How to start a welding business in 2026

Pick your way in before you buy anything. The rig needs an engine-driven welder/generator and a truck; the bench needs a 210-amp MIG and a 230-volt outlet; code work needs the certification before the machine. The owners in the next section mostly started on the side, with the machine they had, and went full-time when the work was there — one of them says he should have done it years earlier.

Learn it, and prove it where the work asks. The AWS Certified Welder Program "evaluates a welder's ability to produce sound welds according to a specific welding procedure and code requirement", and "is open to anyone with the welding skills necessary to pass the required performance qualification test. There are no educational prerequisites, certification requirements, or minimum experience requirements." Testing "must be scheduled with an AWS Accredited Testing Facility (ATF)", and "to keep your welding certification active, you must submit certification maintenance documentation every six months confirming that you continue to perform the welding process" (AWS, Certified Welder Program). The test fee is the facility's — "testing fees are established by individual facilities" — and one public college's facility prints a single-position plate test at $300, a multiple-position plate test at $400, a single-position pipe test at $450, a retest at $200, and "a $35 processing fee is charged by the AWS for each" certification document (Virginia Peninsula Community College). AWS's own fee page: "An annual subscription of $105 is required to access AWS WeldCert Pro, including the online continuity log", "the subscription allows unlimited renewals", and "the fee for a new welder qualification test and certification will increase from $60 to $70 once the change takes effect" — the paper route was two $35 applications a year — with reminders "beginning 60 days prior to your expiration" and "a loss of certification" if the record is late (AWS, WeldCert Pro). Repair, farm and ornamental work asks for none of it; structural and pipe contractors ask for all of it.

Do you need a license to start a welding business? In the US it depends on the state, and on what you weld to. Welding equipment, trailers and gates is a service; welding steel into a building is contracting, and the states that license contractors treat it that way:

• California licenses welding as the C-60 classification — "A welding contractor causes metals to become permanently attached, joined and fabricated by the use of gases and electrical energy, which creates temperatures of sufficient heat to perform this work" (CSLB). The application is $450 and the initial license $200 for a sole owner, renewed at $450 (CSLB fee schedule); the qualifier needs "four years within the last ten years as a journeyperson, foreperson, supervising employee, contractor, or owner-builder in the trade", then passes "a trade exam and/or a business and law exam" (CSLB), and posts the $25,000 contractor bond in force since January 1, 2023 (CSLB). Since January 1, 2025, "Contractors can now perform jobs costing up to $1,000 without needing a license, if the work does not require a building permit and no employees are involved" — and "any contractor with employees must have a valid license to operate, regardless of the project's size or cost" (CSLB, Winter 2025).
• Florida names no welding category: chapter 489 lists general, building, residential, sheet metal, roofing, air-conditioning, mechanical, pool, plumbing, underground utility, solar and pollutant-storage contractors, and a "specialty contractor" whose scope is "limited to a particular phase of construction established in a category adopted by board rule" (Florida Statutes 489.105); the board's specialty categories include "Structural Steel Work", and the word "welding" appears nowhere on the DBPR's construction-industry page (Florida DBPR). So in Florida, welding structural steel on a building is specialty contracting; repairing a trailer, a gate or a bucket is not. Check with the DBPR and your county before you bid on a structure.
• Washington registers every contractor: "Washington State requires all construction contractors to register with L&I", with a bond of "$15,000 for specialty contractors", an application fee of $150.20, and liability insurance of "$200,000 in public liability and $50,000 property damage, or $250,000 combined single limit" (Washington L&I). Specialty 61 is "Welding and ornamental metal": "A contractor in this specialty installs, alters, removes, or repairs all architectural, structural and decorative steel, aluminum or other materials in welding techniques by the use of processes common to the industry" (WAC 296-200A-016).
• Georgia lists decorative metals, fencing, reinforcing steel, structural metal framing, and structural and miscellaneous steel — stairs and railings — among the traditional specialty trades whose contractors "do not have to hold a license as a residential or general contractor if they are performing work within their specialty" (Georgia Secretary of State).
• Louisiana folds welding into classification 1.12, Steel Erection and Installation: "The fabrication, erection, welding, bolting, construction, or repair of structural steel, reinforcing steel, ornamental iron, reinforcing rods and wire mesh, metal buildings, metal framing, metal siding, metal roofing, and sheet metal structures", with a trade exam, for the contract sizes the board's page sets (Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors).
• Texas gets a tax rule instead of a license rule, below.

