Builders’ Insurance in Trowbridge: Cover for Work in Wiltshire’s County Town

Reviewed by Matthew Bartlett, Director, Apex Insurance Brokers Limited · Last reviewed 2026-08-08

Why the wool trade still shapes a Trowbridge builder’s risk

Trowbridge is the county town of Wiltshire, and it grew on woollen cloth. That industrial past hasn’t vanished — it’s standing all over the town. Former mill buildings, many of them converted or awaiting conversion, sit alongside the terraces and cottages that housed the people who worked in them. If you build in Trowbridge for any length of time, sooner or later you’ll be working on something that predates cavity walls, damp-proof courses and modern wiring by a comfortable margin.

From an insurance point of view, that older stock changes three things. First, reinstatement cost: thick masonry, lime mortar, timber floors and traditional roofing are expensive to repair like-for-like, so a public liability claim for damage to a client’s heritage property runs bigger than the same accident on a modern estate — a £1m limit that felt generous elsewhere can look thin here. Second, fire risk: hot works — grinding, torch-applied felt, soldering — inside old timber-floored buildings is exactly the scenario insurers write hot-works conditions for, and breaching those conditions can void a claim. Third, the unknowns: opening up a nineteenth-century building reveals surprises, and the gap between what you quoted for and what you find is where disputes, delays and claims tend to live.

Which covers are legally required — and which are just unavoidable?

Only one is compulsory. If you employ anyone — and for insurance purposes that includes labour-only subcontractors, apprentices and the lad you pay cash on a Friday — the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 requires you to hold employers’ liability cover. There is no grey area on this, and trading without it risks significant penalties. A genuine one-man band with no help on site doesn’t need it; the day you take someone on, you do.

Public liability is not required by law. In practice you won’t work long without it. Main contractors won’t put you on site, and because Trowbridge is the county town, a fair amount of the work washing around it is public-sector or commercial — council frameworks, schools, offices, housing providers. Those clients specify liability limits in the contract, commonly £5m and sometimes £10m, and they check certificates before you start. If you want a slice of that steadier work, your PL limit is effectively set by the client, not by you.

Beyond those two, the sensible additions are contract works (the job itself — materials and part-built work — against fire, storm, theft and vandalism), tools and own plant, hired-in plant, and personal accident cover, which matters more for sole traders precisely because there’s no employers’ liability policy and no sick pay behind you if you can’t work.

Mill conversions, listed buildings and getting the policy wording right

Conversion and refurbishment of former industrial buildings is a distinct class of work, and insurers treat it that way. If you’re pricing a job in a converted mill or a listed property — and a town with Trowbridge’s history has plenty of both — a few things are worth checking before you sign anything.

Make sure your policy actually covers the type of work: some tradesman policies exclude or restrict work on listed buildings, work above a certain height, or work involving heat. Check who insures the existing structure — on refurbishment contracts it’s usually the building owner, but standard construction contracts allocate this in the insurance clauses, and if you agree to insure an existing mill building without telling your broker, you’ve taken on an exposure your policy almost certainly doesn’t cover. And if you’re advising on how heritage fabric should be repaired, not just doing the work, ask whether you need an element of professional cover — design-and-build brings design liability with it.

Finally, be straight in your declarations. Insurers ask what proportion of your work is new build versus refurbishment, and whether you work on heritage property, because it changes the risk. Understating it to trim the premium is a false economy that surfaces at claim time.

Tools, vans and the sole trader’s everyday exposure

For most sole-trader builders the most likely claim isn’t a dramatic one — it’s tools gone from the van. Tool cover is cheap to buy and easy to buy badly. Read the conditions: many policies exclude theft from an unattended vehicle overnight unless the van is locked, alarmed, or parked in a secure location, and some cap single-item values below what a decent set of power tools is actually worth. If your van sits on the street outside your house, tell your broker — it’s better to know the overnight condition now than after the side door’s been peeled open.

Hired-in plant is the other quiet gap. When you hire a digger or a tower, the hire company’s terms usually make you responsible for it while it’s in your care — including continuing hire charges while a damaged machine is repaired. Hired-in plant cover exists for exactly this, and it’s routinely forgotten until the first excavator ends up somewhere it shouldn’t.

A Bristol broker arranging cover in Trowbridge

To be clear about who we are: Apex Insurance Brokers is based in Bristol. We don’t have an office in Trowbridge and we won’t pretend to. What we do is arrange cover for building firms and sole traders across the UK, including plenty in Wiltshire, and we understand the questions that older, wool-town building stock raises — because they’re the questions that decide whether a claim gets paid. Everything is handled by phone and email, which is how most builders want it done anyway: quickly, mid-morning, from the van.

For a fuller breakdown of the covers themselves — liability limits, contract works, subcontractor distinctions and more — see our national guide to builders’ insurance across the UK.

Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This article is general information, not advice on a specific policy.