Installation floater insurance for electrical contractors

What an installation floater usually covers

How electrical materials get lost before acceptance

These examples are fictional. Each one happens in the window between delivery and sign-off.

Example scenario: the forklift and the switchboard

Example scenario: A main switchboard sits crated in the electrical room of a new medical office, three weeks before the utility sets the meter. The drywall crew's forklift backs into it and crushes two sections. The board isn't installed yet, so it's still the electrical sub's property. An installation floater may pay to replace the damaged sections, depending on its terms.

Example scenario: the stripped feeders

Example scenario: A shop pulls new copper feeders through conduit at a vacant strip center over a holiday weekend. Thieves cut the conductors at both ends and drag them out. The feeders were never energized, and the owner hasn't accepted anything. Whether the floater pays may depend on its theft conditions, like whether the site had to be fenced or locked.

Example scenario: the fixtures in storage

Example scenario: Forty LED troffers for a school renovation sit in the shop's warehouse waiting for the ceiling grid. A roof leak soaks the boxes. Some floaters cover job materials stored off site. Others limit storage or leave it to your shop's property policy. Check which one carries it.

Where installation floaters and builder's risk overlap

Riggers liability is a different policy

Setting limits and what it costs

Set the floater's limit to the most uninstalled material you'll have exposed at once on any single job. That's usually the week the gear package lands, not the average day. High-value batteries and inverters may need their own limits.

Many shops buy an annual floater that covers every job up to a per-job limit, then add coverage for an oversized project when it comes along. Others buy a floater for one big job. Either way, tell your agent when a single delivery will run past the per-job limit, before the truck shows up.

Keep a delivery log with dates, packing lists and photos of the staged gear. If something's stolen or crushed, that record shows what was on site and that it wasn't installed or accepted yet.

Ask how your form handles three things:

• Transit and storage: whether materials are covered on the truck and at your yard, and for how much
• Theft from the site: what security the form requires, such as a locked enclosure or fencing
• When coverage ends: at installation, at acceptance, or when the owner's interest begins

MoneyGeek puts the average installation floater for small electrical businesses near $61 a month ($732 a year). What you pay depends on your payroll and class codes, revenue, loss history, the type of electrical work you do and the limits you pick.

Which electrical shops need one most

Any shop that buys gear before it's installed carries this risk. It's sharpest for:

• Commercial and industrial shops with switchgear, transformers and fixture packages staged on site for weeks. See commercial electrical contractor insurance.
• Solar and storage installers with modules, inverters and batteries delivered before commissioning. See solar, EV and low-voltage insurance.
• Generator installers with a standby unit and transfer switch on a driveway pad waiting for the gas line.
• Service-change and rebuild crews that stage meter bases, panels and wire at several homes during the same week.

Shops working on a wrap-up should read our wrap-up insurance guide. The project policy often leaves your uninstalled materials and tools to you.

Get a quote for your electrical business →

Installation floaters by state

No state electrical license requires a floater. Contracts and builder's risk terms do. But some markets put more uninstalled gear at risk at once:

• California: the Palisades Fire destroyed 6,845 structures in January 2025. Rebuilds mean new services, panels, PV and storage staged on many lots at once.
• Ohio: Intel pushed its New Albany fab's first module to 2030. Long, stop-start industrial jobs leave unaccepted electrical work exposed for years.
• Florida: Hurricane Milton cut power to a peak of more than 3.3 million customers in 2024. Storm waves bring rushed generator and transfer-switch installs.
• New Jersey: one state school-construction wrap-up manual treats subcontractor property not meant for the project as the sub's own risk.

Every state we're licensed in is on our state pages.