Concrete and flatwork contractors face risks that go well beyond accidentally damaging a customer’s property. Your company may own expensive equipment, operate heavy trucks, pull loaded trailers, employ multiple crews and rely on subcontractors to complete certain portions of a project.
A solid insurance program should account for all of those exposures.
Use this checklist to review your current policies and identify potential gaps before an accident, construction defect, workers’ compensation audit or contract dispute puts your business at risk.
1. General Liability Insurance
General liability is usually the first policy a concrete contractor purchases. It can help protect your business when your operations cause covered bodily injury or property damage to someone else.
Potential claims could include:
- A customer or visitor tripping over equipment at the jobsite
- Wet concrete damaging neighboring property
- A skid steer striking an existing structure
- Overspray or splatter damaging a vehicle or building
- Completed concrete work causing covered damage to other property
- A crew member damaging underground property during site preparation
General liability is important, but contractors should understand what it is designed to cover. It generally responds to covered bodily injury or property damage claims. It is not a warranty for your work and may not pay to remove and replace defective concrete simply because the finished work does not meet the contract specifications.
General liability checklist
- Are your limits high enough to meet your contracts?
- Does your policy accurately describe every type of concrete work you perform?
- Does it include completed-operations coverage?
- Are residential, commercial and new-construction operations permitted?
- Are excavation, grading or demolition activities disclosed?
- Can the policy provide additional-insured status when required?
- Are primary and noncontributory wording and waiver of subrogation available?
- Are subcontracted costs reported accurately?
- Are exclusions for the specific work you perform clearly understood?
For more information about available coverage, visit our concrete contractor insurance page.
2. Contractors Professional Liability Insurance
General liability can be relatively straightforward when your crew accidentally damages something. The more difficult claims often involve an allegation that your professional judgment, layout, specifications, recommendations or construction-management services caused a financial loss.
That is where contractors professional liability, sometimes called contractors errors and omissions coverage, may become important.
Consider these examples:
- Forms or elevations are laid out incorrectly based on measurements prepared or approved by your company.
- A slab is poured to the wrong slope or drainage specification.
- Your company recommends or selects a concrete mix that is inappropriate for the intended application.
- Your interpretation of plans or specifications results in work being installed incorrectly.
- A scheduling, coordination or construction-management error delays the project.
- A customer alleges that your technical recommendation caused cracking, drainage problems or another failure.
- A design-build responsibility creates an exposure that extends beyond physical construction work.
A general liability policy may not cover a customer’s purely financial loss resulting from a professional error. Contractors professional liability may help address certain claims arising from covered professional acts, errors or omissions.
However, professional liability does not automatically cover every workmanship problem. A bad pour caused solely by poor installation or failure to follow established specifications may still be considered defective workmanship. Whether coverage applies depends on what caused the problem, the allegations made and the specific policy language.
Professional liability checklist
- Do you provide design, layout, consulting or value-engineering services?
- Do you recommend mix designs, specifications or installation methods?
- Do you interpret plans or make field modifications?
- Are you responsible for elevations, slopes, drainage or measurements?
- Do you provide construction-management or project-coordination services?
- Does your policy cover professional services performed by subcontracted engineers or consultants?
- Does the policy include coverage for rectification or mitigation expenses?
- Is the policy written on a claims-made basis, and have you reviewed its retroactive date?
3. Commercial Auto Insurance
Concrete contractors frequently use pickups, dump trucks, flatbeds and trailers to move employees, forms, skid steers, mini excavators and other heavy equipment.
Most personal auto policies are not designed to cover vehicles regularly used for business. A personal policy may exclude or restrict coverage when a vehicle is owned by a business, driven by employees, used to transport tools and materials or used to pull heavy equipment for commercial operations.
Putting a personal policy on a truck does not make the business exposure personal.
Commercial auto checklist
- Are all business-owned vehicles listed on a commercial auto policy?
- Are all employees who regularly drive company vehicles disclosed?
- Does each driver have an acceptable motor vehicle record?
