Sawmill Insurance

[Kirk_Allen]

What insurance company do most of you use for your sawmills and if you don't mind sharing, what kind of prices do you pay for your coverage.

Currently I have USAA and its insured as personal private use property but now that I'm cutting more commercially I have to find another carrier for it since USAA does not cover a business piece of property.

Thanks
Kirk

[Fla._Deadheader]

  For my Coverage, $100,000.00, to protect the State of Florida, my Agent got me hooked up with Burlington. Whenever I go to her office, she says, "Not again", and NOW I suppose you want coverage for the Sawmill??? You have GOT to be kidding??? ???

  Someone on one of the forums uses Burlington for their mill, and pays around $675.00, but, I can't remember the amount of coverage. ???

[Captain]

I am starting a new policy with FARM FAMILY here in MA that is covering me for sawmilling (liability and comprehensive, at home and portable) as a rider on our home/business policy.  It was not easy to find an agent that understood the needs of the portable sawyer.  We found them through our local farm bureau.  Million dollar liability umbrella for under 300 additional.

http://www.farmfamily.com/

Captain

[woodmills1]

Farm family is the way to go if you meet their qualification.  I think you need 10 acres and of course to be in a state they service.  I have mill coverage and saved big time over all of the individual policies I had.  You dont want to hear my numbers, lets just say the mack and chevy dump used to be 2 grand and the savings on them alone paid for the house insurance and the 1 mil general liability.

[Kirk_Allen]

Some insurance updates.

Its been an interesting search and the biggest excuse I have heard as to why insurance companies do not insure sawmills may surprise you.

FIRE  :D :D :D

Now not a single one could explain this severe fire concern with any logic but that was the big issue.

I did get hooked up with one that so far looks like the best rates.

Full cost of replacement:
You take the replacement value of your mill and divide by 100 then multiply by the following based on deductible:
500 deductible use $2.65
1000 deductible use $2.25
2000 deductible use $1.95

Example: WM told me a replacement for my LT40HDG25 with all my accessories would be $27,500.  Divided by 100 = 275.  Take 275 times $1.95 (2000 deductible) gives me a premium of $536.25 per year.

B.G. Balmer and Company, Inc.
1473 Dunwoody Drive
West Chester, PA 19380-1748
888-225-6371

I have two more quotes coming in tomorrow.  If they beat the above price I will post the info.

Note that this is only property insurance.  It is not a liability policy.

Hope it helps anyone thats looking.

[Jeff]

Kirk, when you say sawmill, they see in thier minds eye mills like ours and fire is one of the biggest concerns, in fact, other then theft, its probably the most likely source of loss, and to be blunt, eventually, most mills burn.

We have a strict no smoking policy. The only places to smoke is in the main office, In a case loader or out in the log yard.  The main culprit for fires in the large sawmills though are debarkers, elecrical sources and vandals. We have had several fire instances with the debarker but caught all of them without damage. We have since changed the style of our debarker cutting head and it seems to have lessoned the likelyhood of fire.

According to the boss, rising insurance costs have taken all our raises, bonuses and most benefits away in the last 4 years >:(

[Kirk_Allen]

Thanks Jeff.

I figured thats what they were referencing and I did get very specific on explaining the difference of a portable mill versus and stationary mill.

Of the 5 insurance companies not a single one could provide a single claim info for a portable mill.  Only stationary ones.

I wouldnt be surprised on the raise being eaten up with insruacen rates.  The cost of a workers comp policy for sawmills was out of this world.  

Oh well, you know the insurance industry.  Danged if you do, Danged if you dont.

[Jeff]

If you lived a few more miles north I would turn you on to my pal Tom Buckingham at www.forestinsurancecenter.com Problem is they only insure in Wisconsin and Michigan. He could probably answer questions for you if you had them.

If you typed sawmill insurance in google you probably already found them. I made sure of that. ;D

[Kirk_Allen]

Its amazing.  Im on the computer quite a bit with this cold weather and I didnt even think about using Google to find mill insurance.

Thanks Jeff.

Looks like I have a few more folks to call.

[Norm]

That's pretty good getting him to the top of the list. Pays to have someone who knows googles' tricks help you with your website. ;)

[Frank_Pender]

Kirk, I went with an independent agent in Portland called Fullerton & Company.  They in turn found an insurance company called Red Shield Insurance Company. They too are located in Portland, Oren.  From the looks of it they only operate in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah and Montana.

I have limits of insurance general aggregate $300,000
                         products/comp Ops agg  $300,000   personal/advertising injusry $300,000  each occurance $300,000 Fire damage, $100,000  Medical $5,000

   All this and theft replacement for about $650