makes the affidavit easy to complete accurately, and it gives you a backup record if there's ever a dispute about your hours.

Get Affidavits Signed Along the Way

The most common documentation disaster is waiting until you're ready to apply for the exam — years after starting — and then trying to get affidavits signed retroactively. By then, supervisors may have retired, moved out of state, closed their business, or simply refuse to cooperate.

Sign affidavits periodically. Every time you leave an employer or every 1,000 hours is a reasonable interval. Each affidavit covers a time period, so you can have multiple affidavits from different supervisors covering different stretches of your training.

What If Your Supervisor Is Unreachable

If a previous supervising Master is unavailable to sign an affidavit, contact the Plumbers' Examining Board directly. The Board may accept alternative documentation in some circumstances — W-2 forms showing employment with a plumbing company, union records, or Department of Labor apprenticeship records can help establish that you were employed in a supervised capacity during the claimed period.

There's no guaranteed workaround. The Board evaluates these situations individually, which is exactly why proactive documentation is worth the effort.

Hours That Don't Count

Not all plumbing-adjacent work qualifies:

• Hours worked before your trainee license was active don't count
• Do not rely on hours worked while your license was expired or inactive; confirm their treatment with the Board
• Hours worked without on-site supervision from a licensed Journeyman or Master don't count
• Hours worked where the supervision ratio exceeded 3 trainees per Master may be rejected

The Maine Plumber License Guide includes hour-tracking templates and a detailed breakdown of what the Board accepts and rejects.

See more Maine guides →