Fitted Furniture and Bedroom Installer Insurance
Fitted furniture is the quiet end of the installation trades, and that is precisely what makes its insurance easy to get wrong.
No Water, No Gas, And Still A Claim
There is no water, no gas and no notifiable electrical work, so it reads as low risk and gets priced as general joinery. But two things are specific to it. Everything you handle is made to measure and therefore irreplaceable at short notice, and much of it is heavy, brittle and carried up a staircase in somebody's house. And almost everything you fix is going into plasterboard rather than masonry, carrying a load it was never designed for.
The result is a trade whose claims are not injuries or floods. They are a mirrored sliding door broken on the landing, a wardrobe that pulled off a wall, and a customer's decoration damaged on the way in.
What Fitted Furniture Installer Insurance Covers
Public liability
Injury and damage in occupied homes: decoration, flooring, staircases and the walls you fix into. £2 million is the domestic starting point and £5 million where a retailer or housebuilder requires it.
Goods in transit and in your custody
The section that matters most here, because made to measure doors, panels and glass are irreplaceable at short notice. Damage in the van, on the drive or on the landing is property in your care rather than third party property.
Damage to the structure you fix into
Plasterboard, dot and dab, studwork and old plaster. Finding nothing suitable behind the board, or pulling a fixing out, is the everyday claim.
Products liability where you supply
Where you make or supply the furniture as well as fitting it, a failure in the product is yours even when a component was somebody else's.
Employers' liability
Compulsory from the first employee at a £5 million statutory minimum, and this trade works in pairs almost by necessity.
Tools and workshop equipment
Site tools, and for makers a workshop with saws, routers and dust extraction.
Financial loss on a mismeasure
Where a unit was made to a measurement that turned out wrong, remaking it is your cost. The consequence for the customer may be more, and whether that is covered is worth establishing.
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.
Made to measure replacement time
The item cannot be bought off a shelf, so a damaged door means a lead time rather than a trip to a merchant. Insurance pays for the item; the delay and the customer's inconvenience are yours.
Property in your custody excluded
Standard liability excludes property in your care, which is exactly what a customer's bespoke wardrobe is while you carry it in. It needs writing in with a realistic figure.
Fixing into plasterboard
A heavy unit on a dot and dab wall with the wrong fixing is a foreseeable failure rather than bad luck, and a claim will be assessed on whether the fixing was appropriate to the substrate.
Mismeasure and defective workmanship
Remaking a unit you measured wrongly is excluded as defective workmanship on every policy. Damage caused by it may be covered, which is the dividing line.
Glass and mirror breakage
Mirrored and glass doors are the most frequently damaged item in the trade, and some policies treat glass separately or with its own excess.
Working for a retailer or franchise
Fitting on behalf of a national retailer usually brings their contract terms, a required limit and sometimes an indemnity in their favour.
The Wall Is Usually Plasterboard
Almost every failure of fitted furniture traces back to what was behind the board, and the fitter rarely knows until the first fixing goes in.
Modern houses are studwork and plasterboard, and many older ones have dot and dab where the board sits proud of the masonry on adhesive dabs with a void behind. A wall hung wardrobe or a run of upper units loaded with clothes exerts a pull-out force that plasterboard alone will not hold, and dot and dab is worse than it looks because a fixing can feel solid in the adhesive and have nothing behind it.
The habits that prevent claims are simple. Establish the substrate before quoting rather than on fitting day, locate studs rather than hoping, use fixings appropriate to what is actually there, and where there is nothing suitable, fit a batten or a backing panel across the studs and charge for it. Where a customer declines that, record it. A unit that comes off a wall eight months later is assessed on whether the fixing suited the substrate, and that is a question with a right answer.
Everything You Carry Is Irreplaceable Today
This is the structural difference between fitted furniture and most installation trades, and it has an insurance consequence people miss.
A mirrored sliding door, a curved end panel, a worktop cut to a template: none of it can be replaced from stock. Break one on a staircase and the customer waits weeks, having booked time off and emptied a room. The insurance will pay for the door. It will not pay for the fact that the job is now half finished in a bedroom somebody is sleeping in.
Two things follow. Make sure property in your care is covered with a figure that reflects a full bedroom set rather than a single panel, because standard liability excludes it. And manage it operationally: unload once, protect staircases and door frames before carrying anything up, carry glass vertically with two people, and never leave made to measure items on a drive. The commonest damage happens between the van and the room rather than during fitting.
You Are The Last Trade In
Fitted furniture usually goes in after decorating is finished, which puts you in the worst possible position for blame.
Fresh paint, new carpet, clean skirting and a customer who has just spent money making the room perfect. Then two people carry a wardrobe up the stairs. Any mark on the wall, any scuff on the carpet, any chip on the door frame is attributed to you, whether or not it was there before, because everything looked perfect yesterday.
The defence is photographs, taken quickly and systematically: the route from the front door to the room, the staircase, the door frames, the floor and the existing decoration, before anything comes in. It takes three minutes. Then protect the route with boards and covers rather than relying on care. Most disputes in this trade are about marks rather than about the furniture, and they are won by whoever has the earlier photograph.
Making As Well As Fitting
A business that makes its own furniture is running a workshop risk alongside a site risk, and the policy needs to describe both.
In the workshop there is machinery, dust, finishing products and stock, plus work in progress that includes customers' orders part way through. On site there is public liability in occupied homes and goods in your custody. And because you made the item, you carry products liability on it rather than passing a defect back to a manufacturer.
The common failure is a policy written as furniture installation, on a business that also makes, which leaves the workshop and the products exposure underdescribed. Declare both with a turnover split. Where you fit goods made by a retailer or a supplier, say that too, because your position is narrower and should be priced that way.
