Insurance for joinery and cabinetmaking workshops in Germany
In a joinery, your wealth sits in the workshop: panel saw, CNC router, edgebander and a store full of timber and boards. At the customer's home you add fitting work, between a marble windowsill and a designer kitchen. This page explains which insurance your workshop needs and what it costs.
Is my customer's kitchen insured if it burns in my workshop?
Usually not under public liability, because things in your care or being worked on are excluded there or only covered up to a limit. For other people's furniture, doors and fronts in your workshop you need third-party property expressly included in your contents insurance. Ask about it before you store customers' pieces.
What goes wrong in this trade
01
Workshop fire
Shavings, dust, lacquers and extraction systems: fire insurers put joinery workshops into high hazard classes. A fire destroys machines and orders at the same time.
02
Machinery breakdown
A CNC router or an edgebander costs six figures. If the control unit fails, production and delivery dates grind to a halt.
03
Fitting at the customer's home
A dropped hammer scratches the glass worktop, a drill hits a pipe, the fitted kitchen does not fit and the wall has to be redone.
04
Customers' property in the workshop
Antique furniture for restoration, doors for lacquering: what customers entrust to you is often worth more than your own equipment.
05
Fingers and hands
Circular saws and surface planers cause the most serious hand injuries of any trade.
06
Faulty installations
A tall cupboard that comes away from the wall, or a staircase with a step that gives way, leads to injuries you are liable for.
For workshops whose CNC programs, orders and drawings sit on networked computers.
What it costs: example prices
Liability is comparatively cheap for joiners. The bigger item is protecting the workshop and machines, because woodworking counts as a higher fire risk.
Insurance
Example
Typical range
Business liability
€50,000 turnover, €5 million cover
about €70 to €510 a year
Business liability
€250,000 turnover, €5 million cover
about €95 to €1,300 a year
Business contents
Machines, timber and boards worth €150,000
about €600 to €1,800 a year
Machinery breakdown
CNC machining centre worth €180,000
about €800 to €2,000 a year
Business interruption
Loss of income for up to twelve months, together with contents insurance
about €200 to €700 a year extra
For comparison: Liability and workshop contents cover for a small joinery cost about as much per year as one made-to-measure solid wood interior door.
Guide prices excluding German insurance premium tax, as of September 2026.
Liability comes from published tariff comparisons; contents,
machinery and business interruption are guide values from our quoting practice and depend heavily
Six claims that joinery workshops really experience, all on a single Wednesday. Go through the day and see who pays.
Damage so far€249,600
The CNC router stops with a spindle failure. The repair takes three weeks.
€22,000 · Paid by: Machinery breakdown
While fitting a door frame, a hammer falls onto the customer's glass kitchen worktop.
€3,000 · Paid by: Business liability
In transit, a finished built-in wardrobe slides on the load bed and breaks.
€4,600 · Paid by: Cargo insurance
A fitter damages historic marble windowsills in a period villa.
€18,000 · Paid by: Business liability
A wall cupboard fitted last year tears out of the wall and injures the customer's shoulder.
€12,000 · Paid by: Business liability
A spark in the extraction system sets the shavings silos on fire. Workshop and board store are covered in soot, the business stands still for two months.
€190,000 · Paid by: Business contents
Which package would you have had?
Paid by insurance: €0
Out of your own pocket: €249,600
Illustrative amounts before any excess.
What is paid depends on the policy terms.
Practical tips from your broker
Have third-party property in your workshop expressly included in your contents insurance, with a sum that covers your largest customer orders.
Insure machines at new value; older machines often have a high replacement price.
Fitting damage and damage to objects you work on at the customer's home must be included in your liability policy.
Combine contents and business interruption insurance so that wages and fixed costs keep being paid after a fire.
Ask about discounts for spark detection, extraction outside the building and a fire alarm system.
If you build stairs, windows or fire doors, say so expressly: the liability risk is higher than for furniture.
Why NAMMERT for your business
Workshop and liability considered together
For joiners, the biggest gaps lie between liability and contents insurance. We compare both across several insurers and close the gap in between.
We know timber
Many yachts whose claims we handle ourselves as a boat insurance underwriting agent have timber interiors. We know what a surveyor will say about materials and workmanship.
One contact person
Workshop, vehicles, employees and your private provision all come together with us.
Family business since 1989
We are an owner-managed company ourselves and talk to you as equals, not from a call centre.
Frequently asked questions
Questions and answers
What insurance does a joinery workshop need?
Essential are public liability and contents insurance for the workshop, machines and materials.
With expensive machines, add machinery and business interruption insurance.
How much does liability insurance cost for joiners?
Published comparisons show about €70 to €510 a year for €50,000 turnover and about €95 to €1,300
for €250,000 turnover, depending on insurer and excess.
Is customers' furniture in my workshop insured?
Only if third-party property is expressly included.
Public liability usually excludes things in your care.
Does insurance pay if my CNC machine breaks down?
Contents insurance only pays for fire, water or burglary.
Operating errors, short circuits or material defects are covered by machinery insurance.
Why is fire insurance more expensive for joiners?
Wood dust and shavings ignite easily.
Insurers therefore charge higher premiums and set conditions,
for example on extraction and cleaning.
Do I as the owner have to join the Berufsgenossenschaft?
Membership of BGHM, the statutory accident insurer, is compulsory for your employees.
As the owner you can insure yourself voluntarily,
which makes sense if you work at the machines yourself.
NAMMERT insurance broker
Request quotes for Joinery
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Change what does not fit; we compare quotes, in English.
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