A loose tile is a callback. A loose tile that injures someone is a claim.
Tiling looks like a low-risk, cosmetic trade until a tile comes away from a wall or a floor doesn't perform the way it was supposed to. Both are completed-operations problems that show up well after you've been paid and moved on. Cover that follows the job past handover, not just while you're on site.
Where a tiler actually gets exposed
The risk in tiling isn't really about the job itself, it's about what the job is supposed to do once it's finished: hold, and not be slippery when it shouldn't be. Both of those can fail after you've already been paid.
The tile that came off the wall
A bathroom wall tile you laid comes loose and falls, injuring someone using the bathroom below on a shared wall in a townhouse. The adhesive or the substrate prep is the suspected cause.
The floor that wasn't slip-rated
You install a floor to spec, but the product supplied and installed doesn't actually meet the slip-resistance rating the client asked for. Someone slips soon after the job's finished and the client wants to know why the floor wasn't what was promised.
Damage while removing old tiles
Stripping old tiles from a bathroom, you crack a pipe behind the wall that wasn't visible until the tiles came off. Water gets into the subfloor before anyone notices.
Who's going to ask you for it
Renovators and builders check before you're on the job
Tiling almost always happens as part of a wider renovation or build, which means someone else's contract sets the requirement:
- Head contractors and renovators typically want $10M public liability before subcontracting tiling work.
- Body corporates want proof of cover before wet-area work in shared buildings.
- Retail and commercial fit-out clients may set higher limits for larger floor areas.
The exclusion tilers assume is covered
A tile falling off, or a floor not performing to spec, are both problems with the finished job rather than something that happened on site. That distinction matters: standard public liability is built around site injury and damage, not the performance of completed work. If product liability isn't specifically included, a callback that turns into an injury claim can fall into a gap.
Common questions
A tile I laid came loose six months later. Am I covered?
Only if product liability is part of your cover, not just public liability. A defect showing up after handover is a completed-operations claim, which is a different exposure to an on-site accident.
What if the client supplied the tiles and they turn out faulty?
You can still be drawn into a claim as the installer, even if the material itself was supplied by someone else. It's worth documenting what was supplied versus what you sourced yourself.
Do I need cover for waterproofing work specifically?
Yes, and it's worth flagging to us if waterproofing is part of what you do. Waterproofing failures are one of the more common and more expensive tiling-related claims, since the damage often isn't visible until it's significant.
I mostly do small bathroom jobs. Do I still need $10M cover?
Most renovators and head contractors now specify $10M as their standard requirement regardless of job size, so it's worth matching that even for smaller work.
What's the real difference between public liability and product liability for tiling?
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, completed job itself was defective. Tiling has meaningful exposure to both.