Harpenden · 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 Harpenden, and certify it to the TR19 Grease standard your insurer expects.
Harpenden
Harpenden 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 Harpenden work out of tight, mixed premises - Leyton Road, Vaughan Road, Batford - 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.
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 - restaurant and gastropub kitchens, school and staff canteens and the busy town-centre takeaways - lay grease down fast in exactly the concealed sections where a fire travels.
The standard
TR19 Grease is the benchmark Harpenden 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 Leyton Road and Batford, wiping the canopy and filters leaves the ductwork - the long concealed sections that gather grease and carry fire - untouched. We open the full Harpenden 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 Harpenden hotels, care homes and gyms.
On the ground in Harpenden
We are in Harpenden's ductwork and plant every week. The proof is the jobs, not the stock photos.
A busy office suite in Harpenden had fine building dust and debris built up across the supply ducting and the AHU. We worked through the ducting with brushes and HEPA extraction, then cleaned and refitted the ceiling diffusers. Indoor air quality improved across the occupied areas and everything was back to normal by opening. The work went in over a single overnight shift so the practice could open as usual.
When it is due
Ductwork rarely warns you politely. In a busy Harpenden kitchen these are the tells.
Smells pushing back into the dining room, a canopy that drips onto a Leyton Road cookline, extraction that no longer clears the steam, visible grease at the filter edges, or a Harpenden insurer or fire risk assessment asking for a TR19 certificate you cannot produce. Cleaning frequency tracks use - a hard-frying Vaughan Road 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 Harpenden 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 Batford 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 Harpenden fire logbook.
Why it matters
Three duties push every Harpenden 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 Harpenden 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 Leyton 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 Harpenden 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. St Albans City and 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 Leyton Road kitchen sits in a tighter band than a daytime Vaughan Road 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 Batford conversions where the run was boxed in with no hatches.
Little, if it is planned. We survey the Harpenden run first, agree a slot overnight or on a close day, sheet off the kitchen and clean section by section, so a Vaughan Road cookline is back in service for the next shift.
Yes. We work overnight, early mornings and closing days for the Leyton Road and Vaughan Road kitchens, and around shift patterns at commercial and production sites, at no extra charge for out-of-hours work.
Yes. We clean the dry ductwork and air-handling in Harpenden offices, schools and public buildings, and the lint-heavy laundry ducts in the Hertfordshire hotels and care homes, alongside kitchen grease ducts.
Yes - from Leyton Road and Vaughan Road kitchens to the offices, schools and industrial units across Harpenden and the wider Hertfordshire.
A dated TR19 certificate, before-and-after photographs of each section, and an access report for your fire logbook - the evidence a Leyton Road operator's insurer and fire risk assessor expect.
Local knowledge
Rothamsted's Broadbalk field has grown wheat under controlled treatments continuously since 1843, the longest-running agricultural experiment in the world, and its glasshouses, drying rooms and analytical labs depend on ducted ventilation to move air and fume. Modern premises hide that airflow inside sealed ductwork, where grease and debris build unseen until airflow fails or fire finds a path. We clean and inspect ventilation and extract ductwork across Harpenden, then hand over photographic before-and-after evidence of every run.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Tell us about your kitchen and your schedule. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.