Restoration Insurance Tips: Is there Insurance Coverage Available for Tools?

A contractor’s tools and equipment are often the lifeblood of their company. Loss or destruction to their tools could mean a tremendous loss to the company and its revenues. Given that fact, we are often asked to provide insurance coverage for tools and equipment located in our clients’ vehicles or even left at a job site.

The first place most people start to insure all of their property is through a standard property policy. And a property policy is excellent for personal property, inventory, tools and equipment, and machines – as long as the property never leaves the premises. A property insurance policy only provides insurance coverage for the property as long as it is located within 1000 feet of the location listed on the policy. Most property insurance policies exclude any property situated away from the premises, whether in a company vehicle or found a job site.

How Does Restoration Contractor Insure Their Tools?

For restoration contractors, a standard property insurance policy isn’t sufficient to cover their tools and equipment. Most of their tools and equipment are usually inside a company vehicle or at the actual job site. For restoration contractors, we recommend purchasing a miscellaneous tools floater and an equipment floater to adequately protect your property that is located away from the premises.

What Is a Miscellaneous Tools Floater?

A miscellaneous tools floater provides coverage for tools and other small equipment while it is away from your premises. The policy is designed to cover smaller pieces of equipment (less than $2,500 in value). Most policies will cap the amount they will pay per item between $1,000 – $5,000. One of the benefits of the misc. Tools floater is that some policies will even provide additional coverage for employees’ devices while they are in a company vehicle or at a job site.

What Is an Equipment Floater?

An equipment floater provides essentially the same coverage as the miscellaneous tools floater, but it is designed to cover more extensive tools and pieces of equipment – $5,000 in value and above. Typically, you will schedule your pieces of equipment on this type of policy by listing the kind of piece, year, make, model, and replacement cost value. Your premium is then calculated based upon the replacement cost amount listed on the equipment schedule.

Adding Coverage

You are adding a misc. Tools floater or equipment floater insurance policy is quite simple. The easiest way is to take your existing inventory/equipment list and determine which items can be placed on the tools floater and which pieces need to be scheduled on an equipment floater. From there, you can work with your agent is providing you with insurance quotes on the items.

If you are a restoration contractor interested in insurance quotes for your equipment, please feel free to give our office a call.