ContractorNerd

A framing crew was working a residential job. One of the guys parked his personal truck on the sloped driveway. Forgot to set the parking brake. The truck rolled down the driveway and hit the homeowner's car. Cracked the bumper, dented the quarter panel, broke a taillight. About $6,500 in damage. Sounds simple. But the insurance question isn't. The employee was driving his personal vehicle to and from the job site. The contractor didn't own the truck. So the contractor's commercial auto policy didn't apply, because it only covers vehicles on the policy schedule. What did apply was the contractor's hired and non-owned auto endorsement, which extends liability coverage to vehicles the contractor doesn't own but that are used in connection with the business. Without that endorsement, the contractor would have been personally liable or would have had to rely on the employee's personal auto insurance, which might have denied the claim since the vehicle was being used for work. This is one of the most common gap scenarios we see. If your employees or subs drive personal vehicles to job sites, you need hired and non-owned auto coverage. Period.

If you only understand one thing about your GL policy, make it this: is it occurrence or claims-made? Occurrence policies cover events that happen during the policy period, no matter when the claim is filed. If your policy was active when the damage occurred, you're covered, even if the claim comes in two years later. Claims-made policies only cover claims that are filed during the policy period. If the damage happened while your policy was active but the claim comes in after you've switched carriers, you might have no coverage unless you bought a tail policy. For most contractors, occurrence is the better option. Construction defect claims almost always surface after the job is done. Water damage, structural settling, faulty installations. These things show up months or years later. Claims-made policies are more common in professional liability (E&O), but some GL markets offer them too, especially for harder-to-place risks. If you're in one of those programs, make sure you understand the retroactive date and what happens if you switch carriers. The price difference between occurrence and claims-made can be significant. But the coverage difference during a claim is even bigger.

A week of rain just pushed your schedule back five days. The GC is asking when you'll be done. The homeowner is calling. Your crew is sitting at home. Who eats the cost? In most construction contracts, weather delays are addressed in the delay clause or force majeure language. But the specifics vary a lot. On commercial jobs, the standard AIA contract gives the contractor a time extension for unusual weather but doesn't provide additional compensation. You get more time, not more money. On residential jobs, the contract language is often thinner or nonexistent. If there's no delay clause, the risk allocation is unclear, and that usually means the sub absorbs it. From an insurance perspective, weather delays themselves aren't a covered peril on your GL or workers comp. But the downstream effects can be. If standing water on a site leads to a slip-and-fall, that's a GL claim. If you rush to make up time and an employee gets hurt, that's a workers comp claim. The practical advice: read the delay language in your contracts before you sign them. If there's nothing there, negotiate something. And don't let schedule pressure create safety shortcuts.

If you could change one thing about how contractor insurance works, what would it be? The pricing? The paperwork? The audits? The speed? The way policies are written? We hear from contractors every day, and the system frustrates almost everyone in a slightly different way. We want to know what bothers you most. No wrong answers here. What would make your insurance experience better?

Hiring your first employee is one of the biggest financial decisions a contractor makes. And the insurance costs are the part most people don't plan for. Here's what changes the day you go from solo to one employee: Workers compensation becomes mandatory in almost every state. Depending on your trade, that can cost $5 to $30+ per $100 of payroll. A roofer paying a helper $50K a year might spend $10,000 to $15,000 on workers comp alone. Your GL premium will likely increase because most policies are rated partly on payroll. If they're driving a company vehicle, your commercial auto policy needs to cover them. If they're driving their own vehicle for work, you need hired and non-owned auto coverage. Employment practices liability becomes relevant. Wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment claims. These can come from a single employee just as easily as from a team of fifty. Then there's payroll tax, unemployment insurance, and whatever benefits you offer. The total loaded cost of a $50K employee is usually 25 to 40% higher than their wage, depending on trade and state. None of this means you shouldn't hire. It means you should budget for it before you commit. Run the numbers with your accountant and your insurance broker at the same time, not separately.

