Hot work starts fires hours after the crew has gone.
Commercial insurance for welders and fabricators — shop and mobile — written around hot work, fire watch and welds that carry load.
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 welding and fabrication businesses actually need.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage — the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — A spark that smoulders in a cavity and ignites after the crew leaves burns a building you were repairing.
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 — Burns, eye injury and metal fume exposure are the trade's own injuries, on top of the lifting everything else involves.
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 weld that fails under load is a structural failure, and whether it met the specified procedure is the whole claim.
Commercial property
Buildings and contents, valued at what it costs to rebuild today rather than what you paid.
Without it — The shop holds gas, stock and plant, and it is the asset a fire takes first.
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 — Machines, positioners and mobile rigs are high-value, portable, and stolen off trucks and sites.
Commercial auto
Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.
Without it — A mobile rig is a truck carrying compressed gas, which changes what an accident looks like.
Equipment breakdown & spoilage
Covers the walk-in, the compressor and the line when they fail from the inside — a mechanical or electrical breakdown is excluded by property policies, and the stock that thawed goes with it.
Without it — Shop machinery fails electrically and mechanically, and property policies treat that as maintenance rather than a loss.
Umbrella & excess liability
Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.
Without it — A structural failure or a building fire is not a claim a primary limit was sized for.
Business income
Replaces the profit and pays the ongoing bills while a covered loss keeps you closed — the part of a fire claim that is not the building.
Without it — A shop fire stops fabrication and delivery while payroll and lease continue.
What welding and fabrication operators ask us.
Why do contracts make such a fuss about hot work permits?
Because delayed ignition is real and expensive. Sparks and slag travel further than people expect, lodge in cavities and insulation, and smoulder for a long time before flaming — which is why permit procedures require a fire watch continuing after the work stops, not just during it. Some policies now make the procedure a condition of coverage rather than a recommendation, so it is worth knowing whether yours does before an incident rather than after.
Is mobile welding underwritten differently from shop work?
Very. Shop work happens in a space you control, with your own fire protection and your own housekeeping. Mobile work happens on somebody else's premises, frequently on their equipment, sometimes in agricultural or industrial settings full of things that burn. Most welders do both, and the split matters — an application that says only "welding" will be rated for the harder half.
Does certification help me get insured?
It helps the conversation. Procedure and welder qualification to a recognised code is evidence that the work is repeatable and that a failure investigation will have something to point at. It does not remove the exposure, and it does not substitute for errors and omissions coverage on structural work, but it does distinguish a fabricator from an operator with a machine, and underwriters read it that way.
What is the exposure on structural or pressure work?
It is the largest one on this page and it behaves like completed operations everywhere else: the weld passes inspection, the job closes, and the failure arrives under load years later. Structural steel, pressure retaining work and anything lifting or supporting people are the classes carriers underwrite most carefully, and where they are a meaningful share of the work the account belongs with a carrier that writes it deliberately rather than one that took it by default.