Nowhere is the profitability of a sprinkler installation project more dependent on sound engineering than a retrofit job. It’s the accuracy of the conceptual piping layout that will make or break the labor estimate. And if the installer works off a plan that was hastily prepared by a design engineer who only visited the jobsite once or twice, then he is going to have to make so many field alterations that he may as well be credited with engineering the job himself.
With a little ingenuity and a significant amount of engineering, the amount of elbow grease expended in a retrofit can be substantially mitigated.