Hertfordshire · Ductwork cleaning
Hitchin ductwork cleaning
Professional ductwork cleaning in and around Hitchin, timed so the site keeps working and finished with a written report and pictures.
- Duct runs that can’t be reached
- Ductwork that has never been cleaned
- A duct clean needed for an insurer
Between visits
Good habits slow the build-up between visits. A few tips:
- Diarise the next duct clean
- Tell us if grease leaks from the ductwork
- Make sure filters are seated properly
- Keep your cleaning records together
A full system clean includes a TR19 certificate from the BESCA Vent Hygiene Elite portal. It shows when and where the clean was done and by whom.
Keep to the cleaning interval on the report. If the kitchen starts cooking longer hours, the interval may need to shorten, and grease thickness testing will show it.
Ductwork cleaning in Hitchin, done properly
No two duct runs are the same, in Hitchin or anywhere else. A few metres to an outside wall, or a riser up through the building to a roof fan. We map the route during the survey and finds every access point before we quote. If you’re dealing with an insurer asking for TR19 evidence and grease seeping out of the duct seams, we can help, from access panels, multi-storey ducts and vertical risers onwards.
Many kitchens in a town like Hitchin were fitted into buildings built for something else, which can mean awkward duct routes, long flat runs and not enough access panels. Where the duct can’t be reached, new panels can be fitted, and anything left uncleaned is recorded on the report.
Think of the report as the system’s health record: dated, with pictures, and showing what was done. For TR19® Grease cleans, the certificate comes through the BESCA Vent Hygiene Elite portal and sits alongside the report.
- Location
- Hitchin (SG4, SG5)
- Region
- Hertfordshire
- Reporting
- TR19® certificate and photo report
- Quotes
- A fixed price before we start
- Working hours
- Out of hours as standard, 24/7 emergency line
- Telephone
- 0345 646 2711
- Page updated
- 30 October 2026
Part by part
Access panels
Panels have to seal properly once they’re closed so the duct stays tight. A damaged panel is noted on the report.
Vertical risers
Risers often pass through floors and walls, where fire dampers may be fitted. Damper testing is a separate service.
Multi-site and managed buildings
We also work for facilities teams across offices, schools and healthcare in Hitchin and across Hertfordshire. Work can be phased by floor, building or site around the people who use them.
The Fire Safety Order 2005 puts the duty to manage fire risk on the responsible person, which may be the employer, owner, landlord, FM or managing agent. With shared responsibility, good records help everyone.
What staff can safely do
Your own staff can handle the daily basics: wiping down canopy surfaces, cleaning filters and keeping a simple log. Inside the ducts, risers and fan is specialist work, and that’s where we come in.
Good housekeeping makes our visits easier, not unnecessary. Regular in-house cleaning slows the build-up, but the parts you cannot see still need a specialist at the right interval.
Hitchin: your questions answered
Who would carry out a food hygiene inspection at a kitchen in Hitchin?
Food hygiene inspections in Hitchin are carried out by North Hertfordshire council. Ratings are published by the Food Standards Agency, so a clean extract and good records are worth keeping up.
Can a school canteen extract in Hitchin be done out of term time?
Yes, out-of-term visits are normal for schools. Food Standards Agency records list about 18 schools, colleges and universities with registered kitchens within about a mile and a half of Hitchin. Send us your term dates when you call 0345 646 2711 or email us, and we’ll fit the work in.
What information do you need?
Just the basics: where it is, what kind of site, when it’s open and the access. Photos and the last report help too. After that, simply call us on 0345 646 2711 or send us an email.
What shows that the ducts need a clean?
Signs include grease dripping from joints, smells and a fan working harder, but measuring is the reliable way to know. Grease thickness testing shows exactly where the duct stands.
What if part of the duct can’t be reached?
We clean everything we can reach and record what we can’t. Extra panels can be installed, and we can do that for you.
What do you do with what you remove?
Waste is contained during the work and removed when we leave, including grease, debris and dirty water. We don’t leave it behind.
What paperwork do you give after a duct clean?
A full system clean comes with a TR19 certificate and a photo report. The report shows readings, pictures and any sections we couldn’t reach.
What do you do to protect the area?
Protection goes down first: sheeting over floors, worktops and anything close to the work. We tidy up and take our waste away before we leave.
The process
There’s very little for your team to do on the day. A contact on site lets us in at the agreed time and points us to the system, and we take it from there. Before we leave, the area is tidied and the paperwork follows. The more we can see of the system beforehand, the smoother the visit to Hitchin will be.
