Your GL Policy Has Exclusions Your GC Contract Doesn't Care About
Most contractor liability policies sold in Texas and Florida carry restrictions the
contractor never sees until a claim: open-roof exclusions, height limits, hot-work
exclusions, and subcontractor warranties. The GC contract you signed doesn't have any of
those. Wirehaired Trust places roofing and construction risk with carriers that actually
write the trade in DFW, Houston, and Tampa — across 30+ markets — and turns your
certificates around the same day.
About 2 minutes · No obligation · Roofing, GC, and specialty trades
Read Your Endorsements
The Three Clauses That Deny Roofing Claims
Roofing is one of the hardest trades to place in either state. Carriers manage that by
bolting exclusions onto the policy. A cheap quote is usually a policy with more of them.
The Open-Roof Exclusion
Excludes water damage to the building and contents when a roof is left open, torn off,
or incomplete — whether overnight, over a weekend, or when a storm rolls in
mid-job.
The single most common roofing claim in DFW hail season and Houston's rainy months
Some forms void coverage if the deck isn't dried in by end of day, tarped or not
Others require a written tarp-and-secure protocol you must prove you followed
A denied open-roof claim on a customer's home is a lawsuit against your company, not a claim
We place forms without the exclusion, or with a workable "reasonable precautions" version — and we tell you which one you have.
Height & Story Restrictions
Many contractor GL forms are written for work at or below two or three stories. Step
above the limit — one apartment re-roof, one commercial build — and the
policy doesn't respond.
Restrictions are often buried as a classification limitation, not a labeled exclusion
Multifamily and commercial storm restoration work regularly exceeds the limit
Coupled restrictions: no work above 3 stories, no torch-down, no hot tar, no new residential
Florida re-roofs on mid-rise stock and Texas commercial flat roofs are where this bites
Tell us the tallest thing you'll touch this year and we write to that, not to the cheapest class.
The Subcontractor Warranty
Your policy likely requires every sub to carry equal limits, name you as additional
insured, and sign a written contract with indemnity. Miss one, and the carrier can deny
the claim or hit you with a premium audit charging their payroll as yours.
Uninsured sub crews are the fastest route to a coverage denial
Audit surprises on sub payroll can exceed the original premium
Texas non-subscriber subs and Florida WC exemptions complicate compliance
Certificate tracking is your job under the policy, whether you knew it or not
We set up the sub-compliance file with you at binding, so the audit is boring.
What We Place
The Core Contractor Program
Three policies, written to your actual operations and to what your GC contracts require.
Liability
General Liability
The policy every GC, project owner, and licensing board asks about first. We write it
with the endorsements your contracts require, not just the limits.
Additional insured for ongoing and completed operations
Primary and non-contributory wording; waiver of subrogation
Per-project aggregate where the contract demands it
Open-roof, height, and hot-work terms disclosed and negotiated up front
Umbrella and excess when the project owner requires $5M or more
Access to markets writing storm-restoration and residential re-roof in TX and FL
The rules are different in the two states and the mistakes are expensive in both.
Texas: optional by statute, mandatory by nearly every GC and commercial contract. We handle non-subscriber alternatives when a WC policy isn't the right answer.
Florida: required for any construction business with even one employee. Exemptions are narrow and audited.
Roofing class codes carry some of the highest rates in the book — we work the experience mod and payroll classification, not just the quote
Ghost policies for owner-only operators who need a certificate to get on site
Audit prep so sub payroll doesn't get charged as yours
A Late Certificate Costs You the Job Start. We Don't Do Late.
A GC won't let your crew on site without a COI that matches the contract word for word.
Most agencies treat certificates as an afterthought. We treat them as the reason you
chose an independent agent.
Same-day turnaround on standard certificates, usually within hours during business hours.
Additional insured endorsements issued correctly — ongoing and completed ops, primary and non-contributory, waiver of subrogation — because a certificate that doesn't match the policy is worth nothing when a claim hits.
Contract review before you sign. Send us the insurance section of the GC agreement and we tell you what's required, what's already covered, and what would need to change — before you're committed.
Sub-compliance tracking set up at binding, so your own certificate file survives the audit.
Hail alley. Storm-restoration volume drives carrier appetite up and down by the season,
and the open-roof exclusion is the claim that shows up most. Multifamily re-roof work
routinely runs into height restrictions. Assignment-of-benefits and public adjuster
activity shapes what carriers will write.
Houston
Rain, humidity, and Gulf wind. Open-roof exposure runs year-round, not just in spring.
Commercial flat-roof and hot-tar work triggers hot-work exclusions on many forms. Heavy
GC contract requirements on industrial and petrochemical-adjacent projects push umbrella
limits to $5M and beyond.
Tampa
Florida licensing requires proof of GL and WC before a contractor's license issues.
Wind-mitigation re-roofs and product-approval work under the Florida Building Code are a
large share of the market, and named-storm season compresses every timeline. Workers'
comp applies from the first employee.
Find Out What Your Contractor Policy Actually Excludes
Send us your dec page and endorsements. We'll show you the exclusions, compare 30+ carriers,
and get your certificates out the same day. No pressure, no runaround.
Coverage descriptions are summaries only and are subject to the terms, conditions, and
exclusions of the actual policy. Endorsement availability varies by carrier, state, and risk.
Certificate turnaround times are typical, not guaranteed, and depend on carrier response.
Submitting a request does not bind coverage. Wirehaired Trust is a dba of Pointeriaus, a
licensed independent property & casualty insurance agency in Texas and Florida.
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