WATER · FIRE · MOLD · "MEDICAL-GRADE" RESTORATION
DRYMEDIC RESTORATION
FRANCHISE
INSURANCE
DRYmedic built its name on a promise: medical-grade restoration. The word "medic" is doing real work — it tells customers your crew practices a clinical standard of care, not just a cleanup. That promise sells jobs. It also raises the bar on what counts as a failure.
When a customer was told they got medical-grade remediation and later gets sick from residual mold, they do not file a simple accident claim. They claim you fell short of the professional standard your own brand advertised. That is an errors-and-omissions exposure built into the marketing — and it is the place a DRYmedic insurance program has to start.
JUMP TO SECTION
CONFIRMING YOUR REQUIREMENTS
THE "MEDICAL-GRADE" PROMISE AND E&O
MOLD AFTER A REMEDIATION JOB
POLLUTION AND THE STANDARD GL GAP
CUSTOMER PROPERTY DURING PACK-OUT
WHAT IT COSTS
THE COVERAGE STACK TO CARRY
FAQs
No — requirements not franchisor-confirmed
FDD ON FILE
Authority Brands
FRANCHISOR FAMILY
Professional judgment ("medical-grade" promise)
CORE EXPOSURE
Rikor benchmark $1,000,000 / $1,000,000
POLLUTION LIABILITY
Rikor benchmark $1,000,000 / $1,000,000
PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY
ON THIS PAGE
CONFIRMING YOUR REQUIREMENTS
THE "MEDICAL-GRADE" PROMISE AND E&O
MOLD AFTER A REMEDIATION JOB
POLLUTION AND THE STANDARD GL GAP
CUSTOMER PROPERTY DURING PACK-OUT
WHAT IT COSTS
THE COVERAGE STACK TO CARRY
FAQs
WHAT A COMPLETE DRYMEDIC RESTORATION FRANCHISE INSURANCE PROGRAM LOOKS LIKE
SUBCONTRACTOR CERTIFICATE COMPLIANCE ACROSS YOUR FRANCHISE
DRYmedic franchisees bring in 1099 labor for demolition, rebuild, and specialty abatement during busy stretches and large losses. Each uninsured subcontractor becomes your payroll exposure at year-end audit and your coverage gap if their work produces a claim.
A lapsed subcontractor certificate is invisible until the carrier finds it — at the audit, where it becomes added premium, or at the claim, where it becomes your uninsured loss. Rikor's subcontractor compliance monitoring tool tracks every subcontractor's certificate in real time. When one lapses, you know before the next job starts — not after the audit bill arrives.
FRANCHISEE QUESTIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WHAT INSURANCE DOES A DRYMEDIC RESTORATION FRANCHISE REQUIRE?
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We do not have a current DRYmedic FDD on file, so we cannot state the franchisor's required limits. Request the most recent FDD from your franchise consultant or DRYmedic's franchise development team and read Item 8 for the requirements and Item 1 for the franchisor legal entity. Based on Rikor's restoration benchmark, a DRYmedic franchisee should expect to carry general liability, contractors pollution liability, professional liability, commercial auto, workers' compensation, bailee and inland marine, EPLI, cyber, and crime — ideally with general liability, pollution, and professional liability combined in an ECC package.
WHAT ENTITY NAME GOES ON MY CERTIFICATE OF INSURANCE?
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The exact DRYmedic franchisor legal entity is not confirmed in our records — DRYmedic is part of the Authority Brands family, but we will not guess the legal name, because the wrong entity on a certificate creates a compliance failure. Read Item 1 of your DRYmedic FDD for the precise franchisor entity, state of organization, and principal address, and use that exact name as the additional insured. Confirm it before binding.
WHAT IS PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY AND DO RESTORATION CONTRACTORS NEED IT?
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Professional liability — errors and omissions (E&O) — covers a claim that you got a professional judgment wrong: a moisture assessment, a remediation scope, or a clearance decision. A standard general liability policy does not cover professional errors. For DRYmedic, the brand's medical-grade promise raises the standard your work is measured against, which makes professional liability the defining line. Rikor's restoration benchmark is $1,000,000 with no mold exclusion, claims-made with a two-year tail.
