Income Protection For Basement Contractors
A basement conversion is the only common residential job where the site is a hole under somebody's home.
Spoil comes out by conveyor, barrow or bucket because nothing else fits. The structure above is held on temporary props while the permanent work goes in. And on a terrace, the party wall has another family on the far side of it.
It is well paid and it is relentless, and the exposures are different enough from general groundworks to be worth describing properly.
The short answer
Basement work means excavating below the footings of an occupied house, frequently right against a neighbour's party wall, in a space with one access route and no room for plant. The combination of confined heavy digging, temporary propping and waterproofing makes it one of the most physically punishing trades in residential construction. Income protection replaces part of your earnings if it stops you working.
What actually stops you working
- Back and shoulder injuries from barrowing and shovelling with no room to turn
- Crush injuries from collapse, prop failure or spoil, with one way out of the hole
- Knee damage from working crouched and kneeling in a restricted headroom dig
- Hand-arm vibration from breaking out existing footings, slab and rock in a confined space
- Respiratory exposure to silica and made ground with no natural ventilation
- Cement and chemical burns from waterproofing membranes, grouts and admixtures
- Falls down the access shaft or ladder, often carrying something
Sick pay, if you get any
Most basement work is done by small specialist contractors and self-employed gangs, so sick pay is usually nothing. The particular feature of this trade is that jobs are long, high value and held open: a part-dug basement under an occupied house cannot be abandoned for a month, so an absence creates obligations rather than simply stopping income.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
Own occupation matters because the alternative is lighter construction at a fraction of basement rates. The usual outcome is a back or knees that cannot do confined excavation, in somebody still fit for plenty of site work, which an any occupation policy would treat as being able to work.
The Party Wall Changes The Job
On a terrace or a semi, the thing that makes basement work distinctive is the house you are not working on.
Excavating alongside and beneath a shared wall means the neighbouring property's stability is part of your work, with party wall awards, monitoring and agreed sequences governing what can be dug and when. The sequence is not a suggestion, so the work cannot simply be paused and resumed to suit.
For income protection the relevance is practical: this is why an absence in this trade causes more than lost earnings. Monitoring continues, propping stays in place and being hired, and the programme that the award depends on keeps running. That is the case for sizing cover to include business costs rather than personal income alone.
One Way Out Of A Hole With No Ventilation
Basements combine two things that general groundworks usually separates: confinement and dust.
An open trench disperses what you generate. A basement dig under a floor does not, so silica from breaking out, fumes from any plant, and whatever is in the made ground all stay where you are working, and the single access route is also the only way anybody gets to you.
The respiratory exposure is therefore more like confined space work than like digging footings, and worth describing that way. Any existing respiratory history is relevant to an application whatever caused it, and better declared than found later.
If you stop
A half-dug basement under an occupied house is not a job that waits. The props are temporary, the structure above is being held, and the owners are living with it or paying rent elsewhere. If you cannot continue, somebody has to, and taking over another contractor's temporary works part way through is a liability nobody wants.
What A Household Is Left With In This Trade
Small specialist contractors and self-employed gangs have no death in service, so the household has only what has been arranged.
There is a second consideration if you run the firm. A basement business with jobs in progress has liabilities in progress too, including temporary works that somebody must take responsibility for, so the business is not an asset a family can simply realise.
That argues for covering the straightforward figures: the mortgage, finance, and the years of income a household would need, sized against earnings that in this trade are usually substantial.
A Lump Sum When You Cannot Dig Any More
The ending is a back, knees or shoulders that will not do another confined dig, usually long before retirement.
Income protection handles the absences. It is not designed for the permanent drop in earnings once somebody is capable of suitable alternative work, which in construction almost always exists at lower rates.
A lump sum funds the step across. Basement experience is valuable in temporary works design, structural waterproofing consultancy, surveying and project management, and running a firm where employed gangs do the digging.
If You Run The Firm
Basement contracting is a business with high-value jobs and high-consequence liabilities, often run by the person on the tools.
During an absence, propping and monitoring continue on hire, employed gangs continue to be paid, and the party wall programme does not pause. Those costs are large relative to a typical trade.
Cover can be sized to include continuing business costs as well as your income, and where there is a limited company, executive income protection and relevant life cover can both be company-paid, which is normally more efficient than funding them personally.
Common questions
Can a basement contractor get income protection?+
It is worth asking. Confined heavy excavation is a genuine consideration and acceptance and terms are the insurer's decision, which may include an exclusion where there is existing history. Describing the work properly gets a more sensible answer.
How is this different from groundworks?+
Confinement plus dust. An open trench disperses what you generate; a basement dig under a floor does not, so silica and fumes stay with you and there is a single access route. The exposures are closer to confined space work than to digging footings.
Should my cover include business costs?+
In this trade it is worth serious consideration. Propping and monitoring stay on hire, gangs keep being paid and the party wall programme does not pause, so the costs of an absence are larger than the lost earnings.
What happens to a job I am part way through?+
It cannot wait, because the structure above is on temporary props and the owners are living with it or paying rent elsewhere. Somebody has to continue, and taking over another contractor's temporary works is a liability nobody wants, which is worth planning for rather than discovering.
What deferred period suits this work?+
Usually short, because most people in this trade are self-employed with no sick pay and the obligations continue whether or not you are earning. The question is how many weeks your household covers on its own.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.
- How income protection worksDeferred periods, claims and the policy mechanics.
- Income protection for underpinning operativesThe same ground, in shorter bays.
- Income protection for confined space operativesWhere confinement is the governing hazard.
- Income protection for buildersGeneral building, and the rate difference.