Carpenters and Joiners Insurance
Carpentry and joinery covers two quite different businesses that often sit in the same company. There is site carpentry, which is first and second fix work, roofs and structural timber, insured like any other site trade. And there is joinery manufacture, which is a factory with woodworking machinery, timber stock, dust extraction and a very serious fire exposure. A firm doing both needs both halves covered properly, and it is usually the workshop half that is under insured.
Workshop fire is the loss that ends joinery businesses. Wood dust, timber stock, finishes and extraction ducting make an efficient fire, and the machinery has lead times measured in months. Property cover rebuilds and replaces; what determines whether the business survives is whether business interruption was arranged with a realistic indemnity period.
We arrange cover for carpenters and joiners from site based sole traders to workshop based manufacturers, and the split between site work and workshop production is the first thing worth establishing.
What actually goes wrong
The exposures that produce claims in this trade, rather than a generic list.
Workshop fire
Wood dust is combustible and gets everywhere, including inside extraction systems where a spark from a machine can carry it. Add timber stock and solvent based finishes and a joinery workshop is a significant fire risk. Machinery lead times mean the interruption often outlasts the rebuild.
Woodworking machinery
Spindle moulders, saws and planers cause severe hand injuries, and machinery accidents in joinery workshops attract enforcement attention. Guarding, training and supervision are what underwriters examine on the employers liability side.
Bespoke joinery in transit and installation
A staircase or a fitted library represents weeks of work in a single item, and it has to travel and be carried into a building. Damage in transit or during installation means remaking rather than replacing, so the loss is the labour as much as the material.
Structural timber and roof work
Where carpentry extends to roof structures, floor joists and structural timber, errors become structural. Notching and drilling joists incorrectly, or altering a roof structure without proper design, moves the exposure from workmanship into structural liability.
Damage to finished work on site
Second fix carpentry happens after decoration and flooring in many programmes. Dropped tools, dragged materials and dust from cutting damage finishes that other trades have just completed, and those claims are frequent and irritating rather than large.
The cover we arrange
Policies are put together around how you work. Employers liability is included as standard wherever you employ anyone.
Public liability
Third party injury and property damage on site and at customers' premises. £2m for domestic work, £5m for commercial and main contractor sites.
- Damage to other trades' finished work
- Injury to occupants and visitors
- Damage during delivery and installation
- Limits typically £2m, £5m or £10m
Employers liability
Legally required and included as standard at £10m. In a workshop the machinery exposure dominates; on site it is work at height and manual handling.
- Legally required, £10m as standard
- Woodworking machinery injuries
- Work at height on site
- Wood dust as an occupational exposure
Workshop property and business interruption
Covers the premises, machinery, timber stock and work in progress, plus income lost while you cannot produce. The indemnity period should reflect real machinery lead times rather than an optimistic estimate.
- Buildings, machinery and extraction plant
- Timber stock and work in progress
- Customers' goods in your care
- Business interruption with a realistic indemnity period
Goods in transit and installation
Covers bespoke joinery between workshop and site and while being installed. Worth having where individual items represent significant labour that cannot simply be bought again.
- Bespoke joinery in transit
- Damage during installation
- Items stored on site before fitting
- Loading and unloading
Tools and equipment
Site tools, portable machinery and hand tools, subject to the usual vehicle conditions. Workshop machinery is covered under the property section rather than here.
- Portable power tools
- Hand tools and site equipment
- Cover on site and in transit
- Vehicle conditions apply overnight
What an underwriter will ask
Having these to hand shortens the process considerably, and usually improves the terms.
- Turnover split between site carpentry and workshop joinery manufacture
- Whether you operate a workshop, and its construction and fire protection
- Machinery list and values, and dust extraction arrangements
- Timber and finished goods stock values
- Whether solvent based finishes or spraying are used, and whether there is a spray booth
- Whether you carry out structural timber work or roof structures
- Whether you design staircases or structural elements
- Maximum working height on site
- Whether customers' goods are held at your premises
- Five years of claims, including any machinery injuries
What moves the premium
Where the price actually comes from, and which parts of it you can change.
Workshop or site only
A site only carpenter is a straightforward liability risk. Adding a workshop adds property, machinery, stock and business interruption, and changes the whole shape of the placement.
