A crack that shows up later still points back at the plastering.
Plastering and ceiling work looks finished the day you leave, but the real test is what it does over the following months: does it hold, does it stay flat, does it keep water out where it's meant to. Cover that answers for the job after you've moved on, not just while you're on site.
Where a plasterer actually gets exposed
The risk on a plastering job is split between what happens while you're working in someone else's space, and what the finished plaster or ceiling does once it's dried and the job's been paid for.
The fall on scaffolding or a ladder
You're plastering a high ceiling from scaffolding set up inside an occupied building. A section of scaffolding shifts and a passing worker from another trade is struck as it comes down.
Cracking traced back to the plastering
A newly plastered wall starts cracking within a few months. The builder brings in someone to assess it, and the finding points to the plastering technique rather than the substrate.
Damage to a client's fittings during the job
Sheeting and plastering a ceiling in an occupied home, dust and debris damage a client's furniture and flooring that wasn't adequately covered during the job.
Who's going to ask you for it
Head contractors want it before you're on the roster
Plastering usually happens as one trade among many on a build, which means the head contractor sets the requirement:
- Head contractors typically want $10M public liability before you're subcontracted onto a job.
- Body corporates want proof of cover before ceiling or wall work in shared buildings.
- Commercial fit-out clients may set higher limits for larger jobs.
The exclusion plasterers assume is covered
Cracking or a poor finish showing up after the job is a defect in the completed work, not something that happened while you were on site. Standard public liability is built around the latter, not the former. If product liability isn't specifically part of your cover, a defect claim can fall into a gap between the two.
Common questions
Cracking appeared a few months after I finished. Is that covered?
Only if product liability is included, not just public liability. A defect found after handover is a completed-operations claim, separate from an on-site accident.
What if the cracking is actually the building settling, not my work?
That's common, and it's part of why these claims usually involve an assessment to establish the actual cause before anything is paid out. Cover responds to a genuine defect, not normal building movement.
Do I need higher cover for commercial ceiling work?
Often, yes. Larger ceiling areas and taller working heights raise both the potential damage and injury exposure, and commercial clients tend to set higher minimum limits.
I mostly do small patch and repair jobs. Do I still need this?
Yes. Even a small repair job carries the same categories of risk, just at a smaller scale. The size of the job doesn't put a ceiling on the size of a possible claim.
What if I work alongside other trades on the same wall or ceiling?
It's worth documenting what you did versus what other trades did, since a defect claim on a shared surface can involve working out whose work actually caused the problem.