Everything you work with is heavy and above someone.

General liability

Third-party bodily injury and property damage — the line nearly every contract names by default.

Without it — Material dropped from a scaffold reaches pavements, vehicles and people who were never part of the job.

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 — Falls from scaffold and crush injuries from units and pallets are the severity claims of 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 — Mixers, saws, scaffold and lifting gear sit on sites overnight and are stolen in sets.

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 — A wall that moves, cracks or fails to carry what it was designed to carry is a structural failure rather than an accident.

Commercial auto

Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.

Without it — Loaded flatbeds carrying units and scaffold are heavy vehicles, and a shifted load is a road incident.

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 — Silica from cutting and grinding is a respirable contaminant that the general liability pollution exclusion is written broadly enough to reach.

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 — Mortar splash, saw slurry and staining damage glazing, vehicles and finishes belonging to other parties.

Umbrella & excess liability

Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.

Without it — A fall or a struck pedestrian exhausts a primary 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 — Weather takes down uncured work that has been paid for and not yet 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 — Public and institutional masonry is bonded work, and the bond decides what can be bid.

Does scaffold change my insurance or just my safety plan?

Both, and underwriters ask about it directly. Who erects it, whether it is inspected by a competent person, and whether you use your own or a subcontracted system are all rating questions, because scaffold failure produces the worst losses in the trade. Subcontracting erection to a specialist is generally viewed favourably — but only if you hold their certificates, because without them their payroll lands on your audit.

Is a cracked wall my problem or the designer's?

It depends on whether the failure is workmanship or design, and that argument is exactly why contractors errors and omissions exists. A wall built correctly to a specification that was wrong is a professional claim; one built badly to a good specification is a workmanship claim, and general liability treats those very differently. Where you have any design or means-and-methods input, you are exposed to the first kind whether or not you think of yourself as a designer.

What about silica?

Cutting, grinding and tuckpointing generate respirable crystalline silica, which is a regulated exposure with specified controls. It matters to insurance in two directions: as a workers compensation exposure that appears years later, and as a claim a pollution exclusion may catch. Carriers ask what dust controls you use. Having a real answer — wet cutting, on-tool extraction, respiratory protection — changes the underwriting conversation.

Do restoration and historic work price differently from new build?

Yes. Restoration puts you on older structures of uncertain condition, frequently occupied, often with lead or asbestos somewhere in the building, and usually at height on the street side. New construction is a more predictable exposure. Neither is unplaceable, but they are different submissions and an application that does not distinguish them gets priced for the worse of the two.