A floor contractor should carry general liability insurance of at least $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, workers’ compensation for every employee on your site, and a janitorial surety bond that covers employee theft. Together, that is the floor contractor insurance and bonding you should expect before signing anything. If a contractor cannot hand you a current certificate of insurance showing all of it, the safe move is to keep looking.
It matters more than it sounds. Strip and wax is one of the higher-risk jobs in commercial cleaning. There are wet floors, harsh stripping chemicals, heavy machines, and crews working in your building after hours.
When something goes wrong and the contractor is not properly covered, the bills do not just disappear. They land on the building owner. Getting the coverage question right is the single cheapest protection you will ever buy, because it costs you nothing but a few minutes of checking.
This is the part of vetting a contractor that quotes and references will not tell you. A crew can be skilled, punctual, and still one accident away from turning your floor project into your legal problem.
Floor contractor insurance and bonding: the three coverages to require
Not all “insured” is equal. When a contractor says they are covered, they could mean one policy or three. For a commercial strip and wax job, you want all three.
General liability insurance is the big one. It pays when the contractor damages your property or injures someone who is not their employee. A stripping machine gouges your baseboards, a chemical ruins a section of tile, a visitor slips on a freshly waxed floor and breaks a wrist. General liability is what stands between that event and your bank account.
Workers’ compensation covers the contractor’s own crew if they get hurt on your site. This is the coverage most building owners forget to ask about, and it is the one that bites hardest. Without it, an injured worker can come after the property owner directly.
A janitorial bond is not insurance at all, and the difference matters. A bond reimburses you if a contractor’s employee steals from your building. Your crew has keys and after-hours access to offices, equipment, and sometimes cash drawers. The bond is your protection against the rare bad actor.
Skilled work and clean references are worth a lot, but they do not pay a claim. Coverage does. If you are still building your shortlist, the coverage check belongs right alongside the rest of how to choose a commercial floor stripping and waxing contractor.
How much general liability coverage is enough
“They have general liability” is not an answer. The number is what protects you.
The market standard for commercial cleaning contractors is $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate. Per occurrence is the most the policy pays for any single incident. Aggregate is the most it pays across the whole policy year. Roughly nine in ten cleaning businesses carry these limits, so a contractor who carries less is below the norm, not at it.
For most offices, retail spaces, and small facilities, $1 million per occurrence is a reasonable floor. For larger or higher-stakes buildings, push for more:
- Hospitals, schools, and large warehouses often require a $1 million to $5 million umbrella, also called excess liability, that sits on top of the base policy and extends the limit.
- Government and institutional contracts frequently mandate $1 million or higher as a written condition just to bid.
- Any building with heavy foot traffic carries more slip-and-fall exposure on a freshly waxed floor, which is exactly the claim general liability is built for.
If your own lease or corporate policy sets an insurance minimum for vendors, the contractor’s limits need to meet or beat it. Ask for the number in writing before the job, not after the accident.
Workers’ comp: the coverage that protects you, not just them
People assume workers’ compensation is the contractor’s problem. On your site, it can quickly become yours.
In Pennsylvania, workers’ compensation is mandatory for virtually every business with employees. A commercial cleaning company operating legally in the state and putting a crew in your building should carry it, full stop. There is no gray area here for a real, established contractor.
The risk of an uninsured crew is direct. If a worker falls off a ladder or burns their hands on stripping chemicals in your building and the contractor has no workers’ comp, the injured employee’s lawyer looks for the next deep pocket. That is often the property owner. You can end up paying medical bills and lost wages for someone who was never your employee.
This is why a workers’ comp certificate is non-negotiable for after-hours floor work. Strip and wax happens at night, with skeleton crews, around wet floors and powered equipment. It is precisely the environment where injuries happen and coverage gets tested.
Bonded vs insured: they are not the same thing
These two words get used together so often that most people assume they mean the same thing. They protect you against completely different problems.
Insured means the contractor carries policies that pay for accidents: property damage, third-party injury, and their own employees’ injuries. Insurance handles the things that go wrong by mistake.
Bonded means the contractor carries a surety bond that reimburses you if an employee deliberately steals. A janitorial bond, sometimes called a fidelity bond, exists for one reason: your crew has access to your building when no one is watching.
There is a quieter detail worth knowing. With insurance, the carrier absorbs the loss. With a bond, the surety pays you but then expects the contractor to pay them back.
