Decorators Insurance: Proper Cover for Painters and Decorators Across the UK

Reviewed by Matthew Bartlett, Director, Apex Insurance Brokers Limited · Last reviewed 2026-08-06

Painting and decorating has a particular kind of exposure that a lot of trades don’t. You spend almost your entire working life inside other people’s finished spaces — occupied homes, furnished offices, shops that stay open while you work. A plasterer arrives before the good stuff goes in; you arrive after. The carpets are down, the furniture is in, the client is watching. That’s why decorators insurance is less about catastrophe and more about the everyday, expensive accident: the tipped kettle of emulsion, the overspray drifting onto a parked car, the heat gun that scorches more than the old gloss it was meant to lift.

This page walks through what a UK painter and decorator genuinely needs, what’s legally required versus commercially expected, and the policy details — heat conditions, spraying, tools in vans — that decide whether a claim gets paid.

What insurance does a painter and decorator actually need?

For most decorators, the working core is three covers. Public liability responds if your work injures someone who isn’t an employee or damages property that isn’t yours — and for decorators, the “damage to property” half does most of the heavy lifting. Employers’ liability covers claims from people who work for you, and it’s the one with a statute behind it. Tools cover protects the kit you can’t earn without: sprayers, sanders, steamers, towers, and the hand tools that add up faster than most decorators realise.

Around that core, the right extras depend on how you trade. Contract works cover matters if you take on larger refurbishment packages where materials on site are at your risk. Personal accident cover pays you an income if a fall off a ladder keeps you off the tools — worth taking seriously in a trade where working at height is routine and there’s no sick pay for the self-employed. And if you use a van for work, it needs commercial vehicle insurance; motor cover is required by the Road Traffic Act 1988, and a policy for social, domestic and pleasure use won’t respond when you’re driving to a job with a load of ten-litre tins in the back.

What does public liability cover when I’m working in someone’s home?

Public liability covers your legal liability for injury to third parties and damage to their property, plus the legal costs of defending a claim. For a decorator, the classic triggers are painfully familiar. Emulsion or gloss spilled onto a carpet, a sofa or a newly laid oak floor. A wallpaper steamer left running that lifts more than the paper. A ladder that slips and takes a light fitting, a window or — far worse — a person with it. Overspray from exterior work settling on cars parked along the street, which can turn one job into a dozen small claims at once. Dust sheets that shifted, or weren’t quite wide enough, over a client’s furniture.

Two things are worth understanding before you buy. First, public liability is not a legal requirement in the UK — no statute forces a sole-trader decorator to carry it. In practice, though, it’s close to unavoidable: commercial clients, main contractors, housing associations, schools and letting agents will almost always require evidence of cover before you set foot on the job, and many domestic clients now ask too. Second, standard PL policies typically exclude damage to the actual item you’re working on — so if you stain a wall you’re painting, that’s usually a cost-of-redoing-it problem rather than an insurance claim. The cover is there for everything around your work: the floor beneath it, the furniture near it, the people passing it.

Do I legally need employers’ liability insurance?

If you employ anyone, almost certainly yes. Under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, UK employers are legally required to hold employers’ liability insurance — generally with a minimum limit of £5 million — and failing to hold it when required is an offence that can attract significant penalties.

The point decorators most often get wrong is who counts as an employee. It isn’t just people on PAYE. A mate you pay cash to help sheet up and sand on a big job, an apprentice, a labourer brought in for a week, or a labour-only subcontractor who works under your direction with your materials and your method — all of these can count as employees for EL purposes. The test is about control and how the work is done, not what the payslip says. Genuine bona fide subcontractors who work under their own direction and carry their own insurance are treated differently — but you should tell your broker or insurer either way, because how you use subbies affects both covers and premium. If there’s any doubt about a helper’s status, the safe assumption is that you need EL in place before they start.

Larger or more complex risk? Speak directly to a director — call 0117 325 0027 or email info@apexinsurancebrokers.co.uk.

What about my tools, my spray kit and the van they travel in?

Decorators’ tools used to be cheap enough to shrug about. They aren’t any more. A professional airless spray unit alone can run to four figures, and once you add sanders with extraction, wallpaper steamers, lasers, towers, ladders and a full set of hand tools, plenty of one-person decorating businesses are carrying several thousand pounds of kit — most of it, most nights, sitting in a van.

