New Hampshire Flooring Contractor Insurance

New Hampshire licenses no general, home improvement or flooring contractors, so the rules for a floor job begin with the building permit that the county, city, town or village district issues under the state building code; where a municipality has no way to enforce that code, the contractor tells the state fire marshal the type of construction before work starts, except on the dwellings the statute excludes. Around that local picture, EPA certifies firms for lead-safe renovation, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services licenses the abatement that sanded or crumbling floor tile and mastic can turn into, and workers’ compensation is compulsory and comes from private insurers, with no state fund.

Put differently, the license question here has no state answer, and the permit question has a local one. The sections that follow take each finding in turn, quote the statute or rule behind it and say what it changes for someone running a crew. The insurance itself is explained on the flooring contractor insurance page and its four branches: residential flooring, commercial flooring, carpet installation and tile and stone.

No New Hampshire contractor license, so the local permit office sets the terms

Flooring installation in New Hampshire needs no statewide contractor license or registration. The boards the law places within the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification take in electricians, mechanical trades, home inspectors and manufactured housing installation, and none of them licenses general, home improvement or flooring contractors.

Authority: RSA 310:1; RSA 310:2, II; RSA 155-A:2, I; RSA 155-A:2, IV; RSA 155-A:2, VI

The statute that sets up the licensing office ends its description with a list of boards, introduced by a single line:

“The boards within the office of professional licensure and certification shall consist of:”

Electricians, mechanical trades and home inspectors are on that list; a flooring or general contractor board is not. Reading the gap as freedom from rules would be a mistake, though.

The absence of a state license does not leave a New Hampshire flooring business without duties. The state building code governs the alteration, renovation, repair and removal of existing buildings, and building permits under it are issued by the county, city, town or village district where the job is, so a flooring job’s permit and inspection rules are set locally. Where a municipality has not adopted a way to enforce the code, the law puts a notice duty on the contractor to tell the state fire marshal the type of construction before work begins, except on one- and two-family homes.

The building code’s reach is drawn widely enough to take in a floor replacement:

“The construction, design, structure, maintenance, and use of all buildings or structures to be erected and the alteration, renovation, rehabilitation, repair, removal, or demolition of all buildings and structures previously erected shall be governed by the provisions of the state building code.”

And the statute hands the paperwork to local government rather than to a state office:

“Except for buildings owned by the state, the community college system of New Hampshire, or the university system, the issuance of permits and certificates of occupancy pursuant to the state building code is expressly reserved for counties, towns, cities, and village districts.”

Repair and renovation both appear in that first sentence, so a tear-out and a new floor sit under the code even though no state board licenses the person doing them. Whether a given floor needs a permit, and what inspection follows, is for the municipality to say. The statute also covers the places that have not set up enforcement:

“For any municipality which has not adopted an enforcement mechanism under RSA 155-A:3, the contractor of the building, building component, or structure shall notify the state fire marshal concerning the type of construction before construction begins excluding one- and 2-family dwellings.”

That notice belongs to the contractor, not the owner, and it comes before construction begins. For a business that moves between towns, a short routine keeps it straight:

• Call the town or city office before quoting a job in a place you have not worked, and ask whether it enforces the building code and wants a permit for floor work.
• Where the answer is that nobody locally enforces the code, note on the job file whether the building is one the statute leaves out of the fire marshal notice, and send the notice before work starts if it is not.
• Keep each town’s answer with the date and the name of whoever gave it, since the rule follows the municipality and not your business.

Missing a state license changes nothing about the certificates a builder wants on a commercial job, and the commercial flooring contractor insurance page explains those requests. Floors that fail after the crew has gone are a matter for the general liability page.

Painted trim and older homes: the New Hampshire lead picture for floor jobs

New Hampshire is not an authorized RRP state: EPA administers the lead renovation, repair and painting (RRP) program there, so the lead-safe firm certification a flooring contractor needs for covered renovation work comes from EPA. Lead abatement contractors, inspectors and risk assessors are what New Hampshire’s own lead law licenses, which is separate from renovation.

Authority: 40 CFR Part 745, Subpart E; RSA 130-A:1, XIII; RSA 130-A:1, XIV; RSA 130-A:12, I

Look for New Hampshire among the programs EPA has handed to states, and it is absent:

“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).”

For work on painted baseboards, shoe molding, thresholds or door casings in older homes or child-occupied facilities, the firm holds EPA renovation certification and follows lead-safe work practices, under the federal rule’s age threshold quoted below. Lead abatement means work designed to permanently eliminate a lead hazard, which New Hampshire licenses through the Department of Health and Human Services, and an ordinary flooring contractor does not take that on without the state license.

“Federal law requires all renovation, repair, and painting firms (including sole proprietorships) working in housing, or facilities where children are routinely present, built before 1978, to be certified.”

Trim, more than the floor, is where a flooring crew meets old paint. Shoe molding and baseboards come off so a new surface can meet the wall, and door casings get trimmed so a thicker floor fits under them. In an older house those are the painted pieces a crew disturbs. The state’s own lead law is aimed at different work:

“A license to perform as a lead abatement contractor, lead inspector, or lead risk assessor, shall be issued in writing by the department in accordance with rules adopted under RSA 130-A:10, I.”

