You put water under pressure into somebody else’s ground.
Commercial insurance for irrigation and sprinkler contractors — trenching, backflow and water damage exposures that a general landscaping policy is not rated for.
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 irrigation and sprinkler installation businesses actually need.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage — the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — A line that fails, floods a basement or undermines a slab is third-party property damage, and the repair is rarely the largest part of the bill.
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 — Trenching and machine work carry the serious injuries in this trade.
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 — Trenchers, boring equipment and controllers are high-value and live on a trailer.
Commercial auto
Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.
Without it — Trucks and towed equipment are on the road between sites every day.
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 — Backflow into a potable supply and fuel or hydraulic release during trenching are contamination claims general liability excludes.
Umbrella & excess liability
Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.
Without it — Water damage inside a finished building escalates past a primary limit faster than almost any other landscape 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.
The Grounds Guys — Franchise owners are referred to us by their corporate office. We are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, The Grounds Guys.
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.
“They stay on top of our rates and premiums. They notify us of any potential increase and automatically shop all options to ensure we get the best possible rates. When we initially switched to them they literally cut our premiums in half for both of our companies…”
What irrigation and sprinkler installation operators ask us.
Why is irrigation rated differently from mowing?
Because it is excavation and plumbing rather than maintenance. You dig next to buried utilities, you introduce water under pressure into a customer’s landscape and often up against their building, and the failure mode is water damage rather than a broken window. An account written on a straight grounds-maintenance class code and then doing sprinkler installs is misclassified, which surfaces at audit.
Is backflow prevention work a separate exposure?
It is, and it is regulated separately in most jurisdictions because the failure contaminates a potable water supply. Certification requirements and who may test are set locally. Where you perform or certify backflow work, it should be disclosed — the claim is a public health matter, not just a property one.
Do I need coverage for the damage I do while digging?
Yes, and check whether the policy has an underground or below-surface exclusion before you rely on it. Some contractor forms exclude damage to property below the surface, which for a trenching contractor removes the coverage for the thing most likely to happen. Whether that exclusion is present, and whether it has been bought back, is worth confirming before a job rather than after.