Colorado Flooring Contractor Insurance

Colorado’s asbestos rule is where a flooring contractor here should start: it names resilient floor tile, sheet vinyl flooring and flooring adhesive, and workers who pull asbestos flooring up under the rule’s floor-covering work practices must first complete the rule’s own flooring training course. Around that, Colorado issues no statewide contractor license, so counties and cities decide licensing; lead-safe renovation certification comes from EPA; and workers’ compensation is compulsory for the employers the Act covers and comes from insurers, since Colorado has no state fund.

The training requirement is written for the people who remove asbestos-containing flooring materials, in the rule’s own words, so it follows the removal rather than a trade label. Each section below prints its finding as verified against the statute or rule, quotes the source, and then turns to what it means for an owner.

Policy questions, meaning how the coverage itself responds, are covered on the flooring contractor insurance page and the pages it links to. What follows is particular to Colorado, whether your business is a residential flooring crew in occupied homes, a commercial flooring firm working under general contractors, a carpet installation company or a tile and stone shop.

Colorado sets no flooring license of its own, so the county or city decides

Colorado has no statewide license or registration for flooring contractors, or for general or building contractors. The state’s professions and occupations law licenses electricians and plumbers among the building trades, and leaves the licensing of building contractors to counties and cities.

Authority: C.R.S. § 30-11-125(1)(a), (2); C.R.S. § 31-15-501(1)(c); C.R.S. § 12-20-103(1)(a)

Read from a flooring owner’s side of the desk, the question of a building contractor license was handed down, not dropped: the state placed it with counties and cities. A Colorado bid therefore carries no state license number for the flooring itself.

A Colorado flooring job without a state license to hold still answers to local rules. State law lets any county that has adopted a building code license building contractors who work in its unincorporated areas, and lets cities and towns license any lawful occupation. Boulder County, for one, licenses anyone who does work there that needs a building permit, so the rule for a particular job is set by the county or city where the work is done.

“Subject to the requirements of this section, any county that has adopted a building code may establish a licensing program to require a person who engages in the business of being a building contractor within the unincorporated areas of the county to obtain a license from the county prior to engaging in the business.”

Two conditions sit inside that county grant: a county that has adopted a building code, and work in its unincorporated areas. Cities and towns hold a separate and wider power, not tied to building work at all:

“To license, regulate, and tax, subject to any law of this state, any lawful occupation, business place, amusement, or place of amusements and to fix the amount, terms, and manner of issuing and revoking licenses issued therefor”

Nothing in that grant points at flooring, and the record does not list which Colorado cities use it for the trade. So the license question is asked of each city or town, and of each county for work outside city limits.

The Boulder County contractor licensing (unincorporated Boulder County) program is the local rule verified for this page. It reaches anyone who, for pay, does or directs work that needs a building permit in unincorporated Boulder County. It reaches a flooring contractor only on jobs that need a county building permit; the page does not say which flooring jobs need one, and it lists license classes for commercial construction, commercial remodeling and tenant finish, and residential work.

The phrase that decides it for a flooring business is building permit: the license follows work that needs a permit, so the useful question at the bid is whether this floor job needs one where it sits.

Owners whose jobs cross county and city lines tend to settle into a routine like this one:

• At the bid stage, call the building department of any county or city you are new to and ask two things: whether the job needs a permit, and whether a permit brings a contractor license with it.
• Note on the estimate whether the address is inside a city or town or out in the unincorporated county. The statutes quoted above give counties and cities different grants, so the answer tells you whose rule to read.

Separate from any local license is proof of insurance. General contractors on commercial jobs may ask for a certificate and additional insured wording, and both are worked through on the commercial flooring contractor insurance page, and what a homeowner may want to see is on the residential page.

Lead paint beside a Colorado floor: EPA certifies the renovator, the state adds a pamphlet duty

The lead renovation, repair and painting (RRP) certification a Colorado flooring firm needs for covered renovation work comes from EPA, because Colorado is not among the states EPA has authorized to run their own RRP programs.

