Curtain Walling and Facade Contractor Insurance
Curtain walling is the trade that makes a building weatherproof, and almost everything about its risk follows from that responsibility rather than from the glass.
Responsible For Keeping The Weather Out
A facade is not a wall with windows in it. It is a system hung off the structure, designed to keep water and air out while moving as the building moves, expanding and contracting through every summer and winter, with gaskets and sealants that have to accommodate all of it. If it leaks, the water arrives inside a finished commercial building, and the cause may be a sealant detail twenty storeys up that nobody can reach without re-rigging access.
On top of that is the installation itself: very large, very heavy glazed units lifted into position at height, over a public pavement or a live site, with one chance to land each one.
What Curtain Walling Insurance Covers
Public liability at a commercial limit
Injury and damage at height over pavements, roads and live sites. £10 million is routine on main contractor and city centre work rather than £5 million, because a dropped unit is a public fatality risk.
Glazed units in transit and in your custody
Units are large, bespoke and have long lead times. Damage in transit, on site or during lifting is property in your care rather than third party property, and a replacement is weeks not days.
Contract works and the building in progress
A partly glazed building is open to weather, and the works themselves represent substantial value concentrated at the point the facade is closing in.
Water ingress and consequential damage
A leaking facade damages finishes, fit-out and sometimes tenants' equipment in a building that may already be occupied in part.
Employers' liability
Compulsory at a £5 million statutory minimum, and heavily weighted here because the work is at height with heavy loads and mast climbers or cradles.
Professional indemnity where you design
Facade design and performance is frequently a contractor design portion. A system that does not perform as specified is an advisory failure. Mechanics on our professional indemnity page.
Mast climbers, cradles and hired-in access
Facade access equipment is substantial, usually hired, and the hire agreement makes you liable for replacement plus continuing hire.
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.
Performance against workmanship
The defining distinction. A facade that leaks because a gasket was installed wrongly is workmanship. One that leaks because the system could not achieve the specified weather tightness is design, and the two are covered differently.
Testing failure before handover
Air and water tightness testing can fail a completed elevation, and remediation at that point is at your cost with a programme consequence rather than an insured loss.
Movement and sealant life
Sealants have a service life and buildings move. A leak appearing in year eight may be the end of a sealant's life rather than a defect, and that argument is about expectation rather than cover.
Fire performance on the facade
Cladding and facade build-ups now carry close scrutiny, and policies may exclude or restrict work involving certain materials or buildings above a stated height.
Dropped loads and exclusion zones
A unit released at height is catastrophic, and the claim will be assessed against the lift plan, the exclusion zone and whether the area below was genuinely controlled.
Defective workmanship
Re-sealing or re-setting a unit is your cost. Damage the water caused to finishes and fit-out may be covered, which is where these claims sit.
Weather Tightness Is The Deliverable
Clients do not buy a facade for the glass. They buy a building envelope that keeps water and air out for decades, and the contract is usually written in those terms.
That means performance requirements: air permeability, water tightness, wind resistance, sometimes acoustic and thermal values, tested on a mock-up and then on the completed elevation. A failure at test is not a claim, it is a programme and cost problem for you, and remediation on a completed elevation can mean re-rigging access and stripping back finished work.
Where the responsibility sits is therefore the question to settle before signing. If an architect specified a system and you installed it faithfully, a performance shortfall is theirs. If the facade was a contractor design portion, as it frequently is, then the performance promise is yours and so is the design judgement behind it. Keep the design, the calculations, the test results and the as-built records together, because a leak in year three will be investigated from the drawings outwards.
Lifting Units Over A Public Pavement
The single catastrophic risk in this trade is a large glazed unit released at height in a city centre, and everything around the lift exists to prevent it.
Units can weigh several hundred kilograms, are awkward, are lifted by crane, hoist or glazing robot, and are landed by hand into a frame with tight tolerances. Below is a pavement, a road, an adjacent building and sometimes a live rail or station. A dropped unit is not a damage claim; it is a fatality risk, and an incident of that kind ends businesses rather than costing them.
So the lift plan, the exclusion zone and the sequencing are the risk control, and they are also what a claim is measured against. Expect to be asked about them in the submission: who plans the lifts, what equipment is used, how the area below is controlled, whether lifts happen out of hours in busy locations, and what the wind limits are and who calls them. A contractor who can answer crisply presents as managed; one who cannot is difficult to place at any premium.
The Leak Appears Years Later, High Up
Facade water ingress is unlike most construction defects because of where it is and when it shows.
Water enters at a sealant joint, a gasket corner, a transom junction or a failed pressure equalisation detail, tracks inside the system, and emerges somewhere else entirely, possibly floors below. By then the building is finished, occupied and let, and investigation means access equipment on the elevation and sometimes removing finished internal work to trace the path.
The cost is therefore rarely the repair. It is the access, the investigation, the disruption to occupiers and the remediation of finishes. Which is why two things matter disproportionately: as-built records showing exactly what detail was used where, so that investigation can be targeted rather than exploratory, and a clear contractual position on what the sealant service life was expected to be, because a leak at year ten and a leak at year two are different conversations.
Fire Performance Has Changed The Market
Anybody working on building envelopes will know this, and it is worth being explicit because it affects placement rather than only compliance.
Scrutiny of cladding and facade build-ups has increased substantially, insurers have restricted appetite around certain materials and building heights, and professional indemnity for anybody with facade design involvement has tightened with specific exclusions appearing. That means two things practically. Exclusions in your own policy may apply to work you are actively tendering for, so they need reading against your pipeline rather than filed. And clients, funders and warranty providers are asking harder questions about what is in a facade and who signed it off.
