Hertford · 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 Hertford, and certify it to the TR19 Grease standard your insurer expects.
Hertford
Hertford 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.
From Fore Street to Maidenhead Street and Bengeo, 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.
Kitchens are only half the work - we also strip the dry supply and extract ductwork of Hertford 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 college kitchens, hotel and pub kitchens, restaurants and the busy town-centre takeaways - that glaze their hidden ducting quickest, and that coating is the road a fire takes.
The standard
TR19 Grease is the benchmark Hertford 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 Fore Street and Bengeo, 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 Hertford 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 Hertford hotels, care homes and gyms.
On the ground in Hertford
We are in Hertford's ductwork and plant every week. The proof is the jobs, not the stock photos.
A local leisure centre in Hertford had its changing-room extract all but stopped, with fine dust matting the ceiling grilles. We took the grilles down for a wash, cleared the ducting and serviced the fan impeller. Extraction was restored across the public washrooms and the damp, stale smell went with it, with no disruption to the working day. We worked early mornings before members arrived to keep things running.
When it is due
Ductwork rarely warns you politely. In a busy Hertford kitchen these are the tells.
A canopy dripping onto a Fore Street cookline, cooking smells forced back to the tables, extraction that no longer clears the steam, grease showing at the filter edges, or a Hertford 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 Maidenhead 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 Hertford 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 Bengeo 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 Hertford fire logbook.
Why it matters
Three duties push every Hertford 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 Hertford 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 Fore 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 Hertford 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. A food hygiene visit from East Hertfordshire District 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 Fore Street kitchen sits in a tighter band than a daytime Maidenhead Street 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 Fore Street and Bengeo where the runs are long and awkward.
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 Bengeo conversions where the run was boxed in with no hatches.
Yes. We work overnight, early mornings and closing days for the Fore Street and Maidenhead Street kitchens, and around shift patterns at commercial and production sites, at no extra charge for out-of-hours work.
Yes. The fan at the top of a Bengeo 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.
Little, if it is planned. We survey the Hertford run first, agree a slot overnight or on a close day, sheet off the kitchen and clean section by section, so a Maidenhead Street cookline is back in service for the next shift.
Yes. We clean the dry ductwork and air-handling in Hertford offices, schools and public buildings, and the lint-heavy laundry ducts in the Hertfordshire hotels and care homes, alongside kitchen grease ducts.
Local knowledge
The McMullen family opened their brewery in Hertford in 1827, and nearly two centuries on it is still brewing in the centre of the town, the last working brewery of the many that once drew on the malt and clean river water of the Lea valley. Modern premises hide their air 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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