Fire sprinkler contractor insurance for installs and inspections.

Fitter, apprentice and trainee cards

The State Fire Marshal's fitter rules (Title 19, Chapter 5.5, adopted under Health and Safety Code section 13110) took effect July 1, 2017. Since January 1, 2019, every fitter installing, altering or repairing a covered water-based system must hold a certification card, and every trainee and apprentice a registration card. A 2021 State Fire Marshal interpretation (21-001) confirmed the rules apply at refineries and power plants. Section 923 leaves out one- and two-family residential systems, underground supply lines up to the first joint at the base of the riser, and installation of pre-engineered water-based fixed systems.

The trainee rules are where crews slip:

• A new hire who isn't in an approved apprenticeship registers as a trainee and may work no more than 90 days before applying.
• Trainees and apprentices work under the direct supervision of a certified fitter at all times, and only for a C-16 contractor.
• A trainee not accepted into an approved apprenticeship within one year of hire is no longer registered to do the work.
• Cards run July 1 through June 30. The renewal notice is due by May 1 or a late fee applies, and certified fitters must complete three units of accredited continuing education every three years.
• Each worker carries his or her card on the job.

Keep a roster of every card, its number and its renewal date with your payroll records. When a general contractor's prequalification packet or a carrier's application asks about crew qualifications, it's one attachment.

What to read for: prior work, shutdowns, design

Exclusions for work done before a date

IRMI's Craig Stanovich describes a plumbing contractor whose renewal added a non-ISO “prior work” exclusion for work completed before a scheduled date. When a fixture installed years earlier failed and caused water damage, the current insurer denied the claim under that exclusion, and the policy in force at installation didn't respond because the damage hadn't occurred during its policy period. A related endorsement excludes injury or damage that first occurred before the policy began. Read every renewal for both. IRMI notes that the AIA's A101-2017 Exhibit A says the contractor's CGL shall not contain either kind. Background: completed operations coverage.

Shutdowns and impairments

Your customer's property policy may carry ISO's protective safeguards endorsement (CP 04 11), where P-1 is an automatic sprinkler system. Per IRMI, it makes keeping listed safeguards in working order, and notifying the insurer of a known impairment, conditions of fire coverage. Notice is excused only when part of a sprinkler system is shut off for breakage, leakage, freezing or opened heads and full protection is restored within 48 hours. When your crew valves off or drains a system, give the owner the shutdown and restore times in writing.

Layouts, calculations and reports

Per IRMI, CG 22 43 broadly excludes professional services. CG 22 79 gives back construction means and methods but still counts shop drawings, reports and drawings as professional services. CG 22 80 is designed for professional services performed on your behalf and excludes those you perform, such as inspection services. The CGL responds to bodily injury and property damage, not economic damages like delay or remedial design costs. If you lay out systems or sign testing reports, ask which endorsement is attached and look at contractors professional liability, which IRMI says is always claims-made.