Subcontractor Relationships
Hiring subs is one side of this. Working as one — getting hired onto someone else's jobs — comes with its own insurance requirements you need to carry yourself.
A lot of flooring insurance content focuses on hiring subs — what a contractor needs when bringing on help. This page covers the flip side: what you need to carry when you're the one being hired, working under a larger flooring company's or GC's contract rather than your own. It's a different set of obligations, and getting it wrong can mean losing work you're otherwise qualified for.
Almost universally, the company hiring you will require proof of your own general liability coverage before you start work under their contract — you can't typically operate on someone else's insurance the way an employee would. This means carrying your own policy even though you're not the one holding the prime contract, and producing a certificate that satisfies their specific requirements, which may be stricter than what you'd need working directly for a homeowner.
When you're hired as a sub, the company that hired you will typically want to be named as additional insured on your policy — the same request you'd make of anyone you hire yourself. This protects them if a claim arises from your work while you're operating under their contract. Understand that agreeing to this is standard and expected, not a red flag about the relationship, but do confirm exactly what's being asked so your certificate matches it precisely.
Being treated as a genuine 1099 subcontractor — with your own insurance, your own tools, control over how you perform the work — is different from a working arrangement that starts to look more like informal employment without the label. If a company hiring you as a "sub" isn't asking for your own certificate of insurance at all, that's worth a second look. It may mean they're treating the relationship more like employment, which has its own implications for who's actually covering you if something goes wrong.
Some smaller operations skip this, assuming the company that hired them will absorb any issue. That's a risky assumption. If a claim arises specifically from your work and you don't carry your own GL, you may be personally exposed regardless of what coverage the hiring company carries — their policy generally isn't designed to substitute for yours. See our risks of going uninsured for what that exposure actually looks like in practice.
If you regularly work as a sub for more than one flooring company or GC, a blanket additional insured endorsement lets your policy extend coverage to whoever's contract you're currently working under, without restructuring your policy every time a new relationship starts. This is worth discussing directly rather than assuming your existing policy already handles it. Our cost page covers what this level of coverage typically runs.
When you're working under several different companies' contracts across a given year, it's easy to lose track of which certificate went to whom, and which additional insured language each one required. Keep a simple running list — who you're subbing for, what their specific requirement was, and when your certificate was last sent. It's a small habit that saves real time when a hiring company asks for an updated certificate and you don't have to reconstruct the request from scratch.
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FAQ
Yes, in almost all cases. You typically can't rely on the hiring company's policy the way an employee would — you need your own general liability coverage to get hired as a genuine subcontractor.
Yes, this is standard practice and mirrors what you'd request of anyone you hire yourself. It protects them from claims arising out of your work while you're under their contract.
That's worth a second look. It can indicate the relationship is functioning more like informal employment than a genuine subcontractor arrangement, which has different implications for who's actually covering you.
Often yes, through a blanket additional insured endorsement that extends coverage to whichever hiring company's contract you're currently working under, without restructuring your policy each time.
Generally yes. Their coverage isn't designed to substitute for yours, and a claim tied specifically to your work can leave you personally exposed if you don't carry your own GL.
Whether you work with one flooring company or several, we'll structure coverage that satisfies what they require.