Buildings and contents insurance is a term for insurance coverage that provides protection for not just your property, residents, or place of employment, it also covers all the contents and valuables inside. Regardless of the reason for damage be it snow, hail, sleet, hurricane, tornado or any natural disaster contents insurance would provide you protection so that with the appropriate rider you should be able to recover actual replacement cost. This can be on a business property or it can be buildings and contents home insurance. 
Most people have some sort of contents insurance that covers furniture and appliances and basic household items. If however you have an extensive collection of records, and antique toys or trains or any unique item that would be very difficult to replace either due to pure value or scarcity of the item then you would want a specific rider to cover these products or items as part of your contents insurance. Always the best building and contents insurance policy must be tailored to your very specific needs and requirements in order to provide maximum protection.
However having said that you may find that an entirely separate policy is your best course for protecting these items opposed to lumping it in to your standard policy. Insurance companies in general do not like to write these kinds of policies and it’s reflected by the high cost of the premiums to provide this value to you. Hence the insurance industry has often lumped together buildings and contents insurance as a catchall so that in order for you to have the contents adequately protected you also have to insure the primary property. This way the insurance companies can have their cake and eat it too. However if you want to provide protection for your valuable items you have no choice but to play along with how the insurance company has set up the game. Personally I bit skeptical when I see insurance companies create new categories, bracket their business into different profit centers all the same time claiming that customer demand or customer requirements want this unique service. More often than not you will find the reality of the situations is that the requirements for buildings and contents insurance is driven by the insurance industry and make no mistake about it they are out to protect their interest first over yours. So make sure you ask them to price it both ways as an add on to your existing policy and as a separate buildings and contents insurance quote for a new policy so you can compare the two and decide which is the best for you. When you do this make sure you do not just look at the price make sure that all the items of coverage and deductibles are the same, insurance companies are famous for offering lower price polices that cover less and provide less risk to the under righting company.
Once you settle that you need a building and contents insurance policy go out and a bunch building and contents insurance quotes from a large variety of different companies even if you don’t have your primary insurance with them. First you can take their rider quote back to your company and fight for lower rates or you can tell the lower company to do the whole package and you may save more by switching. The most important thing to realize is that you don’t have to jump into the first quote you are offered if you don’t like the prices go back and seek new buildings and contents insurance quotes and continue the again, also known as the wash and repeat process. What you’ll find is that the agents will call you and follow up, be blunt with them and tell them that no one has meet your price point yet. Now at this point you’ll find that they will want to engage you in a lot of dialog and the secret to get the best price is to refrain from that and instead ask them to submit a new written proposal either by email or snail mail. By taking this approach you’ll move the power away from their negotiations skills and force them to use their accounting and business skills to provide you the best price possible. Now here is the million dollar lesson, you must look after yourself because nobody else will. Don’t forget that, do the research and reap the rewards!