“"Lead base substance abatement" means any set of measures designed to permanently eliminate a lead exposure hazard, including removal, containment, encapsulation, or replacement of surfaces or fixtures that present a lead exposure hazard and all preparation, cleanup, and post abatement clearance testing associated with such measures.”

Permanent elimination of a hazard is the line. A flooring crew replacing a floor is not trying to eliminate a lead hazard; it is doing a renovation, which keeps the firm under EPA’s certification rather than the state license. If an owner asks for the painted trim to be removed as a lead fix, that is a different job, and it calls for a licensed abatement contractor. A few questions at the walkthrough help keep the two apart:

• When was the house built, and does anyone use it as a place where young children are routinely present?
• Which trim pieces will come off, and who on the crew holds the renovator training for that job?
• Is the owner asking for a floor, or for help with a lead problem the floor work happens to touch?

Lived-in older houses raise these questions more than any other job type, and the residential flooring contractor insurance page spends time on that work. Lead claims, and what a liability policy does with them, sit on the general liability page.

When old resilient tile turns into regulated asbestos material in New Hampshire

New Hampshire runs a state asbestos program through the Department of Environmental Services, which licenses asbestos abatement entities and certifies supervisors and workers. The statute brings resilient floor tile and its mastic inside that licensing once the material is sanded, ground, sawed or abraded or has become friable, and the Department’s rule sets work practices that name vinyl asbestos floor tile and sheeting with mastic.

Authority: RSA 141-E:2, II; RSA 141-E:2, VII; RSA 141-E:10, I; Env-A 1801.02; Env-A 1808.03; Env-A 1816.01; Env-A 1800 Appendix D (the federal definitions as reprinted)

The licensing duty opens the statute’s section on licenses:

“Any contractor, employer, or individual which engages in asbestos abatement activities or activities involving the disturbance of asbestos at asbestos disposal sites shall first obtain a license from the department, except for:”

Abatement, in the statute’s definitions, includes taking regulated material off a building’s surfaces, and a floor is one of those surfaces:

“The removal or stripping of RACM from structural members, walls, ceilings, or other building surfaces, or ducts, pipes, boilers, tanks, reactors, furnaces, or other vessels; and”

The question for a flooring crew is when old tile counts as regulated material. The rule reprints the federal definition that puts resilient floor covering in a named category:

“Category I nonfriable asbestos-containing material (ACM) means asbestos-containing packings, gaskets, resilient floor covering, …”

The statute then says when material in that category becomes regulated:

“Category I non-friable asbestos-containing material, as defined by 40 CFR 61.141, that has become friable;”

“Category I non-friable asbestos-containing material, as defined by 40 CFR 61.141, that will be or has been subjected to sanding, grinding, sawing, or abrading; or”

Read together, the clauses make the method decisive. Tile lifted whole, without sanding or crumbling, is outside those words; tile that is ground up, sanded off the slab or allowed to break down is inside them, and so is mastic taken up by grinding.

A flooring contractor tearing out old resilient tile, sheet vinyl or the mastic under it should have the material tested first: grinding up mastic, sanding tile or letting it crumble makes it regulated material whose removal is asbestos abatement, and that work needs a Department-licensed abatement entity with certified personnel. The rule also reaches anyone on a renovation project that could release asbestos fibers, so the safer plan is to hand suspect flooring to a licensed abatement firm. Owners of single-family homes they live in who do the work themselves are exempt from the license.

The rule’s own reach is wider than the abatement firm. It applies to:

“Any person involved in a project with the potential to release asbestos fibers during building maintenance, construction, renovation, demolition, or other similar activities; or processing, transport, and disposal activities.”

When the work is major abatement, the rule spells out site preparation for exactly the material a flooring crew meets:

“For vinyl asbestos floor tile or vinyl asbestos floor sheeting that has mastic or felt backing, protective sheeting shall be used as follows:”

One exemption is narrow and easy to misread:

“Owners of single family owner occupied properties who personally perform asbestos abatement within the confines of their private properties; and”

It speaks of an owner doing the work personally on a home the owner lives in. It does not reach a business hired to pull the same floor. Because method decides so much, a few habits fit this finding:

• Have suspect tile, sheet vinyl and the mastic under it tested before you price the tear-out.
• Settle in writing, before the proposal is signed, how the floor comes up, and name who stops the job if the material starts to break apart.
• Where testing finds asbestos and the method could grind, sand or crumble it, hand that part to a Department-licensed abatement firm and keep its paperwork with your job file.

Liability coverage for asbestos claims is discussed on the general liability page, and tile demolition gets its own treatment on the tile and stone page. The program’s home is the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services; the link goes to the statute that establishes it.

New Hampshire workers’ compensation and who answers for a subcontractor’s crew

Under New Hampshire’s workers’ compensation law, every private employer with even one employee secures compensation, most often by insuring with a company licensed to write the coverage in the state. The Department of Labor administers and enforces the law, and New Hampshire has no state fund: coverage comes from private insurers, approved self-insurance or the assigned risk plan they share.

