Trade coverage
Heavy equipment, deep trenches, and underground utility strikes produce catastrophic injury and utility damage claims. A single gas-line strike or trench collapse can be a total-loss event.
General liability responds to two different things for your trade. The first is injury or damage caused while you are working, which for excavation and grading work is striking a buried gas, fiber, or water line, causing an outage or an explosion. The second is a claim that surfaces after you have finished, known as completed operations, and it is the half of the policy most often missing from a cheap quote.
Frequently surplus lines because of the high severity and pollution exposure; some small residential grading work stays with admitted carriers.
These are the loss scenarios that drive claims for this trade, in the order we see them.
Each of these changes what the policy actually pays. Request them at quote stage.
General liability on its own leaves gaps that show up as denied claims rather than as missing coverage.
$1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate is the minimum; $2M/$4M or higher with an umbrella is common for utility and site work. That is the limit, not the premium. The premium depends on your payroll, your state, your subcontractor use and your claims history, and it moves most with the hazard of the trade itself, which for excavation and grading is highest.
Frequently surplus lines because of the high severity and pollution exposure; some small residential grading work stays with admitted carriers.
In order of how often we see them: Striking a buried gas, fiber, or water line, causing an outage or an explosion; A trench collapse injuring or burying a worker; Damage to a neighboring foundation or retaining wall from excavation.
These four come up repeatedly: Pollution coverage for fuel spills and disturbed soil; Additional insured with completed operations; Waiver of subrogation; Per-project aggregate. Get them written into the quote rather than requested after binding, because that is where the delays come from.
Alongside general liability: Commercial auto; Contractors pollution liability; Inland marine for heavy equipment; Workers compensation and umbrella.
Yes. Their policy defends them, not you. If your work causes damage, their carrier can pay the claim and then pursue you to recover it.
Classification and carrier appetite differ by trade, so it is worth seeing how yours compares.
Tell us your payroll, state and what your contract requires.
