The certificate the general contractor will actually accept.
Commercial insurance for landscaping, HVAC, electrical, concrete and excavation contractors. Written around what your contracts require, not around a package.
Tell us the situation.
A licensed human replies the same business day — not an auto-responder, and not five producers calling at once. We shop it across our carriers and tell you if the policy you already have is the right one.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
What contractor businesses actually need.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage — the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — The general contractor will not let you on site, and the one claim that does happen comes out of your own account.
Workers compensation
Required in almost every state the moment you have employees. Priced on payroll and class code, which is why the class code is worth arguing about.
Without it — An injured crew member becomes a direct lawsuit against the business, with no statutory cap on what it costs.
Commercial auto
Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.
Without it — A truck accident on the way to a job is a personal claim your employee’s insurer will decline the moment they learn it was work.
Inland marine & equipment
Tools, equipment and property in transit. It picks up exactly where commercial property stops, which is the moment the item leaves the building.
Without it — Tools and equipment stolen off a site or out of a trailer are simply gone — property insurance stops at the building line.
Umbrella & excess liability
Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.
Without it — A single serious injury exhausts a $1M limit and the balance comes from the company.
Builders risk
Covers a structure while it is going up, and ends at completion. Not the same as the contractor’s general liability.
Without it — A fire or storm mid-build destroys work you have already paid for and cannot invoice.
Contractors pollution liability
Bodily injury, property damage and clean-up caused by a pollutant your work released — chemical drift, run-off, fuel spills. The standard general liability form excludes all of it.
Without it — A vented refrigerant charge, a fuel spill or disturbed soil is a clean-up bill, and the pollution exclusion on your general liability reaches all three.
Key person & buy-sell funding
If an owner or an irreplaceable employee dies, this is the money that keeps the business running and funds the buy-sell agreement so the surviving owners can buy out the estate instead of ending up in business with it.
Without it — Where one person holds the licence the company operates under, their death is a licensing emergency as much as a personal loss.
Joe Gorman
Co-Founder | President of Commercial Lines
Came up in construction, on site and in the office, then moved into sales. Went out on a limb to become Boring’s first dedicated producer when the agency had no producers at all — and now leads the producer team. Landscaping is the class he writes most: grounds maintenance, tree work, irrigation and the spray operations that push an account out of preferred appetite.
Five endorsements, and a certificate is none of them.
A certificate is evidence a policy existed the day it was printed — it says so on its own face. The coverage a contract is really asking for lives on the policy as named endorsements, and this is the list they come from.
- Additional insured — ongoing operationsCG 20 10Covers the general contractor for claims arising from your work while the job is in progress.Without it: They fund their own defence on a claim your work caused, then look to you for it.
- Additional insured — completed operationsCG 20 37Extends that cover to claims arising after your work is finished.Without it: The claim arrives years later, when the policy that should have carried it has renewed several times. Cheaper policies often exclude this or do not offer it.
- Primary and non-contributoryCG 20 01Puts your policy first and stops your insurer demanding a contribution from theirs.Without it: Two insurers argue about who pays while the defence waits.
- Waiver of subrogationCG 24 04Stops your insurer recovering from the party you agreed in writing to protect.Without it: Your insurer pays, then sues your customer, which ends the relationship.
- Per-project aggregateCG 25 03Gives each job its own general aggregate instead of sharing one across the year.Without it: Another project’s claims quietly spend the limit that was meant to cover this one.
Tract, condominium and apartment work is the exception that undoes all five — an exclusion for multi-unit residential removes the coverage before any endorsement can apply. What national homebuilders require covers that in full.
What contractor operators ask us.
Can you get excess limits for a big contract?
Yes, and it is one of the things we write most of. Excess and umbrella is usually the reason a smaller contractor cannot bid a larger job — the contract requires limits above the primary policy, and the requirement appears late. It is a placement problem rather than a price one, and it is solvable before the bid rather than during it. Certificates on short-notice work are the same story: the paper either exists already or the job goes to somebody whose does.
What limits do most construction contracts require?
One million per occurrence and two million aggregate on general liability is the common floor, usually with workers compensation, commercial auto, and an umbrella somewhere between one and five million on larger jobs. The limits are rarely the problem. What actually holds up a job is the endorsements — additional insured, waiver of subrogation, and primary and non-contributory wording. Send us the contract and we will match the certificate to it.
Do I need workers compensation if I only use subcontractors?
Almost always yes. If a subcontractor cannot produce their own certificate, most states and nearly every general contractor treat them as your employee for insurance purposes, and their payroll gets added to your audit at the end of the year. Collecting sub certificates before work starts is the single cheapest thing a contractor can do to control premium.
How is contractor insurance priced?
Mostly on payroll, class code and the kind of work you do — roofing and excavation price very differently from interior finish work. Your loss history matters, and so does the split between residential and commercial. Misclassification is the most common reason a contractor overpays, and it is worth checking before you shop.