- Are trucks rated for their actual business use?
- Are trailers listed and properly insured?
- Does the policy provide adequate liability limits?
- Have you considered uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage?
- Do you have hired-auto coverage for rented or borrowed vehicles?
- Do you have non-owned-auto coverage when employees use personal vehicles for company business?
- Are permanently attached tools or equipment properly covered?
- Are the truck, hitch and trailer rated for the weight being pulled?
Employee driving should be addressed before handing over the keys. Create written driver rules, check motor vehicle records and document who is authorized to operate each company vehicle.
4. Workers’ Compensation Insurance
Concrete work is physically demanding and creates serious injury exposures. Employees may suffer lifting injuries, falls, cuts, burns, struck-by accidents or injuries involving saws and heavy equipment.
Workers’ compensation can provide covered employees with medical and wage-loss benefits following a work-related injury. It can also protect the employer from certain lawsuits arising from employee injuries, subject to applicable law and policy terms.
Payroll, employee duties and classifications must be reported accurately. Crew members performing concrete or construction work should not be classified as clerical employees simply because a lower-cost classification exists.
Workers’ compensation checklist
- Are all employees included and properly classified?
- Are payroll estimates realistic?
- Are owners correctly included or excluded?
- Do employees work at heights, excavate or operate heavy machinery?
- Do you have a written safety and return-to-work program?
- Are new employees trained before operating vehicles or equipment?
- Are payroll and subcontractor records maintained for the premium audit?
- Do you understand how overtime payroll is handled by your carrier?
5. Collect Workers’ Compensation Certificates From Every Subcontractor
Hiring a subcontractor does not automatically remove the workers’ compensation exposure from your audit.
Before a subcontractor begins work, obtain a valid certificate of insurance showing workers’ compensation coverage. Keep the certificate with the subcontract, invoice and payment records. You should also have a process for obtaining a renewed certificate when the subcontractor’s policy expires.
If a subcontractor cannot provide evidence of workers’ compensation coverage, the amount you paid that subcontractor may be included in your workers’ compensation audit, subject to the carrier’s rules and applicable law. In practical terms, you may end up paying additional workers’ compensation premium based on that uninsured subcontracted labor.
A general liability certificate by itself is not proof of workers’ compensation coverage.
Subcontractor checklist
- Obtain a certificate before the subcontractor starts work.
- Confirm that workers’ compensation is shown on the certificate.
- Verify that the policy was active during the time work was performed.
- Confirm that the subcontractor’s business name matches your contract and payment records.
- Obtain general liability and commercial auto certificates when applicable.
- Use written subcontractor agreements.
- Track expiration dates and request renewed certificates.
- Keep certificates, contracts, invoices and payment records together.
- Never rely solely on a verbal statement that a subcontractor is insured.
A certificate is evidence of coverage on the date it was issued; it does not amend the policy or guarantee that coverage will remain active.
6. Contractors Equipment and Inland Marine Coverage
General liability does not insure your equipment against theft, fire, overturn or other physical damage. Commercial property insurance may also provide limited coverage once equipment leaves your shop.
Contractors equipment coverage, commonly written as inland marine insurance, can help protect mobile property such as:
- Skid steers
- Mini excavators
- Concrete saws
- Power trowels
- Screeds and vibrators
- Forms
- Lasers and surveying equipment
- Generators and compressors
- Hand tools
- Rented or leased equipment
Equipment checklist
- Is every major piece of equipment scheduled?
- Are the listed values current?
- Is replacement-cost coverage available?
- Does coverage apply while equipment is in transit?
- Does it cover theft from jobsites and trailers?
- Is rented or leased equipment included?
- Are employee tools covered?
- Are trailers insured for physical damage?
- What security or theft-prevention requirements apply?
- Are flood, water, underground and equipment-overturn losses addressed?
7. Commercial Property or Business Owners Policy
If you own or lease an office, shop, warehouse or yard, you may need commercial property insurance or a business owners policy.
