Restaurant Hood Cleaning to Bare Metal — Hood, Duct, and Fan, Documented
From $599 per cleaning: the whole exhaust system cleaned to bare metal on an overnight schedule, with the certificate and sticker your fire marshal and insurer expect to see.
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What a Full Restaurant Hood Cleaning Includes
A restaurant hood cleaning from Service-Tech Corporation is a full kitchen exhaust system cleaning — not a wipe-down of the canopy your customers can see. The scope runs from the cookline to the roof, as part of our kitchen exhaust hood cleaning program:
- Hood canopy and plenum, degreased and cleaned to bare metal
- Baffle filters removed, cleaned, and reinstalled — damaged or warped filters flagged
- Accessible grease duct runs, horizontal and vertical, scraped and washed to bare metal
- Rooftop exhaust fan: blades, housing, and grease-drainage path
- Protection of cooklines and equipment below the work, and full cleanup before your morning crew arrives
- A certificate of performance and hood sticker documenting the cleaning date, plus photo documentation and notes on any areas that could not be reached
That last line is not paperwork courtesy — it is what a fire marshal, an AHJ, or an insurance adjuster asks for. A cleaning without documentation is, for compliance purposes, a cleaning that never happened.
Why Hood-Only Cleanings Leave the Fire Risk Behind
The polished franchise sites that dominate this market are strong on before/after photos and thin on an uncomfortable truth: the hood is the smallest part of the fire path. Grease-laden vapor condenses along the entire duct run between the hood and the fan, and that concealed duct is where kitchen exhaust fires do their damage — burning above the suppression system's reach, inside walls and chases.
A low bid that covers "hood and filters" leaves the majority of the fuel in place and still puts a sticker on your hood. Two questions expose it: Does the price include the duct to the fan, and the fan itself? and Will your report note any inaccessible areas? If a vendor hesitates on either, the quote is for appearances. Our grease duct and exhaust fan cleaning page covers the concealed 80 percent of the system in depth.
The Bare-Metal Standard: Pass or Fail
"Cleaned" is not a matter of opinion. The recognized standard for kitchen exhaust cleaning — the one NFPA 96 points to and IKECA practice is built around — is removal of grease deposits down to bare metal. Not degreased-and-shiny at the edges, not wiped until dark residue stops transferring: bare metal you can verify by sight and touch.
Service-Tech is an IKECA member, and we clean to that standard because it is the only one that means anything. Bare metal is also what makes documentation honest — a photo of bare-metal duct interior is proof; a photo of a gleaming canopy proves nothing about the system behind it. Where a section genuinely cannot be reached (no access panel, buried run), the professional answer is to disclose it on the report, not to let the sticker imply otherwise.
How Often NFPA 96 Says You Need It
NFPA 96 sets exhaust-system inspection-and-cleaning frequency by cooking volume and fuel type. In plain operator terms:
| Operation Type | Frequency | Typical Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Solid-fuel cooking | Monthly | Wood-fired ovens, charcoal grills, smokers |
| High-volume cooking | Quarterly | Charbroiling, wok lines, extended-hours operations |
| Moderate-volume cooking | Semi-annually | Most full-service restaurants |
| Low-volume cooking | Annually | Churches, day camps, seasonal kitchens, senior centers |
Two things operators routinely get wrong: the schedule is driven by what and how much you cook, not by the calendar convenience of an annual visit; and an inspection that finds grease accumulation triggers a cleaning regardless of where you are in the cycle. If your charbroiler runs hard six nights a week, an annual cleaning is not a budget decision — it is a code violation with a fuel load attached. Between professional cleanings, filter upkeep carries the load; see our grease filter maintenance programs.
How a Service-Tech Hood Cleaning Runs
- 01
Walk-through and scope
System layout, duct routing, access panels, fan location, and your cooking volume class — so the quote covers the real system, not a guess.
- 02
Overnight scheduling
Crews work after close and are gone before prep. No lost service hours, no equipment down during business.
- 03
Protect and clean
Cooklines masked and covered; hood, plenum, filters, accessible ducts, and fan cleaned to bare metal.
- 04
Document
Certificate of performance, dated hood sticker, photo documentation, and written notes on deficiencies — missing access panels, damaged filters, fan issues — before they become an inspector's finding.
- 05
Recurring schedule
We put your operation on the frequency its volume class requires, so compliance stops depending on someone remembering to call.
Pricing: From $599 Per Cleaning
Kitchen exhaust hood cleaning starts at $599 per cleaning. Final pricing reflects the number of hoods and fans, duct length and routing, roof access, and cooking-volume class. Multi-unit restaurant groups get scheduled programs across locations with consistent documentation at each site. Estimates are free, and travel is factored into the quote — no surcharge line.
From Independents to Multi-Unit Groups
Service-Tech serves independent restaurants, franchise operators, hotels and event venues, institutional kitchens, and multi-unit groups across Ohio, Florida, and Arkansas — part of the broader set of industries we serve. For a single-location independent, we are the documented cleaning your insurance renewal quietly depends on. For a 15-unit group, we are one vendor, one standard, and one documentation format across every kitchen — which is precisely what our NFPA 96 compliance cleaning programs exist to deliver.
The Cost of an Undocumented System
A kitchen exhaust fire is bad; a kitchen exhaust fire with no cleaning records is worse. After a loss, the insurer's first request is your cleaning documentation, and a missing or hood-only paper trail becomes their argument. Short of a fire, an inspector who lifts a filter and finds loaded duct can write violations that follow your permit, and repeated findings invite closure. Against those outcomes, a documented from-$599 cleaning on the correct frequency is the least expensive line in a restaurant's risk budget.
Overnight cleaning, bare-metal standard, documentation your inspector recognizes — from $599 per cleaning. —
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does restaurant hood cleaning cost?
Service-Tech's hood cleaning starts at $599 per cleaning. The final price depends on the number of hoods and fans, duct length and routing, roof access, and your cooking-volume class. Estimates are free, travel is factored into the quote, and multi-location groups can put every site on one scheduled program.
How often does my restaurant hood need to be cleaned?
NFPA 96 sets frequency by cooking type: monthly for solid-fuel cooking, quarterly for high-volume operations like charbroiling and wok lines, semi-annually for moderate-volume full-service kitchens, and annually for low-volume operations. An inspection that finds grease accumulation triggers a cleaning regardless of the calendar.
Does hood cleaning include the ductwork and rooftop fan?
At Service-Tech, yes — hood, plenum, filters, accessible duct runs, and the rooftop exhaust fan are all in scope, cleaned to bare metal. Hood-only cleanings leave the concealed duct loaded with grease, which is exactly where exhaust fires burn. Any section that cannot be reached is disclosed on your report rather than papered over.
When do crews do the work?
Overnight, in most cases — after close and gone before your morning prep arrives. Cooklines and equipment are protected during the work and the kitchen is cleaned up afterward, so the cleaning costs you zero service hours.
What documentation do I get after the cleaning?
A certificate of performance, a dated hood sticker, photo documentation, and written notes on any deficiencies or inaccessible areas. That package is what fire marshals, AHJs, and insurance carriers expect to see — and after a loss, it is the difference between a covered claim and an argument.