Kitchen exhaust system cleaning covers the entire grease path required by NFPA 96: canopy hood, baffle filters, the full grease duct run, the rooftop exhaust fan, and make-up air intake. VentWash opens every access panel, degreases every duct section to bare metal, and photographs each component — because the fire risk lives in the parts you can't see from the kitchen.
Grease doesn't stay in the hood. Aerosolized cooking vapor condenses along the entire exhaust path — plenum, duct walls, fan housing, and the rooftop discharge. In a fire, that grease film acts like a fuse: flames enter the duct at the cookline and race vertically through the building. That's why NFPA 96 requires the whole system be cleaned, not just the hood, and why "failure to clean" appears in roughly a fifth of restaurant fire investigations.
A full-system service means opening duct access panels (and installing them where the original construction left none), scraping and degreasing each section, cleaning the fan blades and housing, checking the fan's belts, bearings and hinge, and verifying make-up air flow. Every opened panel is photographed before and after — a documentation trail that protects you in inspection and in an insurance claim.
See what this typically costs, or check the Florida NFPA 96 requirements that apply to your kitchen.
Likely yes. NFPA 96 requires the entire exhaust system — hood, duct, and fan — be cleaned to bare metal on schedule. A hood-only wipe-down leaves the duct interior loaded with fuel, and it's the first thing a fire investigator checks after a duct fire. Ask any vendor for duct-interior photos; if they can't produce them, the duct wasn't cleaned.
NFPA 96 requires access panels at intervals that make the full run cleanable — where a building lacks them, we install code-compliant panels as part of the job and document their locations for future service.
Free exact quote in minutes. After-hours crews, bare-metal results, and the photo-documented report your fire marshal and insurer want to see.