Electrical Contractor Insurance in Washington State

Electrical contractors in Washington operate in one of the most hazard-intensive trades in the construction industry. Every wire you run, every panel you install, and every connection you make carries the potential for fire, electrocution, or property destruction — not just today, but years into the future. Completed operations claims are the defining risk for electricians: a wiring defect that causes a house fire three years after the job is finished comes back to your policy, and those claims routinely reach six figures.

The immediate job-site risks are severe. Electrocution remains one of OSHA's "Fatal Four" causes of construction worker death. Arc flash incidents can cause catastrophic burns in milliseconds. Even routine residential work carries risk — a misconnected circuit can damage appliances, fry electronics, or start a fire behind a wall where it smolders undetected. Commercial and industrial electricians face amplified exposure from high-voltage systems, transformer work, and complex panel installations where a single error can shut down an entire facility.

Washington State regulates electrical contractors more tightly than many other trades. Under RCW 19.28, you must hold an electrical contractor license issued by L&I, and your workers must carry journey-level or master electrician certificates. L&I conducts inspections and can levy fines for unlicensed work or code violations. As a specialty contractor, you need a $15,000 surety bond, but the real financial exposure lies in liability claims. General contractors and property owners routinely require electricians to carry $1M/$2M general liability limits, and many commercial projects demand $5M umbrella coverage.

The long tail of electrical liability makes adequate insurance non-negotiable. Washington's six-year construction defect statute means a homeowner can bring a claim for faulty wiring years after you finished the job. A fire traced back to your work — even if everything passed inspection at the time — can generate property damage claims, bodily injury suits, and additional living expense claims that dwarf anything a small electrical business could absorb without insurance.