Fire protection subcontractors carry overhead driven by NICET and NFPA certification requirements, hydraulic calculation expertise, and the AHJ coordination that fire sprinkler systems require in every jurisdiction.
These benchmarks are drawn from SPM's work with commercial fire protection contractors and industry data. Calculate your actual overhead rate — total G&A expenses divided by total revenue for the trailing 12 months — and compare to your revenue band below.
How to use this data: If you're above the top of the range, specific categories need review. If you're below the bottom, you may be underinvesting in systems and staff. Use the benchmark as a target range, not a single number.
Trade note for Fire Protection Contractors: Fire protection contractors who perform both new construction installation and annual inspection/testing carry higher overhead than installation-only contractors. Annual inspection programs require scheduling infrastructure, service vehicles, and testing equipment overhead that pure installation operations don't carry.
System design, hydraulic calculations, and CAD drafting for specific fire protection projects are direct job costs — not overhead. When design labor gets coded to overhead, installation jobs look less profitable and overhead is overstated.
Maintaining current knowledge of NFPA 13, NFPA 14, NFPA 72, and applicable local amendments requires ongoing education and documentation overhead that's often underestimated in overhead rate calculations.
Fire protection contractors who operate prefabrication shops carry shop overhead — space, equipment, assembly labor — that field-install-only contractors don't have. This overhead should be tracked separately and allocated to the jobs benefiting from prefabrication efficiency.
Hydraulic calculations, system design, and CAD drafting for specific projects are coded to those jobs in ControlQore — not to overhead. Design labor that directly supports a specific fire protection installation belongs in that job's direct cost.
For fire protection contractors with prefabrication operations, SPM builds shop overhead tracking in ControlQore — allocating prefabrication infrastructure cost to the jobs benefiting from shop fabrication rather than absorbing it in general overhead.
For fire protection contractors with both installation and inspection operations, SPM builds separate overhead rate tracking for each service line — preventing inspection program overhead from distorting installation overhead rates.
Find out in a free 30-minute call. Josh will tell you straight where your overhead rate stands and what to do about it.
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