Totnes · 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 Totnes, and certify it to the TR19 Grease standard your insurer expects.
Totnes
Totnes rates dozens 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.
The city's kitchens sit in tight, mixed stock - Fore Street, High Street, Cistern Street - 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 - King Edward VI Community College, Totnes Community Hospital, the riverside inns at The Plains and the town's market cafes - lay grease down fast in exactly the concealed sections where a fire travels.
The standard
TR19 Grease is the benchmark Totnes 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 Cistern Street, 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 Totnes 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 Totnes hotels, care homes and gyms.
On the ground in Totnes
We are in Totnes's ductwork and plant every week. The proof is the jobs, not the stock photos.
The washroom extract in a Totnes town-centre public toilet block had all but stopped, with dust and lint matting the extract grilles. We cleared the grilles, ran brushes through the flexible branches and cleaned the roof extract fan blades. Extraction was restored across the staff toilets, the damp, stale smell went with it, and the area was left clean and ready to use.
When it is due
Ductwork rarely warns you politely. In a busy Totnes kitchen these are the tells.
The tells are plain: steam that lingers, odours drifting back over the diners, drips off the canopy onto a Fore Street line, a rim of grease at the filters, or a Totnes insurer or fire assessment wanting a TR19 certificate you cannot show. Frequency tracks the cooking load - a hard-frying High Street 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 Totnes 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 Cistern Street 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 Totnes fire logbook.
Why it matters
Three duties push every Totnes 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 Totnes 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. A current TR19 Grease certificate is the evidence your Totnes insurer expects. Without it, a fire claim can be reduced or refused outright - an expensive gap to find after the event.
Hygiene and environmental health. When South Hams District 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 rating 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 Fore Street kitchen sits in a tighter band than a daytime High Street cafe. We measure the grease load and confirm your interval.
Yes. The fan at the top of a Cistern Street 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.
Yes. We clean the dry ductwork and air-handling in Totnes offices, schools and public buildings, and the lint-heavy laundry ducts in the Devon hotels and care homes, alongside kitchen grease ducts.
Yes - from Fore Street and High Street kitchens to the offices, schools and industrial units across Totnes and the wider Devon.
A dated TR19 certificate, before-and-after photographs of each section, and an access report for your fire logbook - the evidence a Fore Street operator's insurer and fire risk assessor expect.
Yes. We work overnight, early mornings and closing days for the Fore Street and High Street kitchens, and around shift patterns at commercial and production sites, at no extra charge for out-of-hours work.
Little, if it is planned. We survey the Totnes run first, agree a slot overnight or on a close day, sheet off the kitchen and clean section by section, so a High Street cookline is back in service for the next shift.
Local knowledge
By a tax assessment of 1523, Totnes was the second-richest town in Devon and the sixteenth-richest in England, its merchants exporting cloth and tin to France and Spain. That trading wealth built the timbered merchant houses that still line Fore Street. Modern buildings hide their working life in the ductwork above the ceiling, where grease, dust and debris gather unseen. We clean supply and extract runs back to bare metal and record the before-and-after, so airflow and fire safety are proven rather than assumed.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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