Two things make this a compliance job rather than a cleaning job: the fire risk, and the paperwork your insurer will ask for afterwards.
Every service, vaporised fat is drawn off the cooking line into the extract system. It cools as it travels and condenses on the inside of the canopy, the plenum and the length of the ductwork. Over months that becomes a continuous layer of combustible deposit running from your cooking line through the building.
A flare-up on a chargrill or a fryer that reaches the canopy can ignite that layer, and once it's alight the duct carries fire through fire compartments, above ceilings and into roof voids — past the barriers the building was designed around. That is why a kitchen duct fire so often becomes a building fire rather than a kitchen fire.
Most commercial kitchen policies include a condition on extract cleaning: cleaned to a recognised standard, at appropriate frequency, with records retained. The practical effect is that after a fire, one of the first documents requested is your cleaning history. If it is missing, out of date, or amounts to an invoice with no evidence of what was actually cleaned, you are in a weak position on a claim you may need very badly.
This is the part people underestimate. The clean protects the building. The report protects the business.
No law names a cleaning frequency, but the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to manage fire risk in the premises, and grease accumulation in extract ductwork is a recognised fire risk. Separately, most commercial insurance policies carry a condition requiring cleaning to a recognised standard with records kept. In practice, the insurance condition is what bites first.
They can degrease the canopy and wash the filters, and they should, weekly. What they cannot do is clean the ductwork behind the canopy, measure deposit depth inside the run, or issue a verification report an insurer will accept. The hidden horizontal and riser ductwork is where the fire risk actually sits.
A written record of what was cleaned, how, and to what result. Ours includes before and after photographs at each access point, deposit readings, a schematic of the system showing anything that could not be reached, and the recommended next service date. It is the document you hand to your insurer or fire risk assessor.
Extremely common in older kitchens. Where a run has no access we fit purpose-made access panels so it can be cleaned properly now and in future. Anything genuinely inaccessible is recorded on the report rather than quietly skipped — an honest report with a noted limitation is worth far more to you than a clean sheet that isn't true.
It depends on the length and complexity of the ductwork, the number of access points, and whether panels need fitting. Small takeaway systems sit at the lower end; multi-floor riser systems in hotels and care homes at the upper end. Send a photo of your canopy and a rough idea of the duct run and we'll give you a written figure.
Send a photo of your canopy and we'll tell you honestly whether you're due.