Workshop fire protection
Construction of the building, separation of the spray area, extraction arrangements and housekeeping all drive the property rate, and a joinery workshop fire is usually a total loss.
Machinery and guarding
Machinery values drive the property sum insured, while guarding and training drive the employers liability view. Spindle moulders attract particular attention.
Structural work
Roof structures and structural timber move the risk beyond ordinary carpentry, and any design element points towards professional indemnity.
Business interruption period
Not strictly pricing, but the most common error. Machinery lead times of six months or more mean a twelve month indemnity period is often the minimum realistic figure.
Conditions and exclusions that catch this trade out
Terms vary between insurers, so treat these as the questions to ask rather than a description of any one policy.
Faulty workmanship
Remaking a door that does not fit, or refitting a badly hung staircase, is your cost. Damage the defect causes to other property is the claim. In joinery this bites more than usual, because the item itself is often the most valuable thing involved.
Design of structural elements
Where you design a staircase, a roof structure or a structural timber element, that is design and public liability does not respond to it. Staircases in particular are subject to regulation, and a non compliant one is a compliance failure rather than a defect.
Spraying and finishing conditions
Solvent based spraying carries fire and explosion risk and usually attracts specific conditions about booths, ventilation and storage of finishes. Spraying outside a booth may not be covered at all.
Dust accumulation
Some property wordings carry conditions about housekeeping and dust extraction in woodworking premises, because accumulated dust is what turns a small fire into a total loss. These conditions are enforced after a fire.
Tools in unattended vehicles
Standard vehicle warranties requiring locked and often alarmed vehicles, with overnight restrictions. Site carpenters carry substantial tool values and are frequent theft targets.
Common questions
What insurance do carpenters need?
For site carpentry: public liability at £2m for domestic and £5m for commercial, employers liability at £10m where anyone works under your direction, and tools cover. If you also run a joinery workshop you need property cover for the building, machinery, timber and work in progress, business interruption for the income lost while you cannot produce, and cover for customers' goods held at your premises. The workshop half is the part most often under insured.
Is my joinery workshop machinery covered by my tools policy?
No. Tools cover is for portable equipment taken to site and carried in vehicles. Fixed workshop machinery, extraction plant and stock belong under a property policy covering the premises. This is a common and expensive misunderstanding, because a firm relying on a tools section with a modest limit has nothing like enough cover for a workshop full of machinery, and will discover that only after a fire.
How long should my business interruption indemnity period be?
Long enough to actually recover, which for joinery is longer than most people assume. Rebuilding or refitting premises takes months, and specialist woodworking machinery frequently has lead times of six months or more before you can produce anything again. A twelve month indemnity period is often the realistic minimum and twenty four is not unreasonable for a workshop with unusual machinery. Setting it at twelve because that seems standard, when your spindle moulder takes nine months to arrive, leaves a gap exactly where the business is most vulnerable.
Am I covered for a bespoke staircase damaged in transit?
Only if you have goods in transit cover, and it is worth having in this trade. Public liability will not cover it, because the staircase is your property or property in your care rather than third party property. The loss is not just materials: a bespoke item represents weeks of workshop labour that has to be repeated, and the customer's programme slips as well. Where individual items carry significant value, they are worth declaring rather than relying on a general transit limit.
Do carpenters need professional indemnity insurance?
It depends what you design. Fitting a staircase somebody else designed is workmanship. Designing the staircase, including going, rise and headroom, is a design activity subject to building regulations, and a non compliant staircase has to come out. The same applies to roof structures and structural timber altered without an engineer. If your work includes any of that, professional indemnity responds where public liability does not, since the cost of a design being wrong is not damage caused by your work.
Are there special conditions for spraying finishes?
Usually yes, and they are worth checking before relying on the cover. Solvent based finishes carry fire and explosion risk, and property policies for joinery workshops commonly attach conditions about spraying being carried out in a designated booth with adequate ventilation, about quantities of finish stored, and about how it is stored overnight. Spraying outside a booth may fall outside cover entirely. Since a finishing area fire tends to take the whole workshop, insurers treat these conditions seriously.
Talk to somebody who knows the trade
Tell us what you actually do and we will come back to you with cover options built around it.