The most common way a kitchen falls out of compliance is not a bad clean but a missed one. The certificate from last year sits in a drawer, the six-month due date passes unnoticed, and the first person to point it out is a loss adjuster or an environmental health officer. A contract cleaning schedule removes that risk. We agree the interval with you, arrange the same vetted contractor for each visit, remind you before every due date, and keep the paperwork together so that it is there when somebody asks for it.
How a schedule works
- Usage assessment. The contractor classifies each kitchen by cooking hours under TR19 Grease: heavy use at twelve hours or more a day is cleaned every three months, moderate use every six, light use every twelve.
- Fixed cycle. Visits are diarised for the term of the agreement, timed around your trading pattern, and confirmed with you a few weeks ahead.
- Reminders. We contact you before each due date so nothing lapses, and we chase the contractor if a visit slips.
- Fixed pricing per visit. The price for each visit is agreed at the outset for the term, so budgeting is straightforward and there are no surprises unless the system changes.
- Same contractor. The specialist who cleaned the system last time knows the access points, the awkward sections and the fan, so each visit is quicker than a first clean.
- Evidence file. Every certificate, photo set and set of readings is filed in order, ready for an insurer, an EHO or a regulator.
| Usage band | Visits per year | Each visit includes |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy (12 or more cooking hours a day) | 4 | Canopy, plenum, filters, full duct run, fan and discharge; readings; certificate and photo report |
| Moderate (6 to 12 hours) | 2 | As above |
| Light (2 to 6 hours) | 1 | As above, with an optional interim canopy and filter visit |
Multi-site operators
Schedules come into their own for anyone responsible for more than one kitchen. A pub company with tenanted and managed houses, a care group with homes in three counties, a hotel group, a contract caterer running school and staff restaurants, or a holiday park operator with several outlets on one site all face the same problem: different kitchens, different usage bands, different due dates and a compliance record scattered across email inboxes. We can arrange one schedule across the estate, with a contractor for each region where the sites are spread out, and consolidate the certificates so that a head office or a facilities manager can see at a glance which kitchens are compliant and which are due. See our pages for hotels, care homes and holiday parks for how this works in each sector.
What the evidence file gives you
Insurers increasingly ask for a cleaning history rather than a single certificate, and a loss adjuster after a fire will want to see that the interval was kept consistently, not just that the last clean happened. The insurance requirements guide explains the policy conditions involved. Environmental health officers, fire safety inspectors, CQC and its Scottish and Welsh counterparts, landlords and franchisors all ask the same question in different words: can you show me the record? With a schedule in place the answer is a single file containing each TR19 certificate, the before-and-after photographs, the grease readings against the 200 µm trigger and the 50 µm acceptance level, the system schematic and the next due date.
Flexibility built in
A schedule is not a straitjacket. Seasonal businesses can front-load visits before the season and pause over the winter closure. Schools can have visits fixed to holiday periods. A kitchen that changes its menu or its hours can move between usage bands at the next visit. If a site closes or is sold, it drops off the schedule. The fixed per-visit price holds for the term provided the system itself is unchanged; if you add a canopy or extend the ductwork, the contractor will re-quote that site.
Arranging a schedule
Tell us how many kitchens you have, where they are, what they cook and their hours, and whether you already hold certificates for any of them. We will match the estate to contractors who are BESA-qualified, CHAS-accredited and fully insured, each of whom issues the TR19 certificate and photo report after every visit. Per-visit pricing depends on the size and complexity of each system; the cost guide gives typical ranges for single kitchens, and a first inspection is often the sensible starting point for an estate with no records. Request a schedule quote and we will put it together.
Related services: Kitchen Extract Cleaning · Canopy Cleaning · Ductwork Cleaning · Extractor Fan Cleaning
Frequently asked questions
Am I tied into a long contract?
No. The schedule runs for an agreed term, typically twelve months, so that the per-visit price can be fixed, and it continues by agreement after that. If you sell the business, close a site or want to change contractor, you tell us and the schedule stops or adjusts. The point is to stop cleans being missed, not to lock you in.
Can the interval change if my kitchen gets busier?
Yes. The contractor takes grease readings at every visit, and if the deposit is building faster than the interval allows, the readings will show it and the schedule moves from six months to three. The reverse also applies: a kitchen that cuts its hours may move to a longer interval, with the readings as the justification.
We have kitchens in England and Scotland. Can one schedule cover both?
Yes. We arrange a contractor for each region so that travel is kept reasonable and local knowledge is retained, and we consolidate the certificates and due dates into one record for your head office. Regulators differ, with CQC in England and the Care Inspectorate in Scotland for care settings, but TR19 Grease and the frequency bands are the same throughout the UK.
What happens if a visit is missed?
We chase it. Because we track the due dates independently of the contractor, a slipped visit is picked up before it becomes a lapsed certificate, and we rebook it. If a contractor repeatedly fails to keep dates, we reassign the schedule to another member of the network. You should never be the person who discovers that a clean did not happen.