Cost & commercial
You pay for the cleaning, but the certificate is what you keep. It is the difference between a system that is clean and a system you can prove is clean - and when an insurer, a fire officer or a landlord asks, only the provable version counts.
The short answer
You pay for the cleaning, but the certificate is what you keep. It is the difference between a system that is clean and a system you can prove is clean - and when an insurer, a fire officer or a landlord asks, only the provable version counts.
The detail
A TR19 Grease certificate records that the extract system was cleaned to the recognised standard on a given date, by a competent contractor, with the result verified. It is not a receipt for a service - it is evidence of a measured outcome, which is why it carries weight that an invoice does not.
Behind the certificate sits the report that makes it credible: before and after photographs from matched positions, micron readings at set points, a schematic or list of the areas cleaned, a works summary and a note of anything inaccessible. The certificate is the summary; the report is the proof.
That package is what insurers, fire risk assessors and environmental health officers recognise as due diligence. After a fire, an insurer can ask for evidence the system was maintained; a current certificate with photographs and readings answers that question, and its absence can put a claim in doubt.
It also protects you in less dramatic moments - a lease handover where a landlord wants proof of condition, a routine environmental health visit, or a change of insurer who wants to see the maintenance history. The certificate turns a clean that happened into a clean you can stand behind months later.
What it means for you
A clean with no certificate leaves you exposed even if the work was good. There is no dated, verified evidence that the system met the standard, so at renewal or after an incident you are relying on memory and an invoice - neither of which an insurer treats as proof of compliance.
Watch for certificates that are not backed by readings or photographs. A certificate with nothing behind it is a piece of paper, not evidence; the value is in the matched photographs and the micron figures that show what was actually achieved inside the duct and fan.
Phoenix Duct Clean issues a certificate backed by the full report - photographs, readings and notes - so the money you spend buys documented compliance, not just a cleaner system that you cannot later prove was cleaned.
The service behind the guide
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Questions
That the extract system was cleaned to the recognised standard on a set date by a competent contractor, with the result verified by readings. It is evidence of a measured outcome, which is why insurers and inspectors accept it as due diligence.
Only if it is backed by the report - before and after photographs from matched positions and micron readings. A certificate with nothing behind it is just paper; the proof lives in the photographs and figures.
Because after a fire they may need evidence the system was maintained. A current certificate with photographs and readings shows due diligence; its absence can leave a claim disputed even if the kitchen was actually cleaned.
Until the next clean is due under your schedule - roughly three, six or twelve months by usage, adjusted by risk assessment. The point is to always have a current one, not to let it lapse between cleans.
Then you have a cleaner system but no proof of it. For anything involving insurance, fire safety or a lease, arrange a clean that includes a certificate and full report so the compliance is documented, not assumed.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Book a certified clean and get a certificate backed by photographs and micron readings.