DUCTZ

The 2025 DUCTZ FDD names three entities that must appear as additional insured on your policies: DUCTZ International, LLC; BELFOR Franchise Group, LLC; and BELFOR USA Group Inc. Each one must be listed by exact legal name on every certificate of insurance you issue. Getting one wrong — or issuing a certificate that names only the brand instead of the legal entities — produces a non-compliant COI.

The DUCTZ FDD requires you to provide proof of insurance — a certificate or acceptable proof — at least 10 days before you attend training. That is an earlier compliance trigger than most home service franchises. If you are in the pre-opening phase, this timeline matters.

Your certificate of insurance names your business entity — your LLC or corporation — as the named insured. The DUCTZ FDD requires you to add DUCTZ International, LLC; BELFOR Franchise Group, LLC; BELFOR USA Group Inc.; and designated affiliates, employees, officers, and directors as additional insureds on your general liability policy. All three legal entities must be listed.

What the 2025 DUCTZ FDD requires you to carry:

Commercial general liability insurance at $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate. Products and completed operations is required at $2,000,000. Personal and advertising injury coverage at $1,000,000 is required. The policy must be written on an occurrence form. Additional insured status must be primary and non-contributory — your policy responds first before any coverage the franchisor entities carry. Waiver of subrogation is required.

Commercial auto liability at a combined single limit of $1,000,000, covering all owned, hired, and non-owned vehicles. DUCTZ service vehicles transport specialized cleaning equipment — compressed air systems, negative air machines, access tools — on every route. The hired and non-owned auto coverage protects you when any team member uses a personal vehicle on a job.

Workers compensation insurance at statutory limits. The DUCTZ FDD specifies employers' liability at $500,000 per accident, $500,000 per disease per employee, and $500,000 per disease policy limit — or the minimum required by your state, whichever is higher. The Rikor benchmark for HVAC franchise operations recommends $1,000,000 employers' liability across all three limits. The FDD minimum is a floor, not a ceiling.

Umbrella liability at $2,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, following form above general liability, auto liability, and workers' compensation / employers' liability.

The DUCTZ FDD also requires a 30-day notice of cancellation or material alteration on all policies, and a waiver of subrogation in favor of the additional insured parties.

Every DUCTZ job requires physical access to ductwork — and ductwork lives in attics, crawlspaces, wall cavities, and ceiling plenum spaces. Reaching it requires passing through finished surfaces, working in confined areas, and operating equipment in spaces not designed for regular foot traffic.

The property damage pattern from this operational reality is predictable. A technician stepping in an attic and putting a foot through drywall. Compressor hoses catching a stored item and pulling it off a shelf. A negative air machine damaging a furnishings item during setup. Debris from cleaned ductwork falling through a supply register onto finished flooring or furniture below.

General liability covers property damage in the course of operations — but it covers third-party property damage, not damage to property in your care, custody, and control. A customer's personal belongings physically moved to access a duct register are in your care for the duration of that service. Damage to those items is a care, custody, and control claim — and many standard general liability policies limit or exclude it.

The coverage answer is a care, custody, and control buyback endorsement on the general liability policy, or an inland marine policy that covers customer property in your possession during service. Confirm how your policy handles this before the first claim — not after.

This is the claim scenario that distinguishes DUCTZ insurance from standard HVAC insurance — and the one most insurance agents who do not specialize in duct cleaning operations miss.

Duct cleaning physically disturbs the contents of residential and commercial ductwork. In systems that have not been cleaned in years, that content can include accumulated dust and particulate, microbial growth, insulation fibers, rodent debris, and — in pre-1980 commercial buildings — asbestos-containing materials in duct insulation or on nearby surfaces.

Disturbing those materials during duct cleaning and redistributing them through the HVAC system is a completed operations event with a bodily injury or property damage tail. A customer who develops respiratory symptoms weeks after a duct cleaning and ties those symptoms to the service creates a claim that may involve the pollution exclusion in your general liability policy.

