Concrete and Cement Supply Insurance
Concrete supply has a feature almost no other product business has: the product is consumed within hours of being made, built into a permanent structure, and cannot be recalled, inspected or replaced afterwards.
No Recall, No Inspection, No Second Chance
If a mix was wrong, the strength was short, or the wrong admixture went in, nobody finds out on delivery. They find out at twenty eight days when a cube test fails, or later when a slab cracks or a structural element underperforms. By then the concrete is part of a building, and putting it right means breaking out and recasting work that other trades have already built on.
The second feature is that most of your exposure happens on other people's sites, delivered by a large vehicle discharging a heavy, alkaline, fast-setting material near finished surfaces, drains and people.
What Concrete Supply Insurance Covers
Products liability
The defining cover. A mix that did not meet specification, built into a structure and discovered weeks later, with the cost being breaking out and recasting rather than replacing the concrete. The limit should reflect a structure, not a load.
Public liability
Discharge onto other people's sites: damage to driveways, finished surfaces, drains and vehicles, and injury around a moving truck and a pump. £5 million is a floor and £10 million common on main contractor work.
Batching plant and machinery breakdown
Silos, weighers, mixers, conveyors and the control system. A plant that cannot batch stops the business, and breakdown is not damage by an insured peril.
Business interruption
A plant out of action loses every load it would have sold, and concrete customers go elsewhere the same morning. The indemnity period should reflect rebuilding and recommissioning a plant.
Employers' liability
Compulsory at a £5 million statutory minimum. Moving plant, silos, cement dust and work around discharging vehicles are the active hazards, with dermatitis and silica as longer tail issues.
Pollution and washout
Concrete is highly alkaline. Washout water, a spill or a blocked drain is a pollution incident with a regulator attached, and the clean-up is the main cost.
Fleet and plant
Mixers, volumetric trucks, pumps and loading shovels, on the road and on site.
Where The Cover Stops
Wordings differ between insurers, so treat these as the usual position rather than as universal fact. Where one of them matters to you, it is worth checking on your own schedule before you need to.
The cost of removing failed concrete
Products liability may answer the damage, but whether it covers breaking out and recasting, and the delay to the programme, is a specific question. The concrete itself is the cheapest part of the claim.
Specification supplied by the customer
Where a customer ordered a mix that was wrong for the application, that is their decision, provided the order is recorded. Verbal orders taken over the phone are where this unravels.
Placing and curing by others
Concrete that failed because it was over-watered on site, poorly compacted, or cured badly in cold weather is not a product failure. Proving which it was depends on records and sometimes on retained samples.
Cube test results and sampling
Where testing is required, who sampled, how and when decides later arguments. A failed cube with no properly taken sample is contested rather than conclusive.
Discharge onto domestic property
A load discharged onto a driveway, through a garden, or near a conservatory is high frequency damage, and some wordings restrict work on domestic premises or impose conditions.
Pumping and reach
Where you pump as well as supply, boom contact with buildings and overhead lines, and blockages under pressure, are separate exposures needing declaration.
The Order Is The Contract And The Defence
Nearly every products dispute in concrete supply comes down to what was ordered, and a surprising amount of ordering still happens verbally.
A customer asks for a mix by strength, by application, or simply as something to fill a hole. If the concrete later underperforms, the question is whether it met the specification ordered and whether that specification was appropriate for what it was used for. A supplier who can produce the order with a designated mix, the batch record showing what was produced, and the delivery ticket signed on site is in a strong position. One relying on a conversation is not.
So the order record is the protection: the mix designation, the intended application if advised, the quantity, the time and the site. Batch records showing actual proportions and admixtures should be retained far longer than feels necessary, because a claim can arrive many months after a pour. And where a customer specifies something you believe is wrong for the application, note that you queried it, because advising on suitability is the point at which product supply starts becoming advice.
Placed Badly Is Not Supplied Badly
Concrete fails for several reasons and only some of them are the supplier's, which is why the first argument after a cube failure is about causation rather than liability.
