Floods
In the past five years, all the fifty states have experienced floods and though it may not be obvious floods create plenty of roofing work. Most recently Texas has had flooding conditions brought on by six to twelve inch rains and overflowing waters. When Charleston, SC was visited with torrential rains, its emergency help lines were barraged with over 500 calls with many callers looking for help with leaky roofs. Roofers are in demand during floods, and with those floods come hazardous working conditions.
Affordable Roofing Insurance
Affordable roofing insurance can not only help your roofers survive the storm of business that comes from floods but also your company. First of all by offering protection to your roofers through workers’ compensation that gives them medical care and benefits that compensate for loss wages. Your roofing insurance helps speed the recovery and send your roofer back to work.
Why Workers’ Compensation
Your roofers need workers’ compensation because floods create wet conditions that are ripe for slip and fall accidents. Furthermore, as your workers search for damage on the roof, they encounter holes created by missing shingles that have been unloosened by wind damage.
They may also find defective flashing used to waterproof the sloping roof valleys, hips and angles between the roof. All of which could provide treacherous footing that could lead to injuries. On top of that, deteriorating wood on eaves and other roof areas can give way under the flood waters.
General Liability
Customer injury and damage can be covered by your roofing insurance through your general liability policy. This type of incident happens to 5% of small businesses with a price tag of approximately $30,000. Among the common injuries are stuck-by-an-object accidents. These types of accidents are commonplace in the roofing industry. Ways to lessen struck-by-an-object incidents is by restricting pedestrian traffic around your work area, anchoring your materials, so they won’t slide off the roof and securing equipment in a safe place.
However, restricting pedestrian traffic and avoiding damaging private property is much more difficult during flood clean-up. During clean-up, homeowners are advised to take many of their household goods outside to dry out. That leaves these items in harms way in terms of being damaged by debris falling from the roof. In the same way, homeowners are likely to be outside and more vulnerable to be struck by an object falling from the roof. Both scenarios are good reasons to have general liability coverage through your affordable roofing insurance.
Summary
Floods create a volume of roofing of jobs. With those opportunities, come potential hazards to your workers and liability to your company. Let affordable roofing insurance protect your roofers and your business with workers’ compensation and general liability coverage.