Authority: RSA 281-A:2, VI(b); RSA 281-A:2, VIII(a); RSA 281-A:5; RSA 281-A:7, I; RSA 281-A:7, II; RSA 281-A:7, IV; RSA 281-A:7, VI; RSA 281-A:18; RSA 281-A:58; RSA 404-C:1; RSA 404-C:3

“An employer, or group or association of homogeneous employers, subject to this chapter shall secure compensation to employees in one of the following ways:”

Of the ways that list goes on to give, buying a policy is the usual one for a flooring business:

“By insuring and keeping insured the payment of such compensation with a company licensed to write workers' compensation insurance in this state and filing with the commissioner, in a form prescribed by the commissioner, evidence of such coverage as the commissioner deems appropriate.”

Any employee at all means a New Hampshire flooring contractor carries workers’ compensation insurance or qualifies to self-insure. Anyone paid to work for the business is presumed to be an employee unless every condition the statute lists for an independent contractor is met, and a contractor who subcontracts is liable for the compensation of an uninsured subcontractor’s employees. An employer that goes without coverage faces civil penalties, a court order to stop doing business, personal liability for those who controlled the decision, and an injured worker’s lawsuit without the law’s usual immunities; purposely failing to secure coverage is a felony.

The definition of a private employer is short, and it is where the reach begins:

“A person, partnership, association, corporation, or legal representative of a person, partnership, association or corporation who employs one or more persons whether in one or more trades, businesses, professions or occupations and whether in one or more locations.”

The presumption about who counts as an employee does the rest of the work, because it starts from the assumption that a paid worker is one:

“any person, other than a direct seller or qualified real estate broker or agent or real estate appraiser, or person providing services as part of a residential placement for individuals with developmental, acquired, or emotional disabilities, who performs services for pay for an employer, is presumed to be an employee.”

Calling an installer independent does not settle it; the statute’s conditions do. And where the installer really is a separate business, its crew can still land on your account:

“A contractor who subcontracts all or any part of a contract shall bear the liability of the subcontractor of that contract for the payment of compensation under this chapter to the employees of the subcontractor, unless the subcontractor has secured the payment of compensation as provided for in this chapter.”

Going without coverage is costly in two ways the statute spells out:

“As an alternative to the procedure afforded in paragraph III, an employee of an employer failing to comply with the provisions of RSA 281-A:5, or dependents of that employee if death ensues, may pursue any available remedy at law, free of the waivers and immunities conferred by RSA 281-A:8.”

“Any employer, individual, or corporate officer required to secure payment of compensation under this chapter who purposely, as defined in RSA 626:2, II(a), fails to secure such payment shall be guilty of a class B felony.”

For an owner who uses outside installers, the protection is paperwork: a current certificate of coverage from each installer business before it starts, refreshed when the policy renews. How payroll, outside installers and their certificates affect the price is a subject for the workers’ compensation page; the findings here stop at the state line.

Which New Hampshire department answers which question

Oversight of insurers and agents belongs to the New Hampshire Insurance Department, and the link opens the statute that continues it. Anybody can verify an insurance agency’s license, ours included, on NIPR.com.

Four more bodies figure in the findings above, listed with the role the record verified for each:

• New Hampshire Office of Professional Licensure and Certification: administers the state’s professional and trade licensing boards; no general, home improvement or flooring contractor board
• New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services: licenses asbestos abatement entities, certifies abatement supervisors and workers, takes abatement notifications and enforces the asbestos rule
• New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services: state lead law: licenses lead abatement contractors, inspectors and risk assessors; renovation certification itself is EPA-administered
• New Hampshire Department of Labor: administers and enforces the workers’ compensation law through the labor commissioner, including coverage enforcement

Every link above opens the statute that creates or empowers the body rather than the agency’s own website. Missing from the list is a state workers’ compensation fund, because New Hampshire never created one, and a contractor licensing board, for the reason the first section gives.

New Hampshire’s two metro areas and the counties in each

Two metropolitan areas on the U.S. Census Bureau’s list carry New Hampshire’s postal code. The first has its principal cities inside the state. The second is a larger metro whose principal cities all lie across the state line, so its card names only the New Hampshire counties in it. In both, permits come from the local government where the job sits, and the lead, asbestos and workers’ compensation findings above apply statewide.

Matching coverage pages to New Hampshire flooring work

• Claims from customers and passers-by, finished floors and the tear-out questions raised above: general liability.
• Payroll for the people you employ, plus the installer businesses whose crews could land on your account: workers’ compensation.
• Kickers, seam irons, wet saws and floor sanders riding between jobs: inland marine coverage for contractors’ tools and equipment.

Carpet and tile carry different risks on the job, which is why the carpet installation and tile and stone pages are written separately. To bring the New Hampshire pieces together in one program, start with a quote request.

What the state sets

Where we discuss it

Contractor license No statewide license reaches this work

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General Liability

Lead-safe renovation The federal program applies in this state

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Residential Flooring Contractor Insurance

Asbestos flooring and mastic A state program reaches flooring removal

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General Liability

Workers’ compensation Bought in the open market

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Workers Compensation

A panel for New Hampshire 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.