Kitchen Grease Exhaust Cleaning is REQUIRED by the Fire Marshals, Health Inspectors, Insurance Companies and Legitimate Restaurant Owners
Changing Lives One Student at a Time
What the Insurance Companies Require:
“The hood and duct system should be cleaned on a semiannual basis by a qualified hood and duct cleaning contractor. A service tag indicating the last date of service should be mounted on the hood”.
Restaurants have to have their kitchen hood and duct systems cleaned by you in order to be insured. Therefore you have customers that must use your service, creating instant demand for your business. The above quote is from an actual letter that one of our new clients received from his insurance company stating what was required before they would insure him.
What the Fire Marshals Require:
The National Fire Protection Code 96 (NFPA 96) Standard is what most counties, cities and states adopt as their fire code.
11.4 Cleaning of Exhaust Systems
Upon inspection, if found to be contaminated with deposits from grease-laden vapors, the entire exhaust system shall be cleaned by a properly trained, qualified, and certified person (s) acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction in accordance with Section 11.3.
11.4.2 Hoods, grease removal devices, fans, ducts, and other appurtenances shall be cleaned to bare metal prior to surfaces becoming heavily contaminated with grease or oily sludge.
11.4.8 After the exhaust system is cleaned to bare metal, it shall not be coated with powder or other substance.
11.4.12 When a vent cleaning service is used, a certificate showing date of inspection or cleaning shall be maintained on the premises.
11.4.13 After cleaning is completed, the vent cleaning contractor shall place or display within the kitchen area a label indicating the date cleaned and the name of the servicing company, and areas not cleaned.
11.4.14 Where required, certificates of inspection and cleaning shall be submitted to the authority having jurisdiction.
Table 11.3 Exhaust System Inspection/Cleaning Schedule
Type or Volume of Cooking Frequency Frequency
Systems serving solid fuel cooking operations Monthly
Systems serving high-volume cooking operations Quarterly
such as 24-hour cooking, charbroiling, or wok
cooking.
Systems serving moderate-volume cooking Semiannually
operations.
Systems serving low-volume cooking operations, Annually
such as churches, day camps, seasonal
businesses, or senior centers.
The “shall” means that the restaurant must have it done. Therefore you have customers that must use your service, creating instant demand for your business. This is a direct quote from the national standards, which is what is used by most local city ordinances. Please check with your local city codes to verify what the restaurants in your area are required to have by law.