Billingham · 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 Billingham, and certify it to the TR19 Grease standard your insurer expects.
Billingham
Billingham 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.
Right across Billingham, from Queensway through West Precinct to Cowpen Bewley, cooklines share tight roof space and vent through concealed ducting few operators ever see inside. We clean that entire path to the TR19 Grease standard, canopy through to fan, taking in the level pulls and the risers where grease settles thickest and a fire would run.
It is not only kitchens: we also clean the dry supply and extract ductwork in Billingham offices, schools and public buildings, and the lint-packed laundry runs behind its hotel and care-home dryers. The busiest kitchens - hospital kitchens, works canteens, pub and takeaway kitchens and the busy town-centre cafes - coat their hidden ducting in grease quickest, and that is the very path a fire follows.
The standard
TR19 Grease is the benchmark Billingham insurers and fire risk assessors expect - measured across the whole extract run, not just the visible mouth of the canopy.
The standard works in grease-film thickness, fixing the depth at which a run must be cleaned and re-tested. In the shared roof voids around Queensway and Cowpen Bewley, wiping the canopy and filters leaves the ductwork - the long concealed sections that gather grease and carry fire - untouched. We open the full Billingham run through existing and newly cut inspection hatches, strip it to bare metal, log grease-depth readings at fixed points before and after, and issue a TR19 Grease certificate with the post-clean depths recorded.
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 Billingham hotels, care homes and gyms.
On the ground in Billingham
We are in Billingham's ductwork and plant every week. The proof is the jobs, not the stock photos.
A dental practice in Billingham had air supply ducting thick with fine grey dust behind the grilles, leaving the main rooms feeling stuffy. We isolated the zones, brushed out the internal ductwork and washed the supply grilles down. The rooms felt fresher and the stale, dusty smell had gone, and the client booked us back in there and then. We also flagged a worn part to the practice manager for their maintenance records.
When it is due
Ductwork rarely warns you politely. In a busy Billingham kitchen these are the tells.
The tells are plain: steam that lingers, odours drifting back over the diners, drips off the canopy onto a Queensway line, a rim of grease at the filters, or a Billingham insurer or fire assessment wanting a TR19 certificate you cannot show. Frequency tracks the cooking load - a hard-frying West Precinct kitchen needs it far more often than a quiet cafe - and your certificate sets the date, so nothing is left to chance.
How it runs
Inspect the full Billingham 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 Cowpen Bewley 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 Billingham fire logbook.
Why it matters
Three duties push every Billingham 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 a Billingham 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 Queensway 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. Your Billingham insurer expects a current TR19 Grease certificate as proof the duct is clean. Without one, a fire claim can be cut back or turned down altogether - a costly thing to find only after a fire.
Hygiene and environmental health. Food hygiene inspections by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council take in the condition of the building, ventilation included, so a grease-laden system can cost you on the rating an Environmental Health Officer awards - never mind the smell and the dropping extraction your kitchen team works under.
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 Queensway kitchen sits in a tighter band than a daytime West Precinct cafe. We measure the grease load and confirm your interval.
A dated TR19 certificate, before-and-after photographs of each section, and an access report for your fire logbook - the evidence a Queensway operator's insurer and fire risk assessor expect.
Yes. The fan at the top of a Cowpen Bewley 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 Queensway and West Precinct kitchens to the offices, schools and industrial units across Billingham and the wider County Durham.
Little, if it is planned. We survey the Billingham run first, agree a slot overnight or on a close day, sheet off the kitchen and clean section by section, so a West Precinct cookline is back in service for the next shift.
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 Cowpen Bewley conversions where the run was boxed in with no hatches.
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 Queensway and Cowpen Bewley where the runs are long and awkward.
Local knowledge
ICI's Cassel Works turned out the methyl methacrylate that became Perspex, while the wider Billingham complex pumped out ammonia, Nitram fertiliser and methanol on a scale that dominated Teesside for decades. Modern premises hide their dust and grease inside sealed ductwork instead, where debris builds 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
Tell us about your kitchen and your schedule. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.