How To Choose A Broker As A Furniture Installer
This trade gets rated as low risk joinery and the exposures sit somewhere else entirely. We are an FCA regulated broker and will not tell you we are the best choice. These are the questions that decide it.
Is property in your care covered, and at what figure?
A customer's made to measure bedroom set in your van or on their landing is excluded from liability by default. The figure should reflect a full set rather than a single panel.
How is glass and mirror breakage treated?
The most frequently damaged item in the trade. Some policies treat glass separately or with its own excess, which is worth knowing before the first door.
Is damage to the wall you fix into covered?
Plasterboard and dot and dab are what you are fixing to. Whether the wall counts as the thing you worked on or as third party property varies between wordings.
Are making and fitting both declared?
If you make as well as fit, you have a workshop risk and products liability on top of a site risk. A policy describing installation only has priced the smaller half.
Does the limit meet retailer and housebuilder contracts?
Fitting for a national retailer or a developer usually brings a required limit and sometimes an indemnity in their favour.
Is there any cover for consequential loss on a mismeasure?
Remaking the unit is yours either way. The customer's loss from a half finished room and a lead time may be more, and policies differ.
Factually, here is what we do against those questions. We write property in your care in as a named section with a figure set against a full bedroom set rather than one panel, we tell you how glass and mirror breakage is treated and whether it carries its own excess, we establish whether the wall you fix into is treated as third party property, and we declare making and fitting separately with a turnover split where you do both. We are a broker, so it goes to several insurers rather than one.
Fitted furniture installation is named in the appetite of one of the insurers we deal with. We also insure kitchen and bathroom fitters, carpenters and AV installers, so occupied homes and plasterboard walls are familiar ground.
What Moves The Price
Every policy is priced on the business behind it. These are the things that move the premium:
- The value of made to measure goods in your custody at any time
- Whether you make as well as fit
- Whether you supply the furniture or fit customer-supplied goods
- The proportion of glass and mirrored door work
- Turnover and the number of installers
- Whether you fit for retailers, franchises or housebuilders
- The limit of indemnity your contracts require
- Claims history, particularly transit damage and fixing 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
- Whether you make, fit, or both, with a turnover split
- The value of a typical full installation in your custody
- The proportion of glass and mirrored doors
- Whether you fit for retailers or developers, and their requirements
- Workshop details and machinery if you make
- Number of installers and whether anyone works alone
- The limit of indemnity required, and who requires it
- Any claims in the last five years
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Kitchen and bathroom installersThe same homes and the same worktop problem, plus water.
- Carpenters and joinersThe workshop side, and site joinery.
- AV installersMedia walls, and the same plasterboard question.
- Goods in transitMade to measure items that cannot be replaced today.
- Public liabilityAnd why property in your care sits outside it.
- Talk to a brokerAsk us what a full bedroom set is insured for in your van.
Common questions
What insurance do fitted furniture installers need?+
Public liability at £2 million as a domestic starting point and £5 million where a retailer or housebuilder requires it, for damage in occupied homes. Then goods in transit and property in your care, which matters more here than in most trades because made to measure doors and panels are irreplaceable at short notice and are excluded from liability wordings by default. Products liability if you make or supply the furniture, employers' liability at a £5 million statutory minimum since this trade works in pairs, and tools plus workshop cover if you make.
Am I liable if a wardrobe comes off the wall?+
Usually yes, and the question will be whether the fixing suited the substrate. Modern houses are studwork and plasterboard, and many older ones have dot and dab where the board sits on adhesive with a void behind, so a fixing can feel solid and have nothing holding it. A loaded wall hung unit exerts a pull-out force plasterboard alone will not take. Establish the substrate before quoting, locate studs, use fixings appropriate to what is actually there, and where there is nothing suitable fit a batten or backing panel and charge for it. Where a customer declines, record it.
What happens if I break a made to measure door?+
Your policy should pay for the door, provided property in your care is covered, which standard liability excludes by default. What it will not cover is the consequence: the customer waits weeks for a replacement with a half finished room, having booked time off and emptied it. So the figure matters, and it should reflect a full bedroom set rather than a single panel. Operationally, most damage happens between the van and the room rather than during fitting, so protect staircases and frames first, carry glass vertically with two people, and never leave made to measure items on a drive.
How do I avoid being blamed for marks on decoration?+
Photograph the route before anything comes in, and do it systematically: the front door, hallway, staircase, door frames, floor and existing decoration. It takes three minutes and it is the only reliable defence, because you are the last trade in. The room has just been decorated and carpeted and the customer has spent money making it perfect, so any mark is attributed to you whether or not it was there before. Then protect the route with boards and covers rather than relying on care. Most disputes in this trade are about marks rather than furniture, and the earlier photograph wins them.
Does it matter whether I make the furniture or just fit it?+
Yes, and it changes the policy. If you make as well as fit, you have a workshop with machinery, dust, finishing products, stock and customers' orders in progress, plus products liability on the finished item because the defect is yours rather than a manufacturer's. If you only fit goods supplied by a retailer or the customer, your position is considerably narrower and should be priced that way. The common failure is a policy written as furniture installation for a business that also makes, which leaves the workshop and the products exposure underdescribed. Declare both with a turnover split.
Who insures fitted furniture installers in the UK?+
Fitted furniture installation is named in the appetite of one of the insurers we deal with, and the market is reasonably available because the trade reads as low risk: no water, no gas, no notifiable electrical work. That is also the problem, because it gets rated as general joinery and the real exposures are elsewhere. What separates placements is whether property in your care is covered and at what figure, how glass and mirror breakage is treated, whether the wall you fix into counts as third party property, and whether making is declared alongside fitting.
More food, drink and leisure we cover
What our customers say on Google
5.0average from 169 Google reviews