After a decade of long nights in the lab, this announcement feels sort of surreal — and that it’s probably time for us to shower.
We’ve been waiting a long time to share with the wood construction world that BarrierTek treated buildings are now officially eligible for lower insurance rates for Cost of Construction (COC) policies. This is one small step for BarrierTek, and one giant leap toward helping developers, engineers and code officials defeat the ultimate construction villain: catastrophic fire.
This breakthrough offering is brought to you by our good friends at HUB Industries, a leading North American insurance brokerage and financial services firm.
This announcement is doubly meaningful for us; in our eyes it further legitimizes BarrierTek as a valid fire protectant solution, and it motivates and inspires us to continue on our mission to help eliminate the risk of catastrophic fire.
So what does this mean for developers and insurers in the wood construction market?
The hard market continues
Untreated wood buildings are exposed to the risks of catastrophic fire during the course of construction. And due to this higher risk, it’s not uncommon to find upwards of twenty individual insurers on a building. Absorbing all of the risk on a hot policy doesn’t make sense for insurers, so they look for ways to break up the pie and redistribute it to other insurers. This process helps to make it more palatable for insurers to take on risk.
But this can get messy and expensive to put together.
Lately, the commercial insurance market has seen some loosening but is still fairly tight with construction policies. A tough market means tough choices. Insurers have to be diligent with new business, especially higher risk business like wood buildings under construction.
By choosing BarrierTek, builders and developers are demonstrating their commitment to mitigate fire risks themselves — and that, in turn, increases insurer appetite and capacity. And herein lies the win-win; insurers can write more of the policy themselves, without the need to redistribute risk to other insurers, and then pass the savings on to developers by way of a break on their COC premium.
Choosing BarrierTek is now even easier
When it comes to actual dollars and cents, developers will see up to a 40 percent premium reduction for a COC policy. This depends on a few material facts such as loss history, reputation, and building type, however this is a fairly consistent reduction seen early with this new program.
We know that the most disruptive and devastating event for every facet of the construction business is catastrophic fire. That’s why choosing BarrierTek is like choosing continuity insurance for a project — protecting your balance sheet from the ultimate risk of failure.
Not only will you get that priceless continuity insurance, but BarrierTek meets code requirements without complicated engineering or installation challenges. It’s as easy as installing the treated product, the cost of which will be offset by the new COC policy premium reduction and overall reduced exposure.
“choosing BarrierTek is like choosing continuity insurance for a project.”
The bottom line
An untreated building that succumbs to catastrophic fire means loss of man hours, trapped capital, and the dreaded project purgatory.
Under most circumstances, choosing BarrierTek enables builders to build closer to property lines and adjacent buildings, removing the constant ‘what if’ of fire loss while maximizing your land use and project profitability.
BarrierTEK provides peace of mind and, now, practical benefits that you can put in your pocket. Not to mention, you’ll help protect buildings, lives, and livelihoods from the ever-present risk of fire.
