Nevada's B-2 is the residential and small commercial subclassification of the general building license, issued by the Nevada State Contractors Board (NSCB) for structures up to three stories above ground and one below. Getting it means a qualified individual with four years of B-2 experience, an application with a financial statement, two PSI exams — the B-2 trade exam and the Construction Management Survey (CMS), both available in Spanish — and a bond set by the Board. This guide uses only what the NSCB, Nevada law and PSI's current bulletins publish.
NRS 624.020 defines a contractor broadly: anyone who undertakes or offers to construct, alter, repair, add to, subtract from, improve, move, wreck or demolish any building or other structure, including subcontractors and specialty contractors, and construction managers paid a professional fee. The Board requires the license before you contract — before you bid, offer to engage or negotiate a price. The small-job exemption in NRS 624.031(6) is narrow: work to repair or maintain property worth less than $1,000 in labor and materials, and only if no building permit is required, the work is not the type done by plumbing, electrical, refrigeration, heating or air-conditioning contractors or by another classification the Board treats as significantly affecting public health and safety, and it is not part of a larger project worth $500 or more or split into smaller contracts to evade the law.
NAC 624.170 lists B-2, Residential and Small Commercial, as a subclassification of the B general building license: the construction and remodeling of houses and other structures which support, shelter or enclose persons, animals or other chattels, and which do not extend more than three stories above the ground and one story below the ground. That height limit is the line between B-2 and the full B, whose statutory definition in NRS 624.215(3) has none. The B-family rules on specialty work still apply: a general building contractor may not perform plumbing, electrical, refrigeration and air-conditioning or fire-protection work without the license for that specialty, apart from a narrow small-work exception in NRS 624.220(4). If you expect taller buildings, compare our Nevada B guide before you apply — the two have separate PSI trade exams.
Nevada licenses the business — the license belongs to the business, not to the qualifying person — but every license rests on a trade qualified individual. Under NRS 624.260, as the Board's requirements page explains, that person can be an owner, officer, member, manager or employee, must be a bona fide member or employee of the company, and must be actively engaged in its contracting business. The experience rule is specific: within the fifteen years immediately before the application is filed, at least four full years as a journeyman, foreman, supervising employee or contractor in the specific classification requested — here, the B-2 subclassification. The application also lets one company split the role: a management qualifier, who must pass the construction management exam, and a trade qualifier, who meets the experience and trade-exam requirement — or one person who does both.
The Board accepts three kinds of proof: four Certification of Work Experience forms for each trade qualifier, filled out by current or former employers, general contractors, subcontractors or customers — one per company, and relatives only if they were your employer — which together must add up to at least four full years (1,460 days), though no single certificate has to cover all four; a current master's certification issued by a government agency in a substantially similar discipline; or proof of transferable military experience and training. Every qualifier also files a Resume of Experience, and self-employed experience needs a list of customers with their addresses and phone numbers. There is no education requirement, but training in a program at an accredited college, university or equivalent program accepted by the Board can count for up to three of the four years, documented with apprenticeship certificates or transcripts.
The application goes to the NSCB with a nonrefundable $300 application fee and a principal's signature, together with the experience documents, a resume, copies of government IDs, and a background disclosure and fingerprint form for every person listed; PSI's bulletin adds that each applicant submits fingerprints for a state and national fingerprint-based criminal history check. Examination fees are separate and are paid to PSI, not to the Board.
A financial statement is required whatever the size of your work, because the Board puts a monetary limit on every license — under NRS 624.220, the maximum contract you may undertake on one or more construction contracts on a single construction site or subdivision site for a single client. The limit you request decides the kind of statement: at $25,000 or less, a CPA-prepared statement, the Board's own business or personal financial statement form, or an accounting-software balance sheet with an affidavit; above $25,000 and below $500,000, a CPA-compiled statement current within six months, or a reviewed or audited one current within a year; from $500,000 to below $1,000,000, a compiled statement with full disclosures, or a reviewed or audited one; at $1,000,000 or more, reviewed or audited by an independent CPA. A Bank Verification Form completed by your bank goes with it.
The bond comes last. The Board fixes the amount at license approval — anywhere from $1,000 to $500,000, depending on the type of license, the monetary limit, financial responsibility, experience and character — and you post it as a surety bond or a cash deposit before the license issues. A cash deposit carries a $200 biennial administrative fee and is held for two years after the license ends.
The NSCB requires every applicant to pass the CMS business-and-law exam and a trade exam for the classification requested, both administered by PSI. PSI's “B” Classification bulletin (updated 3/25/2026) sets the B-2 trade exam at 80 questions, 3 hours and a minimum passing score of 56. It is open book, and the books allowed in the room are the 2018 International Building Code, the 2018 International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings, and ACI 318-11 or ACI 318-14 for structural concrete; code questions follow the listed edition only.
