Roofers insurance in Reading

A Reading roofer’s year swings between two completely different roof types. Long streets of Victorian and Edwardian terraces with pitched tile and slate, and the flat and low-pitch roofs of the offices and business parks strung along the M4 corridor and around the town. The skills overlap; the risks barely do.

On the commercial side you are working on a live building. Large single-ply and felt areas with air-conditioning plant, cable trays, ducting and service runs sitting on the deck, staff underneath, and a client who cannot close. Hot work in that environment, and the fire-watch period afterwards, is where a roofer’s worst loss comes from.

On the residential side you are over occupied family homes and parked cars on terraced streets, with the Thames and the Kennet meeting in the middle of the town and a flood plain either side of them. Apex arranges cover that reflects both halves of that market, placed by a named broker who will present the risk properly.

Key covers for roofers in Reading

• Public liability — injury and property damage arising from work at height — falling tiles, slates, tools and debris, and damage to what is beneath you. On a business park that includes the tenant’s equipment, staff and ability to trade; on a terrace it is the pavement and the parked cars.
• Employers’ liability — legally required if you employ anyone, including labour-only sub-contractors working under your control.
• Hot works — torch-on felt, bitumen boilers and heat-welding, subject to permit and fire-watch conditions. This is the single condition roofers most often breach without realising. On an occupied office roof full of plant and services, this is the condition that decides whether a fire claim is paid.
• Contract works — your work in progress against fire, storm, water and vandalism before hand-over — the exposure that bites when a roof is open and the weather turns.
• Tools and plant — theft of hand tools, power tools and hired-in access plant from site, van or compound.
• Professional indemnity — where you specify a build-up, a falls design or a fixing schedule rather than working to someone else’s specification.
• Personal accident — optional cover if injury stops you working.

Business-park flat roofs and terraced streets

Reading’s commercial stock and its Victorian residential streets pull a roofer’s risk in two directions at once.

• Office and business-park flat roofs — large single-ply, felt and liquid-applied areas over occupied floors. The roof is also a plant deck: condensers, ducting, cable trays and safety lines, all of which have to be worked around and none of which you own.
• Working over a trading tenant — commercial clients cannot stop, so work happens around occupancy, out of hours, or in phases. The consequential loss from water entering a working office is usually far larger than the cost of the roof.
• Victorian and Edwardian terraces — pitched tile and slate on long terraced streets with shared valleys, party walls and chimney stacks, re-roofed over occupied homes with cars parked directly beneath.
• Interwar and post-war suburbs — large areas of semi-detached housing with concrete tile roofs of a similar age, reaching the point where whole-roof replacement rather than repair is the honest answer.
• The Thames and Kennet flood plain — the two rivers meet in the town and there is flood-plain land on both. It affects site set-up, compounds and storage rather than the roof, but it is a real constraint on where you can leave plant and materials.

The roof is full of somebody else’s equipment

The distinctive commercial exposure here is not the covering, it is everything sitting on it. Air-conditioning plant, ductwork, cable trays, aerials and fall-arrest systems all belong to the building owner or the tenant, and damaging any of it while stripping and recovering is a straightforward property damage claim. Worse, a cut cable or a damaged condenser can take a floor of offices out of use. Photograph the deck and its plant before you start, and make sure the liability limit contemplates business interruption as well as physical damage.

Hot work above an occupied floor

Torch and hot-air work on a large flat roof puts heat next to insulation edges, deck voids and old bitumen with people directly beneath. Fires start slowly and are found late, usually after the crew has gone. Insurers impose hot-works permits and fire-watch periods for exactly this, and where the specification allows a cold-applied or mechanically fixed system it removes the argument rather than managing it.

Compliance considerations for roofers

• Work at Height Regulations 2005 duties — edge protection, access equipment and rescue planning, which underwriters expect to see managed rather than assumed.
• Hot-works permit and fire-watch conditions where torch-on felt or any heat-based method is used; insurers commonly impose a fire-watch period after you stop.
• Fragile-surface controls under the same regulations, covering rooflights, fibre-cement sheeting and worn liner panels.
• CDM 2015 duties where you take on contractor or principal-contractor responsibilities on larger jobs.
• Competent-roofer and trade-body scheme evidence (NFRC, CompetentRoofer and similar) where you hold it, plus building control notification on re-covering work.

What can go wrong in Reading

• Hot work on an office flat roof ignites material in a deck void and the fire is discovered after the crew has left — a hot-works incident, where permit and fire-watch conditions bite.
• Roof-mounted plant, ducting or a cable tray is damaged during a strip and a floor of offices loses air conditioning or power — public liability, including the consequential loss.
• Water enters an occupied office through a roof left open overnight and damages equipment and records — contract works and public liability, depending on the wording.
• A tile or a tool falls from a terraced roof onto a parked car or a passer-by — public liability responds.
• An operative falls from an edge or through a fragile section on a commercial roof — employers’ liability responds, with RIDDOR and HSE involvement likely.
• Hired-in access plant and tools are taken from a compound or a business-park car park overnight — tools and plant cover, subject to the security conditions in the wording.

Frequently asked questions

Why are roofers refused cover?

Because work at height and hot works together sit outside a lot of insurers’ appetite and many decline the trade as a class. Presentation changes it: how you manage access and edge protection, what proportion of your work is torch-applied, and how you handle live commercial buildings where a mistake stops a tenant trading.

Is torch-on and hot work covered?

Typically yes, subject to conditions — usually a hot-works permit and a fire-watch period after you finish. On occupied office and business-park roofs those conditions are applied strictly, and a cold-applied or mechanically fixed alternative is often the better commercial answer as well as the safer one.

What about CDM 2015 duties?

On commercial contracts you will frequently carry contractor or principal-contractor duties, and on a managed business park there will be a client-side regime on top. Your liability cover should reflect the duties you actually take on.

Are my tools covered?

Tools and plant can be covered against theft from site, van or compound, with hired-in access plant added where needed. On commercial jobs the hired-in access equipment is often the largest value on site, so it needs listing explicitly rather than assumed.

Do I need employers liability?

Yes — it is legally required if you employ anyone, including labour-only sub-contractors working under your control. Roofing runs on labour-only crews and the requirement is frequently misunderstood.

Most of my work is commercial flat roofs on occupied buildings. What limit do I need?

Higher than a domestic roofer, because the damage is not limited to the building. Water into a working office damages equipment and records and can stop a tenant trading, and damaging roof-mounted plant can do the same. £5m is common on commercial roofing and £10m is regularly specified by managing agents and landlords, so it is worth checking what your contracts require before setting the limit.

Related

• Roofers insurance
• Public liability insurance
• Employers’ liability insurance
• Business insurance in Reading
• Underinsurance check