Authority: 5 CCR 1001-23, Part A, Section I.D; Part B, Sections I.A, II.E; C.R.S. §§ 25-7-1103(1)(f), 25-7-1104(1)(a); 40 CFR Part 745

“EPA administers the RRP Program in most Tribes, states and territories, but has authorized the following to operate their own programs: Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe-Boise Forte (Nette Lake).”

Colorado does not appear on that list, and that absence is the federal half of the finding. The state half is narrower, because Colorado does run a lead program, just not the renovation certification.

Colorado still runs a state lead program under its Air Quality Control Commission’s lead hazard rule. The Air Pollution Control Division certifies people and firms for lead-based paint inspection, risk assessment and abatement, and a separate part of the rule requires anyone renovating older target housing or child-occupied facilities for pay to hand out the lead hazard pamphlet before the work starts. Pulling painted baseboards, trim or thresholds during flooring work can bring the federal renovation rule and the state pamphlet duty into play together.

“This Regulation Number 19, Part B, applies to all renovations of target housing or child-occupied facilities performed for compensation except as provided in Section I.B. of this Regulation Number 19, Part B.”

Baseboards, trim and thresholds are where a floor job meets paint, and the record’s obligation sentence names all three. Which of these a particular job falls under, the federal renovation rule, the state pamphlet duty, both or neither, depends on facts only the job can supply.

A handful of walkthrough questions sort out which of these a job may raise:

• Is the building housing, or a place children use? The state duty is written for target housing and child-occupied facilities, terms the rule defines, so the answer belongs on the estimate sheet.
• Is the work being done for pay? The second part of the rule reaches renovations performed for compensation.
• Will your installers pull the painted trim and thresholds, or will another trade? The answer shows which firm is disturbing the paint.
• Does the crew on this job include the person who holds the firm’s federal renovation certification?

Occupied older homes are discussed on the residential flooring contractor insurance page, and how a policy treats a claim involving lead is on the general liability page.

Colorado’s asbestos rule gives resilient floor tile, sheet vinyl and flooring adhesive a section of their own

Resilient floor tile, sheet vinyl flooring and flooring adhesive are named in Colorado’s own asbestos rule. Before a renovation that may disturb suspect material above the rule’s trigger levels in an area of public access, which includes a single-family home unless the resident owner opts out, the affected components must be inspected by a certified building inspector or assumed to contain asbestos. Removal of asbestos flooring above those levels is notified to the Division, and workers who pull it up under the rule’s floor-covering work practices must first complete the rule’s flooring training course.

Authority: 5 CCR 1001-10, Part B, Sections I.B, III.A, III.S and Appendix C; C.R.S. §§ 25-7-502(1), 25-7-504

Flooring is written into this rule by name. The Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, asbestos program administers it, and the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission is the body that wrote it. Two duties come before any floor is lifted: an inspection, and in the flooring section a notice. The inspection duty reads this way:

“Prior to any renovation or demolition in an area of public access which may disturb greater than the trigger levels of suspect asbestos-containing material (ACM), the facility component(s) to be affected by the renovation or demolition must either be assumed to be ACM or must be inspected to determine if abatement is required.”

Two terms in that sentence carry most of the weight. The trigger levels are the rule’s own amounts, worth reading in the rule before a large tear-out is priced. The definition of area of public access is where homes come in:

“Except as provided in Section I.B.9.b. Area of Public Access includes any single-family residential dwelling.”

The exception that definition points to is the resident owner’s opt-out described in the headline. Unless the owner who lives in a single-family home has opted out, the home counts, so a residential tear-out of suspect flooring above the trigger levels begins with a certified building inspector’s inspection or with the material treated as asbestos-containing.

The flooring section itself opens with the material in its intact state:

“Resilient floor tile, and associated flooring adhesive which contain asbestos, are nonfriable unless the material is damaged to the extent that when dry it can be crumbled, pulverized or reduced to powder by hand pressure.”

