Income Protection For Damp Proofing Technicians
Damp proofing happens in the parts of a house the owners have never seen.
Subfloor voids, cellars and crawl spaces are entered through a hatch or a lifted board, and the work is done lying or crouching in a space with no ventilation, often on bare earth, among decades of debris.
Add the chemicals the trade uses and the mould and spores it is called out to deal with, and the risk profile is chemical and respiratory as much as physical.
The short answer
Damp proofing and timber treatment means working in subfloor voids and crawl spaces, hacking off plaster, injecting chemical damp proof courses and applying fungicidal and insecticidal treatments. The exposures are confinement, chemicals and whatever has been growing under the floor. Income protection replaces part of your earnings if it stops you working.
What actually stops you working
- Respiratory problems from mould, spores and dust in enclosed subfloor voids
- Chemical sensitisation and dermatitis from fungicidal, insecticidal and injection products
- Back, neck and shoulder injuries from working prone and crouched in crawl spaces
- Knee damage from kneeling on joists, earth and rubble
- Historic asbestos exposure in older properties when hacking off and opening up
- Hand-arm vibration from drilling masonry for injection and from hacking off plaster
- Leptospirosis and other infection risk where rodents have been present
Sick pay, if you get any
Technicians work for specialist damp and timber treatment firms, with a mix of employed and self-employed, and smaller firms often offer statutory sick pay only. Work is scheduled by survey and guarantee, so an absence means jobs reallocated rather than postponed.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
Own occupation is the right definition because the limiting factor is getting into and working in confined spaces. A back or chest problem can rule out crawl space work while leaving somebody employable in a wide range of jobs, which an any occupation policy would treat as fit for work.
A Crawl Space Is The Worst Of Both Worlds
This trade combines confinement with biological and chemical exposure in a way few others do.
A subfloor void has no ventilation, so anything disturbed stays in the air you are breathing: mould and spores from the damp you were called about, dust from fifty years of debris, and whatever rodents have left behind. The posture is prone or crouched, with no room to lift or turn properly.
So the injuries are postural and the illnesses are respiratory, and both accumulate. Any existing chest or skin history is directly relevant to an application, and arranging cover before a pattern is on record is materially easier than afterwards.
The Chemicals Are A Sensitisation Risk
The products this trade uses are designed to kill fungus and insects, and they are applied in unventilated spaces.
Repeated skin and respiratory contact with injection creams, fungicidal washes and timber treatments carries a real risk of sensitisation, meaning the body starts reacting at lower doses. Once that happens the medical advice is usually to remove the exposure, which in practice means leaving the trade.
That is the same mechanism as the spray trades, and it produces the same awkward situation: somebody well in themselves who must not do their job. It is a question about the policy definition rather than about the medicine, and worth settling before buying rather than after.
If you stop
Damp work is usually sold with a long guarantee attached to the company rather than the technician, so the firm reallocates and the customer is served. For a self-employed technician working for several firms, an absence means the referrals go elsewhere and do not necessarily come back.
What A Household Is Left With In This Trade
Technicians employed by larger damp firms may have modest death in service; self-employed technicians generally have none.
Where there is nothing, the sum worth covering is the mortgage, van finance, and the years of income a household would need.
Where cover exists through an employer, it is worth knowing the figure and remembering it ends with the job, which in a sector of small specialist firms can change at short notice.
A Lump Sum When You Cannot Go Under The Floor
The ending is usually a chest or a back that will not tolerate confined work, in somebody otherwise well.
That removes this particular job while leaving plenty of work available on less money, which is the gap income protection cannot close once suitable alternative work is judged available.
A lump sum funds the move. Damp experience goes naturally into surveying and reporting, which is the better paid end of the same industry, as well as supervision, estimating and technical sales for treatment manufacturers.
Common questions
Can a damp proofing technician get income protection?+
It is worth asking. Confined subfloor work with chemical and mould exposure is a genuine consideration and acceptance and terms are the insurer's decision. Saying whether you do injection, timber treatment or surveying gets a more accurate answer.
Is mould exposure in crawl spaces a real risk?+
Yes. A subfloor void has no ventilation, so spores, dust and anything rodents have left behind stay in the air you are breathing. Any existing chest history is directly relevant to an application.
What is sensitisation and why does it matter here?+
It means the body starts reacting to a chemical at lower doses. The products this trade uses are applied in unventilated spaces, and once somebody is sensitised the advice is usually to remove the exposure, which in practice means leaving the trade.
Should I mention a skin condition on my hands?+
Yes. Occupational dermatitis is common where chemicals are handled repeatedly, and declaring it is better than having it surface at claim stage on a policy bought without it.
What about asbestos in older houses?+
Hacking off and opening up in older properties can disturb asbestos-containing materials, and the controls are a matter for the survey and your employer. For an application, anything you have been told about an exposure or referral belongs in your answers.
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 confined space operativesWhere confinement is the governing hazard.
- Cover with a lung conditionWhat we would ask about your chest.
- Income protection for pest control techniciansThe other trade in the same voids.