Check your state contractor board and your city before you bid, and read our guide to whether you need a business license for the general one.

In the UK: no trade license for welding appears on the regulator's pages; the rule is about the fume. The Health and Safety Executive's position is that the IARC "conclude that all welding fume can cause lung cancer and may cause kidney cancer" (HSE, January 2026), and its 2019 bulletin says "All businesses undertaking welding activities should ensure effective engineering controls are provided and correctly used", that "Control of the cancer risk will require suitable engineering controls for all welding activities indoors eg Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV)", and that "Appropriate RPE should be provided for welding outdoors" (HSE, February 2019). In Australia: in New South Wales you need a contractor license to do any residential building or trade work, including metal fabrication, valued at more than $5,000 in labor and materials including GST — metal fabrication "includes, but is not limited to structural steel, handrails, security grilles, fences, gates and balustrades" — and unlicensed work can be fined $22,000 for an individual or $110,000 for a company (NSW Government, June 2026). Other states and countries differ — check your local rules.

How to register a welding business. The same four steps in every state, with different fees. Form the business — an LLC is $40 in Kentucky (Kentucky SOS), $300 in Texas (Texas SOS) and $70 in California plus a $20 statement of information (California SOS), where every LLC also owes an $800 yearly tax (California FTB) — or file a DBA if you'll trade as a sole proprietor under a business name. Get the free EIN (IRS) — the contractor will ask for it on a W-9 before they pay you — and open a business bank account. Get a city business license where your city wants one: Seattle's is $73 a year for a business with under $20,000 of revenue in the city and $147 from $20,000 to $499,999 in 2026 (City of Seattle). Our guide to whether you need an LLC walks through the choice state by state.

Hot work: the rule you follow on every job. OSHA's welding standard, in its own words: "If the object to be welded or cut cannot readily be moved, all movable fire hazards in the vicinity shall be taken to a safe place." "If the object to be welded or cut cannot be moved and if all the fire hazards cannot be removed, then guards shall be used to confine the heat, sparks, and slag, and to protect the immovable fire hazards." "If the requirements stated in paragraphs (a)(1)(i) and (a)(1)(ii) of this section cannot be followed then welding and cutting shall not be performed." Fire watchers are required where "other than a minor fire might develop", including "appreciable combustible material, in building construction or contents, closer than 35 feet (10.7 m) to the point of operation", and "A fire watch shall be maintained for at least a half hour after completion of welding or cutting operations to detect and extinguish possible smoldering fires"; "Before cutting or welding is permitted, the area shall be inspected by the individual responsible for authorizing cutting and welding operations" (OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.252). The fire codes go further: Sterling Heights, Michigan's permit is "required for any operation involving open flame or producing heat and/or sparks" including "welding, brazing, cutting, grinding, soldering, thawing pipe, and torch-applied roofing. (NFPA 51B)", with a "trained person stationed on-site during, and for a minimum of 1 hour after hot work to watch the area for a fire" (Sterling Heights Fire Prevention Division); Wilmington, Massachusetts asks that "all combustible materials shall be removed within 35' of cutting and welding", keeps the fire watch "at least 1 hour for non-wood frame construction" and "2 hours" for wood frame, and prints "Price of Permit is $25.00" (Wilmington Fire Department, October 2026). The OSHA rule covers employees — OSHA lists "self-employed workers" among those the OSH Act doesn't cover (OSHA) — but the fire doesn't know the difference, and the plant, the general contractor and the farm you work on will ask. Workers' compensation: California requires it from the first employee (California DIR); Texas leaves it optional for most private employers (Texas Department of Insurance).

