Elgin · 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 Elgin, and certify it to the TR19 Grease standard your insurer expects.
Elgin
Elgin 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.
Kitchens across Elgin work out of tight, mixed premises - Batchen Street, Commerce Street, Bishopmill - their extract snaking through concealed voids to roof-mounted fans. We take the whole run to the TR19 Grease standard, hood to fan, reaching the horizontal legs and vertical risers a canopy wipe never touches.
It is not only kitchens: we also clean the dry supply and extract ductwork in Elgin offices, schools and public buildings, and the lint-packed laundry runs behind its hotel and care-home dryers. The busiest kitchens - hospital kitchens, college refectories, hotel and pub kitchens and the busy town-centre takeaways - coat their hidden ducting in grease quickest, and that is the very path a fire follows.
The standard
TR19 Grease is the benchmark Elgin 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 Batchen Street and Bishopmill, wiping the canopy and filters leaves the ductwork - the long concealed sections that gather grease and carry fire - untouched. We open the full Elgin 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 Elgin hotels, care homes and gyms.
On the ground in Elgin
We are in Elgin's ductwork and plant every week. The proof is the jobs, not the stock photos.
Grease had gathered in the low points of the extract ductwork at a well-known Elgin fish and chip shop, sitting right over the cook line where it does most harm. I fitted access panels along the run, scraped the duct out and degreased it through until the steel showed clean. The finished run met TR19 with no grease or carbon left in it, and I put together a report with supporting images for their records. Before leaving I gave the landlord a few pointers on keeping it clear between visits.
When it is due
Ductwork rarely warns you politely. In a busy Elgin kitchen these are the tells.
A canopy dripping onto a Batchen Street cookline, cooking smells forced back to the tables, extraction that no longer clears the steam, grease showing at the filter edges, or an Elgin insurer or fire risk assessor wanting a TR19 certificate you have not got. How often it needs doing follows how hard you cook - a fast-frying Commerce Street kitchen far more than a daytime cafe - and the certificate names the interval, so the next visit is booked, not guessed.
How it runs
Inspect the full Elgin 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 Bishopmill 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 Elgin fire logbook.
Why it matters
Three duties push every Elgin operator to keep ductwork clean, and they reinforce one another.
Fire safety law. Under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006, the duty-holder for an Elgin 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 Batchen Street 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 Elgin 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. When Moray Council carries out a food hygiene inspection it judges the physical state of the premises, and ventilation is part of that. A grease-choked extract can pull down the result an Environmental Health Officer gives, on top of the odour and the weakening airflow your staff put up with.
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 Batchen Street kitchen sits in a tighter band than a daytime Commerce Street cafe. We measure the grease load and confirm your interval.
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 Bishopmill conversions where the run was boxed in with no hatches.
Yes. The fan at the top of a Bishopmill 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.
A dated TR19 certificate, before-and-after photographs of each section, and an access report for your fire logbook - the evidence a Batchen Street operator's insurer and fire risk assessor expect.
Yes - from Batchen Street and Commerce Street kitchens to the offices, schools and industrial units across Elgin and the wider Moray.
Little, if it is planned. We survey the Elgin run first, agree a slot overnight or on a close day, sheet off the kitchen and clean section by section, so a Commerce 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 Batchen Street and Bishopmill where the runs are long and awkward.
Local knowledge
Alexander Johnston founded his woollen mill at Newmill on the River Lossie in 1797, and Johnstons of Elgin remains the only vertical mill in Scotland still carding, spinning, weaving and finishing on one site, its air once thick with wool fibre. 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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