Guide - Fit-Out - UK-Wide
Fit-out is the one moment the system is open and empty - and the cheapest time to design in cleaning access and start from a verified-clean baseline. Here is what to get right before you open.
The short answer
A fit-out is the one moment when the extract system is fully accessible and completely empty - and it is the cheapest time to get two things right that are painful to fix later: designing in the access that lets the system be cleaned, and starting from a verified-clean baseline rather than commissioning grease onto construction dust:
Decisions made at fit-out govern how cleanable - and therefore how compliant - the kitchen will be for its whole life.
Clean before handover
Newly installed ductwork is rarely empty. Construction generates dust and debris, and it settles inside duct runs during the build, so a system handed over without cleaning starts life already contaminated. The ductwork installation guidance is clear that it is in everyone's interest to have a specialist clean the inside of newly installed ductwork before handover, and the standards even set out acceptable dust-accumulation levels for new ductwork to verify it is genuinely clean to start with.
The reason this matters beyond tidiness is that the baseline sets the trajectory. If the system is commissioned with builder's dust already inside, the first layers of cooking grease bind onto it, and the kitchen is behind from day one. A pre-handover clean, verified, means the very first cooking grease lands on clean metal - and the first survey reads a true baseline rather than a contaminated one.
Design access in
The single most consequential cleaning decision at fit-out is access. Once the kitchen is built, false ceilings are closed and the duct disappears into voids, retrofitting access panels is disruptive and expensive - and until it is done, the system can only be partially cleaned. Designing the access in while the run is open and visible costs a fraction of that.
The standard gives the brief. Kitchen extract ductwork is installed to its own ductwork specification, but the access required for cleaning goes beyond what the install standards alone provide, so it has to be specified deliberately: panels positioned so that all of the ductwork can be reached, with guidance pointing to provision roughly every couple of metres and at both sides of every bend, on the side of the duct where possible, of the same material as the ductwork, and on quick-release catches. Specify that at design stage and the kitchen is cleanable for life. Leave it to chance and you inherit a system that can never quite be fully cleaned.
Why it matters
With a system that is cleanable and verified-clean from the start, the rest follows naturally. A first survey establishes the baseline condition and, from the kitchen's expected cooking, a projected first interval. The opening certificate becomes the first entry in the record, and the schedule has a true starting point rather than a guess. Compare that with the common alternative - a kitchen that opens with dust in the ducts and no usable access - where every future clean is a partial one and every survey reads a system that was compromised before it served a single cover.
The sensible approach at fit-out is to specify cleaning access into the design, have the ductwork cleaned and verified before handover, and take a baseline survey and certificate as the kitchen opens. It is the cheapest compliance you will ever buy, because it is the only point at which the whole system is open, empty and waiting.
Questions
Yes. Construction generates dust and debris that settles inside duct runs during the build, so new ductwork starts life contaminated. Installation guidance recommends a specialist clean of the inside of new ductwork before handover, with acceptable dust levels set out to verify it is genuinely clean.
Because once false ceilings are closed and the duct is in voids, retrofitting access is disruptive and expensive, and until it is done the system can only be partially cleaned. Specifying access while the run is open costs a fraction and makes the kitchen cleanable for life.
Enough that all the ductwork can be reached. Guidance points to panels roughly every couple of metres and at both sides of every bend, on the side of the duct where possible, of the same material as the ductwork and on quick-release catches - because the cleaning access required goes beyond the install standards alone.
A first survey and certificate as the kitchen opens, establishing the clean starting condition and a projected first interval from the expected cooking. It gives the cleaning schedule a true starting point and the record its first entry, rather than a guess.
The kitchen opens with dust in the ducts and often without usable access, so the first cooking grease binds onto construction debris and every future clean is partial. You inherit a system that can never quite be fully cleaned - the opposite of where a new kitchen should start.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
We clean new ductwork before handover, advise on access at design stage, and take the baseline survey and certificate as you open. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.