All firms in our Builder Network that we sell decks for are adequately insured... and I get their insurance company to mail me a certificate of insurance to prove it.

"Why make a big deal over this issue?"

Because if something happens on your job, your homeowner's insurance won't pay.

"Give me an example."

OK... suppose a neighbor's child is walking through your yard one night, falls into a freshly dug footing hole and breaks his leg. Your homeowners insurance won't pay because the footing was dug by a contractor who should have General Liability Insurance to cover such liabilities.

Or (now here is a scary one), suppose you are not at home when the builder attaches the deck band to your house with lag bolts... one of which inadvertently screws into a wire on the inside of your house. The breaker fails to trip, a fire starts and he doesn't know it until he hears your smoke detectors going off. He calls 911 and breaks in to save your house... but not until $100,000 of fire, smoke and water damage has been done. Who pays for that? You do... not your homeowners insurance... unless your builder has General Liability Insurance.

Our guys have it.

In all the hundreds and hundreds of homes I have been in over the last 24 years... I have had only a handful of folks ask to see my General Liability Insurance (which I carry with me). Why? I think most people assume that their homeowners insurance will pay if something goes wrong... but it won't.