The published subject areas are Carpentry 12, Concrete 10, Masonry 10, Safety 10, General Code, Plan Reading and Estimating 10, Thermal and Moisture Protection 9, Metals 5, Sitework 4, Drywall and Finishes 4, Doors and Windows 3, and Nevada One Call 3. Several books behind the questions stay outside the room — 29 CFR Part 1926 (OSHA construction standards), Carpentry and Building Construction, Modern Masonry, the USG Gypsum Construction Handbook, the BCSI truss guide and the Nevada One Call marking guidelines among them — and with Safety at 10 items, the OSHA material has to be studied, not looked up. Bring your own copies of the allowed books. You may highlight, underline and index them before the exam and use permanent tabs, but you may not write in them, sticky notes must come out, and loose papers are confiscated. A silent, non-printing, non-programmable calculator is allowed.
The CMS is 60 scored questions plus 3 unscored, 120 minutes, 45 correct (75 percent) to pass, open book with PSI's Construction Business and Law Manual for Nevada — see our Nevada CMS guide.
NAC 624.600 lets the Board waive the exam for someone who passed an exam offered by an endorsing state the Board has approved, or a NASCLA-accredited exam the Board finds substantially equivalent. Endorsement requires active licensure in the endorsing state for the past four years with no discipline, a Request for Verification of Licensure completed by that state, and a match on the Board's State Equivalency Chart; if that state has no equivalent trade exam, you take Nevada's. The application names one route for general building in particular: applicants for a full B or a B-2 license may be considered for a trade exam waiver if they passed the NASCLA Accredited General Building Exam and send the transcript to the Board — the work-experience documents are still required. The Board's pages also describe a waiver for qualifiers who recently served on another Nevada license in the same classification, but they state the look-back period differently from page to page, so confirm yours with the Board. It reserves the right to require an exam of any applicant.
In a news release dated December 9, 2025, the NSCB announced that PSI offers Spanish-language exams for 13 classifications and the Construction Management Survey, and PSI's current bulletin carries the same list: B-2 Residential and Small Commercial is on it, and so is the CMS. A B-2 applicant can therefore take both required exams in Spanish. To switch a listed exam from English to Spanish, PSI's bulletin says to call PSI at (855) 205-5827 or email examschedule@psionline.com. The code books allowed in the room are the English editions PSI lists, so it helps to learn the English code terms alongside the Spanish.
You cannot book an exam until the Board has your application and has verified the experience. It then issues an Examination Eligibility form with a Candidate ID — the application packet says it is mailed to the business's mailing address, not the qualifier's home — and you register with PSI online at test-takers.psiexams.com/nvcon or by phone. PSI charges $95 for one examination portion and $140 for two when the second one is the CMS (two trade exams are $95 each); registration fees are not refundable or transferable and expire with your eligibility. Cancel or reschedule at least two days before the appointment, arrive 30 minutes early, and bring one valid, unexpired government photo ID whose name matches your registration — otherwise the fee is forfeited.
Tests run on computer at PSI centers in Las Vegas, Reno and Elko, and PSI's Nevada exams can also be taken at PSI sites in other states. Your score is given when you finish; a failing report shows strengths and weaknesses by area. After a failure you wait two weeks before retaking that portion. NAC 624.600 allows three attempts and requires the qualifier to pass within six months after the application is filed; a third failure voids the application, and you may apply again with a new application and fee 30 days or more after the last exam.
NAC 624.130 sets the Board's fees: $600 to issue or renew a license, and $150 for filing an active license's renewal late. Under NRS 624.283 a license expires two years after it is issued, and a license not renewed on or before its renewal date is automatically suspended. The bond must stay continuous the whole time: a surety can cancel only on 60 days' notice to the Board, and failing to keep the bond in force is cause to suspend or refuse to renew the license.
The Board is plain about preparation: it does not recommend or endorse any licensing school, it offers no practice exams of its own, and it points candidates to the reference list in each content outline. For B-2, the 2018 IRC and IBC are the tools you will use in the room, so tab them before exam day and practice finding sections fast. Carpentry is the single heaviest area at 12 items, and Safety, Concrete, Masonry and the code-plan-estimating block carry 10 each — together more than half the exam.
LICENA's Nevada B-2 practice bank is 500 questions in five blocks that follow PSI's subject areas, every answer explained, in English, Spanish and Russian with the English exam term kept alongside the translation, and a free sample with no sign-up. The Nevada CMS bank covers the business-and-law exam.
Ready to practice for the exams? The Nevada B-2 Residential & Small Commercial practice bank on LICENA: 500 questions that follow PSI's subject areas, with a written explanation on every answer, in English, Spanish and Russian. The sample is free — no sign-up.
Try the free practice test → Nevada CMS practice