Water, heat and other people’s clothes, mostly with nobody watching.
Cover for laundromats and dry cleaners — the machines, the water damage they cause, customers’ garments in your care, and the solvent exposure that makes dry cleaning its own conversation.
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 laundromat businesses actually need.
Equipment breakdown
Washers, dryers, boilers, presses and water heaters.
Without it — A boiler failure is excluded by property as an internal cause.
Water damage
Escape of water from your machines, including into neighboring units.
Without it — A supply hose failure overnight reaches the whole building.
Customers’ goods (bailee)
Garments in your care — lost, damaged or destroyed.
Without it — Property policies cover what you own, and the clothes are not yours.
General liability
Slips on wet floors, burns, and injury around machinery.
Without it — An unattended public room with hot water and moving machinery.
Pollution, for dry cleaners
Solvent contamination of soil, groundwater or the building.
Without it — Historic solvent contamination is a large and specifically excluded liability.
What laundromat operators ask us.
Why is water damage the main event here?
Because you run dozens of high-volume water connections continuously, often unattended overnight, frequently in a building with other tenants below or beside you. A failed supply hose is a small mechanical event with a large consequence, and in a multi-tenant building the claim is the neighbors’ property and their lost trade as well as yours. Insurers ask about hose age and type, shut-off valves and leak detection, and braided stainless hoses on a replacement schedule is one of the cheapest risk improvements available.
Are customers’ clothes covered?
Only under a bailee extension, which is not automatic. A dry cleaner or wash-and-fold operator can be holding a very large aggregate value in garments at any moment, and a fire or flood destroys all of it at once — while your property policy covers only your own equipment and stock. Set the limit against your peak holding rather than an average, and check how the form values a garment, since replacement cost and depreciated value produce very different settlements on clothing.
What is the solvent problem for dry cleaners?
Perchloroethylene and similar solvents are a serious environmental liability, and contamination frequently predates the current owner. Pollution is excluded from both property and general liability policies, so it needs specific cover — and buying a dry cleaning business without an environmental assessment can mean inheriting a clean-up obligation worth more than the business. This is the single most important diligence item in the sector.
Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.