Tile contractor insurance, for the dust in the cut and the water behind the wall

Under a general liability policy, completed operations "refers to work of the insured that has been completed as called for in a contract ... or work that has been put to its intended use," in IRMI's definition (IRMI, completed operations). The hazard those claims fall under, products-completed operations, is liability "arising out of the insured's products or business operations conducted away from the insured's premises once those operations have been completed or abandoned," and it carries an aggregate limit of its own, separate from the general aggregate (IRMI, products-completed operations). A tile setter's serious claim is always in that hazard. Tile is not waterproofing; the assembly behind it is, and when the pan, the membrane, or the pitch to the drain is wrong, the tile looks perfect for a year while the water goes into the framing, the subfloor, and the ceiling of the room below. The claim arrives with a mold remediation invoice attached and your name on the permit.

Two damages in one claim. The tile that comes out to fix the pan is damage to your own work. The joists, the drywall below, the tenant's furniture, and the weeks the family cannot use the bathroom are damage the finished work caused to other property and people. Liability forms treat those two differently, and the honest way to buy this coverage is to describe the worst wet-room failure you can picture to an agent and ask, line by line, what the form answers for. A bathroom addition on a new build has one more layer: the structure and the material in it are insured, if at all, under the project's builders risk policy until the owner takes it over, and that policy leaves defective work out. The certificate a general contractor requires before your crew starts, and the difference between the certificate and a bond, are on the bonded and insured guide.

The federal rule for this trade is about dust. OSHA's construction silica standard "applies to all occupational exposures to respirable crystalline silica in construction work, except where employee exposure will remain below 25 micrograms per cubic meter of air (25 µg/m³) as an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) under any foreseeable conditions." That 25 is also the action level; the permissible exposure limit is 50 µg/m³ over eight hours. The standard's Table 1 lists tasks and, for each, the engineering control and respirator required, and the entries include stationary and handheld power saws, walk-behind saws, handheld and stand-mounted drills, jackhammers and chipping tools, and handheld grinders for mortar removal and for other uses. An employer must also "establish and implement a written exposure control plan" naming the silica tasks, the controls for each, the housekeeping, and who may enter the area (29 CFR 1926.1153). OSHA's construction page puts the choice plainly: "Employers can either use the control methods laid out in Table 1 of the construction standard, or they can measure workers' exposure to silica and independently decide which dust controls work best," and "Applying water to a saw blade when cutting materials that contain crystalline silica, such as stone, rock, concrete, brick, and block, substantially reduces the amount of dust created" (OSHA, Silica, Crystalline: Construction). Porcelain, cement backer board, thinset, and the slab under all of it are this trade's versions of that list. The standard is written to employers and says nothing to a solo setter; a crew dry-cutting backer board in a client's garage is inside it, and an underwriter who asks "wet saw or grinder?" is asking about the standard whether or not they name it. Whether silica dust drifting through a client's house is a "pollutant" under a liability form's pollution exclusion is a wording question, and the pollution liability page explains how broad that definition is.

The license is a state question. California licenses the trade as its own classification: a C-54 ceramic and mosaic tile contractor "prepares surfaces as necessary and installs glazed wall, ceramic, mosaic, quarry, paver, faience, glass mosaic and stone tiles; thin tile that resembles full brick, natural or simulated stone slabs for bathtubs, showers and horizontal surfaces inside of buildings, or any tile units set in the traditional or innovative tile methods, excluding hollow or structural partition tile" (CSLB, Licensing Classifications). The flooring classification next to it, C-15, ends with the words "except ceramic tile," which is where C-54 begins, and the painting and drywall trades are C-33 and C-9 in the same list. The license is required on any project whose total price, labor and materials, reaches $1,000, since January 1, 2025 (CSLB, AB 2622 implementation bulletin). Texas licenses none of the four: the Department of Licensing and Regulation's program list, read in full, has no tile entry, and the state licenses named trades rather than construction work generally (TDLR, licensed programs); the trades it does license are on the Texas contractor insurance hub. Florida's licensing agency lists flooring tile among the minor tasks that need no contractor license (Florida DBPR, Construction Industry FAQs). Most states fall somewhere on the map the handyman insurance page draws, and in most of them the requirement that reaches a tile setter is a general contractor's certificate request rather than a board's.

