Painter Cost Quote Prep Checklist

Business: ________________ State: ________________ Main painting work: ________________ Quote contact: ________________ Policy or renewal date: ________________ Certificate request type: ________________

Use this page as the cover sheet for your painter insurance quote request. Insurance companies may ask different follow up questions based on the work you do, the state where you operate, the size of your crew, the vehicles you use, and the certificate wording a customer or general contractor requests.

• Annual gross receipts for painting work.
• Payroll by owner, full time employee, part time employee, and seasonal employee.
• Employee count and whether any owners are included or excluded from workers compensation.
• Subcontractor cost for the current year and prior year.
• Certificates of insurance collected from subcontractors.
• Number of jobs by residential, commercial, property manager, and general contractor work.
• Percentage of interior work, exterior work, spray work, lead paint work, and industrial coating work.
• Prior insurance policy dates, limits, deductibles, and premiums if you have current coverage.
• Prior claims, including property damage, injuries, auto accidents, tool theft, pollution, or workers compensation losses.

• Describe the painting work you perform: interior repainting, exterior painting, tenant improvement, staining, specialty coatings, sign painting, or other work.
• List work at height, including ladders, scaffolding, lifts, swing stages, towers, bridges, or work over water.
• Note whether you sand, scrape, pressure wash, spray, blast, or disturb old coatings.
• Gather current or requested limits, such as per occurrence and aggregate limits.
• Save customer or job contract wording that asks for additional insured, primary and noncontributory, waiver of subrogation, or completed operations wording.
• List property exposures that matter on painting jobs, such as floors, rugs, windows, cars, landscaping, fixtures, tenants, and adjacent property.

• List ladders, sprayers, compressors, scaffolding, trailers, pressure washers, and other owned equipment.
• Estimate total tool and equipment value.
• Note where tools are stored overnight: shop, garage, trailer, vehicle, or job site.
• Note whether tools are transported between jobs or left away from your main premises.
• Gather receipts or inventory records for higher value equipment.
• Check whether the quote should include a business owner's policy or separate contractor tools and equipment coverage.

• Gather payroll by employee role if you have employees.
• Note whether owners, officers, or members need to be included or excluded under state rules.
• List vehicles used for painting work, including vans, pickups, trailers, and any vehicles owned by employees but used for jobs.
• Gather vehicle year, make, model, garaging state, and business use.
• Gather driver names, license states, and recent accident or violation history if requested.
• Note whether vehicles haul paint, ladders, sprayers, scaffolding, or other job materials.

• Save the insurance section from the customer, property manager, public owner, or general contractor contract.
• Mark the certificate holder name and address exactly as the requester gave it.
• List required limits for general liability, auto, workers compensation, employer's liability, umbrella, or other coverage.
• Mark any requested additional insured wording.
• Mark any requested primary and noncontributory wording.
• Mark any requested waiver of subrogation wording.
• Mark whether completed operations coverage or endorsement copies are requested.
• Do not add endorsements to the request unless the contract asks for them or the hiring party has requested them.

• Note whether you work on pre 1978 homes, child care facilities, or schools where lead based paint may be disturbed.
• Note whether you perform lead hazard control, abatement, abrasive blasting, bridge painting, tank work, tower work, or industrial coating.
• Gather training, certification, containment, or safety documentation for lead paint, fall protection, confined space, respiratory hazards, or flammable coatings when those exposures apply.
• Ask whether contractors pollution liability should be quoted if the work may involve lead paint, fumes, overspray, blasting debris, or cleanup costs.
• Note whether the job involves public property, waterways, neighborhoods, schools, day care locations, or occupied facilities.

Use this checklist to keep the quote request focused on the work ________________ actually performs in ________________. A low liability only quote may not satisfy a contract if the job also asks for workers compensation, auto, umbrella, additional insured wording, waiver of subrogation, primary and noncontributory wording, completed operations coverage, or pollution coverage.

Questions to resolve before buying coverage:

• Which policies are needed for the jobs you want to take?
• Which certificate wording has the customer or general contractor requested?
• Which vehicles and drivers must be shown for business use?
• Which tools and equipment need coverage away from your main premises?
• Which painting operations may need extra review because of height, lead paint, blasting, spray work, industrial coatings, or work over water?