Damage to the structure being moved
A jacking imbalance, cribbing failure, or shift in transit can crack, drop, or destroy the high-value building being relocated.
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Building Raising Or Moving Contractor Insurance
The load you lift may be your customer's entire building. Your insurance needs to follow it from temporary supports to any road journey, not stop at the value of the jacks and beams.
The Southern Agency can help you review lifting equipment and customer structures during support and transport.
Industry overview
You relocate or elevate structures using hydraulic jacks, steel beams, and dollies, whether for flood mitigation or site-to-site transit. This work is highly sensitive, as a shifting load or a failure in the cribbing can damage the structure being raised or transported.
The Southern Agency can review your jacking, transport, and foundation work to help you select insurance. We can discuss protection for your lifting equipment separately from customer buildings on temporary supports or in transit.
Risks worth discussing
Jacking and cribbing failure
Temporary supports under heavy loads can fail, endangering crews and the structure during a lift or hold.
Crew crush and struck-by injuries
Working beneath and beside loaded jacks, beams, and dollies exposes crews to severe crush and struck-by injuries.
Roadway transport incidents
Moving a structure over public roads adds collision, overturn, and traffic exposure along the approved route.
Utility and overhead strikes
Tall loads in transit can strike overhead lines, signals, and trees, causing outages and third-party damage.
Damage to foundations and adjacent property
Lifting and excavation can damage the customer's foundation, utilities, landscaping, or neighboring structures.
Permit and route compliance
Oversize moves require permits and approved routes, and noncompliance can bring penalties, delays, and disputes.
Coverage worth discussing
Policies to ask about. Which ones fit depends on your operations, your contracts, and the carrier’s forms.
Ready to compare options?
Get a quote for Building Raising or Moving Contractor Or call 1-800-777-1TSA- General Liability InsuranceMay provide coverage for third-party injury or property damage, though coverage for the building itself is distinct from liability for surrounding property.
- Workers Compensation InsuranceMay provide benefits for employee injuries related to jacking and cribbing operations.
- Business Auto InsuranceMay provide liability coverage for trucks and trailers, but this is separate from property coverage for the structure being transported.
- Inland Marine InsuranceMay provide coverage for jacking systems, beams, and cribbing, though the structure being moved requires its own specific property review.
- Motor Truck Cargo InsuranceMay provide coverage for a building during transit, but the definition of eligible property and the timing of coverage attachment vary by policy.
- Builders Risk InsuranceMay provide protection for a structure while it is being raised or held for foundation replacement, depending on policy terms.
- Umbrella / Excess Liability InsuranceMay add excess limits for severe liability claims, but it does not serve as property insurance for the structure and may not remove exclusions for property in your control.
Situations to think through
These hypothetical examples are not agency claim results. Whether a loss is covered depends on the facts, policy terms, and applicable exclusions.
Hypothetical: Structure cracks during a lift
An uneven jacking sequence cracks a home's load-bearing walls during elevation. Review whether the customer's structure and this lifting stage are insured, including property-being-worked-on and care-custody-control terms. Insurance on the jacks or on later road transit does not establish coverage for this loss.
Hypothetical: Overhead line struck in transit
A building being moved strikes an overhead utility line and causes an outage. Identify the vehicle and load arrangement, transport stage, physical damage, and outage allegations. Auto and general liability terms need coordinated review; do not assume the event belongs under GL or that every outage cost is covered.
Hypothetical: Adjacent foundation damaged
Excavation for foundation replacement undermines a neighbor's driveway and causes settlement. General liability may address covered third-party damage, subject to the actual operations and exclusions. The neighbor's driveway is a different property interest from the customer's building being held on cribbing.
Before you talk to an agent
Questions to raise
- Confirm the customer's building value and coverage at every stage: lifting, supported holding, loading, road transit, unloading, and final setting.
- Review jacking imbalance, cribbing failure, property-being-worked-on, and care-custody-control wording before accepting responsibility for the structure.
- Identify road-move vehicles and transport subcontractors and review auto liability separately from physical damage to the building.
- List jacks, beams, dollies, cribbing, and rented equipment with values and contractual responsibility for damage.
- Bring route surveys and utility-clearance arrangements, including who obtains permits, disconnects services, and coordinates overhead lines. These controls do not replace a policy review.
What the agent conversation looks like
Start with the work you do and the questions your current policies leave unanswered. Carrier options depend on your location, risk, and underwriting. Explore our approach.
- ListenReview your operations, current coverage, and past claims.
- AssessIdentify potential hazards and discuss ways to reduce risk.
- BuildDiscuss policy and carrier options, premium costs, and audits.
- SupportReview changes and help you plan ahead as your needs develop.
Questions owners ask
How is the building covered while being moved?
Map the job from the first lift through cribbing, loading, transit, unloading, and final setting. Ask the insurer to identify which stages and values are insured. A contractor equipment schedule or ordinary cargo policy is not confirmation that an entire building is covered throughout the operation.
What if the structure is damaged during a lift?
Review coverage for the building as property being worked on or held in your control, including jacking imbalance and temporary-support failure. Do this before lifting; general liability may exclude the very property being raised. Coverage depends on the actual wording and facts.
Does business auto matter for this trade?
Yes. Identify the vehicles, trailers, dollies, and transport arrangements used on public roads. Review liability for a collision or damage caused by the load separately from physical damage to the customer's building.
Are overhead and utility strikes covered?
Submit a claim for review under the relevant auto and liability policies rather than assuming general liability applies to every road-move incident. The vehicle's involvement, loading or unloading stage, policy definitions, and facts matter. Route approvals do not themselves provide insurance.
Is my jacking and cribbing equipment covered?
Inland marine may help with covered loss to insured jacks, beams, cribbing, and dollies. Review values, rented gear, transit, and damage during use. Insuring those tools does not necessarily insure the structure they support.
What information helps price this insurance?
Separate elevation-in-place and road-moving work. Provide building types and maximum values, lift heights, holding periods on temporary supports, route distances and clearances, equipment schedules, payroll, loss history, and sample contracts.
Talk through your building raising or moving contractor coverage
Bring your questions, current policies, and relevant contracts. An agent can review coverage terms, exclusions, and the information carriers ask for, then explain the options available to you.