That last detail is where tools claims are won and lost. Theft from vehicles is the most common way decorators lose their kit, and policies handle it very differently. Many exclude theft from an unattended vehicle overnight, or only cover it between set hours, or require the van to be locked with signs of forced entry, or insist tools are removed to secure storage overnight. None of this is a problem if you know about it and work with it; all of it is a problem if you find out at claim time. When you insure tools, be honest about the real replacement value — underinsure and a claim payment can be reduced proportionately — and check whether cover is on a new-for-old or wear-and-tear basis. And keep the tools policy separate in your head from the van policy: commercial vehicle insurance covers the van itself and your road risk, but it doesn’t automatically cover the contents.

What level of public liability should I choose — £1m, £2m or £5m?

Decorators’ PL is usually sold at illustrative limits of £1 million, £2 million or £5 million. Rather than guessing, let the work choose. Purely domestic decorators working alone often start at £1m or £2m. The moment commercial work enters the picture, the decision tends to be made for you: main contractors, local authorities, housing associations and facilities managers commonly specify £5m as a condition of getting on site, and some larger contracts ask for more. Working on listed buildings, high-value interiors or exterior work above busy streets also argues for a higher limit — the cost of the accident scales with the value of what’s around you, not with the size of your brush.

Remember that the limit is there to cover the worst realistic day, not the average one. A fire claim — and decorating carries genuine fire risk, as the next section explains — can consume a £1m limit in a single incident on the wrong property. The step up between limits is usually modest relative to the extra protection, which is why it’s worth pricing the higher option before assuming you can’t justify it.

What claims actually happen to decorators?

The pattern in decorating claims is distinctive, and it’s worth knowing because it tells you which policy details matter. Spill and splash damage is the everyday one: paint on carpets, floors, worktops and furnishings, usually low-severity but frequent, and expensive when the floor in question is stone, hardwood or a fitted carpet that can’t be patch-repaired. Overspray is the exterior-work equivalent — airless spraying is fast and increasingly standard, but fine mist travels further than people expect, and vehicles are the usual victims.

Then there’s the serious end. Burning off old paint with a heat gun or hot-air stripper is one of the highest-severity things a decorator does: heat applied near timber, under eaves or around window frames can smoulder unseen and ignite hours after you’ve packed up. This is exactly why many policies attach heat conditions — requirements such as keeping extinguishing equipment to hand and remaining on site for a set period after heat work finishes. Breach the condition and the fire claim you bought the policy for may not be paid. Working at height rounds out the picture: falls from ladders and steps are a persistent source of injury claims in the trade, both for decorators themselves and, where staff are involved, for EL claims against the business.

What should I check before buying or renewing?

Two decorators’ policies with the same headline limit can behave very differently at claim time. Before you commit, check the details that actually track how you work:

• Heat work conditions — if you burn off paint or use hot-air strippers, read the fire precautions the policy requires and make sure you can genuinely comply on every job.
• Height limits — some policies restrict work above a stated height. If you decorate stairwells, exteriors or commercial units from towers or scaffolds, confirm the limit fits.
• Spraying — if you spray, say so. Cover written for brush-and-roller work may treat overspray losses very differently.
• Tools in vehicles — check the overnight position, security requirements and whether the sum insured reflects real replacement cost.
• Subcontractors and helpers — make sure the policy reflects whether you use labour-only or bona fide subbies, and that EL is in place wherever it’s needed.
• Business description — if you also do allied work such as minor repairs, coving or exterior cleaning before painting, the description needs to say so.

None of these are reasons to fear insurance — they’re reasons to buy it accurately. A policy that matches how you actually work is the difference between a smooth claim and a dispute. If you’re not sure how yours reads, send us the details and we’ll review it against the way you trade.

Why arrange decorators insurance through a broker like Apex?

Online comparison journeys are built for the average trade, and decorating keeps refusing to be average. The questions that decide your cover — do you spray, do you burn off, how high do you work, who helps you, where do the tools sleep — are exactly the ones a quick online form flattens into a tick-box. Get one wrong and you don’t find out until the worst possible moment.

As an independent, FCA-authorised broker based in Bristol and working with trades across the UK, Apex does the unglamorous part properly: we ask how you actually work, match the policy wording to it, flag the conditions you need to live with, and stand between you and the insurer if a claim gets sticky. When a main contractor demands £5m PL by Friday, or a heat-work question comes up mid-job, you ring a person who knows your file. That’s the job. If you’d rather start with numbers, our short quote form takes a few minutes and asks decorator questions, not generic ones.

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.