General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage arising out of your work — the coverage almost every contract requires you to carry.
Insurance built around how you actually build.
General liability, tools, work comp, and vehicles reviewed together — with certificates issued when you need them, not three days later.
What this trade actually faces
The exposures worth naming out loud
- A subcontractor without their own coverage becomes your exposure the moment something goes wrong.
- Work performed months ago can generate a claim long after the job closed out.
- Damage to the customer's existing structure while working on it — often excluded in the way owners assume it is not.
- Tools and equipment leaving a site overnight, from a truck or an unlocked trailer.
- A general contractor or homeowner needing a certificate today, not next week.
Coverages that answer them
What goes on the policy, and why
Products & completed operations
Claims from finished work. It is the part of a liability policy remodelers most often need and least often think about, because the problem shows up after you have moved on.
Tools & equipment (inland marine)
Covers your tools away from your premises — where they actually are. Property coverage on a building does not follow the trailer.
Workers' compensation
Required in Michigan for most employers. It also matters for uninsured subs, who can be treated as your employees for premium and claims.
Commercial auto
Trucks and trailers used for the business. Personal auto policies commonly exclude business use, which is discovered at the worst possible moment.
Installation floater
Materials you have bought and are installing, before the job is complete and before they become the owner's problem.
Umbrella
Additional limits above liability and auto — frequently the reason you qualify for larger contracts at all.
Coverage descriptions are general. What a policy actually covers depends on its own terms, conditions, and exclusions, and on the carrier issuing it. A licensed agent reviews the specifics with you before anything is bound.
A hypothetical worth thinking about
You are mid-remodel on a kitchen when a supply line lets go overnight and water reaches the finished basement below. The damage is to the customer's existing property, not the work you were hired to do — which is precisely the distinction that decides whether it is covered, and precisely the distinction most contractors have never had explained to them. This is the kind of question worth settling before the job, not during the claim.
Illustration only — not a description of an actual claim, and not a statement of what any particular policy would pay.
What we need from you
Have these handy and this takes a few minutes
- Approximate annual revenue and payroll
- What share of work is subcontracted, and whether subs carry their own coverage
- Residential vs. commercial mix
- Vehicles and trailers used for the business
- Any losses in the last five years
Related trades
Electricians
Electrical work carries fire and completed-operations exposure that generic business policies price badly and explain worse.
Plumbers & HVAC Contractors
Water and heat exposures behave differently from other trades, and the policy that covers them should be built accordingly.
Excavation & Concrete
Site work carries the highest-severity exposures in the trades. The limits and endorsements should reflect that rather than default to a package built for a two-person shop.
Rather talk?