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Where the rules come from
256 authorities across five markets, each one naming its publisher, what it governs, whether it binds you in law or through the contract, and whether you can read the text without paying. Not advice. The step before advice: working out which document decides the answer.
37 authorities, 23 statutory
Ontario splits construction oversight across a provincial safety regulator, a workers compensation board with compulsory coverage in construction, trade-specific safety authorities for electrical and fuel work, and a payment regime written into the Construction Act. There is no single construction licence and no single office to satisfy.
54 authorities, 26 statutory
The UK regulates construction through statutory instruments rather than licences: the Building Regulations and their Approved Documents, the CDM Regulations for safety duties, and a payment and adjudication regime under the Construction Act. Competence is proved by scheme membership and qualification, not by a state-issued contractor licence.
30 authorities, 28 statutory
Florida licenses construction contracting at state level under Chapter 489, with a building code that carries hurricane provisions no other state has and a product-approval system that decides which components you are allowed to install. Local prompt-payment rules sit on top for public work.
32 authorities, 28 statutory
Texas has no general contractor licence. What it has instead is a set of trade licences issued by different bodies, municipal contractor registration that varies by city, and a state statute that limits how far a city can go. Working out who licenses you in Texas starts with the trade and the city, not the state.
66 authorities, 52 statutory
California licenses contractors by classification through the CSLB, layers prevailing wage and public-works registration on top for public jobs, and runs the largest body of state-amended code in the country. It is the most heavily specified of the five markets and the one where an unlicensed contract is least enforceable.
37 authorities, 4 statutory
Some authorities do not belong to a jurisdiction. Federal safety regulation, the ISO standards the industry organises information around, and the international contract forms all travel with the work. These apply on top of whatever the local register says.
Start with the market. Then find the area of practice your question sits in: code compliance for what the design has to satisfy, contract administration for payment and notices, health and safety for the site. Each entry links to the publisher, and each is marked free to read or paywalled so you know before you click. Where practice is unwritten it is recorded as convention rather than dressed up as a standard.
Registrations, insurance certificates, payment notices and their deadlines, and the documents a buyer wants before they let you start. Across Canada, built deepest for Ontario.
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