Insurance. Insureon's averages for welders are $167 a month ($2,000 a year) for general liability, $125 a month ($1,503 a year) for a business owner's policy, $175 a month ($2,101 a year) for workers' compensation, $268 a month ($3,212 a year) for commercial auto, $42 a month ($505 a year) for tools and equipment cover, $67 a month for professional liability, and $9 a month ($112 a year) for a surety bond (Insureon, August 2026). Get quotes from more than one insurer, say "hot work" and "mobile" out loud when you do, and ask what the policy says about welding on a customer's premises and about a fire that starts after you leave — that is the claim.

The machine, from pages that print a price. The rig: a Miller Bobcat 265 (Vanguard) engine-driven welder — 265 amps, an 11,000-watt generator — is $8,193 at one welding dealer's price (Cyberweld), and a Lincoln Ranger 260MPX $8,210.99 at the same dealer (Cyberweld); a double lead reel for the truck is $358.55 (Cyberweld). The bench: a Lincoln POWER MIG 211i — 211 amps on 120 or 230 volts — is $1,598.99 (Cyberweld), and a Hypertherm Powermax45 SYNC plasma cutter $2,248 without the torch (Cyberweld) or from $2,839 with a hand torch (Cyberweld). The hood: a Miller Digital Elite auto-darkening helmet is $343.15 (Cyberweld) and a Lincoln Viking 3350 $482.50 (Cyberweld). The gas: a full 125-cubic-foot argon/CO2 cylinder that "arrives full and ready to go" is $249 to buy (PrimeWeld); no supplier's page we could open prints a yearly lease, so the plan carries the lease as a planning range. Grinders, a chop saw or torch, clamps, a table, the leads and the bottle rack, the jacket and respirator, and the truck: no retailer's page we could open prices the set, so the plan carries them as planning ranges too. Everything beyond the machine can come from the first jobs' income.

How to price: the hour, the minimum, and the whole job. Mobile work is an hourly rate from the first arc plus a minimum or a trip fee for the drive — Bozeman Welding's $150 an hour mobile and $125 in the shop (Bozeman Welding), the Florida company's $95 to $135 with a 2-hour minimum and $1.50 to $2.50 a mile beyond 50 miles (a Florida welding contractor) — with the wire, rod, gas and discs built into the rate or billed on top, and nights and weekends at a higher one. Fabrication is quoted whole — the steel, the hours, the finish — with a deposit before the steel is bought; where California's C-60 applies, "A contractor may request a down payment, but it must not exceed $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract price, whichever is less" (CSLB, Winter 2025). Code work pays the most and takes the longest to get into: the certification, the contractor's approval, and a 4-hour minimum at the Florida company's rates. Whatever you charge, put the rate, the minimum and the deposit in writing before the first arc.

Sales tax on welding, by the job. In Texas, "Tax is due on charges for manufacturing, assembling, fabricating or processing products, even when the customer provides the raw materials, tools or equipment", and the Comptroller lists "welding" among the labor "that result in the sale of a taxable item"; repairing tangible personal property — a trailer, a machine — is a taxable service too (Texas Comptroller, January 2026). Welding to a building is the other rule: "Labor to repair, remodel, or restore residential real property is not taxable", while "The total amount charged for remodeling, repairing, or restoring nonresidential real property is taxable" (Texas Comptroller). Other states tax fabrication and repair differently — ask an accountant before you write your first quote.

The business. For one owner starting mobile on a truck they already own, our free welding business plan puts the start at $13,757–$22,901: the engine drive and the lead reel, the rest of the rig and the hand tools, the helmet and the protective gear, a full cylinder and the first consumables, a year of general liability, the license or registration where your state has one, registration, the website, and two months of fuel, consumables, maintenance and marketing. The bench machines, the plate test, a truck and your own living costs come on top. The welding website templates show what a good welder's site looks like, and Zarla's welding website builder is how a contractor searching for a mobile welder near them finds yours. If your trade is the whole structure, read our guide to becoming a general contractor; if it's everything around the metal, starting a handyman business.