Dust, biological contaminants, insulation fibers, and asbestos are all potential pollutants under standard policy language. A standard general liability policy with an unmodified pollution exclusion will evaluate whether these substances qualify as pollutants before responding to the claim. If they do — and carriers frequently take that position — the claim is excluded.

DUCTZ franchisees regularly subcontract specialty work — sheet metal fabrication, controls wiring, refrigerant recovery. Each sub carries a separate certificate on their own renewal schedule. None of them will tell you when it lapses. A subcontractor's exposure during a DUCTZ job that produces an air quality complaint still comes back to your general liability if the sub's certificate cannot be produced. See how subcontractor compliance monitoring works for HVAC franchisees at [/subcontractor-compliance/](/subcontractor-compliance/).

Duct cleaning sits in a specialized underwriting category. Carriers who know the operations write it efficiently. Carriers who do not know the operations either decline it or price it inaccurately.

How workers' compensation premium is calculated

DUCTZ technicians work in confined spaces — attics, crawlspaces, ceiling plenums — with equipment that creates physical strain and exposure to accumulated particulate. 

Workers' compensation classification for duct cleaning work falls under NCCI code 5537 (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Work) in most states, which is the same code used for standard HVAC service. Rates under NCCI 5537 vary by state — from approximately $2.24 per $100 of payroll in lower-rate states to $5.14 in states like Florida.

The formula: payroll divided by 100, multiplied by the rate for your state, multiplied by your experience modification factor.

The DUCTZ FDD specifies employers' liability at $500,000. The Rikor benchmark for HVAC and duct cleaning operations recommends $1,000,000 employers' liability limits — the floor, not the FDD minimum. Employers' liability sits above the workers' compensation statutory floor and responds to personal injury lawsuits from injured employees that fall outside strict workers' compensation limits.

What happens at audit if your subcontractor certificates are missing

Workers' compensation auditors review both W-2 payroll and 1099 payments to subcontractors. Any subcontractor without a current certificate showing their own workers' compensation coverage has their payroll treated as yours at your classification rate. A certificate collected at hire that has since lapsed provides no audit protection.

What the DUCTZ FDD says about insurance costs

The 2025 DUCTZ FDD does not disclose specific insurance cost estimates in Item 7. Coverage requirements are specified in Item 8. Compare your actual premium quotes against the minimum requirements in Item 8 to confirm compliance — not against a published cost estimate.

The five variables that determine your actual number

Your state. Your payroll. Your fleet. Your claims history. Your subcontractor use.

Insurance premium for a DUCTZ franchise is not a single number. Your state, your zip code, your payroll, your fleet, and your claims history all move it. A quote built for your operation, your state, and your specific service lines is the only number that applies.

These are not required by your franchise agreement. They reflect the gaps confirmed by DUCTZ's operational profile — duct cleaning in residential and commercial spaces, confined space access, and air quality claims.

Contractors pollution liability is the coverage that responds to air quality claims when the standard general liability pollution exclusion applies. Disturbing accumulated particulate, microbial growth, or insulation fibers during duct cleaning and redistributing them through a customer's system is a pollution event under standard policy language. Contractors pollution liability is the policy built for this. Every DUCTZ franchisee doing commercial duct cleaning in pre-1980 buildings should treat this as required — not optional.

Care, custody, and control endorsement or inland marine coverage addresses the customer property exposure from technicians working in tight spaces around furnishings, equipment, and stored items. The standard general liability care, custody, and control exclusion limits or removes coverage for damage to property in your possession during service. An endorsement or separate policy fills this gap before the customer's desk chair ends up as an out-of-pocket dispute.

Contractors errors and omissions addresses the professional judgment component of air quality claims. If a DUCTZ franchisee performs duct cleaning and the customer claims the service was performed incorrectly — improper technique, inadequate equipment, missed contamination sources — that framing moves the claim from general liability into professional negligence territory. Errors and omissions insurance responds where general liability ends.

Tools and equipment coverage (inland marine) covers the specialized equipment a DUCTZ operation requires — compressed air systems, negative air machines, access equipment, and inspection cameras — when that equipment is in service vehicles or at job sites. Standard commercial property coverage does not apply off-premises.