How to Choose a Deep Cleaning Company for Your Kitchen

Seven checks before you sign

Work through these in order. If a company stumbles on the first three, you can usually stop there and move on.

1. Check who is actually qualified to do the work. Kitchen extract cleaning is governed by TR19® Grease, the specification published by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA). Ask whether the technicians on site hold the BESA Grease Hygiene Technician qualification and whether the firm records its work on the Vent Hygiene Register - a competent contractor will answer without hesitation.
2. Insist on real, current insurance. A credible deep cleaning company should carry public liability cover of at least £5 million, and be willing to send you the certificate rather than just quote a figure. Read the renewal date and confirm the cover actually extends to hot works and working at height, because a policy that excludes the risky parts of the job is no protection at all.
3. Ask how they measure and prove the clean. TR19® Grease says grease levels must stay below a mean average of 200 microns between cleans, and post-clean deposits should be verified below 50 microns using a Deposit Thickness Test or Wet Film Thickness Test. A serious contractor measures rather than guesses, and hands you the readings - if all you are offered is a “looks clean” assurance, walk away.
4. Read the method statement and risk assessment. Before work starts you should receive a site-specific RAMS document, not a generic template with someone else's kitchen name still on it. It should cover isolation of the system, safe use of degreasing chemicals under COSHH, and how the team protects your surfaces and equipment overnight.
5. Confirm they can reach the whole system. Grease fires start in the sections nobody can see, so the horizontal duct runs, the riser and the fan housing all need physical access. Ask how they will inspect concealed ductwork and whether they will fit additional access panels where the run is currently sealed - a company that only cleans what it can reach through the canopy is leaving the real fire load behind.
6. Match the frequency to how hard you cook. As a rule of thumb, heavy-use kitchens running twelve to sixteen hours a day need extract cleaning roughly every three months, moderate sites such as pubs and cafés every six, and light-use kitchens once a year. A good contractor recommends an interval based on your cooking volume and your insurer's wording, not a one-size-fits-all schedule.
7. Look at the reporting and the reminders. The deliverable that matters is a dated report with before-and-after photographs from matching positions, grease readings, a system diagram of what was cleaned, and a certificate naming the qualified technician. Ask whether they store this digitally and prompt you before the next clean is due, because the paperwork is exactly what your insurer and fire officer will ask to see.

Beyond the extract system

Extraction is the part with the sharpest teeth, because it sits at the meeting point of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and your building insurance. But a proper kitchen deep clean goes further - the canopy and filters, the fabric of the kitchen behind and beneath the equipment, the wall and ceiling surfaces, the walk-in fridges, and the fryers and ranges that a nightly wipe-down never truly reaches. This is the work that keeps your Food Hygiene Rating where you want it and gives an Environmental Health Officer nothing to write down. If a company only talks about ductwork, or only talks about surfaces, you are looking at half a service.

It is worth being clear with yourself about what you are buying, too. Extract cleaning to TR19® Grease is a fire-safety and insurance task with a measurable standard behind it; a general deep clean is a hygiene task judged against food safety law and your own house standards. The best contractors handle both and keep the two sets of records straight, so you are never left explaining to an insurer why your shiny kitchen has no grease readings to go with it. If your main concern is the ventilation side specifically, it is worth reading our guide on how to choose a kitchen extract cleaning company alongside this one, because the competence checks there run deeper than a general clean requires.

A few warning signs are worth naming plainly. Be wary of a quote that is dramatically cheaper than the rest, of a firm that cannot produce an example post-clean report, and of anyone who promises to certify a system to TR19® without measuring anything. Ask for two or three references from sites like yours and actually call them - a reputable company will be glad you did. And treat out-of-hours working as a feature rather than a favour, because a clean done properly needs the kitchen cold and empty, and a contractor who insists on it is one who takes the work seriously.