Colchester · 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 Colchester, and certify it to the TR19 Grease standard your insurer expects.
Colchester
Colchester rates around 1,700 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 North Hill to Crouch Street and Dutch Quarter, 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 - the University of Essex, Colchester Hospital, the Community Stadium and the city hotels - build grease fastest in the concealed lengths where flame spreads.
The standard
TR19 Grease is the benchmark Colchester insurers and fire risk assessors expect - measured across the whole extract run, not just the visible mouth of the canopy.
Grease is measured by thickness, and the standard sets the depth at which a system must be cleaned and re-tested. Around North Hill and Dutch Quarter, where the concealed runs thread through mixed roof voids, a canopy-and-filter wipe leaves the ductwork itself - the long hidden sections where grease accumulates and a fire travels - untouched. We access the full Colchester run through existing and newly fitted inspection hatches, clean to bare metal, record before-and-after grease-depth readings at set points, and issue a TR19 Grease certificate with a post-clean depth record.
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 Colchester hotels, care homes and gyms.
On the ground in Colchester
We are in Colchester's ductwork and plant every week. The proof is the jobs, not the stock photos.
A traditional pub and restaurant in Colchester had a thick layer of oxidised grease behind the main fryer canopy and up the vertical discharge stack. We hand-scraped the carbonised layers, worked a heavy-duty caustic gel in and pressure-rinsed the chimney line, getting it back to clean bare metal for the EHO. It was a historic town-centre building with strict rules on the external exhaust, so we kept it discreet.
When it is due
Ductwork rarely warns you politely. In a busy Colchester kitchen these are the tells.
Watch for steam that hangs in the room, cooking smells creeping back over the tables, a canopy weeping onto a North Hill line, grease crusting at the filter rims, or a Colchester insurer or fire assessor calling for a TR19 certificate you do not hold. How often it needs doing rides on the cooking load - a hard-frying Crouch Street kitchen far more than a quiet daytime cafe - and the certificate fixes that interval, so the next clean is planned, not chanced.
How it runs
Inspect the full Colchester 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 Dutch Quarter 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 Colchester fire logbook.
Why it matters
Three duties push every Colchester 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 Colchester 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 North Hill 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 Colchester 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. Colchester City 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 North Hill kitchen sits in a tighter band than a daytime Crouch Street cafe. We measure the grease load and confirm your interval.
Little, if it is planned. We survey the Colchester run first, agree a slot overnight or on a close day, sheet off the kitchen and clean section by section, so a Crouch Street cookline is back in service for the next shift.
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 North Hill and Dutch Quarter where the runs are long and awkward.
Yes. We work overnight, early mornings and closing days for the North Hill and Crouch Street kitchens, and around shift patterns at commercial and production sites, at no extra charge for out-of-hours work.
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 Dutch Quarter conversions where the run was boxed in with no hatches.
Yes - from North Hill and Crouch Street kitchens to the offices, schools and industrial units across Colchester and the wider Essex.
Yes. The fan at the top of a Dutch Quarter 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
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