Kent · TR19 inspections and grease testing
TR19 inspections in Otham
TR19 inspection in Otham from ventilation hygiene specialists trading since 2009. Out-of-hours visits and 24/7 emergency callout.
- Kitchen extract systems with no recent grease readings
- Checking the result of a recent clean
- Uncertainty over how often to clean
Questions from Otham
Can you get to a site in Otham?
Yes, we work in villages as well as towns, and Otham is covered. Let us know about access, parking and anything unusual about getting there when you book.
Do you clean school canteen extracts around Otham out of term?
Yes, and it’s the easiest time to do it. The FSA’s register shows about 17 schools and colleges with food registrations within roughly a mile and a half of Otham. Tell us your holiday dates and we will book the visit for when the site is empty.
What do you need from me for a quote?
A short description and a few pictures plus the address and your hours. If we need more, we’ll ask.
What types of premises do you cover?
All kinds of commercial and public premises: from restaurants, pubs and hotels to schools, hospitals, care homes, offices, shops and food production sites. Work is timed around how each site runs.
What does TR19 mean?
It’s the industry benchmark for cleaning ventilation and kitchen extract systems, written by BESA. It sets out inspection, cleaning and record keeping, and it takes a risk-based approach.
Do you offer maintenance contracts?
Yes. We run scheduled maintenance contracts, with visits at the interval your system needs. Each report recommends when the next visit should be.
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.
Are you accredited?
Duct Doctor is a BESCA Vent Hygiene Elite member, cleaning to BESA TR19® Grease. We also hold CHAS, SafeContractor and ISO 9001, and we are fully insured.
About our TR19 inspection in Otham
Insurance policies often require evidence of TR19® cleaning and inspection. Missing records can lead to a claim being reduced or refused. Our TR19 audits give sites in Otham and across Kent a clear record of the system’s condition. The work covers deposit thickness tests, post-clean checks and insurer audits, and common reasons people get in touch are parts of the system left out of past cleans and kitchens taken over with no cleaning records.
In a smaller place like Otham, many kitchens sit in older buildings or later extensions, where the duct may cross a roof void or climb an outside wall. Flat runs collect grease and need proper access to clean.
The report is your system’s health record: a dated account with pictures of everything we did. For TR19® Grease cleans, the certificate comes through the BESCA Vent Hygiene Elite portal and sits alongside the report.
- Location
- Otham (ME15, ME17)
- Wider area
- Kent
- Records
- Certificate and photo report
- Quote
- Fixed quote, usually within a working day
- When we work
- Evenings, overnight and weekends; 24/7 emergencies
- Call
- 0345 646 2711
- Checked
- 30 October 2026
Managing agents and facilities teams in Otham
Records are where multi-site compliance often slips. Each visit produces a dated report with photos, ready to show insurers, fire officers or EHOs.
The Fire Safety Order 2005 puts the duty to manage fire risk on the responsible person, and that can be the employer, the owner, a landlord, a facilities manager or a managing agent. With shared responsibility, good records help everyone.
TR19 inspection around Otham
Food Standards Agency records list about 16 cafés, restaurants and staff canteens and about 16 takeaways and sandwich shops within 1.5 miles or so of the middle of Otham. Each kitchen extract among them can be measured for grease to set the right cleaning interval. Fire safety in Otham falls to Kent Fire and Rescue Service. The Fire Safety Order puts the duty on whoever runs a kitchen to control its fire risk, and a greasy duct is fuel. In Otham, food businesses are inspected by environmental health officers from Maidstone council. They look at how clean the premises and equipment are, and the kitchen extract is part of that. Keeping each certificate and photo report on file helps show the extract is looked after.
Kitchens that cook twelve hours or more a day, as some healthcare kitchens do, fall into BESA’s three-monthly minimum; KIMS hospital is the nearest hospital to Otham, about 2.8 miles north. If you run a church or community hall kitchen, near St Nicholas's Church or elsewhere in Otham, its extract still collects grease from every lunch and event.
Otham is about 2 miles south-east of Maidstone, in Kent. We provide TR19 inspection for commercial premises of every kind in Otham and the rest of Kent. Our area takes in 922 places across Kent, large and small.
