Bricklayers Insurance
The commonest mistake in this trade is a gang of self-employed lads believing that because everyone invoices separately, nobody needs employers' liability. If they turn up when you tell them, use your mixer and work how you say, an insurer will treat them as your employees and the law takes much the same view.
That is not a technicality. Going without where it is required carries a penalty of up to £2,500 for every day you were uninsured, and it is the first document any site checks.
Beyond that the claims are steady rather than spectacular: fresh work blown over in a gale, mortar down a new window, a dropped brick, and further down the line the dust claims that arrive years after anyone stopped thinking about them.
How Much Is Bricklayers Insurance?
Cover for a sole trader bricklayer with up to £2m of public liability typically starts at about £6.35 a month, roughly £76 a year. That is the entry point rather than the average: one person, liability only, with nothing for tools, employees or the job itself. Employ anyone and employers' liability becomes a legal requirement, and from there the price is driven by wageroll and by the work you take on rather than by the trade.
What moves the price is the same in every trade: turnover, how many people work under your direction, the work you take on, and your claims record. We are a broker, so we take it to several insurers rather than quoting one. Call 02382 000820 for a realistic figure.
What Bricklayers Insurance Covers
Bricklayers Public Liability Insurance
Answers claims for injury and for damage to property that is not yours. £2m still appears on domestic work but £5m is what developers and main contractors now want to see before you get through the gate.
Employers' Liability Insurance
The legal one, included as standard, and the one this trade most often gets wrong. If somebody works to your instructions they count, however they are paid and whatever the invoice says.
Contract Works Cover
Your brickwork before anyone has taken it over, plus the packs and materials sitting on site. Storm damage to unfinished work is the classic claim here.
Tools & Equipment Cover
Mixers, saws, levels, profiles and hand tools, on site and in the van. Worth checking what the wording says about overnight, because that is where these claims fail.
Wind, Fresh Mortar And What Is Actually Covered
New masonry has almost no resistance sideways until the mortar has gone off. A gable or a free standing wall taken up to height without temporary restraint can go over in one gust, and it usually takes scaffolding or something parked with it.
Here is the part people find surprising. Rebuilding the wall is on you, because insurance does not pay to redo work that was defective or unfinished. What the policy covers is what the wall damaged on the way down: the scaffold, the neighbour's fence, the car, the person. Since collapse in wind is entirely foreseeable, expect to be asked what restraint was in place, so have an answer.
Dust Claims Arrive Long After The Job
Cutting brick and block throws out respirable silica, and the resulting disease claims can surface fifteen or twenty years later. Employers' liability answers on the policy that was in force when the exposure happened, not the one you hold when the letter arrives.
Which makes an unbroken run of cover genuinely valuable, and makes old certificates worth keeping somewhere findable. It is also why on tool extraction and water suppression are worth mentioning to us: they are among the few things that improve how the long tail is viewed.
Gangs Nobody Will Quote
Bricklaying gangs get refused for reasons that have little to do with risk: an unclear employment picture, a wageroll that does not match the number of people on site, or a previous policy cancelled because the declared figures were wrong.
All of that is fixable, and it is better fixed by telling the truth once than by trying different websites. Give us the real number of people, how they are engaged, and what actually happened last time, and we can take that to somebody who will underwrite it properly.
Call 02382 000820. It is a five minute conversation and it usually ends better than the last quote you were given.
What We Need To Quote
- Turnover, and whether it is new build, extensions or restoration
- How many are in the gang and how they are engaged and paid
- Wageroll split between employees and labour-only
- The greatest height you work to
- Whether you put up any of your own access equipment
- Whether you cut on site, and what you use to keep the dust down
- Five years of claims, including any dust or vibration claims
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Builders insuranceIf you take on whole jobs rather than working to somebody else's programme.
- Scaffolders insurancePutting up your own scaffold is a separate activity and rated separately.
- Tradesman insuranceTools cover, and the conditions on theft from a van overnight.
- Contractors all riskCover for the job itself while it is in progress, before it is handed over.
Common questions
How much is bricklayers insurance?+
A sole trader bricklayer typically pays from about £6.35 a month, roughly £76 a year, for up to £2m of public liability on its own. That is the floor, and it is one person with no employees and no tools cover. The moment you have a gang, employers' liability is a legal requirement and the price is driven by wageroll rather than by the trade. Give us your gang size and turnover on 02382 000820 and you will have a real figure in minutes.
Do self employed bricklayers need employers liability insurance?+
If you genuinely work alone, no. The moment anybody works to your instructions, using your equipment, they are almost certainly an employee for the purposes of the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act, whether they invoice you or go through CIS. This is the most common gap in the trade and the penalty is up to £2,500 for every day you were uninsured.
What public liability limit do bricklayers need?+
It depends who is letting you on site. £1m or £2m still appears on domestic work, but most developers and main contractors now specify £5m and some ask for £10m. The cost difference between £2m and £5m is usually small enough that carrying £5m by default is worth it simply to avoid losing a job over a certificate that does not match.
Am I covered if a wall I built blows over?+
It depends what it landed on. Rebuilding the wall is your own cost, because insurance does not pay to redo defective or unfinished work. What is covered is the damage it caused on the way down: scaffolding, a neighbouring property, a vehicle, or a person. Because wind bringing down unrestrained new masonry is foreseeable, insurers will ask what temporary restraint you had in place.
Do I need my own cover if I work labour only for one contractor?+
Usually yes. Their public liability generally covers your work while you are on their job, but it does nothing about your liability to your own gang, which is the legal requirement. And the day that arrangement ends, or you take something on directly, you have nothing at all. Most contractors now want to see your own certificates before they let you on site anyway.
Can I get cover if a previous policy was cancelled?+
Usually, provided you tell us about it up front. Cancellations are almost always about declared figures not matching reality rather than anything sinister, and that is straightforward to put right by declaring properly this time. Hiding it is what causes the real problem, because it becomes non-disclosure on the new policy. Ring 02382 000820 and tell us what happened.
Other trades we cover
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