Hardware Store Insurance

We place independent hardware and home-center stores that are still commercial, admitted retail. We do not write lumberyards with a mill, and we do not hide a contractor desk that is really a wholesale house inside “hardware.” If you are a lumber or building-materials wholesaler, start on wholesale. If you are a true Main Street hardware, you are here.

Inventory has to be valued at the peak, including seasonal lawn and holiday goods, not at a January count. Paint, solvents, propane, and a small ammo or firearms counter — if you have one — are disclosable. Firearms and ammunition change underwriting and sometimes the class; we will not hide a case of long guns inside “sporting.” If you do not sell them, say that too so we do not over-code you.

Tool and equipment rental is a products and a bailee problem. The rental contract is not a substitute for a form that contemplates damage to rented equipment and injury from a rented saw. We schedule rental receipts and the values sitting on the floor. Glass cutting, key cutting, and a small repair bench are service exposures we describe instead of letting a coder guess.

Delivery of special-order doors or a pickup-load of mix is commercial auto or hired and non-owned. Cyber matters if you run a charge account and a e-commerce cart. Washington staff stay with L&I; we place stop-gap and competitive-state WC. We do not replace L&I. The landlord will want to be additional insured — we issue that certificate to the lease, not to a template.

Appliance repair, wholesale, and specialty retail are the related pages. A hardware store that also installs fences or glass should see those contractor pages for the install book; the store stays here. We write the receipts as they actually split.

Risks we actually schedule

• A fire or water loss on a inventory limit set in the slow month.
• Customer injury from a fallen display, a rental tool, or a wet lumber shed.
• Propane, paint, or other flammables that were never on the application.
• Delivery auto and hired/non-owned on special-order runs.