- Diagnosis: a survey of the duct’s route, size and access.
- You get a fixed price before work starts.
- Each section is cleaned in turn through its access panel.
- Bends, risers and the base of each riser get extra attention.
- The duct is signed off with readings, photos and a next clean date.
Preparing for the visit
- Let us know when the site is closed or quiet
- Move anything stored near the system
- Let us know how we reach the system, including roofs, risers and plant rooms
How to get a quote
Photos are enough for some jobs, while others need a look on site. Larger sites, and anything hidden behind walls, ceilings or floors, are normally surveyed first. Either way, the quote is fixed before any work is booked.
Related advice
When something else is needed
An honest diagnosis matters more to us than a booking, so here’s what this work cannot put right:
- Duct sections that need replacing
- Fire dampers that do not close (they need testing and remedials)
- Sections that cannot be reached safely without new access (those are recorded, and panels can be fitted)
If in doubt, ring 0345 646 2711 or email us and we’ll say what we think before booking.
What we work on in Hitchin
- Bends and junctions
- Horizontal duct runs
- Access panels
- Attenuators
- Vertical risers
- Multi-storey ducts
Also in Hitchin
Hitchin kitchens: local notes
Look up Hitchin on the FSA’s food hygiene register and you will find about 92 restaurants, cafés and works canteens and about 37 sandwich bars and takeaways across Hitchin and its immediate surroundings (about a mile and a half). The duct above a busy canopy coats itself in grease long before anyone sees it. The fire and rescue service for Hitchin is Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service. Grease in a kitchen extract is a recognised fire risk, and the fire authority enforces the law on managing it in most commercial premises. It’s North Hertfordshire council that sends environmental health officers to food businesses in Hitchin. They look at how clean the premises and equipment are, and the kitchen extract is part of that. Before-and-after pictures from each clean are a simple way to show the extract is in hand.
If you look after a school kitchen, at a school such as Hitchin Girls' School or anywhere near Hitchin, the holidays are the usual time for a TR19® clean. A hospital like Lister Hospital, about 3.1 miles south-east, is the kind of site where a kitchen may cook for patients, staff and visitors all day.
Hitchin is about 5 miles north-west of Stevenage, in Hertfordshire. Hitchin gets the same approach as every site we work on: diagnosis first, a fixed price, out-of-hours working where necessary and a written report with photos. Our area takes in 381 places across Hertfordshire, large and small. There’s also a page for Milton Keynes, roughly 22 miles from Hitchin.
Work in SG4 and SG5 follows the same survey, fixed quote and written report as everywhere else we cover. That includes premises on Market Place, London Road and Harrison Close and the roads around them. You’ll find Hitchin on the A505 and A600, so it’s easy for us to get to for out-of-hours visits. If your site is just outside Hitchin, we cover Benslow (1 mile east), Poets Estate (1 mile east), Bearton (1 mile north-west), Walsworth (1 mile north-east) and Westmill (1 mile north-west). Within a short drive, we also cover Stevenage (5 miles south-east), St Albans (14 miles south), Welwyn Garden City (11 miles south), Harpenden (10 miles south), Hatfield (13 miles south) and Hertford (13 miles south-east). As one of the bigger places in Hertfordshire, Hitchin has a wide mix of commercial premises, and we cover all of them for ductwork cleaning.
Near you in Hitchin
We work in commercial kitchens and buildings around Highbury Infant School and Nursery, Butts Close and Kingshott School. You will also find Radcliffe Arms (under half a mile north-east) and St Mary's Church (less than half a mile south-west). There’s a railway station in Hitchin itself: Hitchin station. Nearby you’ll also find Wymondley Castle (1.7 miles east) and Lister Hospital (3.1 miles south-east). Not far away are Purwell Ninesprings and Markham's Hill.
When to call us in Hitchin
Slow air leaves the most grease behind. Long horizontal runs, bends, changes in size and the foot of a riser all collect more, and those are the points we pay most attention to.
Any of these means the system needs a check-up:
- Duct runs that can’t be reached
- Proof of duct cleaning for the insurer
- Thick deposits at the bottom of a vertical duct
- A grease test showing the duct is overdue
Volunteers running a hall kitchen near Church of the Holy Saviour, or anywhere in Hitchin, may not know when the extract was last cleaned, and a grease test settles it.
What your quote should include
- Whether the price is fixed
- What hours they’ll be on site
- Whether VAT is included
- Proof of insurance