When a commercial construction project shuts down indefinitely before it's complete, site protection depends on how well contractors demobilize and other loss-mitigation efforts once the site has been vacated, management experts say.

Before contractors leave a worksite, the facility's structural integrity should be verified, said James Conroy, a vp and chief underwriting officer for the national market construction group at Liberty Mutual Group Inc. in Boston.

For example, a wall system might have to be completed to stabilize the portion that is up already or the partially completed section might have to be dismantled, Mr. Conroy said.

If a large construction or renovation project is halted at a fairly advanced stage, water standpipes should be charged so firefighters have an adequate water supply to fight a blaze on the site, he said.

Some work, such as pouring concrete, can't always “stop on a dime” and still leave the facility structurally sound, said Colin Daigle, the Washington-based global construction consulting practice leader for the Marsh Risk Consulting.

The consultant helps contractors manage shutting down a project and working through disputes.

After contractors leave a site and the owner—in many cases a lender that has foreclosed on its construction loan—looks for property insurance, site security is a major factor in finding coverage, said Ronda Whaley, a senior vp for wholesale broker Brown & Riding Insurance Services Inc. in Los Angeles

Local ordinances impose many security requirements, such as fencing and lighting, Ms. Whaley said. But adding guards and video surveillance “helps make underwriters feel comfortable,” particularly when a stalled project is in a high-crime area, she noted.

Plastic-wrapping a stalled project can discourage trespassers and protect buildings with unfinished walls and roofs from the weather, said George Dale, executive vp in the construction services group at Aon Risk Services Inc. in Los Angeles.

The process involves affixing large plastic sheets to one another by a heating process to essentially shrink-wrap a building's sides and roof.

Chris McMillan, chief operating officer and director of sales for Reno, Nev.-based Fast Wrap USA, said the 3-year-old company's fee of about $1.25 per square foot of wrap is comparable to the cost of hiring a loss-mitigation company to tarp and board up a project, but the plastic wrap provides better protection and lasts longer.

The building wrap concept is not new, however, said Tony Seraphin, president of Global Wrap L.L.C. of St. Augustine, Fla. Global Wrap has been wrapping buildings for nearly 29 years, he said.

Any size building and a project of any value can be wrapped, according to the companies' executives. Fast Wrap has secured an 88,000-square-foot building, while Global Wrap has wrapped a project in which the owner has $1.3 billion invested, the companies' executives said.