Neither card is required by OSHA.
The agency runs the Outreach Training Program as a voluntary program, and says its 10-hour and 30-hour courses do not meet the training requirements for any OSHA standards and are not a certification.
What a restoration worker actually needs is set by employers and by some states and cities — and in the OSHA 10 vs OSHA 30 choice, the deciding factor is the seat you hold, not the industry you work in.
What are OSHA 10 and OSHA 30?
The OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 cards come out of OSHA's Outreach Training Program.
Only OSHA-authorized trainers may teach the 10- and 30-hour courses and issue the student course completion cards, and OSHA publishes the list of authorized trainers and online providers.
Once a class ends, the trainer has 90 days to issue the card.
The two classes aim at different seats.
OSHA describes the 10-hour class as awareness training — 'awareness of common job-related safety and health hazards' for workers — and the 30-hour class as 'more appropriate for supervisors or workers with some safety responsibility'.
Cards are issued in four tracks: Construction, General Industry, Maritime and Disaster Site Worker.
OSHA's 7.5-hour and 15-hour Disaster Site Worker course is aimed at disaster clean-up workers, and OSHA says that training does not fulfill the requirements of its HAZWOPER standard.
What the cards are not matters as much as what they are.
OSHA calls the Outreach Training Program 'a voluntary program' that 'does not meet the training requirements for any OSHA standards' and says the training 'is not an OSHA requirement'.
There is no 'OSHA 10 certification': the phrase names a course completion card, not a credential OSHA issues.
Specific OSHA standards — hazard communication among them — carry their own training requirements, and the card does not replace them.
Construction or general industry: which track fits restoration?
For a restoration worker the realistic choice is between the Construction track — the 'OSHA 10 Construction' and 'OSHA 30 Construction' cards — and the General Industry versions.
OSHA describes its construction track as training on the recognition, avoidance, abatement and prevention of safety and health hazards in construction workplaces.
Which one restoration work requires is not a question OSHA answers.
The agency publishes no restoration-specific guidance on the choice, so restoration employers choose between the Construction and General Industry versions when they ask a worker for a card.
In practice, whoever is asking decides.
An employer policy can name a track.
A state mandate names the work it covers — Nevada's OSHA card law, for example, is written around construction workers as that state defines them.
The track printed on the card is not what settles the safety rules that govern the job, either.
OSHA's construction respirator rule (29 CFR 1926.103) is identical to the general-industry rule (29 CFR 1910.134), so the same medical-evaluation and fit-test requirements apply under either rule.
Who needs which: the technician and supervisor split
OSHA does not assign cards to job titles, but its own description draws the line the restoration ladder follows.
A technician seat — water mitigation, fire and smoke, mold, biohazard, contents or reconstruction — matches the 10-hour class, which OSHA aims at worker awareness.
A seat that carries safety responsibility for other people — crew lead, abatement supervisor, project manager, production manager — matches the 30-hour class OSHA describes for supervisors or workers with some safety responsibility.
Neither card replaces the training that comes from OSHA's own standards — hazard communication training where chemicals are in use, or respiratory protection where a job calls for respirators.
Those requirements come from their own standards, whether or not anyone on the crew holds a card.
If you are still mapping the trade itself, the restoration technician hub covers the role, the loss types and the employers; this page stays on the cards.
The card layer also sits beside the trade's other credentials.
Our restoration credentials by role map places it next to IICRC certifications and state licenses, seat by seat.
Are OSHA 10 and 30 legally required for restoration work?
OSHA does not require them.
The agency's card facts page says OSHA does not require completion of the courses.
It notes that some states, cities and job creators have mandated Outreach Training Program courses as a prerequisite to employment, and that OSHA may require other training for workers who encounter certain workplace hazards.
The clearest verified state mandate is Nevada.
Under NRS 618.983, a construction worker must obtain an OSHA-10 completion card, and a supervisory employee an OSHA-30 card, within 15 days of hire.
An employer who does not receive a valid card in that window must suspend or terminate the worker, and Nevada fines employers up to $500 for a first violation and $1,000 for a second.
Nevada's law also draws a boundary worth knowing.
Its definition of construction work excludes work done for the upkeep of an existing property that has a certificate of occupancy — repairing or replacing components with the same or similar components.
Some restoration repair work can land on the upkeep side of that line.
Whether a specific job does is fact-specific, so the statute's own language is the thing to read, not this page, before anyone assumes an exemption.
What about other states and cities?
Our research verified Nevada's statute and did not verify the other mandates that come up around this topic, so this page names only Nevada.
If a state or city where you work is said to require a card, read that state's labor department rule for yourself, including whether it reaches private restoration jobs at all.
Confirm the mandate before you pay for a class
Do OSHA 10 and 30 cards expire?
OSHA sets no expiration date for Construction or General Industry cards.
The only track the agency addresses directly is Maritime: as of April 1, 2019, Maritime student course completion cards do not expire.
So the claim that an OSHA card 'expires every five years' is not a federal rule.
Five years is a records-and-replacement limit, and it matters in practice.
OSHA keeps no records of Outreach classes.
Trainers and online providers keep student records for five years, and a card cannot be issued or replaced for training completed more than five years ago.
If your card is lost and the training was completed more than five years ago, the fix is to retake the class.
A state or city that mandates a card can set its own renewal rule on top of that, so the rule where you work can differ from the federal picture.
Keep your trainer's or online provider's name and your completion records — they are what make a replacement possible inside the five-year window.
Career information, not licensing, legal or safety advice. OSHA's Outreach rules, state card mandates and employer policies change — confirm the current requirements with OSHA, your state labor department and your employer before you enroll or rely on a card.