Phoenix Journal · Ductwork
A weak brief gets you a padded price and nasty surprises later. Here is how to tell a contractor exactly what you have so the quote comes back accurate, comparable and TR19 Grease compliant.
Getting it right first time
A vague enquiry gets you a vague number - and a number that climbs the moment a technician actually sees your system. Brief a contractor properly and you get a quote you can trust, hold to and compare like for like.
Most disappointing quotes are not the contractor's fault - they are the brief's fault. If you send a one-line email asking for a price to clean the kitchen extract, you are inviting guesswork, and guesswork is priced two ways: too high to cover the unknowns, or too low so the real cost arrives later as extras. The fix is to tell the contractor exactly what you have, what you want measured and what proof you expect at the end. Do that and the whole exchange gets faster, cheaper and far less stressful.
Pull these together before you contact anyone. Ten minutes of preparation here saves a week of back-and-forth and stops surprise costs landing after the work is done.
Kitchen extract cleaning is governed by TR19® Grease, produced by the Building Engineering Services Association and endorsed by UK insurers as the benchmark for keeping grease-laden ductwork safe. In April 2024 it was reissued as a standalone specification, separated from the ventilation-hygiene guidance now published as TR19® Air. The headline the whole industry works to is simple: grease should not exceed an average of 200 microns through the system, and cleanliness has to be verified by measurement, not opinion. When your brief names that standard and asks for that verification, you immediately filter out anyone who was planning to wipe the canopy and call it done.
Frequency matters just as much, because it tells the contractor how to scope you. TR19® Grease ties cleaning intervals to how hard the kitchen works - broadly every three months for heavy use, every six months for moderate use, and up to twelve months for light use. If you tell them honestly how you cook, they can quote the right cycle and often a sensible planned schedule rather than one-off firefighting. Leave it vague and you will either be over-serviced or, worse, left with a system that quietly breaches the standard between visits.
Access is the single biggest reason two quotes for the "same" kitchen look wildly different. A run with panels every couple of metres can be cleaned and proven; a boxed-in run with no access cannot, whatever anyone promises. A good contractor will survey first, ideally free of charge, and come back with a clear split: the cost to clean what is reachable now, and a separate line to install the panels needed to reach the rest. Be wary of any price that glosses over hidden or vertical duct - the grease you cannot see is exactly the grease that starts fires, and pretending it is not there is how systems fail an insurance inspection after a claim.
When the quotes land, compare them on substance rather than the number at the bottom. Does each one measure and prove cleanliness against 200 microns, or just assert it? Does it include a full photographic report and a certificate naming the standard, the date and the areas covered? Does it list any no-access sections honestly? Are the technicians GHT-qualified and the company accredited? A slightly higher quote that proves the work and hands you documentation your insurer will accept is far cheaper than a low one that leaves you exposed. And if extraction is only part of your maintenance picture, ask whether the same visit can take in your local exhaust ventilation duties - LEV systems carry a separate legal requirement under COSHH Regulation 9 for a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, and coordinating the two saves disruption.
One last thing worth putting in the brief: tell the contractor why you are asking. A kitchen that runs hot and struggles to shift fumes often has an extract problem as much as a cleanliness problem, and if that is your situation it is worth reading why your commercial kitchen gets so hot before you commission work, so the survey looks at airflow as well as grease. The more context you give, the more useful the quote - and the less likely you are to pay twice.
Questions
Describe the system rather than just the symptom - your cooking type and volume, the rough run length from canopy to discharge, how much duct is hidden or vertical, and how many access panels exist. Name the standard you want the work carried out to, which for kitchen extract is BESA TR19 Grease, and say you expect deposit-thickness verification and a photographic report. That level of detail lets a contractor scope the job properly instead of padding the price to cover unknowns.
Compare substance, not just the bottom line. Check whether each quote measures and proves cleanliness against the 200 micron TR19 Grease benchmark, includes a full before-and-after photographic report, and honestly flags any sections that cannot be reached. A difference in price usually comes down to access - one contractor has accounted for hidden or vertical duct and remedial panels, and the other has quietly ignored it.
Because access and contamination vary hugely between kitchens, and a real number depends on seeing them. A survey - often free - lets the contractor confirm how much duct is reachable, where new access panels are needed and how heavily grease has built up. A firm price from a proper survey is far more reliable than a cheap estimate given over the phone, which almost always grows once work begins.
It is worth raising, because it is a separate legal duty that often overlaps with the same equipment. Under COSHH Regulation 9, local exhaust ventilation systems must have a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, following HSE guidance in HSG258. Coordinating extract cleaning and any LEV requirements in one brief can reduce disruption and mean fewer separate visits to your kitchen.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Phoenix surveys and cleans kitchen and building ductwork to the TR19 standard - measured, cleaned and certificated, UK-wide.