Other Insurance Policies for Pressure Washing Businesses
Given the multiple threats facing your pressure washing business, you need more than liability coverage. General liability insurance protects your business from third parties. You need additional small business insurance for power washing to protect your business from equipment theft, damage or commercial vehicle collision.
You need protection in the unfortunate event that an employee falls off a ladder or slips on a wet surface and sustains life-threatening injuries. Taking out additional insurance policies ensures your business is covered against any possible threat. That leaves you free to run your business with a clear conscience and utmost peace of mind.
Besides general liability coverage, additional exterior cleaning insurance for your business includes:
Commercial Property Insurance
Safeguarding business assets is critical to your business success. Commercial property primarily covers your pressure washing business’s commercial building. If the commercial building is destroyed by fire or extreme weather, commercial property insurance will reimburse your losses based on the value of the commercial building. Commercial property insurance also provides coverage if the commercial building only incurred damage due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils.
Business equipment and tools coverage is an inclusion in commercial property insurance. You need to cover valuable equipment and tools such as pressure washers, nozzles, hoses, hot water units, surface cleaners, X jets and more. The job of business equipment and tools coverage is to reimburse losses if these items are damaged or destroyed due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils.
Commercial property insurance for pressure washing businesses also includes stocks and contents coverage. Inside the commercial building are CCTV cameras, furniture, and other valuable items. Also, there are cleaning agents stored. If these become lost or damaged due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils, stocks and contents coverage will reimburse your losses.
How Does Commercial Property Insurance Reimburse Your Losses?
Commercial property insurance provides reimbursements in two ways:
Actual cash value
Replacement cost value
Reimbursements made through actual cash value will be equal to the depreciated value of the damaged or lost property. In other words, the money you’ll get will be lesser than the original worth of the scheduled property.
On the other hand, reimbursements made through replacement costs will be equal to the non-depreciated value of the property covered. In other words, the money you’ll get will be equal to the original price of the property scheduled.
Actual cash value commercial property insurance is cheaper than replacement cost commercial property insurance. However, the protection it provides isn’t very comprehensive. It’s not ideal if your pressure washing business doesn’t have adequate reserves to shoulder any excess.
Workers Compensation Insurance
Most states require pressure washing businesses with employees to have workers' compensation insurance. This insurance will help if an employee gets injured or sick because of work.
This type of interior and exterior cleaning insurance for pressure washing businesses cover the treatment, hospitalization, rehabilitation, and lost income compensation of an injured or sick employee.
Compensation for lost income, which workers' compensation insurance provides, is a weekly allowance equal to two-thirds or 67% of the average weekly wage. Say, if the employee makes $545, then he or she will receive $365.15 insurance money per week from workers' compensation insurance.
Workers' compensation also provides death benefits if the employee dies. Death benefits include but are not limited to payments for funeral expenses and cash aid to the deceased’s family. Cash aid is also equal to 67% of the average weekly wage.
Is Workers Compensation Insurance Useful for Pressure Washing Businesses?
Workers' compensation insurance is useful as work-related hazards are very common among pressure washing businesses. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the incident rate at 2.4. Here are some examples of recorded incidents.
| Incident Date | What Happened |
|---|
| October 4, 2020 | Workers were about to do pressure washing work using a pump and a pressure washing gun. While pressure testing, one of the employees lost control of the gun. The gun then sent a jet of water to the other employee’s face and neck. The employee who got hit sustained a severed carotid artery and died
|
| April 5, 2018 | An employee was using a pressure washer to clean equipment. While cleaning, the pressurized water struck the employee's right boot, went through it, and cut his foot. Responders were called and the employee in question was treated for foot laceration
|
| October 1, 2019 | An employee was using a pressure washer to clean a tractor-trailer. Since the machine is big, he used a ladder as a platform in order to accomplish a thorough cleaning. It should be noted that this ladder had wheels that didn't have a lock to prevent them from turning. As he was descending from the ladder, the employee fell and struck his head on solid concrete that caused his death
|
| August 9, 2006 | An employee was pressure washing equipment. While working, the end of the pressure washing tank blew off resulting in the metal bands to loosen and hit the worker in question. This resulted in bruises and abrasions. The worker was taken to the hospital to get treated
|
Business Interruption Insurance
Relocation, renovation, and the occurrence of a hurricane, storm, and other extreme weather will force you to close business temporarily. If business is closed, income isn’t generated. The tricky thing is you’ll still have to pay for a lot of operational costs, and paying using your business’s previous earnings will do significant financial damage.
Insurance companies offer business interruption insurance for such exposure. If you have to stop business momentarily due to the causes we mentioned, this insurance policy will help pay for employee wages, taxes, loans, electrical bills, and other operational costs.
Commercial Auto Insurance
Pressure washers must travel to a client's premises to provide services. Commercial auto insurance is a must if you use a vehicle for business purposes.
You need this if you use your truck to meet clients, haul pressure washing equipment, and take employees to different project sites. Note that some insurance companies allow customers to upgrade their personal auto insurance to commercial auto insurance for easier policy management.
Commercial auto insurance provides the following protections for your pressure washing business’s vehicle:
The commercial vehicle of your pressure washing business might cause an accident. As a result, third parties might incur injuries or have their property damaged. Your business will be responsible for what happened. In connection, auto liability coverage will help by paying for medical expenses and reimbursing damaged property on your behalf.
Aside from third parties, the driver, as well as the employees inside the commercial vehicle, might sustain injuries. Medical payments coverage can help with this. Its function is to cover the medical expenses if the commercial vehicle caused or got involved in an accident resulting in the driver and the passengers incurring injuries.
Physical damage coverage will pay for parts repair or replacement if the commercial vehicle of your pressure washing business incurred damage. This has two types:
Collision physical damage coverage - Collision physical damage coverage will take care of parts repair or replacement if the commercial vehicle incurred damage after crashing into an object or another vehicle
Comprehensive physical damage coverage - Comprehensive physical damage coverage will take care of parts repair or replacement if fire, extreme weather, vandalism, theft, and other covered perils damaged or destroyed the commercial vehicle of your pressure washing business
Cyber Liability Insurance
Hackers are increasingly targeting small businesses. Cyber liability insurance protects your company against losses resulting from a cyber-attack, including data breaches, ransomware extortion, and theft. The policy will cover the costs of:
Investigating the incident
Loss of revenue
Ransomware attack payments
Risk assessment to thwart future incidents
Business Owner’s Policy for Pressure Washing Businesses
BOP bundles the basic business commercial property insurance and general liability insurance. If you’re planning to buy general liability and commercial property insurance separately, then get this instead. By doing so, you’ll save 5% - 10% on premium costs.
But note that since the insurance industry is very competitive, many carriers add more perks to their business owner’s policy to leverage themselves. For example, CoverWallet’s business owner’s policy comes with workers' compensation insurance. There’s also The Hartford selling a business owner’s policy that includes data breach insurance and professional liability insurance.
