Essex · Kitchen extract cleaning
The Common kitchen extract cleaning
Kitchen extract cleaning across The Common and nearby, booked around your opening hours and signed off in writing with pictures.
- Ductwork thick with old, hardened grease
- Stale cooking odours from the system
- A kitchen taken over without any extract records
What your team can do, and what needs us
If your staff spot something between visits, like drips, unusual noise, smells or damaged filters, they should report it rather than try to fix it. We can diagnose it and quote.
For ventilation and air handling systems, in-house care is mostly about checks: clear grilles, a log of filter changes and reporting anything odd. Cleaning inside ducts and units is specialist work.
How we handle kitchen extract cleaning in The Common
Duct Doctor has been cleaning kitchen extract systems since 2009. We are a BESCA Vent Hygiene Elite member, cleaning to BESA TR19® Grease, and we hold CHAS, SafeContractor and ISO 9001 and are fully insured. The work covers plenums and filters, canopies and hoods and extract fans, and the jobs we see most are a system with no record of a TR19 clean and an overdue clean flagged by an EHO or fire officer. Most calls from The Common come after an insurer, an EHO or a fire officer asks to see the last TR19 certificate. We handle the clean and the paperwork in one visit.
Each job starts with a look at where grease has built up: wet film or deposit thickness readings show which parts of the duct need the most attention, and readings afterwards go into your report.
Work in a small place like The Common starts with a call to agree access and timings, and the clean covers the whole system, as it would anywhere: canopy to discharge, then a TR19® certificate and a photo report.
A written report with photos follows every visit, so you have a record of what was done and when. Where the work is a TR19® Grease clean, the certificate is issued through the BESCA Vent Hygiene Elite portal.
- Location
- The Common (CB10)
- Region
- Essex
- Records
- TR19® certificate and photo report
- Price
- A fixed quote up front
- Hours
- Overnight and weekend work, 24/7 emergency callout
- Call
- 0345 646 2711
- Reviewed
- 30 October 2026
When something else is needed
We’d rather tell you now than book work that won’t help, so here are the limits:
- Faulty fire dampers in the duct
- Extraction that can’t cope with the cooking because of its design
- A broken extract fan that won’t run
If you are not sure, just give us a ring on 0345 646 2711 or email us and we’ll give you a straight answer before you book.
Parts of the system we cover
- Canopies and hoods
- Extract fans
- Discharge points
- Vertical risers
- Horizontal duct runs
- Plenums and filters
Kitchen extract cleaning in The Common: the local picture
The fire and rescue service for The Common is Essex County Fire and Rescue Service. Fire and rescue authorities enforce the Fire Safety Order in most non-domestic premises, and in a kitchen that fire risk includes the grease in the extract. We cover The Common, about 41 miles from central London, as part of our work across London and the South East. Visits are booked around your hours, evenings and weekends included.
Term dates shape school work: for a school like Radwinter Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, an extract clean fits neatly into a half-term or summer break. If you run catering at a healthcare site, such as a hospital like Saffron Walden Community Hospital about 3.5 miles west, the extract may need cleaning more often than a part-time kitchen. Volunteers running a hall kitchen near Church of St Mary the Virgin, or anywhere in The Common, may not know when the extract was last cleaned, and a grease test settles it.
The Common is about 4 miles east of Saffron Walden, in Essex. Sites in The Common get the same service as everywhere we cover: a survey first, a fixed quote, work timed around your hours and a report with pictures. The Common is one of 644 towns, villages and districts in Essex we cover for kitchen extract cleaning. Chelmsford is in our area too, about 21 miles from The Common.
Work in CB10 follows the same survey, fixed quote and written report as everywhere else we cover. We also cover the places around The Common: Radwinter (1 mile south), Maple End (1 mile south-west), Wimbish (2 miles south-west), Hempstead (2 miles east) and Church End (3 miles north-west). We also work in nearby towns such as Braintree (13 miles south-east), Saffron Walden (4 miles west), Halstead (14 miles south-east), Great Dunmow (10 miles south), Stansted Mountfitchet (10 miles south-west) and Great Notley (14 miles south-east).
What’s near The Common
Nearby you’ll also find Castle Camps (2.8 miles north-east) and Saffron Walden Community Hospital (3.5 miles west). Not far away are Hales and Shadwell Woods.
