Caterham · 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 Caterham, and certify it to the TR19 Grease standard your insurer expects.
Caterham
Caterham 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 Caterham, from Chaldon Road through Church Hill to Harestone Valley Road, 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.
Kitchens are only half the work - we also strip the dry supply and extract ductwork of Caterham schools, offices and civic buildings, and the lint-choked dryer runs behind its hotels and care homes. It is the hardest-pressed kitchens - school and boarding-house kitchens, hotel and pub kitchens, care-home kitchens and the busy Croydon Road takeaways - that glaze their hidden ducting quickest, and that coating is the road a fire takes.
The standard
TR19 Grease is the benchmark Caterham 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 Chaldon Road and Harestone Valley Road, 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 Caterham 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 Caterham hotels, care homes and gyms.
On the ground in Caterham
We are in Caterham's ductwork and plant every week. The proof is the jobs, not the stock photos.
At a privately owned care home in Caterham, damp matted lint had collected at the low point of the flexible dryer ducting and was tripping the dryers' overheat cut-outs. We cleared the packed lint by hand, renewed a crushed section of ducting and cleaned the outside vent flap. The system ran cooler and cleaner with quicker drying cycles, and the feedback afterwards was excellent. We slotted it into a quiet bank holiday to suit the owner.
When it is due
Ductwork rarely warns you politely. In a busy Caterham kitchen these are the tells.
Smells pushing back into the dining room, a canopy that drips onto a Chaldon Road cookline, extraction that no longer clears the steam, visible grease at the filter edges, or a Caterham insurer or fire risk assessment asking for a TR19 certificate you cannot produce. Cleaning frequency tracks use - a hard-frying Church Hill 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 Caterham 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 Harestone Valley Road 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 Caterham fire logbook.
Why it matters
Three duties push every Caterham 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 Caterham 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 Chaldon 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. A live TR19 Grease certificate is what a Caterham insurer treats as evidence the system is maintained. Miss it and a fire claim may be reduced or refused - an expensive surprise once the damage is done.
Hygiene and environmental health. Tandridge District Council food hygiene inspections assess the physical condition of premises, ventilation included. A grease-clogged system can count against the rating an Environmental Health Officer awards, quite apart from the smell and the falling extract performance your staff have to work in.
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 Chaldon Road kitchen sits in a tighter band than a daytime Church Hill cafe. We measure the grease load and confirm your interval.
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 Chaldon Road and Harestone Valley Road where the runs are long and awkward.
A dated TR19 certificate, before-and-after photographs of each section, and an access report for your fire logbook - the evidence a Chaldon 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 Harestone Valley Road conversions where the run was boxed in with no hatches.
Yes - from Chaldon Road and Church Hill kitchens to the offices, schools and industrial units across Caterham and the wider Surrey.
Yes. The fan at the top of a Harestone Valley Road 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. We clean the dry ductwork and air-handling in Caterham offices, schools and public buildings, and the lint-heavy laundry ducts in the Surrey hotels and care homes, alongside kitchen grease ducts.
Local knowledge
Chalk was quarried on the eastern edge of Caterham Valley at Riddlesdown, the old Rose and Crown pit, from the late 1700s right through to 1967. It was burned in conical kilns to make lime and hauled away on a narrow-gauge railway, and the valley air hung thick with white dust. 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.
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