A bad pour is demolition, not a repair.
Commercial insurance for concrete contractors — flatwork, foundations, tilt-up and pumping — written around irreversible work, washout and boom contact.
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 concrete businesses actually need.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage — the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — A slab that fails takes with it everything built on top of it, and the damage is to the rest of the structure rather than to your concrete.
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 — Pours run long, the material is heavy and caustic, and placement crews work around moving equipment for the whole shift.
Contractors errors & omissions
Covers faulty workmanship and professional mistakes — the cost of the work itself being wrong, which general liability excludes by design.
Without it — Concrete placed to the wrong specification cures perfectly and is still wrong, and that is a professional failure rather than an accident.
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 — Washout and slurry are strongly alkaline, and reaching a storm drain makes them a reportable discharge rather than a mess.
Commercial auto
Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.
Without it — Mixers and pump trucks are heavy vehicles on public roads, and a loss involving one is rarely small.
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 — Forms, screeds, power trowels and laser levels live on sites and are stolen from them.
Third party property damage
Damage to property in your care while you are shooting on it — the location itself, and the fixtures in it. General liability excludes property in your care, custody and control, which is precisely what a location is.
Without it — A boom, a chute or a truck damages the driveway, the landscaping or the building next door, none of which you were hired to touch.
Umbrella & excess liability
Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.
Without it — Commercial contracts require limits above primary, and a structural failure exhausts a primary limit without argument.
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 — Weather or vandalism destroys a pour mid-cure that has been paid for and cannot be invoiced.
Surety bonds
License, bid and performance bonds. A bond guarantees you will finish the job — it protects the other party, not you, which is the part most people get wrong.
Without it — Licence bonds condition the licence, and contract bonds decide which jobs can be bid at all.
What concrete operators ask us.
Why is concrete underwritten more carefully than other flatwork trades?
Because the work cannot be undone. If a slab is poured at the wrong elevation, at the wrong strength, or over inadequately compacted subgrade, the remedy is to break it out and start again — and by the time the defect is discovered, other trades have usually built on top of it. That makes the consequential damage far larger than the value of the concrete, which is the thing underwriters are actually pricing. It is also why the argument on a concrete claim is almost always about what is your work product and what is damage to somebody else's.
Is concrete washout really a pollution issue?
Yes, and it surprises people every time. Wash water from a mixer, pump or tools carries a very high pH, and if it reaches soil, a watercourse or a storm drain it is a discharge rather than a spill of something harmless. Most sites now require a contained washout area for exactly this reason. A standard general liability policy carries a pollution exclusion broad enough to catch it, so the coverage question is whether contractors pollution sits alongside the GL or does not exist.
Does pumping change my insurance?
Significantly. A boom pump introduces a large piece of mobile equipment, an overhead operation, and the single worst loss in the trade — boom contact with an energised power line. Placing and finishing is one appetite; operating pumps is another, and some carriers price or decline on that question alone. If you pump, say so at quote. If you hire in pumping, keep their certificates, because their payroll otherwise lands on your audit.
What limits do concrete subcontracts usually require?
A million per occurrence and two million aggregate on general liability is the common floor, with an umbrella between one and five million on commercial work, plus additional insured for ongoing and completed operations, primary and non-contributory wording, and a waiver of subrogation. On structural work a per-project aggregate is worth asking for, because one bad job otherwise exhausts the limit protecting every other job you have running.