What the work involves, part by part
Ductwork and risers
Bends and changes of direction trap more grease than straight runs. Those are among the points where we take readings before and after, so the report shows the difference.
Schools, hospitals and care homes
In a care home or hospital, the kitchen may cook every day of the year. We plan the clean around meal times and work in a contained, tidy way, so residents and patients are not disturbed.
Managing agents and facilities teams in The Common
If you look after several sites, we can schedule visits across all of them on one quote. Every building has its own written report, so records stay tidy.
Managing agents often deal with us directly. Tell us the site, the work and the access arrangements, and we’ll send a fixed quote.
The process
Each visit runs to the same pattern: sheeting and protection first, isolate whatever needs isolating, carry out the kitchen extract cleaning, clear away and leave you the report. On site, the work takes a few hours for a small kitchen, longer for a large system. A few pictures of the system help us make the most of a visit to a place like The Common.
- First the diagnosis: a survey of the whole system and its access points.
- Grease readings set the baseline, and a fixed quote follows.
- After the kitchen closes, we sheet the area and set up to contain grease and water.
- Heavy deposits are scraped by hand and the system degreased to TR19® Grease.
- Then the clean bill of health: readings, a TR19 certificate and a photo report with the next date.
Getting ready for the visit
- Let us know when the site is closed or quiet
- Find the previous report, if there is one
- Let us know about parking and loading
Getting a quote
Quotes are quick. Call or email with a few details and you’ll typically have a fixed price within one working day. If we need to see the system first, we book a survey around your hours.
Advice
Aftercare tips
No system stays clean for ever, but care slows the build-up. A few tips:
- Give the canopy a daily wipe
- Keep the TR19 certificate and photo report in the maintenance log
- Book the next clean before the date on the report
- Refit filters properly after cleaning
A TR19 certificate notes the date, the location and the technician. File it with the fire risk assessment and the maintenance log, so it’s to hand when an insurer, fire officer or EHO asks.
Wipe the canopy down regularly and empty grease troughs or collection points. A daily wipe isn’t a deep clean, but it helps between visits.
FAQs for The Common
Can the work in The Common be done at night or at weekends?
Yes, we can come after you close and finish before you open. The work in The Common can fit around your hours. Just give us a ring on 0345 646 2711 or send us an email with your opening times and we will plan around them.
Who carries out food hygiene inspections in The Common?
Kitchens in The Common are inspected by Uttlesford council’s environmental health officers. How often a business is inspected depends on the risk rating the council gives it, so it’s worth staying ready all year.
What does a TR19 kitchen extract clean include?
A TR19 Grease clean covers the full extract route, not just the canopy. Canopy, plenum, filters, ductwork, risers, fan and discharge are all included, reached through access panels where needed.
Which kinds of sites do you work on?
Any site with a kitchen or a ventilation system to look after, from a single café to a large school. Hotels, schools, care homes, offices, shops and leisure sites are all part of our work.
What’s TR19?
BESA’s ventilation hygiene specification in two main parts: TR19® Grease for kitchen extract systems and TR19® Air for general ventilation. It isn’t law, but it’s the benchmark.
How much notice do you need?
That depends on the slot you want and the size of the job. Mention your preferred dates with your enquiry, and for anything urgent, ring our 24/7 emergency line.
What about areas you cannot get to?
Anything we cannot reach goes on the report, with a note of where it is, and we explain what access is needed, for example new access panels.
What’s the right cleaning interval for a kitchen extract?
That comes down mainly to daily cooking hours. Heavy use of 12 to 16 hours a day calls for a clean at least every 3 months under BESA guidance, and lighter use less often. We’ll recommend a date after measuring the grease.
Also near The Common
What else we do in The Common
What happens if it’s left?
Every week without a clean adds another layer. Under BESA guidance, grease shouldn’t exceed a mean of 200 microns between cleans, and anywhere reaching 500 microns or more needs a spot clean straight away. Heavy build-up takes longer to remove than regular cleans. It’s simpler to plan the work at The Common now than to arrange it in a hurry later.
Combining work into one visit or one programme often makes better use of the time. Mention every system or site you need covered, and you’ll get one fixed quote.
Why The Common businesses choose us
- One contact for all your sites in London and the South East
- A written report with photos after each visit
- CHAS and SafeContractor accredited, with ISO 9001
- Work around your opening hours, with 24/7 emergency cover
Take a look at what affects the cost and how to check a contractor.