Trade
Concrete placed with carriers that actually want the class. In California it is also one of the five classifications that must carry workers’ compensation whether or not you have employees.
Concrete work carries a heavy manual-handling comp exposure, a silica exposure that has drawn increasing regulatory attention, and a defect profile — cracking, settlement, surface failure — that shows up long after the pour. In California it is also one of the five classifications the legislature named specifically as needing workers’ compensation regardless of employees.
Which license class this trade falls under, and what that class obliges you to carry.
C-8 — Concrete. One of the five classifications that must carry workers’ compensation with or without employees, alongside C-20 HVAC, C-22 asbestos, C-39 roofing and C-61/D-49 tree service. An owner-operator concrete contractor with no crew still needs a policy, and since January 2026 going without carries a minimum $10,000 penalty and stops license renewal.
All California requirements →A specialty endorsement: $300,000 per occurrence residential on a $20,000 bond, or commercial specialty at $1,000,000 aggregate level 1. Workers’ compensation is bought in the private market and quoted alongside the liability.
All Oregon requirements →Specialty contractor registration at a $15,000 bond, with comp from the L&I state fund. Getting your L&I risk classification right matters here more than most trades, because concrete classes carry high base rates and a misclassification is expensive in both directions.
All Washington requirements →Concrete work on residential projects falls under the residential license and its $100,000 general liability plus workers’ compensation filing. Commercial concrete falls under the commercial license, which carries no insurance filing requirement.
All Louisiana requirements →A specialty classification, residential or commercial, bonded by volume. No ROC liability requirement; workers’ compensation required at one employee under A.R.S. § 23-961, with sole proprietors and corporate officers with no W-2 employees exempt.
All Arizona requirements →Not statute — this is the part no board publishes, and the part that decides whether a submission comes back priced or declined.
Tell us the state, the license class and the payroll. We will tell you which markets fit before we submit anywhere.