A bond is less a safety net for the contractor and more a guarantee to you, which is exactly why it signals a contractor who takes client trust seriously. Bonds are also inexpensive, often around $11 a month, so there is no real excuse for a commercial contractor to skip one.
For a job where strangers hold keys to your offices, you want both boxes checked, not one.
How to actually verify the coverage
Collecting a certificate is not the same as verifying insurance. This is the step almost everyone skips, and it is the one that catches the problems.
Ask every contractor on your shortlist for a certificate of insurance, often called a COI. It is a one-page summary, almost always an ACORD 25 form, that lists the policies, the limits, the carrier, the policy numbers, and the effective and expiration dates. Then work through it.
- Check the expiration dates first. Lapsed certificates are the most common problem. A contractor may hand you a real certificate from a policy that expired three months ago. The coverage has to be active for the dates your job runs.
- Confirm the limits against what you were told. If they promised $1 million per occurrence, the certificate should say $1 million per occurrence. Verbal numbers do not count.
- Ask to be named as the certificate holder, and as an additional insured where it fits. The certificate holder is who receives the document and gets notified if the policy changes. Additional insured status extends some of the contractor’s liability protection to you for that job. Both are standard requests, and a professional contractor will not blink.
- Call the carrier or agent listed on the certificate. This is the real test. The insurer can confirm in two minutes that the policy is active and the limits are current. Certificates can be edited, outdated, or faked; a phone call to the issuing company cannot.
A legitimate contractor produces a clean, current certificate without drama. Hesitation, excuses, or a certificate that does not quite match the promise is itself an answer. If you want the full list of warning signs, watch for the red flags in a commercial floor care bid that tend to travel with thin coverage.
Where coverage fits in the bigger hiring decision
Insurance and bonding are the safety floor, not the whole decision. They tell you a contractor is legitimate and that you are protected if something goes wrong. They do not tell you the crew will do good work.
Treat the coverage check as a pass-fail gate at the front of your process. A contractor either meets the minimums or comes off the list. Once the contractors who clear that bar are in front of you, the conversation shifts to experience, process, scheduling, and price. The questions to ask before hiring a floor care contractor cover that next layer, and reading the numbers carefully matters too when you go through the quote line by line.
A reputable local contractor will not make you fight for any of this. Excellence Janitorial Services is registered and fully insured in Pennsylvania, and we are used to facility managers who do their homework. If you are weighing a strip and wax job for your Northeastern PA facility, asking for our certificate up front is a good place to start. Call (800) 851-0806 for a free, no-obligation quote.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between bonded and insured for a cleaning company?
Insured means the contractor carries policies that pay for accidents, such as property damage or someone getting injured. Bonded means they carry a surety bond that reimburses you specifically if an employee steals from your property. Insurance covers mistakes; a bond covers theft. For a contractor whose crew has after-hours access to your building, you want both.
How much general liability insurance should a floor contractor have?
The standard for commercial cleaning contractors is $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, and roughly 89 percent of cleaning businesses carry these limits. For larger facilities such as hospitals, schools, or big warehouses, ask for an umbrella policy of $1 million to $5 million on top of the base coverage.
Is workers’ compensation insurance required for cleaning companies in Pennsylvania?
Yes. Pennsylvania requires workers’ compensation for virtually every business that has employees. Any established commercial cleaning contractor putting a crew in your building should carry it. If they do not, an injured worker can pursue the property owner for medical bills and lost wages.
How do I know if a contractor’s certificate of insurance is real?
Call the insurance carrier or agent listed on the certificate and ask them to confirm the policy is active with the limits shown. Certificates can be outdated or altered, so the document alone is not proof. Also check that the policy expiration dates cover the period your job will run.
Should I be listed as an additional insured on the contractor’s policy?
Where it fits the job, yes. Being named as an additional insured extends some of the contractor’s liability protection to you for that project, and being the certificate holder means you are notified if the policy changes or cancels. Both are standard, routine requests that a professional contractor will handle without pushback.
What happens if I hire an uninsured floor contractor and someone gets hurt?
The cost can land on you. If the contractor has no workers’ comp and a worker is injured on your site, the employee may pursue the property owner. If they have no general liability and a visitor slips on a freshly waxed floor, you can be exposed to that claim too. Verifying coverage before the job is far cheaper than discovering the gap after an accident.