commercial
Commercial kitchen and extract cleaning
Kitchen extract cleaning costs £250 to £600 for a small takeaway system and £600 to £1,500 for a restaurant, with large or difficult ductwork running higher. It is a fire safety job rather than a hygiene one, and the reason most kitchens book it is that the insurer asks for the certificate.
What this covers
What it costs. Kitchen extract cleaning costs £250 to £600 for a small takeaway system and £600 to £1,500 for a restaurant. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Canopies, filters and plenums cleaned to bare metal
- Ductwork cleaned through access panels along its full run
- Extract fans and impellers stripped and cleaned
- Access panels cut and fitted where a duct has none
- A post-clean report with photographs and grease depth readings
What is involved
The standard is TR19 Grease, published by the Building Engineering Services Association, and it is what an insurer and a fire risk assessor will both refer to. It sets how clean is clean, measured as grease depth in microns, and it requires the whole system to be done rather than the visible end of it.
That is the part most worth checking in a quote. A canopy and a set of filters can be cleaned in an evening and look immaculate, while the duct behind them, which is where a fire actually travels, needs opening up to be cleaned at all. Ductwork needs access panels at intervals along its run, and on a system built without them, cleaning and verification begin once they are cut in.
Frequency follows cooking hours and what is being cooked. Heavy frying running all day is quarterly; a light-use kitchen may be annual. The certificate records the date, the readings and the areas that could not be reached, and that last line is the one worth reading, because an inaccessible run is a gap in the cover as well as in the clean.
What the evidence says
Standards and published measurements, cited so they can be checked.
The kitchen clean that an insurer asks about
Grease in extract ductwork is a fire risk rather than a hygiene one, and it has its own specification separate from any cleaning contract. TR/19 Grease is not law. It is the recognised standard, it sets a competency qualification for the technician, and compliance with it is routinely written into commercial insurance policies. Cleaning records are what a kitchen shows its insurer after a fire, which makes the certificate the thing being bought rather than the visit.
BESA TR/19 Grease, 2019. The Building Engineering Services Association's specification for fire risk management of grease in kitchen extraction systems, which is not law and is the standard commercial insurers write into policies.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask whether they work to TR19 Grease and what they issue afterwards. A report with photographs and grease depth readings is the deliverable; an invoice is not.
Ask whether the ductwork is included or only the canopy and filters. Many price them separately, and the ductwork is where the main fire risk sits.
Ask what happens where there are no access panels. Cutting and fitting them is normal, chargeable and better agreed in advance than discovered at midnight.
Common questions
How often does it need doing?
By cooking hours rather than by calendar. Heavy frying for twelve hours a day is quarterly, moderate use is every six months, and a light-use kitchen is often annual. TR19 Grease sets the frequency from a risk assessment rather than from a calendar, and your insurer may set its own interval on top.
Does the insurer really ask for it?
Many commercial kitchen policies require it, and a fire claim is where it gets checked. A certificate with the dates and readings is what satisfies that, which is why the report matters more than the appearance of the canopy.
Where kitchen extract cleaning is listed
Towns with a cleaner on this site who takes it on, and how many.