Class code 5645: carpentry, detached one- or two-family dwellings

By Adrian Middleton, Sword & Shield, PLLC · Updated Saturday, October 24, 2026

What code 5645 covers

• Framing, rough carpentry, sheathing, trim and finish carpentry on detached single-family and two-family houses, new construction and remodel.
• Installation of wood or metal studs, trusses, roof decking and subflooring on those buildings.
• Installation of doors, windows and millwork by the carpentry crew on those buildings.
• Carpentry crew laborers and helpers.

What it does not cover

• Carpentry on buildings of three stories or less that are not detached one- or two-family dwellings (5651): townhomes, condos, small commercial.
• Carpentry NOC on larger or commercial structures (5403).
• Cabinet and interior trim installation by a separate crew with separate records (5437).
• Roofing performed by the carpentry crew: 5551 for that payroll if records separate it, and for all of it if they do not.

How the Division assigns it on a stop-work order

On a stop-work order worksheet, the investigator assigns a class code to each uninsured worker for each period from two sources: the employer's records (payroll by job, job descriptions, invoices, permits) and the investigator's own observation on the jobsite. With no records, Rule 69L-6.028 directs the Department to impute payroll at the highest-rated class code the investigator observed. The investigator records the building type from the permit and the site. A framing crew on a single-family lot is 5645; the same crew on a four-unit townhome is 5651. If the crew's records do not separate payroll by job, the Department assigns the highest-rated code observed across the lookback period. Under the NCCI basic manual the governing class is the one with the most payroll, and an employee's payroll is assigned to a single code unless the records separate it by operation; interchange-of-labor splits require contemporaneous payroll records, not after-the-fact estimates. Getting a worker moved from code 5645 to a lower-rated code is a records argument, made line by line on Form DFS-F4-1595.

Misclassification patterns the investigator looks for

• The framing 'sub' who is one person with a nail gun and no policy: an employee under s. 440.02(18)(c), coded 5645, plus the $5,000 misrepresentation penalty if called an independent contractor.
• Labor brokers or crew leaders paid a lump sum for a crew: every member is the contractor's employee under s. 440.10(1)(b) unless the broker has its own policy covering them.
• Framers coded to 5437 (interior trim) across the whole year because they did trim on one job. Without payroll split by operation, the higher code governs.
• Cash payroll to framing crews, which the Division's fraud unit treats as the pattern most likely to be referred under s. 440.105.

Clerical (8810) and outside sales (8742) are standard exception codes. A worker's payroll goes there only if their duties are exclusively clerical or sales and the records show it. An office manager who also runs materials to the jobsite, or an owner who sells jobs and swings a hammer, is assigned to the governing construction class for all of their payroll. This is the single most common reclassification on a penalty worksheet.

The rate

Florida's approved manual rate for this code is filed by NCCI and approved by the Office of Insurance Regulation effective each January 1. The Department's worksheet uses the rate in effect for each period of non-compliance, so a 24-month lookback can span three rate years. Rates are not stated on this page because they change; your agent, carrier or the current NCCI Florida rate pages have the figure. The free calculator takes the rate as an input.

Questions