Insuring Your Home While Remodeling It

There are plenty of benefits to renovating your house — you can increase its value, make it more energy efficient and design it to fit your specific wants and needs. And whether you’re a seasoned do-it-yourselfer or prefer to hire professionals for the job, you need the right insurance coverage to protect your home during and after its construction.

Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Renovation?

Before you start remodeling or hiring a contractor to work on your home, you may want to revisit your current homeowners policy with your agent. When you renovate your home, you’re often increasing its value and increasing the cost of repairs in the future. Consider boosting your policy limits to protect your home once the project is complete. You may also want to consider adding on some key coverages unique to remodeling projects.

Before and during a project, however, you’ll need to make sure you have the appropriate add-on coverage to cover things that a basic homeowners policy won’t. To protect what matters most, consider adding the following coverages:

Dwelling Under Renovation Coverage

Dwelling under renovation insurance protects your dream home project from turning into a financial setback by protecting your building materials and your home.

Construction material coverage. Dwelling under renovation coverage protects building materials while they’re on your property and while they’re being stored or are en route to your home. With this coverage, you can easily recoup the cost and replace the materials if they’re damaged or stolen at any point of your renovation process.

Foundation collapse. Hydrostatic pressure, which can collapse basement walls when water puts pressure on them during home renovation or construction, is a common concern of builders. Dwelling under renovation coverage provides coverage for this type of damage.

Vacant home insurance

If you’ll be living somewhere besides your home for more than 60 days during the renovation, vacant home insurance can protect it from the unexpected. Say your home is damaged by a storm, but the damage isn’t noticed until you move back in — vacant home insurance has you covered!

Contractors Insurance

If you’re hiring professionals for the job, make sure they’ve got the right coverages to protect both of you in the event of the unexpected. Your contractor should have liability, property and workers compensation insurance. Always ask the contractor to provide you with a certificate of insurance. Make a copy of their proof of insurance for your records. Consider hiring a bonded contractor to cover any work product issues their CGL (commercial general liability) policy might not.

Contractors often hire subcontractors to help them complete the job, so you may want to make sure they have appropriate coverages, too.

You deserve the home of your dreams — and your American Family Insurance agent can help you get the right set of coverages to protect it during and after its construction.

This coverage is not available in MN at this time.

Some coverages may not be available in your state or on your specific policy form. Please speak with your agent to learn more about your coverage options.