Storm season, hail and flood get plenty of attention in construction-insurance guides – winter and frost, by contrast, are often mentioned only in passing, even though in a typical local building season the late-autumn and winter months can cause at least as much loss as a summer cloudburst. This article looks at the risks winter working brings, and what the CAR wording expects at that time of year.
- Frost and snow load are risks that can be covered under CAR's property section, subject to conditions – winter slip hazards appear more on the worker-accident and employer's liability side – but here too the insurer expects good site practice as protection.
- The most exposed elements are fresh concrete, open building-services pipework, and temporarily supported structures.
- A schedule that slips because of the winter season can also affect the period of cover – it's worth handling this in advance, not on the day the extension is due.
Why is winter different from a summer storm?
A summer storm is a single, clearly identifiable event: a front comes through, and the loss can then be assessed. Winter risk, by contrast, is drawn out and cumulative: days of frost gradually damage poorly protected fresh concrete, snow load builds up slowly on a temporarily supported roof structure, and an icy site carries slip risk not for a single day but across the whole winter. That also raises the importance of day-to-day loss prevention, as our loss-prevention checklist emphasises too.
Typical winter loss patterns
The most common cases: fresh concrete that has cracked or failed to cure properly because of frost; pipework that has split from freezing in a not-yet-insulated or unheated building; temporary roofing or scaffolding collapsing under snow load; and worker accidents on an icy, slippery site, which are more relevant from the angle of worker accident protection. Like the storm and hail losses discussed in our article on natural-catastrophe losses, these typically fall under CAR's property section, subject to the wording.
What does the insurer expect?
The pattern is the same as for other natural-catastrophe risks: the wording holds the site to good contracting practice, not the impossible. In practice that means: timing concreting around frost-risk days, or temporarily covering and heating fresh concrete; winterising or draining open building-services pipework; sizing and regularly checking temporary roofing and scaffolding for snow load; and keeping the site free of ice. These aren't insurance extras – they're part of a site manager's normal winter routine, which is exactly why they can be checked against at claim time.
Where the schedule meets the cover
In the winter months many projects slow down or pause for a time – that isn't a claim in itself, but it can affect the period of cover if handover slips as a result. If the schedule changes because of winter, it's worth flagging this in advance, not once the original deadline has passed: we've written in more detail about cover timing and how extensions work in our related article.
At claim time: what to watch for
The same principle applies as for any natural-catastrophe loss: prompt documentation – photos, dates, and, where relevant, that day's temperature data – an entry in the site diary, and notifying the claims line as soon as possible. Our claims documentation checklist summarises the method – in winter the same steps apply, except that saving temperature data moves to the fore alongside the usual weather data.
One practical point when requesting a quote
If a project's schedule runs into the winter months, it's worth flagging this at the needs-assessment stage: that lets the broker and the insurer think through in advance how the protective requirements for the frost-risk period, and any endorsements, fit the project's actual schedule, rather than this only coming to light at claim time.
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