Keep the material specifications, test certificates and sign-offs with the project records, including for work completed years ago, because enquiries about historic buildings are now routine. Where you are asked to install a build-up you are not satisfied with, raising it in writing is worth more in this part of the industry than in any other.
How To Choose A Broker For Facade Work
Two things decide whether a policy fits: the limit and who owns the performance promise. We are an FCA regulated broker and will not tell you we are the best choice. These are the questions that decide it.
Is the limit £10 million where the work requires it?
A dropped glazed unit in a city centre is a fatality risk rather than a damage claim, and main contractor and city work routinely specifies £10 million.
Is design responsibility separated from installation?
Facade performance is frequently a contractor design portion. If the performance promise is yours, a shortfall is advisory and needs professional indemnity alongside liability.
What exclusions apply to facade materials and building height?
Appetite has tightened considerably. An exclusion covering work in your current pipeline needs finding before the tender rather than after.
Are glazed units in your custody covered at a realistic figure?
Units are bespoke with long lead times, and property in your care is excluded from liability by default. A single unit can be a substantial figure.
Is water ingress to finishes and fit-out covered?
The cost of a facade leak is access, investigation and remediation of finished work rather than the repair itself.
Are mast climbers and cradles covered, hired in?
Facade access equipment is substantial and usually hired, with full replacement value plus continuing hire charges falling on you.
Factually, here is what we do against those questions. We set the limit against what main contractor and city centre work actually requires rather than a default, we establish whether facade design responsibility sits with you and arrange professional indemnity where it does, we read the facade material and building height exclusions against your current pipeline rather than filing them, and we cover glazed units in your custody at a figure that reflects a bespoke unit with a long lead time. We are a broker, so it goes to several insurers rather than one.
Curtain walling is named in the appetite of one of the insurers we deal with. We also insure cladding contractors, glaziers and rope access businesses, so building envelopes at height are 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 limit of indemnity your contracts require
- Whether facade design responsibility sits with you
- Building heights worked on and the materials involved
- The value of glazed units in your custody at any time
- Lifting methods and how exclusion zones are controlled
- Whether you carry out remedial and investigation work
- Turnover and the size of your largest contract
- Claims history, including water ingress and test failures
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
- The systems you install and typical building heights
- Whether design responsibility is yours or the architect's
- The materials involved in facade build-ups
- The value of a typical glazed unit and a full contract delivery
- Lifting methods, lift planning and exclusion zone arrangements
- Access equipment owned and hired
- The limit of indemnity required, and who requires it
- Any claims, including test failures and water ingress
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Cladding and insulationThe other half of the building envelope, and the same scrutiny.
- Glaziers and window fittersGlazing at domestic and shopfront scale.
- Rope access contractorsWho inspects and remediates the facade afterwards.
- Consulting engineersFacade engineering and the performance specification.
- Contractors all riskA partly glazed building open to weather.
- Talk to a brokerTell us whether facade design responsibility is yours.
Common questions
What insurance do curtain walling contractors need?+
Public liability at £10 million where main contractor and city centre work requires it, because a dropped glazed unit is a fatality risk rather than a damage claim. Cover for glazed units in transit and in your custody at a realistic figure, since units are bespoke with long lead times and property in your care is excluded from liability by default. Contract works for a partly glazed building open to weather, employers' liability at a £5 million statutory minimum, and professional indemnity where facade design responsibility sits with you rather than the architect.
Who is liable if a facade leaks?+
It depends on whether it is a performance failure or a workmanship failure, and that is the defining distinction in this trade. A facade leaking because a gasket was installed wrongly is workmanship, which is your cost to put right with any resulting damage potentially covered. One leaking because the system could not achieve the specified weather tightness is a design failure, which is advisory. Since facade performance is frequently a contractor design portion, the promise is often yours. Keep the design, calculations, test results and as-built records together, because a leak will be investigated from the drawings outwards.
Why is the cost of a facade leak so high?+
Because the repair is rarely the expensive part. Water enters at a sealant joint, gasket corner or transom junction, tracks inside the system and emerges somewhere else entirely, possibly floors below, by which time the building is finished, occupied and let. Investigation means access equipment on the elevation and sometimes removing finished internal work to trace the path. So the cost is access, investigation, disruption to occupiers and remediation of finishes. As-built records showing exactly what detail was used where are what make investigation targeted rather than exploratory.
What happens if the facade fails an air or water tightness test?+
That is a programme and cost problem for you rather than an insured loss. Performance requirements are usually written into the contract, tested on a mock-up and then on the completed elevation, and a failure at that point can mean re-rigging access and stripping back finished work at your expense. Which is why where the responsibility sits should be settled before signing: if an architect specified a system and you installed it faithfully, a shortfall is theirs, but where the facade is a contractor design portion the performance promise and the design judgement behind it are yours.
How has fire performance scrutiny affected insurance for facade work?+
Considerably, and it affects placement rather than only compliance. Insurers have restricted appetite around certain materials and building heights, and professional indemnity for anybody with facade design involvement has tightened with specific exclusions appearing. Two practical consequences: exclusions in your own policy may apply to work you are actively tendering for, so read them against your pipeline rather than filing them; and keep material specifications, test certificates and sign-offs with project records including for completed work, because enquiries about historic buildings are now routine.
Who insures facade and curtain walling contractors in the UK?+
Curtain walling is named in the appetite of one of the insurers we deal with, and it is otherwise a specialist corner of construction because of the height, the unit values and the performance promise. What separates placements is whether the limit reflects a city centre lift rather than a site, whether design responsibility has been identified and professional indemnity arranged where it sits with you, what the facade material and building height exclusions actually say, and whether glazed units in your custody are covered at a figure reflecting a bespoke unit.
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