OSHA's recordable injury rate for construction was 2.8 per 100 full-time workers in 2024. That's higher than the all-industry average of 2.4. But here's why that number matters beyond compliance. Your OSHA recordable rate feeds into your Experience Modification Rate, which drives your workers comp premiums for the next three years. Every recordable injury gets reported. Every report factors into your EMR calculation. And every EMR point above 1.0 costs you money, both in premiums and in lost bid opportunities. The trades with the highest recordable rates tend to be roofing, structural steel, and excavation. But even lower-hazard trades like electrical and plumbing see recordable rates that can push your EMR if you're running a small payroll, because the math is more volatile with fewer workers. Two things to know: First, not every injury is recordable. OSHA has specific criteria, and getting the classification right matters. If your broker or safety consultant isn't helping you with recordkeeping, they should be. Second, first aid treatment that stays below the recordable threshold doesn't hit your OSHA log or your EMR. Understanding that line can save you real money.

A plumber was running new lines in a residential remodel. He cut into what he thought was an abandoned gas line. It wasn't. The leak triggered an evacuation. Fire department responded. The gas company shut down service to three neighboring homes. Nobody was hurt, but the property damage and business interruption costs for the neighbors added up fast. Total claim: $145,000. His GL policy covered the property damage to the neighboring homes and the legal costs. But there were complications. The gas company came after him separately for the emergency response and repair costs. That was a separate claim on his policy. The homeowner's project was delayed by three weeks. The contract didn't have a force majeure clause, so the homeowner tried to back-charge the plumber for the delay costs. His GL policy didn't cover that. It was a contractual dispute. Lessons here: GL covers third-party property damage and bodily injury. It doesn't cover your own contractual obligations. If your contracts don't address scenarios like this, you're carrying that risk yourself. And on the practical side: always verify. "Abandoned" doesn't mean disconnected.

"Add us as additional insured." If you're a subcontractor, you hear this on every job. But what does it actually mean, and why should you care? When a GC requires additional insured status on your GL policy, they're asking your insurance to extend coverage to them for claims arising from your work. If someone gets hurt because of something you did on the job, and the GC gets sued too, your policy helps cover the GC. There are different forms that provide different levels of coverage. The most common ones are CG 20 10 (ongoing operations) and CG 20 37 (completed operations). Most GCs want both. Here's what matters to you: Additional insured endorsements don't cost you extra on most policies. But they do affect your loss history if a claim is paid. Some policies include blanket additional insured coverage, meaning anyone required by written contract is automatically covered. This saves you from needing to add each GC individually. If your policy doesn't have a blanket endorsement, every new GC request means a policy change, which means waiting on your agent, which means delays. Check whether your GL has blanket additional insured. If it doesn't, ask your broker about adding it. It's usually the most efficient way to handle the volume of AI requests most subs deal with.

It's 4:55 on a Friday. Your phone buzzes. A GC needs your certificate of insurance by Monday morning or you can't start the job. Your agent's office closes at 5. You call. Voicemail. This happens constantly. And it's not a small problem. Delayed COIs mean delayed job starts, which mean delayed revenue. For a small contractor, that can throw off your entire month. The fix isn't complicated, but it requires some upfront work: Keep a template COI on file with your agent that covers your most common additional insured requirements. When a new GC asks, your agent just fills in the name and sends it. Confirm your agent has after-hours or same-day COI turnaround. If they don't, that's a real cost to your business. Maintain a running list of GCs and their insurance requirements. Most GC requirements don't change year to year. If you've already provided a COI to a GC once, the next one should take five minutes. Your insurance program should move at the speed of your business, not slow it down.

What's your biggest headache when it comes to contractor insurance? We talk to contractors every day and the same complaints come up over and over. Audits that make no sense. COI requests that take three days. Policies that don't match how the business actually works. Renewals where the price jumps and nobody explains why. We're building ContractorNerd to fix as many of these as we can. But we want to hear directly from you. What's the one thing about your insurance that drives you crazy?