Being nonfriable does not end the paperwork, though; the same section asks for notice above the trigger levels either way:

“the person conducting the project must notify the Division of the intent to demolish, renovate, or perform asbestos abatement in any building, structure, facility or installation, or any portion thereof, which contains asbestos in any amount that exceeds the trigger levels whether friable or not.”

It then names the methods that change the picture:

“If a person grinds, mechanically chips, drills, sands, bead blasts, sandblasts, mechanically powders the material or otherwise damages such material to render it friable, and the amount of the material exceeds the trigger levels, then the following sections do apply: Sections I. (Definitions), II. (Certification Requirements) and III. (Abatement, Renovation and Demolition Projects).”

Resilient floor tile and its adhesive stay nonfriable under the rule only while they are removed intact. Grinding, mechanical chipping, drilling, sanding, bead blasting or powdering the material above the trigger levels brings in the rule’s full certification and abatement requirements, so a flooring crew’s removal method decides which set of rules applies.

The training requirement is where the section speaks most directly to a flooring business. The rule’s own outline for the course describes two ways the material can come up:

“Unless the flooring materials are removed in accordance with Sections I., II., and III. of this regulation, persons who remove asbestos-containing flooring materials must complete the 8-hour employee training course, including receiving a passing examination grade”

One way is removal under the rule’s full sections. The other is removal by workers who have completed the flooring course. Read beside the grinding sentence, the second way holds only while the method leaves the material intact, which makes the removal method a compliance decision as much as a production one. The time to make that decision is before the bid, not when a stubborn run of tile meets a grinder.

Owners who take up old resilient flooring in Colorado can build a few habits around the section:

• Ask for the inspection, or the building owner’s decision to treat the material as asbestos-containing, before the removal is priced.
• State in the proposal how the old floor will come up, and what happens if it will not come up intact. A change of method partway through can change which set of rules applies.
• Keep each installer’s flooring course record where the job file can reach it, so the people on site can be matched to the rule’s training requirement.
• Make sure the lead installer knows what the inspection found, and stop to talk to the owner when an older layer shows up beneath the one in the scope.

Tear-out also raises questions the policies answer in their own terms. On the general liability page you will find whether a general liability policy responds to a claim involving asbestos, and how finished work is treated once the owner is using the room again. A general contractor on a commercial job adds its own insurance terms, which the commercial page covers, and tile demolition brings its own version of the same questions on the tile and stone page.

Colorado workers’ compensation for a flooring employer: compulsory, insured, and no state fund

Workers’ compensation is required of the employers Colorado’s Act covers. An employer secures compensation through a state-created insurer that operates as a mutual, a stock or mutual insurer authorized to write the coverage in Colorado, or a self-insurance permit or certificate, and an employer that fails to keep the required insurance in force may not continue business operations while the default lasts. The state-created insurer operates by statute as a domestic mutual insurance company and is not a state agency, so Colorado has no state fund and coverage comes from insurers.

Authority: C.R.S. § 8-40-203(1)(b); § 8-44-101(1); § 8-41-401(1)(a)(I); § 8-43-409(1); § 8-45-101(1)

The statute states the duty first and then lists the ways to meet it:

“Any employer subject to the provisions of articles 40 to 47 of this title shall secure compensation for all employees in one or more of the following ways, which shall be deemed to be compliance with the insurance requirements of said articles:”

One of the listed ways is the one a flooring business meets most directly in the market:

“By insuring and keeping insured the payment of such compensation with any stock or mutual corporation authorized to transact the business of workers' compensation insurance in this state.”

Alongside that route, the headline lists the state-created insurer that operates as a mutual, and self-insurance by permit or certificate. That insurer can suggest a state fund, but by statute it operates as a domestic mutual insurance company and is not a state agency, so Colorado has no state fund.

The enforcement sentence is the one to keep in view:

“An employer subject to the terms and provisions of articles 40 to 47 of this title who fails to insure or to keep the insurance required by such articles in force, allows the insurance to lapse, or fails to effect a renewal of the insurance shall not continue business operations while such default in effective insurance continues.”

