Contractor insurance
Plumbing has a defining exposure that shapes everything else: a connection that fails can release water continuously into a building for hours. The value of the part is irrelevant to the size of the claim.
Service work, new construction and drain work each behave differently from an insurance standpoint, and the mix matters.
This is the claim that defines the trade. A supply connection that fails overnight in a finished home or an occupied commercial building can produce a loss in the hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fitting worth a few dollars.
A slow leak inside a wall may not be discovered for months. Completed work exposure is central here, and continuity of coverage across years can matter more than in trades where problems appear immediately.
Open flame in a joist bay or wall cavity creates a fire exposure that is very similar to the one mechanical contractors face, and it is often overlooked in a trade people associate with water.
Improper relief valve, venting or expansion arrangements produce failures that can be sudden and severe, and gas-fired units add a combustion exposure.
Cable and jetting work can damage older pipe, and the customer will generally view the damage as something you caused. Excavation for service lines adds buried utility strikes and trench safety.
Access to finished spaces, customer belongings and the need to shut water off to a building all create exposures separate from the plumbing itself.
General liability may help address claims alleging bodily injury or damage to someone else's property arising from your operations. Coverage depends on the policy terms and exclusions. Understanding how your policy treats damage caused by your work, as distinct from the cost of correcting the work itself, is the single most useful thing to review.
If you have employees, the exposures are burns from torch work, cuts, lifting water heaters and fixtures, confined space and trench work where excavation is involved, and exposure to sewage in drain work.
Service vans and trucks, plus trailers or equipment for excavation and jetting. Vehicles are usually stocked, taken home by technicians and driven on emergency calls, all of which are worth discussing.
Jetters, cameras, pipe machines, press tools and torches represent significant value, and much of it lives in vehicles overnight. Material purchased for a job and staged on site before installation is commonly handled separately from your liability policy.
This page is general information, not legal, safety or coverage advice. What a policy actually covers depends on your business operations and on the policy, carrier, terms, conditions, limits and exclusions that apply. Nothing here confirms eligibility or guarantees that any coverage is available to you.
This is the completed work question, and it is the one worth reviewing carefully before it happens. Policies generally distinguish between the cost of fixing your own work and the water damage that failure caused to everything else. The second is usually where the money is, so understanding how your policy treats it matters.
The customer will bring it to you, and whether the pipe was already failing is often disputed. Camera footage taken before you start is genuinely useful in these situations, both for the claim and for the conversation with the customer.
Yes. Soldering in a wall or joist bay is open flame inside combustible construction, and plumbing operations are a recognized source of structure fires. If your crews use a torch, it belongs in the conversation alongside the water exposure.
Call or text the office, or send a request and we will get back to you.
Dassel State Insurance Agency is based in Dassel and works with contractors throughout Minnesota.