Water added on site to make a mix easier to place reduces strength substantially and is extremely common. Poor compaction leaves voids. Pouring in frost, or failing to protect a pour in cold weather, affects the set. Over-trowelling, inadequate curing and early loading all produce defects that look like a weak mix. Meanwhile the supplier delivered to specification and has nothing on site to prove it.
Which is why the delivery ticket matters more than it looks. A ticket recording the mix, the time of batching, the time of arrival, the water added on site at the customer's request and the signature accepting it is the single most useful document in a dispute. Train drivers to record added water rather than quietly obliging, because that one line has resolved a great many claims.
The Plant Is The Business
A concrete business is a batching plant and a fleet, and the plant is the part most often insured for damage and not for stopping.
A weigher out of calibration, a mixer bearing, a conveyor, a silo discharge or the control system can stop production without anything being damaged by fire, flood or impact, and that is breakdown rather than an insured peril. On a single-plant operation the consequence is immediate: concrete is bought locally and on the day, so customers simply ring somebody else and may not ring back.
So breakdown cover and increased cost of working belong together here, alongside a business interruption period set against rebuilding and recommissioning rather than against a drying-out time. It is also worth looking at the calibration regime as a risk control rather than a compliance task, because an out of calibration weigher produces concrete that is wrong without anybody noticing until the cubes come back.
Washout Is A Pollution Incident
The thing most likely to bring a regulator to a concrete business is not an emission or a spill of fuel. It is water that has been in contact with cement.
Concrete washout is strongly alkaline, and discharging it to a surface drain, a watercourse or the ground is a pollution offence with clean-up costs that dwarf the value of the load. It happens at the plant, in the yard, and on customers' sites where a driver washes a chute down wherever is convenient, which is frequently a gully.
So the controls are a designated washout facility at the plant with containment and settlement, and a clear rule for drivers that chutes are washed into a bund or back into the drum rather than onto the ground or into a gully, enforced rather than stated. From the insurance side, check how pollution is treated and specifically whether gradual seepage is excluded while sudden release is covered, because repeated small washouts into the ground over months is the gradual kind.
How To Choose A Broker For Concrete Supply
This is a products business with a plant and a fleet attached, and policies tend to cover two of the three properly. We are an FCA regulated broker and will not tell you we are the best choice. These are the questions that decide it.
Does products liability cover breaking out and recasting?
The concrete is the cheapest part of a failure claim. Whether removal, recasting and the programme consequence are covered is a specific question with a specific answer.
Is the products limit sized against a structure?
A load worth a few hundred pounds can be built into a structural element costing a great deal to replace. A limit scaled from load values is the wrong reference.
Is batching plant breakdown included?
A weigher, mixer or control system failing stops production without anything being damaged. Without breakdown cover the repair and the lost loads are yours.
Is the interruption period set against recommissioning a plant?
Concrete is bought locally and on the day, so customers go elsewhere immediately. The period should reflect rebuilding and recommissioning rather than a drying-out time.
How is pollution treated for washout?
Alkaline washout reaching a drain or the ground is the realistic incident, and repeated small washouts are gradual rather than sudden, which many wordings exclude.
Is pumping declared separately if you pump?
Boom contact with buildings and overhead lines, and blockages under pressure, are separate exposures from supplying the mix.
Factually, here is what we do against those questions. We ask whether products liability reaches breaking out and recasting rather than only the concrete, we size the products limit against a structure rather than a load value, we include batching plant breakdown and increased cost of working, we set the interruption period against recommissioning a plant, and we establish how washout pollution is treated both sudden and gradual. We are a broker, so it goes to several insurers rather than one.
We also insure groundworkers, concrete repair contractors and quarry operators, so the material either side of your product is familiar ground here.
