Most contractors don’t lose money on site.
They lose it in the moment a structure fails and the policy wording is finally tested.
When a defective concrete column triggers a bigger failure, the difference between a paid claim and a financial disaster isn’t engineering.
It’s insurance wording.
One column, one failure, one project at risk
A concrete column is poured on a commercial site.
It passes visual checks. It cures. It looks fine.
Then, without warning, it fails and takes the roof, walls, windows, ceilings, and every completed finish around it down with it.
What started as one defective element becomes a site-wide loss.
Now ask the only question that matters:
What part of this is actually covered by the CAR policy?
This is where most contractors get a shock.
The real issue isn’t the column it’s one clause
Every Contractors All Risks policy has a section that quietly decides this claim before it’s even lodged: the defective workmanship exclusion, and whether it carves back the resulting damage.
That clause determines:
• whether only the column is excluded, or everything it touched
• whether surrounding damage is paid in full, in part, or not at all
• whether access and reinstatement costs are covered or rejected outright
The claim isn’t won or lost on site. It’s won or lost in that paragraph.
What a defective column claim actually looks like
- The column itself Almost every policy agrees: the defective column isn’t covered. That’s on the contractor. No debate.
- Everything around it where the real money is. The exposure that matters is the structural steel, roof systems, finishes, services, and other subcontractors’ completed work that the column took down with it. This is where claims get large and where wording starts to diverge sharply.
- Some policies quietly stretch the definition of “the defective item” to include the whole structural element, or the whole section of works. So instead of “we exclude the column,” you’re effectively reading “we exclude everything connected to the column.” That one interpretive shift can turn a R10 million loss into a mostly uninsured event.
- The cost of reaching the damage. Even where resulting damage is covered, a second trap waits: repairing it usually means demolishing sound work, removing finishes, and opening up completed areas. Some policies exclude any cost incurred “to access or rectify the defect” meaning the damage is covered, but you can’t legally or practically reach it without paying for that access yourself.
- This is where claims quietly stall, not collapse.
Strong wording vs. weak wording
Strong policies keep the defect and the resulting damage as two separate things: the column is excluded, but the damage to correctly built work around it is still assessed as its own accidental damage event.
Weak policies let the defect expand outward swallowing surrounding works, cutting resulting damage cover, and rejecting access costs until the claim becomes a negotiation instead of a settlement.
What we see at Civilsure think
Contractors assume the policy responds to the damage. Insurers respond to the wording. In a column failure, that gap is everything – because the site failure is visible immediately, but the financial failure only shows up once the claim is adjusted.
The column was never the problem
It was just the trigger.
The real risk sits in the clause that decides whether the collapse is treated as one contained defect – or a project-wide exclusion event.
That’s why two contractors can suffer the identical failure and walk away with completely different outcomes.
One survives the loss. The other funds it.
A final word
If you are unsure how your CAR policy would respond in a situation like this, it is worth having it reviewed before a loss tests it in real life.
Call us and let us assist you in understanding whether your wording will actually respond when it matters most.
– Dan Payton
