Independent agency · Licensed in 48 states
Carpet, hardwood, tile, stone and vinyl plank are different jobs with different ways of going wrong. We insure the businesses that install them — owners, crews and the installers they bring in — with markets that write the trade on purpose.
Four kinds of installation, and an underwriter reads each one differently. The flooring contractor program ties them together.
Finish damage and moisture claims
Residential work happens inside somebody’s home, around their cabinets, trim and furniture. The claims that follow are about finishes scratched or stained during the job, and about moisture from a slab or subfloor showing up in a floor months after the crew has left.
Occupied buildings and tight schedules
Commercial jobs often run while the building is open — a store, an office, a school over a break — and on a schedule set by somebody else. The exposure is the public walking past the work and the contract terms that come with a general contractor’s timeline.
Seaming, stretching and adhesive fumes
Carpet work is hard on the body: kneeling, knee-kicking and power-stretching all day, with seaming irons and knives close at hand. Glue-down installs add adhesive fumes in rooms that are not always well ventilated.
Silica dust and heavy material
Cutting tile and stone throws silica dust, and the material itself is heavy to carry, lift and set. Both land on the crew first, which is why an underwriter asks how cuts are made and how slabs move on the job.
Six coverages, in the order they usually come up for a flooring business.
Injury to people who do not work for you and damage to property that is not yours, during the job and after it is finished.
When a 1099 installer causes the damage, this policy is often where the claim lands — which is why their certificate matters before they start.
Benefits for your own employees hurt on the job, and the employer’s liability that sits beside them.
If that same 1099 installer carries no insurance of their own, the audit at the end of the policy year can add what you paid them to your payroll.
The vans and trucks that carry crews, tools and material between the shop and the job.
Your building, your shop and the stock and contents inside them.
Tools and equipment that travel with the crew — in the van, on the jobsite and in between.
Extra liability limits that sit above the general liability, auto and employer’s liability policies.
Every state below is a state we are licensed in and place this work in.
Both. A one-person installer and a company running several crews are underwritten differently, but they need the same core pieces: liability for the work, coverage for the tools and, once there are employees, workers’ compensation.
It depends on whether they carry their own liability and workers’ compensation. Where they do not, your general liability may end up answering for their work, and your workers’ compensation audit may add what you paid them to your payroll. Collecting their certificates before the job starts is the habit that prevents both.
That is a completed-work question on the general liability policy, and the answer turns on what failed and why. Damage to your own work is treated differently from damage your work caused to other property, which is why moisture and adhesive claims are read closely.
Tools are usually insured on an inland marine tools and equipment policy rather than on the auto policy, and many forms set conditions for theft from an unattended vehicle. We go through those conditions with you before a loss, not after.
Yes. We issue certificates of insurance and can add a general contractor as an additional insured where the policy allows it. Send us what the contract asks for and we will check it against your policy before you sign.
Premium depends on payroll, subcontracted work, vehicles, tool and equipment values, the work you take and the states you take it in. We do not publish typical rates because there is no such thing as a typical flooring contractor.
By where the appetite is for your state, your payroll, the kind of flooring you install and your loss history. Appetite is not the same everywhere and it changes, which is why the panel below is reviewed rather than fixed.
Flooring Business Insurance is a brand of Wexford Insurance, LLC, an independent agency licensed in 48 states. Independent means no single insurance company owns the answer — we place the account where the appetite is.
Our flooring panel is 24 carrier markets we hold appointments with, all quoting the class today: Goodville Mutual, Grand River Insurance, SECURA Insurance, West Bend Insurance, UFG Insurance, AMERISAFE, AmTrust Insurance, Cincinnati Insurance, CNA Insurance, Coterie Insurance, Encova Insurance, Frank Winston Crum Insurance, The Hartford, Hastings Insurance, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Markel, NEXT Insurance, Ohio Mutual, Progressive Commercial, GEICO, Texas Mutual Insurance, Tokio Marine HCC, Travelers Insurance and Westfield Insurance.
That list is reviewed quarterly and adjusted when a carrier’s appetite shifts.
The first thing I ask a flooring owner is who actually puts the floor down. When it is your own crew, the program is simple. When it is subcontracted installers, the answers are in their certificates and in your payroll audit, and I would rather read those with you now than explain them after a claim.
Wexford Insurance, LLC is a licensed independent insurance agency, NPN 19887690. You can verify our licensing at NIPR.com.
A licensed agent reads every submission and comes back with what the markets will do.