That turns a lapse from a coverage gap into a business-continuity problem, so renewal dates belong on the same calendar as payroll.

Subcontracting has its own sentence in the Act:

“Any person, company, or corporation operating or engaged in or conducting any business by leasing or contracting out any part or all of the work thereof to any lessee, sublessee, contractor, or subcontractor, irrespective of the number of employees engaged in such work, shall be construed to be an employer as defined in articles 40 to 47 of this title …”

A flooring business that contracts out installation is, in that sentence’s words, construed to be an employer for the work it contracts out. The questions an underwriter asks about subcontracted installers, and why their own certificates matter to your policy, are set out on the workers’ compensation page, because they concern the policy rather than Colorado.

The Colorado statutes and rules behind each agency named here

The Colorado Division of Insurance is the state’s insurance regulator, a division of the Department of Regulatory Agencies. Its link, like every agency link in this section, opens the statute or rule that creates or governs the body rather than the agency’s own website, because those websites refused the automated reads used to verify this page.

Our own agency license, and any other agency’s, can be looked up on NIPR.com.

The remaining bodies each hold one piece of what this page describes, with each role given as the record verified it:

• Colorado Division of Professions and Occupations: statewide professional and trade licensing within the Department of Regulatory Agencies (electricians and plumbers among the building trades; no general, building or flooring contractor license)
• Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment: state health and environmental agency; its Air Pollution Control Division runs the asbestos and lead programs
• Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, asbestos program: asbestos inspection, notification, work practices and certification under the Commission’s asbestos rule
• Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, lead program: state lead program: lead-based paint inspection, risk assessment and abatement certification, and the pre-renovation pamphlet rule; RRP itself is EPA-administered
• Colorado Air Quality Control Commission: rulemaking body for the asbestos and lead rules
• Colorado Division of Workers’ Compensation: administers and enforces the Workers’ Compensation Act of Colorado within the Department of Labor and Employment, including insurance-default enforcement and self-insurance permits

No statewide flooring contractor board or state workers’ compensation fund appears here, for the reasons the sections above give. The offices an owner deals with most are the county and city building departments where the jobs sit.

The largest Colorado metro areas and the counties inside each

These cards follow the largest metropolitan areas carrying Colorado’s name, in the delineation published by the U.S. Census Bureau. Every card prints its metro’s name as the Bureau prints it, and every one has its principal city in Colorado. Because the licensing finding puts any license with the county or the city, every card lists the counties in its metro.

Colorado findings and the coverage pages that go with them

Everything above concerns where the rules sit. Coverage for the work comes from the policies a flooring business carries anywhere, each with a page of its own:

• Claims by others for injury or damage, including how finished work and tear-out are handled: general liability.
• Your employees, and the subcontracted-installer question: workers’ compensation.
• The stretchers, saws, sanders and stock that travel between jobs: inland marine coverage for contractors’ tools and equipment.

The balance among them follows the work you do. A carpet installation company, a tile and stone shop and a crew that lifts old resilient flooring before every install face different owners and different tear-outs, and the service pages take each on its own terms. The next step for Colorado work is a quote request that lists the counties you work in and the floors you take up.

What the state sets

Where we discuss it

Contractor license No statewide license reaches this work

→

General Liability

Lead-safe renovation The federal program applies in this state

→

Residential Flooring Contractor Insurance

Asbestos flooring and mastic A state program reaches flooring removal

→

General Liability

Workers’ compensation Bought in the open market

→

Workers Compensation

A panel for Colorado in rows. Contractor license: no statewide license reaches this work. It connects to the General Liability page. Lead-safe renovation: the federal program applies in this state. It connects to the Residential Flooring Contractor Insurance page. Asbestos flooring and mastic: a state program reaches flooring removal. It connects to the General Liability page. Workers’ compensation: bought in the open market. It connects to the Workers Compensation page. Each row pairs a state rule with the page on this site that discusses it. No figures are shown.