What Type of Insurance Do Drywall Installation Businesses Need?
You need to armor your drywall installation company against losses by including a mix of policies in your drywall contractor insurance. Ideally, you should get:
General Liability Coverage
Once you purchase general liability insurance , you get protection against various claims. If your client (property owner) files a lawsuit against your business, this policy will cover your lawyer fees and court costs. It protects you in the following occurrences:
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Third-party bodily injuries – A customer may sustain an injury due to falling objects or tripping over equipment laying on the job site. You'll be held liable for their physical injuries. With general liability coverage, you can pay for their medical bills
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Third-party property damage – Suppose you're hired to install the drywall in someone's basement, and a mishap results in damages to the electrical connection; in that case, you're responsible for paying the repair or replacement costs. Your general liability insurance covers these expenses
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Advertising injuries – If you grab or copy another company's slogan, logo, or online images and use it for advertising your business, you're liable for copyright infringement. The owner of the logo has the right to sue you. That's when general liability coverage comes in handy, paying for defense costs and settlements
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Product liability – If you complete a drywall installation or repair project, your client might find cracks and other blemishes due to poor craftsmanship and they can file a claim against you. Product liability can provide the funds to redo the work or hire someone to handle it
Commercial Property Insurance
Your drywall business certainly has its own commercial building that needs to be insured. Commercial building reconstruction or repair can be very expensive. And in case there’s no emergency fund, you might find yourself in debt. Be smart. Consider getting commercial property insurance.
Fire and extreme weather might totally destroy your drywall business’s commercial building. And if ever this does happen, commercial property insurance will help to pay for reconstruction expenses. Other perils such as vandalism or theft might cause damage to structures. And if you need money for repair services too, trust that commercial property insurance got your back.
Your business has equipment and tools for drywall services. Just like your commercial space, they need to be covered too. That’s why commercial property insurance has an optional policy called business equipment and tools coverage. Say if your drywall business’s tools got damaged or lost because of fire, theft, or vandalism, business equipment coverage will reimburse your losses. This coverage might even replace equipment damaged or lost equipment that was less than three years old.
Commercial Auto Insurance
We’re sure that you use a vehicle to go to different drywall projects. The best way to get that insured is through commercial auto insurance. Commercial auto insurance provides the following protection for your business’s vehicle:
While on the way to a job site, you might crash into someone’s car or collide with an object. The job of auto liability coverage is to make sure that you don’t incur financial losses if such things happen. For example, if the other driver was severely hurt after you hit him, auto liability coverage will pay for his medical costs. This policy will also take care of legal expenses if the other driver decides to sue you.
Auto liability insurance will only pay injured third parties. If passengers also suffered injuries, then medical payments coverage will take care of their treatment. Medical payments coverage is an optional policy. Meaning that you can decide to have it or to not have it. Between the two, we recommend you do the former.
Collisions will damage your vehicle, so with instances of theft, vandalism, fire, and extreme weather. Vehicle parts replacement or repair is never cheap. And so, consider adding physical damage coverage to commercial auto insurance.
There are two types of physical damage coverage, collision and comprehensive. Collision coverage provides money when:
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Your drywall business’s vehicle incurred damages because it crashed into someone's car or another car smashed into it
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Your drywall business’s vehicle incurred damages because it crashed into a fire hydrant or any other similar object
What if the commercial vehicle got damaged because it hit a deer or any other wild animal on the road? Collision physical damage doesn’t cover these things. Instead, what takes care of the cost of damages is comprehensive physical damage coverage.
Comprehensive physical damage coverage doesn’t only provide money if your commercial vehicle got damaged after colliding with a deer or any other wild animal. It also pays if you need repair or replacement services after any of the following happened:
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Someone broke the window of the commercial vehicle to steal something
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Someone decided to put graffiti on the commercial vehicle’s body
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Someone decided to burn the commercial vehicle
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The commercial vehicle burned after lightning hit it
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A strong hail came and broke the commercial vehicle’s windshield and windows
If you got hurt and had your car damaged because of someone’s fault, then you can file a claim against the other person’s insurance to get money for treatments and other expenses. But there’s a hitch, all will be for nothing if the driver at-fault is uninsured or underinsured.
Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage provides money if you experience an accident a driver without insurance or without enough insurance caused. This coverage provides emergency funds so that you can get yourself treated without relying on the other driver’s insurance policy.
Drywall Contractors' E&O Insurance
Also referred to as professional liability coverage, errors & omissions (E&O) insurance covers you if you mistakenly install drywall poorly or miss a deadline that causes someone to lose money. For instance, if an interior designer hires you to install drywall, but poor workmanship causes them to lose business, they can file a lawsuit against you. E&O insurance covers the following:
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Professional negligence
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Legal judgments
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Lawyer fees
Workers' Compensation
Most states require contractors with one or more employees to obtain workers' compensation. This insurance policy covers medical expenses, rehabilitative costs, and lost income if one of your employees sustains a work-related injury or illness. Having workers' compensation insurance ensures you comply with state regulations and provides you with the right protection against personal liability for employee injuries.
Employer’s Liability Insurance
Speaking of employees, know that they might sue you after getting injured at work. General liability can’t cover you if this happens. Remember that general liability only covers third-party claims - meaning people not part of your business.
If you’re worried about an employee suing your business for his or her injuries, consider getting employer’s liability insurance. Employer’s liability insurance is easy to understand. It provides money for you to spend on defense costs and settlements so that you don’t incur losses when an employee files a claim.
How about claims filed because you allegedly harassed, discriminated against, or wrongfully terminated the employee? For these perils, you’ll need a related policy called employment practices liability insurance. Employer’s liability insurance and employment practices insurance can be optional coverages in workers compensation insurance.
How Much Insurance Does Your Drywall Business Need?
One of the factors that affect the cost of drywall business insurance is policy limits. In simple terms, the policy limit is the amount of money you can get from your insurance policy. Having high policy limits means expensive premiums and vice-versa. Knowing how much to get from your insurance helps a lot.
So how much coverage does your drywall business need?
If you’re just an independent drywall professional, then you only need a $200,000 - $500,000 general liability insurance. If you’re running a drywall business, consider getting $1 million - $2 million general liability coverage.
As for commercial auto insurance, you’ll need at least the minimum amount of auto liability coverage mandated by the state where your business is at. For example, if you’re in California, you’ll need commercial auto insurance having auto liability coverage that offers $15,000 coverage per death/injury, $30,000 coverage per death/injury to more than one person, and $5,000 per property damage.
How about commercial property insurance? How much do you need in coverage? When purchasing commercial property insurance, see to it that the coverage it provides is equal to or 5% higher than the value of your commercial space.
