Atherton · TR19 Grease
We clean the full commercial duct run - grease, dry and laundry ductwork, canopy to roof fan - for kitchens, offices and industrial sites across Atherton, and certify it to the TR19 Grease standard your insurer expects.
Atherton
Atherton rates hundreds of food premises, and behind a large share sits an extract duct a canopy clean never reaches - plus the dry ductwork and air-handling that keep its offices and public buildings running.
From Mealhouse Lane to Bag Lane and Howe Bridge, the town's cooklines vent through long hidden ducting that climbs to a roof fan. We clean it end to end to the TR19 Grease standard - not just the canopy, but the flat and rising sections where grease really collects.
The same crews clean dry ventilation and air-handling ductwork in offices, schools and civic buildings, plus the combustible lint runs behind hotel and care-home dryers. High-turnover sites - care-home kitchens, school and college canteens, pub and takeaway kitchens and the busy town-centre cafes - build grease fastest in the concealed lengths where flame spreads.
The standard
TR19 Grease is the benchmark Atherton insurers and fire risk assessors expect - measured across the whole extract run, not just the visible mouth of the canopy.
The standard is written in film thickness: once grease reaches a set depth the run has to be cleaned and proven again. In the crowded roof voids off Mealhouse Lane and Howe Bridge, a wipe of the canopy and filters never reaches the ductwork behind them, where the grease that carries fire quietly gathers. We work the whole Atherton run through hatches already in place and others we cut, bring it back to bright metal, note grease depths at fixed stations before and after, and certify to TR19 Grease with the closing figures logged.
By system
The fire risk. Fried-food extract coats duct walls in combustible grease; cleaned canopy to fan and certified to TR19 Grease.
Supply and general extract in offices and public buildings, carrying dust and debris that throttles airflow and loads the air-handling unit; cleaned to TR19.
The hidden one. Tumble-dryer ducting packs with lint - highly combustible - in Atherton hotels, care homes and gyms.
On the ground in Atherton
We are in Atherton's ductwork and plant every week. The proof is the jobs, not the stock photos.
At a long-established Atherton bakery, grease had pooled in the low points of the horizontal duct run, a genuine fire hazard sitting over the fryers. We fitted access panels, scraped the ductwork out and degreased right through until the metal showed. It cleared TR19 and we issued a certificate for the file. The chef took a short photographic record for their insurance folder.
When it is due
Ductwork rarely warns you politely. In a busy Atherton kitchen these are the tells.
Smells pushing back into the dining room, a canopy that drips onto a Mealhouse Lane cookline, extraction that no longer clears the steam, visible grease at the filter edges, or an Atherton insurer or fire risk assessment asking for a TR19 certificate you cannot produce. Cleaning frequency tracks use - a hard-frying Bag Lane kitchen needs it far more often than a daytime cafe - and your certificate states the interval, so the next clean is never a guess.
How it runs
Inspect the full Atherton run, find the access gaps in the concealed sections, agree scope and frequency.
Fit inspection hatches where the run is sealed - common in the older Howe Bridge conversions - and protect the kitchen.
Canopy to roof fan, down to bare metal, with before-and-after grease-depth evidence.
TR19 Grease certificate, grease-depth record and next-due date for your Atherton fire logbook.
Why it matters
Three duties push every Atherton operator to keep ductwork clean, and they reinforce one another.
Fire safety law. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person for an Atherton premises must assess and manage fire risk. A grease-laden duct is one of the most serious risks in any catering building, because a flare-up on a Mealhouse Lane cookline can travel the ductwork and spread fire through concealed voids. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the HSE reinforce the same duty of care.
Insurance. A current TR19 Grease certificate is the evidence your Atherton insurer expects. Without it, a fire claim can be reduced or refused outright - an expensive gap to find after the event.
Hygiene and environmental health. When Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council carries out a food hygiene inspection it judges the physical state of the premises, and ventilation is part of that. A grease-choked extract can pull down the rating an Environmental Health Officer gives, on top of the odour and the weakening airflow your staff put up with.
It is set by cooking hours under TR19 Grease - roughly every three months for heavy use of 12 to 16 hours a day, every six for moderate, every twelve for light. A hard-frying Mealhouse Lane kitchen sits in a tighter band than a daytime Bag Lane cafe. We measure the grease load and confirm your interval.
We fit compliant access panels where the ductwork has none, so every internal section can be reached, cleaned, inspected and certified - common in the older Howe Bridge conversions where the run was boxed in with no hatches.
Little, if it is planned. We survey the Atherton run first, agree a slot overnight or on a close day, sheet off the kitchen and clean section by section, so a Bag Lane cookline is back in service for the next shift.
Yes. The fan at the top of a Howe Bridge or city-centre riser is where grease throws off the blades and the run ends - we degrease it and its housing, because a loaded fan is what finally stops a system pulling.
Yes - from Mealhouse Lane and Bag Lane kitchens to the offices, schools and industrial units across Atherton and the wider Greater Manchester.
A dated TR19 certificate, before-and-after photographs of each section, and an access report for your fire logbook - the evidence a Mealhouse Lane operator's insurer and fire risk assessor expect.
The full run, canopy through the concealed horizontal and vertical ductwork to the roof fan - the hidden sections a canopy-only clean leaves loaded, which matters in the tight stock around Mealhouse Lane and Howe Bridge where the runs are long and awkward.
Local knowledge
Cotton spinning and weaving shared the town with the pits, and Fletcher Burrows built the huge Howe Bridge Mills to work it, their sheds thick with airborne cotton lint. The last of Atherton's mills spun on until 1999, and Ena Mill now trades as a designer shopping outlet rather than a spinning room. Modern premises hide their dust inside sealed ductwork instead, where grease and debris build unseen until airflow fails or fire finds a path. We clean and inspect ventilation and extract ductwork across the town, then hand over photographic before-and-after evidence of every run.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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