General Contracting · Central Texas, TX
Austin-area growth keeps ground-up residential and commercial steady along the I-35 corridor. Fast-growing GCs here routinely outgrow their limits and their sub agreements before they update either.
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At audit time, the auditor compares the payroll you estimated to the payroll you actually paid. Any sub who can’t produce a certificate for the work they did can end up on your bill instead of theirs. Answer a handful of questions about your crews, your subs, and your payroll, and see where you stand before the audit does. Built for general contractors who run 1099 crews.
Free. Takes about 90 seconds. No quote unless you ask.
Areas Covered
If your crews work anywhere in this part of Texas, an independent agent can quote you — including jobs that cross into neighboring regions.
Coverage Types
A complete program is usually six policies working together, not one general liability certificate.
Third-party bodily injury and property damage across every trade on your site, including the completed operations coverage that responds to defect claims after the job closes.
Medical bills and lost wages for your own crew — and the policy that absorbs uninsured subcontractor payroll at audit. Certificate discipline is the cheapest premium control a GC has.
Covers the structure under construction, plus materials on site and in transit, against fire, wind, theft, and vandalism. Neither your GL nor the owner's property policy reliably covers work in progress.
Trucks, trailers, and equipment hauling between sites, plus hired and non-owned auto for supers and PMs running jobs in personal vehicles.
If you deliver design-build or take on any means-and-methods responsibility, professional liability covers the design decisions that general liability specifically excludes.
Sits above GL and auto. Owners, lenders, and public work routinely require $5M or more in total limits before you can break ground.
Common Questions
There's no statewide general contractor license. Specific trades are regulated separately, and cities may require registration or permits, but for most commercial work your certificate of insurance and bonding capacity are what owners ask for first.
Most general contractors bidding commercial work end up carrying it, both because contracts require it and because opting out strips away legal defenses in an employee injury suit. Being a non-subscriber also complicates how uninsured subcontractor exposure is handled, so price both paths before deciding.
At audit, what you paid that sub is generally treated as your own payroll and you pay premium on it. How much depends on your records: labor-only work is typically included at a high percentage, labor and materials at a lower one when your invoices separate the two, and the full contract price when they don't. Collect certificates before the crew starts and keep them until the audit closes.
Related:Chargeback Risk Score →
Often yes. Statutory employer rules in many states look up the chain of contractors until they find coverage, which can land on you even though you never signed a contract with that crew. Requiring your subs to carry coverage and to flow the same requirement down to their subs is the practical defense.
Partly, and it is one of the most litigated questions in construction insurance. Damage caused by defective work is treated very differently from the cost of fixing the defective work itself, and completed operations coverage determines whether the policy responds after the job closes. This is worth reviewing line by line with a licensed agent.
Related:Coverage Gap Assessment →
Tell us about your business and an independent agent licensed in Texas will reach out within one business day.
Nearby
Crews rarely stay inside one region. The Texas page has the licensing and workers' comp detail that applies statewide; the rest are the regions next to this one.
Other Trades
Plenty of shops run more than one trade. Here's Central Texas for the rest of what we cover.