Review coverage for:
- Buildings and tenant improvements
- Office contents
- Tools and equipment kept at the premises
- Materials and supplies
- Computers and business records
- Business income following a covered loss
- Property belonging to customers
- Outdoor signs, fences and storage areas
Equipment stored outdoors or in an unlocked yard may be subject to special restrictions. Your agent should understand how and where your property is stored.
8. Commercial Umbrella or Excess Liability
A serious auto accident, jobsite injury or completed-operations claim can exceed the limits of an underlying policy.
A commercial umbrella or excess liability policy can provide additional limits above certain underlying policies, such as general liability, commercial auto and employers liability. The underlying policies and required minimum limits must be scheduled correctly.
Umbrella checklist
- Does the umbrella sit over general liability?
- Does it sit over commercial auto?
- Does it sit over employers liability?
- Are all business entities and locations included?
- Are subcontracted operations permitted?
- Do your limits satisfy your largest contracts?
- Are there exclusions that differ from the underlying policies?
9. Pollution and Environmental Liability
Concrete contractors can encounter pollution exposures involving fuel, hydraulic fluid, concrete washout, slurry, dust and runoff.
Many general liability policies contain pollution exclusions. Contractors pollution liability may be worth considering when your operations could cause environmental damage, contamination or cleanup expenses.
Review your contracts and jobsite practices for:
- Concrete washout procedures
- Silica-dust controls
- Fuel and chemical storage
- Hydraulic-fluid leaks
- Storm-drain contamination
- Disposal of slurry and waste materials
- Transportation of pollutants or contaminated materials
10. Review Every Contract Before Work Begins
Insurance requirements should be reviewed before you sign a contract or submit a final bid. Waiting until the job begins can leave you trying to purchase unavailable coverage or endorsements after you have already accepted the obligation.
Pay close attention to requirements involving:
- Liability limits
- Additional-insured status
- Completed operations
- Primary and noncontributory wording
- Waiver of subrogation
- Professional liability
- Pollution liability
- Commercial auto
- Workers’ compensation
- Commercial umbrella
- Notice-of-cancellation requirements
A certificate of insurance does not create coverage that is absent from the underlying policy. Your insurance agent should compare the contract requirements with your actual policies and endorsements.
Final Concrete Contractor Insurance Checklist
Before your next project, confirm that you have reviewed:
- General liability
- Completed operations
- Contractors professional liability
- Commercial auto
- Hired and non-owned auto
- Workers’ compensation
- Subcontractor certificates
- Contractors equipment
- Rented or leased equipment
- Commercial property
- Business income
- Commercial umbrella
- Contractors pollution liability
- Contractual insurance requirements
- Driver and jobsite safety procedures
Build Coverage Around the Work You Actually Perform
Two concrete contractors can have the same annual revenue and require very different insurance programs. A residential flatwork contractor pouring driveways and patios does not have the same exposures as a commercial contractor performing structural concrete, foundations, parking lots or design-build work.
Your insurance agent should understand:
- The type of concrete work you perform
- Your largest projects
- Residential versus commercial work
- New construction versus repair work
- Your equipment and vehicle schedule
- Employee and subcontractor use
- Any design, layout or consulting responsibilities
- The insurance requirements contained in your contracts
MBG Insurance works with contractors to compare coverage from multiple insurance companies and identify gaps before a claim or audit exposes them.
Learn more about insurance for concrete and flatwork contractors or contact MBG Insurance to review your current program.
Coverage availability, eligibility, exclusions and policy terms vary by insurance carrier and state. This article is for general educational purposes and does not alter or replace the terms of any insurance policy or provide legal advice.
About the Author
Brandon Thompson is the CEO and co-founder of MBG Insurance. He holds the Certified Work Comp Advisor designation and has completed advanced workers’ compensation training focused on helping employers control premiums, correct classification issues and prepare for insurance audits. Brandon works with businesses across Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Texas to explain coverage clearly and build insurance programs around their actual operations.