Business property coverage can extend to equipment and supplies, owned or leased (NAIC). A tile company's property is a rail saw, a bridge saw if you fabricate, grinders and polishers, a mixing station, leveling systems, and the tile and slab stock, which in a stone job can be the most valuable thing on the site. Agents write this line as an equipment floater; ask how a saw stolen off the trailer is treated and whether a slab that cracks in transit is a property claim, an auto claim, or neither.

Epoxy grout and sealers make you an employer under OSHA. Epoxy and urethane grouts, solvent-based sealers, and acid cleaners are hazardous chemicals, and OSHA's hazard communication standard requires "all employers to provide information to their employees about the hazardous chemicals to which they are exposed," through labels, safety data sheets, and training (29 CFR 1910.1200; OSHA, Hazard Communication). The general PPE standard has the employer assess the hazards, select the equipment, and see that it fits (29 CFR 1910.132), and for a tile crew that assessment starts with the respirator the silica standard already requires.

A business that owns or leases vehicles needs commercial auto; personal policies may exclude business-related liability, and commercial forms can reach rented and non-owned vehicles, including an employee's own car driven for the company (NAIC). A tile crew's rig is a pickup with a trailer carrying the saw, the water, and a pallet of tile or an A-frame of slab, heavy and top-loaded, and the trailer belongs on the schedule with that use described. The helper who drives to the job in their own car with the grout is driving for you; hired and non-owned auto liability answers for that car.

Nearly all states require an employer to carry workers compensation, in the NAIC's words (NAIC), and the price is payroll by class times a rate per $100 of payroll, with an experience modifier for the employer's own losses, in the Texas Department of Insurance's description of the system (TDI, workers compensation rate guide). Tile setting has a class of its own. New York's rating bureau gives code 5348 the phraseology "Marble or Stone Setting – Inside – All Operations to Completion" and describes the work as installing stone, mosaic, terrazzo, or ceramic tile on interior walls and floors: leveling the floor with a sand and cement base, setting the tile in cement, grouting, and hand-cleaning, with troweled floor systems and interior stone mantels in the same class (NYCIRB, class 5348). That is New York's code; the bureau in your state has its own, and sets its own rate. What the description tells an owner is that the class is defined by interior work on the knees and the back, not by height, which is why a tile crew's underwriting questions are about dust and lifting rather than ladders.

The setter who brings their own trowels. Owning the tools does not settle whether someone is your employee; the right to control the work does. For the IRS an employee "works at the control and direction of another," and the right to control counts whether or not it is exercised (IRS Publication 4902). Texas lets a private employer decline coverage, where the Department of Insurance says it "is not required in most cases" (TDI, employer resources); the notice a non-subscriber files and the three defenses it loses are on the Texas hub.

The inputs behind a tile quote, not the quote itself. Wet areas lead, because a book that is mostly showers, steam rooms, and pool surrounds carries the completed-operations claim on every job, and a book that is mostly floors and backsplashes does not. Commercial versus residential, and whether you fabricate and set stone slab, which adds weight, saws, and a different injury. Dust control, since an underwriter who asks about wet cutting is asking about the silica standard. Revenue, because liability premium is often rated on it, and payroll, because workers compensation premium is built on it. The subcontractors you use and whether they carry their own coverage, since a sub without it is priced as your payroll. The vehicles and trailers on the schedule. Loss history, which reaches the workers compensation premium through the experience modifier and the liability premium through the file. Your state. An account that says only "tile" is priced against the worst shower in the class. The share of your work that is wet areas, how you waterproof, and how you cut are what move it off that number.