Contractor general liability covers third-party bodily injury and property damage from your premises, operations, and completed work, plus the defense. For contractors the key details are completed operations, additional insured and waiver endorsements, per-project aggregate, and construction exclusions like residential, subcontractor, and action-over.
Premises, operations, and completed operations
Three exposures matter. Premises and operations covers injury or damage while you are working. Completed operations covers claims from your finished work after you leave, which for contractors is often the larger and longer-tailed risk. A policy without adequate completed-operations coverage, or one that lets it lapse, leaves years of past jobs exposed. This is the first thing to confirm on any contractor GL.
The endorsements contracts demand
Contracts rarely just ask for general liability. They ask for the client to be an additional insured, often on a completed-operations basis, plus a waiver of subrogation and primary and noncontributory wording, and frequently a per-project aggregate so one project's claims do not erode the limit for others. A certificate that lists these means little without the endorsements behind it. We confirm the endorsements are actually on the policy.
The exclusions to check
Construction GL carries exclusions that can gut coverage for your core work: residential or new-residential exclusions, subcontractor exclusions, action-over exclusions that bar employee injury claims routed through a third party, and form-specific items like EIFS or height limits. The wrong exclusion can deny exactly the claim you bought the policy for. We read the exclusions against the work you actually do.
How we handle it
We place general liability written for construction, with completed operations at limits that match your contracts. We add the additional insured, waiver, primary and noncontributory, and per-project aggregate endorsements your jobs require. We read the exclusions against your operations and flag the dangerous ones. And we coordinate it with your umbrella so the excess layer follows.
