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Painting and decorating looks like a low-hazard trade until you price the liability: overspray drifting onto a neighbour’s car, a knocked tin of emulsion soaking a client’s carpet, a ladder or trestle giving way on an exterior repaint, or a blowtorch used to strip old paintwork smouldering behind a skirting board hours after you’ve packed up. Across Bridgwater the work runs from shopfront and office repaints in the market-town retail core to site and contractor decorating tied to the Hinkley Point C supply chain, warehouse and unit work along the M5 corridor, and jobs for the town’s rural and agricultural trades. Apex arranges cover that reflects how a decorator actually works, placed by a named broker who will present your risk properly to insurers who understand it.
Where you decorate changes the exposure an underwriter is pricing. A void flat repaint is a very different risk to spraying a warehouse unit or brushing out a busy shop that stays open while you work. These are the local patterns that shape a decorator’s cover around Bridgwater.
South West weather on exterior work. Exterior decorating around Bridgwater has to be timed around driven rain and wind coming off the region’s weather. Fresh coatings washed off before they cure, storm damage to work in progress, and jobs held up mid-contract all feed into contract works and liability exposure, and are worth flagging to an underwriter where a job is largely external.
Access and working at height. Ladders, trestles, towers and mobile access on stairwells, shopfronts, warehouse elevations and rural buildings are the reason painting is not the ‘soft’ trade it is sometimes assumed to be. A fall, or something dropped onto a person or vehicle below, is the exposure that most often turns into a claim.
Paint, solvents and spray. Solvent-based products, spray application and the overspray it can create, plus stored and part-used tins, all carry their own risk — drift onto neighbouring cars and cladding, staining of client surfaces, and the fire loading of stored materials. Where you spray rather than brush and roll, say so up front, because underwriters rate it differently.
Work at Height Regulations 2005 duties — central to nearly every exterior and stairwell job, from a shopfront to a warehouse elevation.
COSHH assessment for paints, solvents, strippers and dust from sanding and preparation.
Hot-works permit and fire-watch conditions from insurers where you use a blowtorch or hot-air gun to strip paint.
CDM 2015 duties on larger contracts — you may carry contractor duties on Hinkley supply-chain, construction and civils work.
Lead-paint precautions and safe removal on older buildings where pre-1960s coatings may be present.
Overspray drifts onto a neighbour’s car or a shopfront next door during an exterior spray job — public liability responds, subject to policy terms.
A tin of paint is knocked over and soaks a client’s carpet, flooring or furniture in an occupied home or office — public liability responds.
A ladder or trestle slips on an exterior repaint and a passer-by or the property is struck — public liability responds.
An employee or labour-only sub-contractor falls from height on a stairwell or external elevation — employers’ liability responds; RIDDOR/HSE involvement likely.
A blowtorch used to strip old paintwork ignites timber or debris and a fire develops after you leave — hot-works cover, subject to permit and fire-watch conditions.
Spray kit, sanders and ladders are stolen from the van overnight — tools cover, subject to security conditions.
Tell us about your business and we’ll place it on the specialist market — or leave your number and a named broker calls you back, usually the same working day.
