Most general contractors buy insurance on price. That's the first mistake.

The cheapest policy looks great on paper. It saves you a few hundred dollars and gets you a certificate in 24 hours. It works fine too. Until a sub causes a loss on your job.

That's when you find out their coverage doesn't respond. The claim comes back to you. And now you're looking at your own policy and realizing your limits don't match what your contract with the owner actually requires. $2 million required, $1 million carried.

We're Certified Insurance Counselors (CIC) at Equilibrium Insurance Partners. That's not a sales title. It's an advanced designation that takes years to earn. We work with general contractors across Ohio and we don't sell policies. We build coverage programs.

There's a difference. You'll know exactly what that difference is when you have a claim.

General contractor insurance isn't one policy. It's a program. A combination of coverages built around the specific risks you face on every job.

As a GC, you're not just responsible for your own work. You're responsible for your subcontractors, your job sites, your employees, and in most cases the completed project itself. One lawsuit, one serious injury, one property damage claim can threaten a business you spent years building.

Ohio requires general contractors to carry minimum liability coverage to maintain licensure. But meeting the minimum isn't the same as being covered. Most contractors we talk to have policies that satisfy state requirements on paper while leaving real gaps in actual protection.

General Liability Insurance

This is your foundation. General liability covers bodily injury and property damage that results from your operations. Someone gets hurt on your job site. You damage a property. A completed project causes an injury after you leave. General liability is what responds.

What most agents won't tell you: general liability policies have exclusions that vary by carrier and by trade. Work height restrictions. Subsidence exclusions. Prior work exclusions. If your agent never reviewed your policy language with you, there's a real chance you have gaps you don't know about.

Minimum recommended limits for Ohio GCs are $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate. Most commercial contracts require at least this.

Workers' Compensation Insurance

If you have employees in Ohio, workers' comp is required by law. Ohio is a monopolistic state. That means you buy workers' comp through the Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC), not a private carrier.

What you can control is your experience modifier and your classification codes. Misclassified employees are one of the most common and expensive mistakes we see. Getting classifications right protects you at audit and keeps your premiums from climbing year over year.

Commercial Auto Liability Insurance

Your trucks, vans, and equipment haulers need commercial auto coverage. Not personal auto. If your driver gets into an accident while working and you're relying on a personal auto policy, you're likely uninsured for that loss.

Hired and non-owned auto coverage matters too if your employees use personal vehicles for job-related tasks. Most GCs never think about this until there's a claim.

Inland Marine / Tools and Equipment Insurance

Your tools and equipment are not covered under a general liability policy. They're not covered under commercial property if they're off site. Inland marine coverage protects your gear on job sites, in transit, and in your vehicles.

For GCs running crews with significant equipment, this is not optional. One theft event or equipment loss can cost tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket without it.

Commercial Excess/Umbrella Liability Insurance

Most GC contracts today require $2 million, $3 million, or more in total liability coverage. An umbrella policy sits above your general liability and commercial auto and extends your limits at a relatively low cost.

If you're bidding commercial work, municipal projects, or anything with a sophisticated owner, you need an umbrella.

Builder's Risk Insurance

If you're managing construction projects, builder's risk covers the structure under construction against fire, weather, vandalism, and other covered losses. Who carries it depends on the contract. But someone needs to carry it and you need to know before the project starts.

This is the issue we see more than anything else.

You hire a subcontractor. They send you a certificate of insurance. You file it and move on.

Here's what you might not know. Their policy may have lapsed the day after they sent that certificate. Their limits may not meet your contract requirements. They may not have added you as an additional insured. Their policy may exclude the specific work they're doing for you.

If your sub causes a loss and their coverage doesn't respond, your policy is next in line. That claim hits your record. Your premium goes up. In a worst case your limits are exhausted.

Collect certificates before work starts. Verify additional insured status. Check limits against your contract requirements. Re-verify annually. It's not complicated. But it's the difference between a sub's problem and your problem.



This is where GCs get hurt the most. A sub causes a loss, their coverage doesn't respond, and now it's your problem.

Here's what every subcontractor you hire should be required to carry and provide before they step on your job site.

Additional Insured Status. Your business needs to be listed as an additional insured on their Commercial General Liability, Commercial Auto, and Excess/Umbrella policies. Not just the CGL. All three. If they cause a loss and you get pulled into the lawsuit, their policy needs to defend you.

Ongoing and Completed Operations. Additional insured status needs to cover both. Ongoing operations covers losses while the work is happening. Completed operations covers losses after the job is done. A lot of subs have one without the other. You need both on every subcontractor agreement.