What Moves The Price
Every policy is priced on the business behind it. These are the things that move the premium:
- The products liability limit, sized against a structure
- Whether products cover reaches removal and recasting
- Batching plant values, and whether breakdown is included
- The business interruption indemnity period and gross profit
- Whether you pump as well as supply
- The domestic against commercial delivery split
- Washout containment and pollution controls
- Claims history, including any failed pours
We are a broker, so we take it to several insurers rather than quoting one. Call 02382 000820 for a quote.
What We Need To Quote
- Plant details and replacement values including installation
- Whether you are ready mix, volumetric, or both
- Whether you pump, and with what reach
- Annual volume and the domestic against commercial split
- Your order recording and batch record retention
- Delivery ticket practice, including added water
- Washout facilities and driver procedure
- Gross profit, indemnity period, and all claims
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Groundworks contractorsWho places and finishes what you supply.
- Concrete repairWhat happens when a pour fails or deteriorates.
- Quarries and aggregatesWhere the aggregate comes from, and the same plant risks.
- Business interruptionA plant that cannot batch, and customers who go elsewhere.
- Goods in transitMixers and volumetric trucks on the road.
- Talk to a brokerAsk whether products cover reaches breaking out, not just the mix.
Common questions
What insurance does a concrete supplier need?+
Products liability as the defining cover, at a limit sized against a structure rather than a load, because a mix that did not meet specification is discovered weeks later built into a building. Public liability at £5 million as a floor and £10 million on main contractor work, for discharge onto other people's sites. Batching plant cover with machinery breakdown, because a weigher or control system failing stops production without anything being damaged. Business interruption with a period reflecting recommissioning a plant. Then employers' liability at a £5 million statutory minimum, pollution for washout, and fleet.
Am I liable if concrete fails a cube test?+
Only if it failed because of what you supplied, and the first argument is always about causation. Water added on site to make a mix easier to place reduces strength substantially and is extremely common. Poor compaction leaves voids, pouring in frost affects the set, and inadequate curing or early loading produce defects that look like a weak mix. The delivery ticket is therefore the most useful document you have: mix, batching time, arrival time, any water added on site at the customer's request, and a signature accepting it. Train drivers to record added water rather than quietly obliging.
Does products liability cover breaking out failed concrete?+
Ask specifically, because the concrete itself is the cheapest part of the claim. If a structural element has to be broken out and recast, the cost is demolition, disposal, recasting, the trades who had already built on it, and the programme delay. Whether your products cover reaches those consequences, and at what limit, is a particular question rather than something to assume from the headline figure. It also means the limit should be sized against the structures your concrete goes into, not against the value of a load, because those two numbers are unrelated.
What happens if a customer ordered the wrong mix?+
That is their decision, provided the order is recorded, which is where verbal ordering causes trouble. If a customer specifies a mix by strength or application and it later underperforms, the question is whether you supplied what was ordered and whether the specification suited the use. A supplier who can produce the order with a designated mix, the batch record showing what was produced and a signed delivery ticket is in a strong position. Where you believe a customer's specification is wrong for the application, note that you queried it, because advising on suitability starts to become advice.
Is concrete washout a pollution problem?+
Yes, and it is the thing most likely to bring a regulator to a concrete business. Washout water is strongly alkaline, and discharging it to a surface drain, a watercourse or the ground is an offence with clean-up costs far exceeding the value of a load. It happens at the plant, in the yard and on customers' sites where a driver washes a chute wherever is convenient, often a gully. Controls are a designated washout facility with containment and settlement, and an enforced driver rule. Check the wording too, because repeated small washouts into the ground are gradual, which many policies exclude.
Who insures concrete and cement suppliers in the UK?+
It is placed as a manufacturing and distribution risk with a fleet attached rather than as a construction trade, and the market is reasonably defined. What separates placements is whether products liability reaches removal and recasting rather than only the material, whether the products limit is sized against a structure, whether batching plant breakdown is included, whether the interruption period reflects recommissioning a plant rather than drying a building, and how washout pollution is treated both sudden and gradual.
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