An installation floater is an inland marine policy that covers the materials, fixtures, and equipment you are furnishing and installing into someone else's project — in transit, in storage, and sitting on the job site waiting to go in. It fills a specific and expensive blind spot: from the moment you buy that equipment until the installation is accepted, the property isn't permanently yours and isn't the owner's yet. That in-between window is where most policies stop. A $180,000 order of rooftop HVAC units staged on a Savannah job site over a long weekend is, without this coverage, a $180,000 hole in your own pocket if it disappears.
Ask ten subcontractors who insures their uninstalled materials and most will say the general contractor's builder's risk policy does. Sometimes that's true. Often it isn't, and the ways it fails are predictable:
The practical move is unglamorous: read the insurance article of your subcontract, ask for the builder's risk certificate before you buy the material, and carry your own installation floater as the backstop. It's cheap relative to what it protects.
The termination trigger is the single most important line in the policy, and it's the one contractors read last. Coverage generally attaches when you take custody of or become responsible for the materials, and runs through transit, storage, and job-site staging until one of these happens:
Different policies pick different triggers, and the gap between them can run weeks or months. If your floater ends at "installation complete" but the owner doesn't accept the work until punch list closes in eight weeks, ask what covers the equipment in between. On long-lead-time projects, also confirm there's no time limit that quietly expires while you're waiting on a switchgear delivery. Get the trigger answered in writing at binding, not at claim.
Installation floaters are typically rated per $100 of insured value, driven mostly by your maximum value at any one job site. Rough illustrative ranges for Southeast trade contractors:
| Contractor profile | Typical per-job limit | Illustrative annual premium* |
|---|---|---|
| Small trade sub (flooring, cabinetry, sign) | $25,000–$50,000 | ~$250–$800 |
| Mid-size mechanical / electrical / plumbing | $100,000–$250,000 | ~$800–$3,000 |
| Large MEP, elevator, solar, switchgear | $500,000–$1M+ | $3,000–$10,000+ |
*Illustrative only — not filed rates. Actual premium depends on maximum value at any one location, material type, transit and off-site storage limits, deductible, job-site security, and loss history.
Two variables move the number more than anything else. Material type: copper wire, HVAC condensers, appliances, generators, and switchgear are theft magnets and rate accordingly, while drywall and lumber don't. Sub-limits: the headline per-job limit means little if transit is capped at $10,000 and off-site storage at $25,000 while you routinely hold $150,000 in your yard. Price the sub-limits to your actual workflow, not the quote sheet's defaults.
Fire and windstorm get the attention; theft writes the checks. Copper, condensing units, appliances, tankless heaters, and generators come off Southeast job sites with depressing regularity, usually on a Friday night. A few things determine whether your claim pays cleanly:
Three inland marine coverages, three different categories of property. They're routinely confused, and the confusion is how losses fall between policies:
| Coverage | Insures | Usually carried by |
|---|---|---|
| Tools & equipment floater | Equipment you own and use to do the work — comes home with you | The contractor |
| Installation floater | Materials you're installing into someone else's project — stays behind | The subcontractor furnishing them |
| Builder's risk | The structure under construction itself | Owner or general contractor |
A working mechanical contractor typically needs the first two and needs to verify the third. The inland marine family only works as a system when someone lines the three up and checks the seams between them.
The test is a dollar question, not a trade question: if everything with your name on it sitting at a job site tonight vanished, would you have to buy it twice? If the answer is yes, you need the coverage. In practice that means mechanical and HVAC, electrical, plumbing, roofing, glass and glazing, cabinetry and millwork, flooring, elevator, fire protection, sign, generator, solar, and low-voltage or fiber contractors. Many construction contracts also require an installation floater by name with specific limits, so for a lot of the infrastructure and commercial work in this region it's a condition of getting on the job at all.
Bettr Coverage is an independent commercial insurance agency serving Georgia and the wider Southeast. The installation floater is the policy contractors most often skip because they were told the GC's builder's risk had it — and then find out otherwise the Monday after a long weekend. We read your subcontract's insurance article, size the per-job limit to your largest realistic exposure rather than your average one, set transit and off-site storage sub-limits to match how you actually stage material, pin down the termination trigger in writing, and coordinate the floater with your tools coverage, general liability, and auto so a single loss doesn't fall into a seam. One agency, one relationship, the whole program reviewed together.
Bettr Coverage reviews your installation floater — per-job limit, transit and storage sub-limits, coverage triggers, and how it lines up with the GC's builder's risk — across multiple carriers.
Get a free coverage reviewAn inland marine policy covering materials, fixtures, and equipment you're furnishing and installing into someone else's project — in transit, in storage, and staged on the job site — until the installation is complete or accepted.
Not reliably. You may not be a named insured, transit and off-site storage are often limited or excluded, you're exposed to the GC's deductible, and you don't control whether the policy stays in force. Verify with the certificate before you buy material.
It generally attaches when you take responsibility for the materials and ends at installation complete, owner acceptance, being put to intended use, or when the owner's permanent property insurance attaches — whichever the policy names. Confirm the trigger in writing.
Usually rated per $100 of insured value. A small trade sub with a $50,000 per-job limit may pay a few hundred dollars a year; a large MEP contractor needing $500,000+ per job with real transit and storage limits will pay several thousand.
Yes — that's the main claim it pays. Subject to deductible and any security or storage conditions, and often with sub-limits for unattended trailers. Employee theft is excluded and belongs under commercial crime.
The tools floater covers equipment you own and take home; the installation floater covers materials you install and leave behind; builder's risk covers the structure itself and is normally the owner's or GC's policy.
Any trade furnishing significant material into a project it doesn't own — mechanical, electrical, plumbing, roofing, glazing, millwork, flooring, elevator, fire protection, sign, solar, generator, and fiber contractors. Many subcontracts require it by name.
For general information only. Not a quote or contract of insurance. Cost ranges are illustrative, not filed rates, and vary by insured value, material type, transit and storage sub-limits, deductible, job-site security, and loss history. Coverage triggers, exclusions, sub-limits, and security conditions differ by policy and carrier — confirm specifics with a licensed agent. Coverage subject to policy terms and carrier appetite.