Texas contractor insurance, trade by trade
Texas does not license general contractors. It licenses trades, and the insurance question follows the trade: TDLR's electrical and air conditioning contractor licenses each carry a general liability condition in rule, plumbing runs through its own board, and everything else is a city permit and a client's certificate request. Workers compensation is elective for most private employers, with statutory strings attached. This page maps that structure and routes you to the Texas page for your trade.
How Texas structures the trades
No state general contractor license
TDLR's list of licensed programs contains the trades, not general contracting (TDLR, licensed programs), and no other Texas agency fills the gap. A general contractor in Texas is a business with a permit history and a client list, not a license number. The practical consequence for insurance is that nothing at the state level sets a liability floor for general construction; the general contractor's coverage is set by the owner, the lender, and the surety, and the subs' coverage is set by the general contractor's certificate requirements.
TDLR licenses electrical and air conditioning contractors, and both licenses carry insurance
Electrical work runs under Occupations Code Chapter 1305, air conditioning and refrigeration under Chapter 1302, and each chapter puts a contractor license at the top of its trade with a financial condition attached. For electrical contractors the condition is stated in 16 TAC 73.40 as general liability of at least $300,000 per occurrence, $600,000 aggregate, and $300,000 products and completed operations (16 TAC 73.40). For air conditioning contractors it is stated in 16 TAC 75.40 and depends on license class (16 TAC 75.40). The two rules were written by the same agency and differ in the details that matter to a contractor holding both licenses: the class split, the renewal filing, the waiver. The Texas electrician insurance and Texas HVAC contractor insurance pages each carry their rule in full.
Plumbing is a separate board
Plumbers are licensed by the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners rather than by TDLR, which matters when a job crosses trades. The electrical chapter's exemptions let a licensed plumber wire a fixture or appliance on existing circuits only, and let a licensed air conditioning contractor make the connections that supply the equipment (Occupations Code 1305.003). Each of those borders is also a border between whose policy answers. The board writes its own insurance condition, the $300,000 certificate a responsible master plumber files before working as one, and that rule is on the plumbing contractor insurance page.
Cities and counties issue the permits
Where the state does not license, local government regulates, and Texas statute assumes that layer: the electrical chapter exempts a homeowner's work on the dwelling they own and live in only where the work is "not specifically regulated by a municipal ordinance" (1305.003(a)(6)). Building permits, trade permits, and any local contractor registration are set by the city or county where the job sits, and a contractor working across the metroplex answers to several. The Texas handyman insurance page is where the unlicensed end of that market is explained.
TDI, and the workers compensation election
The Texas Department of Insurance regulates the state's insurance industry and oversees the administration of the Texas workers compensation system, in its own description (About TDI). That second job is the one a contractor meets. Labor Code 406.002 lets a private employer elect whether to obtain coverage (Texas Labor Code Chapter 406), 406.004 requires an employer that does not to notify the Division of Workers Compensation in writing, and 406.033 strips the contributory negligence, assumption of risk, and fellow-employee defenses from a non-subscriber sued by an injured worker. TDI's employer pages carry the reporting duties (TDI, workers compensation for employers). For the trades on this site, where the injured worker is on a roof, a ladder, or a live panel, the election is the single biggest insurance decision a Texas contractor makes, and it deserves an agent's hour rather than a default.
Texas pages on this site
Each page leads with the Texas rule that shapes its trade, then the coverage that answers it. Pick yours.
- Texas handyman insurance
The unlicensed end of the market: no state general contractor license, a trade line instead of a dollar line, and the client as the one who asks for a certificate.
- Texas HVAC contractor insurance
A TDLR license with a general liability condition that splits by class, and the refrigerant exposure a standard policy can leave out.
- Texas electrician insurance
The license ladder from apprentice to master, the contractor license that carries the insurance rule, and what the certificate form actually asks.
The coverage does not change at the state line. What general liability, tools coverage, commercial auto, and workers compensation each do is on the national pages: handyman insurance, HVAC contractor insurance, and electrical contractor insurance. Grounds crews are unlicensed until they spray: the Texas Department of Agriculture licenses anyone who applies any pesticide to lawns, trees, or ornamentals for hire, and both of its routes carry an insurance condition, which the landscaping insurance page reads from the statute and TDA's rule. Guard companies are licensed by the Department of Public Safety under Occupations Code Chapter 1702, and the company license requires a general liability policy at limits the statute prints, which the security guard insurance page carries. Roofing has no Texas license at all; the roofing contractor insurance page sets that beside Illinois, which has one. Other states' electrical boards are compared in the requirements guide. Or start at the overview.