WHAT IS POLLUTION LIABILITY AND WHY DO RESTORATION FRANCHISES REQUIRE IT?
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Pollution liability — Contractors Pollution Liability — covers bodily injury, property damage, and cleanup from pollutants released by your work. For restoration, the pollutants are mold, sewage, bacteria, antimicrobial chemicals, and disturbed lead and asbestos — all excluded by a standard general liability policy. Rikor's restoration benchmark is $1,000,000 with affirmative mold coverage. It is the policy that responds to most of a restoration contractor's worst-case claims.
DOES MY GL COVER MOLD THAT SPREADS DURING A WATER DAMAGE REMEDIATION JOB?
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No. A standard general liability policy treats mold as a pollutant and excludes it, even when the water came from a clean residential line. The coverage that responds is contractors pollution liability with affirmative mold coverage. Without it, a mold claim from a missed moisture pocket — the most common restoration claim — comes out of your pocket.
WHAT IS BAILEE COVERAGE AND DO RESTORATION FRANCHISEES NEED IT?
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A bailee holds another person's property for a purpose. When your crew packs out a customer's contents during a restoration job, you are a bailee with a legal duty to return the property undamaged. Standard general liability and standard commercial property both exclude property of others in your care. Bailee coverage fills that gap. Rikor's restoration benchmark sizes it to your largest realistic pack-out, anchored near $250,000.
HOW MUCH DOES RESTORATION FRANCHISE INSURANCE COST PER YEAR?
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Without an FDD figure to anchor to, a full DRYmedic startup stack — GL, CPL, professional liability, auto, WC, bailee, inland marine, EPLI, cyber, and crime — runs roughly $15,000 to $28,000 per year based on Rikor's restoration benchmark. The pollution and professional lines, written in the specialty environmental market, drive the upper end. Confirm your franchisor's required limits from the FDD before treating any figure as your target.
DO I NEED WORKERS' COMPENSATION FOR RESTORATION CREWS?
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Yes. State law requires workers' compensation for any business with employees in virtually every state, and restoration carries real occupational exposure — mold, sewage, chemicals, and heavy equipment. Rikor's restoration benchmark requires it regardless of state law, with employers liability at $1,000,000, to close the Texas opt-out gap that would otherwise leave a field crew uninsured.
What a complete DRYmedic franchise insurance program looks like
A complete DRYmedic program starts from two facts: the brand promises a medical-grade standard, and there is no FDD on file to set the floor. Both point to the same conclusion — the franchisee has to build the program deliberately, not assemble it from a required list.
Start with the professional liability the brand promise demands: $1,000,000 with no mold exclusion and a two-year tail. Build the pollution and general liability around it, ideally as an ECC package combining general liability, pollution, and professional liability under one carrier. Add commercial auto at $1M, workers' compensation regardless of state law with $1M employers liability, bailee sized to your largest pack-out, an inland marine floater for your equipment, an umbrella sized to your real severity, and EPLI, cyber, and third-party crime at $250,000 each. Keep every subcontractor's certificate current, because an uninsured sub is both an audit bill and a coverage gap.
Then do the one thing this page cannot do for you: obtain your DRYmedic FDD, confirm the franchisor legal entity from Item 1 and the required limits from Item 8, and verify your stack against them before you bind.
DRYmedic sells a higher standard of care. Your insurance program should be built to that same standard.
SUBCONTRACTOR RISK
A LAPSED SUB CERTIFICATE IS INVISIBLE UNTIL YOUR CARRIER FINDS IT
Most home service franchisees use independent contractors or 1099 workers at some point. The coverage gap this creates is not obvious until a claim surfaces. When a certificate lapses, your carrier invokes the subcontractor exclusion in your general liability policy. The work was done. The damage is real. The coverage is not there.
Rikor's subcontractor compliance monitoring tool tracks subcontractor certificates in real time. When a certificate lapses, you know before the next job starts — not after the claim comes in.
WADE MILLWARD, CIC
Founder & CEO · Rikor Insurance
Wade Millward has spent 18 years specializing in franchise insurance. He holds the Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation and has reviewed hundreds of franchise disclosure documents across home service, food service, and commercial franchise verticals. He has built coverage programs for Authority Brands franchisees across electrical, HVAC, plumbing, and restoration trades.