Whitstable · 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 Whitstable, and certify it to the TR19 Grease standard your insurer expects.
Whitstable
Whitstable 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 Harbour Street to High Street and Seasalter, 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 Whitstable schools, offices and civic buildings, and the lint-choked dryer runs behind its hotels and care homes. It is the hardest-pressed kitchens - seafood restaurants, oyster bars, harbour-side shacks, chip shops and busy town-centre cafes - that glaze their hidden ducting quickest, and that coating is the road a fire takes.
The standard
TR19 Grease is the benchmark Whitstable 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 Harbour Street and Seasalter, 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 Whitstable 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 Whitstable hotels, care homes and gyms.
On the ground in Whitstable
We are in Whitstable's ductwork and plant every week. The proof is the jobs, not the stock photos.
A small bakery in Whitstable had carbonised grease coating the horizontal duct run from the canopy to the first bend. We scraped and degreased the extract run back to metal, giving the range a clean while we were on it. The run was cleared of grease and carbon to the TR19 standard, with a certificate issued on completion. The business next door asked us for a quote after seeing the results.
When it is due
Ductwork rarely warns you politely. In a busy Whitstable kitchen these are the tells.
Watch for steam that hangs in the room, cooking smells creeping back over the tables, a canopy weeping onto a Harbour Street line, grease crusting at the filter rims, or a Whitstable insurer or fire assessor calling for a TR19 certificate you do not hold. How often it needs doing rides on the cooking load - a hard-frying High Street kitchen far more than a quiet daytime cafe - and the certificate fixes that interval, so the next clean is planned, not chanced.
How it runs
Inspect the full Whitstable 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 Seasalter 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 Whitstable fire logbook.
Why it matters
Three duties push every Whitstable 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 Whitstable 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 Harbour 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 Whitstable 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. Canterbury City 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 Harbour Street kitchen sits in a tighter band than a daytime High Street cafe. We measure the grease load and confirm your interval.
Yes. We clean the dry ductwork and air-handling in Whitstable offices, schools and public buildings, and the lint-heavy laundry ducts in the Kent hotels and care homes, alongside kitchen grease ducts.
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 Seasalter conversions where the run was boxed in with no hatches.
Yes. The fan at the top of a Seasalter 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.
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 Harbour Street and Seasalter where the runs are long and awkward.
Yes - from Harbour Street and High Street kitchens to the offices, schools and industrial units across Whitstable and the wider Kent.
Little, if it is planned. We survey the Whitstable 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
On 3 May 1830 the locomotive Invicta hauled its first passengers along the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway - the Crab and Winkle Line - making it the first regular steam passenger railway in the world, and for a century it carried coal and cargo down to the harbour. The warehouses and works that grew up around that trade have given way to premises that hide their dust 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 the town, then hand over photographic before-and-after evidence of every run.
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