A floor is judged every single day someone walks on it, long after you've been paid.
Carpet and flooring work is finished the moment the last piece is fitted, but the job itself is only proven over the months that follow: does it stay flat, does it hold, does it perform the way it was specified to. Cover that follows the work past the day you left.
Where a carpet layer or flooring installer actually gets exposed
The risk splits the same way it does for most finishing trades: what happens while you're in the client's space doing the work, and what the finished floor does once it's been walked on for a while.
The floor that lifted and became a trip hazard
A floor you laid ripples or lifts at the edges within a few months. Someone catches their foot on the raised section and falls, and the fault traces back to how the floor was fitted.
The floor that wasn't the slip rating promised
A commercial client asks for a specific slip-rated floor for compliance reasons. What's actually installed doesn't meet that rating, and someone slips soon after it's laid.
Damage while removing old flooring
Pulling up old carpet or flooring, you damage the subfloor or an underfloor service that wasn't visible until the old material was removed.
Who's going to ask you for it
Renovators and commercial fit-out clients check first
Flooring work is usually engaged as part of a broader renovation or fit-out, which sets the cover requirement before you're on site:
- Head contractors and renovators typically want $10M public liability before subcontracting flooring work.
- Commercial and retail fit-out clients may set specific requirements around slip-rated flooring compliance.
- Body corporates want proof of cover before flooring work in shared buildings.
The exclusion carpet layers assume is covered
A floor that lifts, ripples, or doesn't meet the promised slip rating is a defect in the finished work, not an accident that happened while you were on site. That's a product liability claim. It's easy to assume standard public liability already covers it, and it usually doesn't unless specifically included.
Common questions
A floor I laid lifted and someone tripped. Is that covered?
Only if product liability is included, not just public liability. A defect discovered after handover is a completed-operations claim, separate from an on-site accident.
What if the client supplied the flooring and it turned out faulty?
You can still be drawn into a claim as the installer, so it's worth documenting what was supplied versus what you sourced yourself.
Do I need to worry about slip-rating compliance specifically?
Yes, particularly for commercial work. If a floor doesn't meet the slip rating it was specified for, that's a defect claim, and it's worth confirming your cover accounts for it.
I mostly do small residential carpet jobs. Do I still need $10M cover?
Most renovators and head contractors specify $10M as standard regardless of job size, so it's worth matching that baseline.
What's the difference between public liability and product liability for flooring?
Public liability covers injury or damage that happens because of your work while you're doing it. Product liability covers a claim that the finished, installed floor itself was defective.