Hertfordshire · Kitchen extract cleaning
Kitchen Extract Cleaning in St Albans
Kitchen extract cleaning for St Albans and the surrounding area: a survey, a fixed price, careful work and proper paperwork. Call for a fixed quote.
- Grease dripping from the canopy or filters
- Heavy grease build-up inside the duct runs
- An extract that no longer clears the smoke
Kitchen duct cleaning in St Albans
Insurers often want evidence of regular TR19 cleaning, and some may refuse or reduce a claim when it’s missing. The certificate and photo report from each clean in St Albans give you that record, ready for the fire risk assessment file. The work covers extract fans, discharge points and plenums and filters, and people most often call us about an extract that has never been cleaned to TR19 and a kitchen taken over without any extract records. Need a TR19 duct cleaning contractor for St Albans? Duct Doctor has covered London and the South East since 2009, with a certificate and photo report after every clean.
Access decides how thorough a clean can be. Where a duct run has no panels, we say so on the report and can fit new ones.
In a place the size of St Albans, the kitchens with extract systems range from takeaways and restaurants to hotel, school and workplace kitchens. BESA’s minimum intervals run from every three months for heavy use to once a year for light use, so the right schedule depends on the kitchen.
Accreditations are easy to claim and worth checking. Ours are BESCA Vent Hygiene Elite membership, cleaning to BESA TR19® Grease, plus CHAS, SafeContractor and ISO 9001, and we are fully insured.
- Where
- St Albans (AL1, AL3, AL4)
- Region
- Hertfordshire
- Paperwork
- TR19® certificate and photo report
- Quotes
- Fixed quote, typically within a working day
- Hours
- After hours by arrangement; emergencies any time
- Call
- 0345 646 2711
- Last updated
- 30 October 2026
Keeping the system healthy
Good habits slow the build-up between visits. A few tips:
- Keep to the recommended cleaning interval
- Give the canopy a daily wipe
- File each certificate with the fire risk assessment
- Make sure every filter is fitted before cooking
When the clean is finished, grease readings are taken again at the same points, giving you before and after readings alongside the photos. Your TR19 certificate is then issued through the BESCA Vent Hygiene Elite portal.
Clean the grease filters often, not just on clean day. Clean, well-fitted filters catch more fat before it reaches the duct, so the ductwork stays cleaner for longer.
How the job changes from site to site
Restaurant and pub kitchens
High-heat cooking loads the extract with grease, and measured readings show whether the minimum interval is enough.
Canopy and plenum
The canopy catches the vapour, and the plenum behind the filters is where it first condenses. We clean both inside and out, including the filter housing.
What affects the cost of kitchen extract cleaning
Your quote is based on your site. We take into account:
- Working hours and out-of-hours timing
- How many systems or sites are involved
- Travel, parking and unloading
- The size of the system
Whatever the type of site, the quote works the same way: the size of the job, access, condition and working hours. Call for a fixed quote and we will explain each part.
What we need to know
Photos let us diagnose from a distance. Try to include:
- Anything you’ve noticed, such as smells, noise, drips or poor airflow
- The postcode and the type of business
- How we’d reach plant on a roof or in a plant room
- When the site is open and when it’s quiet
Some systems can be priced from pictures; others need a survey. Big or complicated sites, and systems that are hard to see in pictures, get a survey first. Either way, you get a fixed price before any work starts.
What we are called out for in St Albans
A lot of duct grease gets there because the filters let it through. Filters that are bent, badly fitted, missing or left uncleaned let more fat into the plenum and duct, and from there it travels on to the fan.
Look out for any of the following:
- An extract that has never been cleaned to TR19
- Grease dripping from the canopy or filters
- A kitchen taken over without any extract records
- Heavy grease build-up inside the duct runs
A kitchen near St Albans station that serves breakfast and dinner can run its extract twelve hours or more, which shortens the cleaning interval.
What to look for in a quote
- Whether the whole system is included, or only the parts that are easy to reach
- Whether they’re fully insured
- Whether the price is fixed
- Whether the quote shows VAT
Common questions in St Albans
Who is the fire and rescue service for St Albans?
That’s Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service. If a fire safety officer visits a commercial kitchen, they may ask about the fire risk assessment and how the extract is kept clean.
Which environmental health team covers St Albans?
The local authority for St Albans is St Albans City council, and its environmental health team does the inspecting. An officer may look up into the canopy, so clean filters on the day and a recent certificate on file both help.
Will my insurer ask for a TR19 certificate?
Grease in an extract is a known fire risk, so many insurers want evidence it’s being cleaned to TR19. Our certificate and photo report give you that evidence.
What does kitchen extract cleaning cost?
The cost depends on the size of the system, its condition, access and timing. Call for a fixed quote, normally ready within one working day.
Can you set up regular visits?
