Residential building and remodeling
Houses and remodels carry exposures that commercial work does not: occupied homes, owner relationships, water damage from small mistakes, and the long tail of a defect showing up two winters later.
A remodel is harder to insure than a new build, and the reason is the house. You are working inside someone's home, often while they live in it. A nail through a supply line, a dropped tool through a floor, dust damage to a finished interior, a pet let out through an open door: these are ordinary remodeling incidents, and they are the claims that actually occur. Insurers classify remodeling separately because the loss pattern is genuinely different from new construction.
Water damage deserves particular attention. It is the most common and most expensive residential claim, it often comes from a small error, and the damage is usually discovered long after you have left the site. A slow leak behind a finished wall can surface months later and the question becomes whether it was your workmanship or a maintenance failure.
When a family is living in the house you are working on, your exposure includes their possessions and their safety, not just the structure. Access control, dust protection and the security of a house with a wall open matter more than they would on an empty site. Owners also tend to notice everything, which means a higher frequency of small claims even when the severity stays low.
The contract matters here as much as the coverage. Establish in writing who is responsible for the owner's possessions, who secures the site overnight, and what happens if the owner remains in residence during the work. Ambiguity on those three points is what turns a minor incident into a dispute.
Eight coverages cover almost everything a construction business faces. They do different jobs, and buying one does not cover the others.
Third party injury and property damage caused by your operations.
Medical care and lost wages for your own injured employees.
Vehicles used in the business, including owned, hired and non owned.
Your tools and equipment against theft, damage and loss.
The project under construction, plus materials on site.
A guarantee of performance or payment, not a transfer of risk.
Extra limits above your underlying policies once those are used up.
Claims from design work and advice, which general liability excludes.
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Tell us your trade, payroll and the states you work in. A licensed specialist will come back with real numbers.
