How Ohio's licensing law is built
Ohio's state government issues no general contractor license. Its construction industry licensing law, Chapter 4740 of the Revised Code, starts from a definition: a license under that chapter is one the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board issues to an individual as a contractor in one of the trades the definition names [1]. Those trades are heating, ventilating and air conditioning; refrigeration; electrical; plumbing; and hydronics [1]. A general or building contractor category does not appear in that list, and each license the chapter defines is issued as a contractor in one of those trades.
Two details in the definition shape how it reads. First, the board issues the license to an individual [1]. Second, the definition issues each license as a contractor of a named type, such as an electrical contractor or a plumbing contractor [1].
The board and its trades
The Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, known as OCILB, sits within the Ohio Department of Commerce as part of its Division of Industrial Compliance [2]. The board's own page describes its licenses in the same trade terms the statute uses: it issues them to contractors in those same trades [2].
Read together, the statute and the board's page point in one direction. The statute defines the license by trade, and the agency that issues it describes its work by the same trades. Neither text names a credential for general or building contractors at the state level.
For electrical, HVAC, plumbing, hydronics and refrigeration work, the trade licensing agency is the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, Ohio Department of Commerce.
What this page leaves to the board
The definition and the board's description name the trade credentials and the body that issues them. Application steps, costs and license terms for each of these trade licenses are not part of this page; the board's page is linked above. The statute's definition section, 4740.01(A), is where the trade list sits [1], and the board's description of its own licensing work repeats that list in plain terms [2].