Primary and Non-Contributory Language. Their coverage must respond first. Before yours. Without this language your carrier and theirs will argue about who pays. You don't want your policy touched on a sub's job.

Waiver of Subrogation. Their insurer agrees not to come after you to recover what they paid. This needs to be on the certificate for the CGL, auto, and umbrella. Not just assumed.

Minimum Limits. Set them in your subcontractor agreements and enforce them. A sub carrying $500K in coverage working on a $3M project is a gap you're eating if something goes wrong.

Workers' Comp. Ohio is a monopolistic state so there's no additional insured or waiver of subrogation available on workers' comp. What you can do is verify they have an active BWC policy before work starts. Don't skip this step.

One more thing. A certificate is a point-in-time document. It doesn't mean their policy is still active next month. Track renewals and re-verify annually on any sub you use repeatedly.



The 90-Day Renewal Process

Most agents send you a renewal application 30 days out. You fill it out, they shop it, you get a new policy. Done. 

That's not how we work.  Our renewal process starts 90 days before your expiration date.  Here's an expected timeline:

90 days out. We review your current program. What changed this year? New employees, new equipment, new project types, revenue growth, new states? Every change has coverage implications.

60 days out. We go to market with a complete, accurate submission. Carriers price risk based on the quality of information they receive. A well-prepared submission gets better pricing and better terms than a rushed one.

30 days out. You have options. Multiple quotes. We review them together, compare coverage terms not just price, and make a decision based on what's actually right for your operation.

This isn't how most agencies work. But it's the only way we know how to do it.



Why Independent Agency Matters

We're not tied to one carrier. We work with multiple carriers who specialize in contractor insurance. Companies that understand construction risks, price them accurately, and pay claims when they happen.

If you're working with a captive agency, meaning they only represent one insurance company, you've already lost! They're not shopping your account. They're not comparing terms. They have one option and their job is to fit you into it whether it's right for you or not.

We have leverage. When your renewal comes up we go to market. Multiple carriers competing for your account. That competition drives better pricing and better terms. A captive agent can't do that. They can only hope their one carrier is having a good year.

When your business grows, when you take on a new project type, when your exposure changes, we can move with you. That flexibility matters more than most contractors realize until they need it.



Common Mistakes Ohio General Contractors Make With Insurance

Buying on price alone. The cheapest policy is the most expensive one when you have a claim.

Not updating coverage when the business grows. Your $2M revenue operation has different needs than your $10M revenue operation. Most contractors don't update until renewal. Sometimes not even then. By the time they do, they've been underinsured for two years.

Misclassifying employees on workers' comp. Ohio BWC audits. If your classifications are wrong you'll pay at audit. Get them right upfront.

Skipping inland marine. Your tools aren't covered under GL. If you've never had an inland marine policy there's a real chance your equipment is uninsured right now.

Not verifying subcontractor insurance annually. You collected a certificate when you hired them. That was three years ago. Their policy has renewed twice since then, their limits may have changed, and you have no idea. Re-verify every sub every year. No exceptions.

Letting subs on your jobs with inadequate limits. A sub carrying $500K in coverage on a $5M project is a problem you're inheriting. Set minimum limits in your subcontractor agreements and enforce them before work starts, not after something goes wrong.

Not keeping updated contracts on file for consistent subs. The subs you use repeatedly are the ones most likely to slip through the cracks. No current contract, no updated certificate, no verified limits. Familiarity creates complacency. That's when you get burned.

Not reading the certificate before sending it. You're representing to the GC that you have certain coverages. If that certificate is wrong, wrong limits, missing endorsements, wrong additional insured, you're out of compliance.

Assuming the certificate means the policy is active. A certificate is a snapshot in time. It doesn't guarantee ongoing coverage. Verify, track, and re-verify.

Not carrying enough umbrella. A $1M umbrella made sense when you were doing $2M in revenue. At $10M you're bidding jobs that require $5M in total limits. If your umbrella hasn't scaled with your business you're either losing bids or going into jobs underinsured.

No contractual liability review. You're signing contracts that transfer risk to you every time you take a job. Most contractors never have those contracts reviewed against their policy language. What you agree to in a contract and what your policy actually covers are not always the same thing.



Who We Work With

We work with general contractors across Ohio who are serious about their business. From residential remodelers to commercial GCs running $10M plus projects. Our clients typically fall into one of these situations.



They've outgrown their current agent and need someone who actually understands their operation. They're scaling up and taking on larger projects that require more sophisticated coverage. Or they had a claim experience that showed them exactly where their gaps were.

If any of that sounds familiar, we should talk.