Yes. Scheduled maintenance plans are part of what we do, set at the interval the system needs. Each report recommends when the next visit should be.
Is St Albans in your area?
Yes. We cover St Albans and across Hertfordshire, as part of our work across South East England and London. For a fixed quote, phone us on 0345 646 2711 or drop us a line.
Do you look at the system first?
Yes. For many sites, photos and a few details are enough, while bigger or harder-to-see systems are surveyed on site.
Can one contract cover all our sites?
Yes. Our area covers London and the South East, so we can schedule a run of sites on one programme. Each site gets its own report and pictures.
Towns and villages near St Albans
Other services in St Albans
What staff can safely do
Some jobs should never be done in-house: entering ducts, working on fans, testing dampers and taking grease readings call for the right kit, training and safe access. That is our job.
Staff cleaning and specialist work are not the same thing. A daily filter wipe and a weekly filter wash keep grease down at the front of the system, but grease that has passed the filters is out of reach. Reaching it takes a specialist with the right equipment.
How it works
The first job on site is protection: floors, worktops and anything near the work are covered. After that, the system is made safe and the work begins. The work on site takes anything from a few hours to a full night, depending on the size of the system, and the area is cleaned down before we leave. For a managed building in St Albans, let us know about sign-in, permits and who holds the keys.
- First comes a survey of the whole system, by photos or a visit.
- Set points are tested for grease thickness and the quote is fixed before we start.
- Once the kitchen has closed and the equipment has cooled, we sheet and protect the area.
- We clean the canopy, plenum, filters, ducts, risers, fan and discharge.
- Readings and pictures are taken again, and you receive a TR19 certificate and photo report.
Before we arrive
- Tell us where we can park and unload
- Find the previous report, if there is one
- Plan for cooking equipment or plant to be off before we arrive
Get a fixed quote
For kitchen extract cleaning in St Albans, ring 0345 646 2711, or send details by email. Tell us what kind of premises it is and when it’s open, and send photos or your last report if you can. We normally send a fixed quote within one working day.
Advice
When it’s something else
Before booking, it helps to know what’s not included:
- A duct that is holed or coming apart
- A grease trap that needs emptying
- Faulty fire dampers in the duct
If in doubt, call us on 0345 646 2711 or email us and we will say what we think before booking.
What the work covers
- Horizontal duct runs
- Vertical risers
- Extract fans
- Discharge points
- Plenums and filters
- Canopies and hoods
What kitchen extract cleaning looks like in St Albans
The FSA’s data shows about 61 pubs, bars and clubs and about 4 hotels, B&Bs and guest houses registered within roughly a mile and a half of the centre of St Albans. A pub or hotel kitchen that cooks every day builds up grease in its extract like any other. Food hygiene inspections in St Albans are the job of St Albans City council’s environmental health team. The cleanliness of the kitchen and its equipment, extraction included, is part of what they check. Our report lists what was cleaned and when, which is useful to have ready. The fire and rescue service for St Albans is Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service. Its fire safety officers can audit commercial kitchens, and grease in the extract is part of a kitchen’s fire risk.
A hospital like St Albans City Hospital, about 0.9 miles north-west, is the kind of site where a kitchen may cook for patients, staff and visitors all day. Where a hall near Church of St. Peter, or anywhere in St Albans, hosts lunch clubs or events, its extract gathers grease just as a café’s does.
St Albans is about 20 miles north-west of London, in Hertfordshire. If you need kitchen extract cleaning in St Albans, it’s easy to get a fixed quote: please give us a ring on 0345 646 2711, or send details by email. Our area covers London and the South East, including St Albans. Across Hertfordshire, we cover 381 places, and St Albans is one of them. London is in our area too, around 20 miles away.
Here we cover the AL1, AL3 and AL4 postcode area for kitchen extract cleaning. We cover sites on Gabriel Square, Jubilee Square and Old London Road and nearby roads. Main roads around St Albans include the A414 and B651, so getting to you is simple for kitchen extract cleaning. If your site is just outside St Albans, we cover Bernards Heath (1 mile north), Sopwell (1 mile south), St Stephens (1 mile south-west), Marshalswick (1 mile north-east) and Park Street (2 miles south). We also work in nearby towns such as Watford (7 miles south-west), Hemel Hempstead (6 miles west), Stevenage (13 miles north-east), Welwyn Garden City (7 miles north-east), Harpenden (5 miles north) and Hitchin (14 miles north). As one of the bigger places in Hertfordshire, St Albans has commercial sites of every size, all within our area for kitchen extract cleaning.
Around St Albans
We work in commercial kitchens and buildings around Alban City School, The Horn pub and Verulam School. There’s a railway station in St Albans itself: St Albans station. Well-known places in the area include St Albans Musical Museum (0.5 miles north-east) and The Maltings (less than half a mile west). Open spaces near St Albans include The Wick Local Nature Reserve and Verulamium Lake.