All of ME15 and ME17 is within our area for TR19 inspection, from busy streets to back roads. If you need TR19 inspection at premises on Church Road, Spartall Drive and Ellis Field or a nearby road, our technicians can take on the work. Close by, we work in Willington (1 mile north-west), Park Wood (1 mile south-west), Langley (1 mile south-east), Shepway (1 mile north-west) and Caring (1 mile north-east). We also work in nearby towns such as Ashford (15 miles south-east), Sittingbourne (10 miles north-east), Royal Tunbridge Wells (15 miles south-west), Gravesend (15 miles north-west), Tonbridge (13 miles west) and Faversham (15 miles east).
Local landmarks in Otham
In Otham, that means kitchens and buildings near New Line Learning Academy, Senacre Wood Primary School and Mote Park and the streets around them. The closest station to Otham is Bearsted station, roughly 2.1 miles north of the centre. Other landmarks nearby include Kent Fire Brigade Museum (2.4 miles west) and KIMS hospital (2.8 miles north). The countryside around Otham includes Detling Hill.
Common problems we fix in Otham
Insurers, fire officers and environmental health officers look to TR19® as the benchmark. TR19® itself is not law, but the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to assess and reduce fire risk, and in a kitchen that means keeping grease under control.
The symptoms we are asked about most include:
- Kitchen extract systems with no recent grease readings
- Confirming a clean reached the whole system
- Kitchens taken over with no cleaning records
- Systems that need surveying before cleaning
School kitchens, at schools like Senacre Technology College for example, are normally cleaned in the holidays so no lunches are lost.
What your quote should include
- If they look at the system before pricing
- If the quote is a fixed price or an estimate
- What hours they’ll be on site
- Exactly which parts of the system are covered
When something else is needed
A few issues sit outside what this work can do:
- Installation problems, which fall under design guidance such as DW172
- Fire safety duties beyond the extract system
- Removing the grease, which is a separate clean
If in doubt, call 0345 646 2711 or drop us a line and we’ll say what we think before booking.
Where we work
- Insurer audits
- Post-clean checks
- Access surveys
- Wet film thickness tests
- Deposit thickness tests
- Pre-clean surveys
What happens on the day
The visit has three parts: getting the area ready, doing the work and signing it off. Getting ready means protecting surfaces and switching off what needs to be off, and the sign-off is a written report with pictures. The middle part takes longest, which takes a couple of hours for a typical kitchen extract system. Everything the job in Otham needs is worked out beforehand, from the survey.
- Post-clean verification is booked once the clean is done.
- The same access points are opened up.
- We repeat the WFTT or DTT readings.
- We photograph each area to record how it was left.
- The results are reported, with anything missed flagged.
Preparing for the visit
- Allow time for equipment near the work to be turned off and cool down
- Have your last certificate or report to hand
- Move anything stored near the system
Getting a quote
Want a quote for TR19 inspection? Please ring 0345 646 2711 or send us an email with a few details about the site. We will explain what we’d do and send a fixed quote before you commit to anything.
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Places near Otham
What else we do in Otham
Leave it or put it right?
A check after cleaning shows whether the work reached every part it should have, while there’s still time to put anything right. A planned visit to Otham fits your hours; an emergency does not.
Whatever the type of site, the quote works the same way: the size of the job, access, condition and working hours. Ask for a fixed quote and we will go through it with you.
Why book with us
- Out-of-hours work and a 24/7 emergency line
- Photo reports with every job
- Every job surveyed first
- Member of BESCA Vent Hygiene Elite, cleaning to BESA TR19® Grease
Read how cleaning jobs are priced or how to check a contractor.
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. Leave those to us.
For ventilation and air handling systems, in-house care is mostly about checks: clear grilles, a log of filter changes and reporting anything odd. The inside of ducts and units needs a specialist.
Keeping the system healthy
Aftercare is simple, and it makes the next visit easier:
- Keep canopy edges and gutters wiped down
- Have the latest report ready for insurance renewals
- Keep access panels clear and unpainted
- Book the next test on the date in the report
You get a report with the grease readings, where they were taken and photos of each point. File it alongside your TR19 certificates.
Test grease regularly instead of relying on the calendar. It shows if build-up is speeding up.