Cambridge · 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 Cambridge, and certify it to the TR19 Grease standard your insurer expects.
Cambridge
Cambridge rates around 1,450 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.
The city's kitchens sit in tight, mixed stock - Mill Road, Regent Street, Magdalene Street - with long concealed duct runs up to roof fans. We clean the full run to the TR19 Grease standard, canopy to fan, including the horizontal and vertical sections a canopy-only clean leaves coated.
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 - the University of Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin, Addenbrooke's Hospital and the city hotels - build grease fastest in the concealed lengths where flame spreads.
The standard
TR19 Grease is the benchmark Cambridge 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 Mill Road and Magdalene Street, 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 Cambridge 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 Cambridge hotels, care homes and gyms.
On the ground in Cambridge
We are in Cambridge's ductwork and plant every week. The proof is the jobs, not the stock photos.
A university college kitchen in Cambridge had carbonised fat and baked-on oil built up behind the main multi-burner ranges - a real fire risk. We fitted three new fire-rated access doors along the horizontal runs, scraped the heavy grease crusts off by hand and worked an alkaline degreaser through, cleaning it back to bare metal and certifying it to TR19. It was a historic building with low cellars, so we routed the hoses carefully through a narrow stone window.
When it is due
Ductwork rarely warns you politely. In a busy Cambridge kitchen these are the tells.
Smells pushing back into the dining room, a canopy that drips onto a Mill Road cookline, extraction that no longer clears the steam, visible grease at the filter edges, or a Cambridge insurer or fire risk assessment asking for a TR19 certificate you cannot produce. Cleaning frequency tracks use - a hard-frying Regent Street 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 Cambridge 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 Magdalene Street 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 Cambridge fire logbook.
Why it matters
Three duties push every Cambridge 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 Cambridge 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 Mill Road 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. To a Cambridge insurer a current TR19 Grease certificate is the proof the extract has been kept up. Let it lapse and a fire claim can be scaled back or declined outright - the kind of gap nobody wants to find with the kitchen already gutted.
Hygiene and environmental health. Food hygiene inspections by Cambridge City 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 Mill Road kitchen sits in a tighter band than a daytime Regent Street 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 Mill Road operator's insurer and fire risk assessor expect.
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 Magdalene Street conversions where the run was boxed in with no hatches.
Yes - from Mill Road and Regent Street kitchens to the offices, schools and industrial units across Cambridge and the wider Cambridgeshire.
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 Mill Road and Magdalene Street where the runs are long and awkward.
Yes. We work overnight, early mornings and closing days for the Mill Road and Regent Street kitchens, and around shift patterns at commercial and production sites, at no extra charge for out-of-hours work.
Yes. The fan at the top of a Magdalene Street 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.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Tell us about your kitchen and your schedule. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.