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CommercialHoods Cleaning
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Hood & Exhaust Cleaning

Kitchen Exhaust System Cleaning

From the hood opening to the rooftop fan — ducts, plenum, and fan cleaned and documented to the NFPA 96 standard.

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The hidden risk in your ductwork

A spotless hood tells you nothing about the duct above it. Grease vapor travels the full length of the exhaust run before it leaves the building, and it condenses hardest where you can't see it — in the plenum, along horizontal duct sections, and up the vertical riser to the roof. When a cooking fire gets past the filters, that duct grease is what carries it between floors and into the structure.

It's also exactly what inspectors look for. Hood-only wipe-downs leave the system loaded above the filter line, and fire inspectors know it — they open access panels, measure grease depth, and check the fan and roof for staining. A kitchen can look immaculate from the floor and still get written up. Our fire marshal inspection checklist walks through what they check, point by point.

What gets cleaned at each stage of the system

Hood and filters. The canopy is degreased to bare metal and the filters are pulled, soaked, and scrubbed — or flagged for replacement if they're warped or burned through.

Plenum. The chamber directly behind the filters is the first place grease lands after it leaves the cooking surface. It gets scraped and degreased, not just rinsed.

Duct run. Every horizontal and vertical section is hand-scraped and degreased through access panels. Where the run has no panels, we add them — that's part of the job, not an excuse to skip sections.

Rooftop fan. The upblast fan is hinged open so the blades, housing, and grease containment area can be degreased — then the system goes back together pulling the way it was designed to.

How a full-system cleaning runs

  1. 1

    Access panels

    We locate every panel on the run and open the system end to end. Sections with no access get code-compliant panels cut in — quoted up front, never sprung on you after the work starts.

  2. 2

    Scrape & degrease

    Heavy deposits are hand-scraped first, then each duct section, the plenum, and the canopy are degreased down to bare metal. No chemical-only shortcuts on caked grease.

  3. 3

    Fan service

    The rooftop or upblast fan is hinged open, blades and housing degreased, and the containment area cleaned. Belts and bearings get a visual check, and anything mechanical we spot is flagged in your report.

  4. 4

    Documentation

    Photos at every stage, a dated sticker on the hood, and a written report that notes any areas that couldn't be reached — exactly what NFPA 96 expects the cleaning record to show.

Full-system cleaning vs. hood-only service

Full-system cleaning vs. hood-only service
Full exhaust system cleaningHood-only service
Hood, plenum, full duct run, and fan — the entire NFPA 96 systemCanopy and filters only
Access panels opened, or added where the run has noneEverything past the filter line stays untouched
Fan hinged open and degreased so airflow comes back to designA grease-loaded fan keeps losing pull month after month
Photo documentation of duct interiors for your inspection fileNo evidence of conditions above the hood

FAQ

Common Questions

Hood cleaning centers on the canopy, filters, plenum, and the ductwork that's accessible from the kitchen. Exhaust system cleaning covers the entire run — hood to rooftop fan — including duct sections that can only be reached through access panels. NFPA 96 holds you responsible for the whole system either way, so the right service depends on your duct layout and on what your last report listed as uncleaned.

Yes — by adding the panels first. A duct run without adequate access can't be fully cleaned, and a report full of 'inaccessible' notes is a standing liability. We cut in code-compliant access panels where the run needs them, include them in the up-front quote, and document their locations so every future cleaning can reach the full system.

Several ways. They open access panels and look inside, check above the filter line with a flashlight, and measure grease film thickness with a depth gauge against the NFPA 96 threshold. From outside, grease staining around the fan or on the roof is an immediate flag — and dripping or pooled grease anywhere in the system is an automatic write-up.

No — full-system cleanings run overnight or after close, like all our work. The system is back together, dry, and pulling before your first prep shift. On long duct runs that take more than one night, we sequence the sections so the kitchen operates normally every day in between.

Yes. The fan is part of the exhaust system under NFPA 96, so it's hinged open and degreased on every full-system job — blades, housing, and the grease containment area around it. We also give belts and bearings a visual once-over and flag anything mechanical in your report, so you can get ahead of a failure instead of discovering it mid-service.

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Mon–Sun: 7:00 AM – 9:00 PMEmergency service available 24/7

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Get a Free HVAC or Hood Cleaning Quote

Fast response. No obligation. Speak with a real team member.

By submitting, you agree to be contacted about your request. We never sell your information — see our privacy policy.