Darlington · 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 Darlington, and certify it to the TR19 Grease standard your insurer expects.
Darlington
Darlington rates around 900 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 - Skinnergate, Grange Road, Cornmill - 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.
Beyond the kitchens, we clean the dry ductwork and air-handling in offices, schools and public buildings, and the lint-heavy laundry ducts in hotels and care homes. High-output kitchens - Darlington College, Darlington Memorial Hospital, Blackwell Meadows and the town hotels - lay grease down fast in exactly the concealed sections where a fire travels.
The standard
TR19 Grease is the benchmark Darlington insurers and fire risk assessors expect - measured across the whole extract run, not just the visible mouth of the canopy.
Because the standard is written around film thickness, it sets the depth that triggers a clean and re-test. In the mixed roof spaces around Skinnergate and Cornmill, a canopy-and-filter wipe leaves the duct interior - where grease piles up and a fire runs - completely alone. We reach the whole Darlington run through existing hatches and new ones we cut, clean back to bright metal, take before-and-after grease-depth figures at set points, and certify it to TR19 Grease with those depths on the 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 Darlington hotels, care homes and gyms.
On the ground in Darlington
We are in Darlington's ductwork and plant every week. The proof is the jobs, not the stock photos.
A council care home in Darlington had flammable textile lint filling more than 40 percent of the horizontal dryer exhaust runs. We cleared the primary collection plenums by hand and ran pneumatic air whips through the rigid galvanised ductwork to a vacuum collector, improving the ventilation and taking out a serious fire hazard. We checked in with the on-duty care team to keep the machinery noise down near the bedrooms.
When it is due
Ductwork rarely warns you politely. In a busy Darlington kitchen these are the tells.
The tells are plain: steam that lingers, odours drifting back over the diners, drips off the canopy onto a Skinnergate line, a rim of grease at the filters, or a Darlington insurer or fire assessment wanting a TR19 certificate you cannot show. Frequency tracks the cooking load - a hard-frying Grange Road 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 Darlington 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 Cornmill 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 Darlington fire logbook.
Why it matters
Three duties push every Darlington 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 Darlington 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 Skinnergate 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 Darlington 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. A food hygiene visit from Darlington Borough Council weighs the physical state of the premises, ventilation counted within it. A grease-blocked extract can pull down the rating an Environmental Health Officer sets, quite apart from the stale smell and the tired airflow your staff work beneath all shift.
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 Skinnergate kitchen sits in a tighter band than a daytime Grange Road 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 Skinnergate operator's insurer and fire risk assessor expect.
Yes - from Skinnergate and Grange Road kitchens to the offices, schools and industrial units across Darlington and the wider County Durham.
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 Skinnergate and Cornmill where the runs are long and awkward.
Yes. We work overnight, early mornings and closing days for the Skinnergate and Grange Road 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 Cornmill conversions where the run was boxed in with no hatches.
Yes. We clean the dry ductwork and air-handling in Darlington offices, schools and public buildings, and the lint-heavy laundry ducts in the County Durham hotels and care homes, alongside kitchen grease ducts.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Tell us about your kitchen and your schedule. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.