An NFPA 96 clean to bare metal — measured, photographed, and inspection-ready.
Hood-to-fan cleaning to bare metal — plenum, welded riser, and rooftop upblast fan — bracketed by grease-depth (mils) readings and time-stamped before/after photos your insurer and fire marshal accept, on the frequency the NFPA 96 cooking-volume table sets, locked into your contract.
Who this is for
Restaurant operator, multi-unit F&B group, hotel/hospital/campus food-service director, franchise FM.
The liability
A Type I grease hood is, by code, a fire-suppression-protected system because it is a fire risk. Uncleaned grease in the plenum, duct riser, and rooftop fan is fuel; an audit-thin cleaning record is the difference between a covered claim and a denied one after a fire.
The documentation is the product.
A budget hood-cleaner brushes the baffles, wipes the visible hood, and leaves. That is not an NFPA 96 cleaning — it's the appearance of one. PCE cleans the entire path to bare metal: hood plenum behind the baffles where grease accumulates fastest, the full welded grease duct including the vertical riser hand-scraped where rotary tools can't reach, and the rooftop upblast fan tipped on its hinge so the housing and blades are degreased, not just the parts you can see from a ladder. Where the system was never built to be cleaned end-to-end, we say so in writing — the NFPA 96 "inaccessible area" notation the fire marshal looks for — and scope the access-door fabrication to fix it.
The clean is bracketed by measurement, because measurement is what makes it defensible. We take a grease-depth (mils) reading at hood, duct, and fan before we start to document the cleanliness baseline for the file, and a matching after reading to prove the result. Every visit produces a time-stamped before/after photo set and grease-gauge packet — the document an insurance adjuster and a fire marshal will actually accept, not a hand-written sticker and a verbal "all good." Frequency is set by a cooking-volume classification survey against the NFPA 96 table — monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual per location by cooking type and fuel — then locked into your contract and route so compliance is automatic, not something the GM has to remember.
Scope on a nfpa 96 kitchen exhaust engagement
- Hood plenum & baffle-bank degreasing (hand-scrape + hot pressure wash to bare metal)
- Full grease-duct cleaning including vertical riser hand-scraping
- Rooftop upblast fan hinge-up clean, blade degrease, drip-tray/grease-cup service
- Rooftop grease-laden vapor stack scraping where pressure washing alone won't cut hardened carbon
- Fire-suppression nozzle masking before chemicals, and post-clean coordination so the system is re-armed before sign-off
- Floor-to-fan poly containment and roof-drain protection so caustic runoff is captured, not dumped on your roof
- Grease-depth gauge baseline + after readings, before/after photos
- Cooking-volume classification survey against the NFPA 96 table to set the code-correct interval, locked into the contract
- Dated NFPA 96 certification sticker on the hood and the digital compliance packet to your portal
- Optional after-hours / overnight scheduling so the line stays cold and dinner service is never interrupted
This is the recurring-contract anchor of the commercial division, and the most expensive mistake an operator makes is cleaning on the wrong interval — over-paying for cleans a low-volume kitchen doesn't need, or running out of compliance because a high-volume line needed monthly and got quarterly. PCE sets the frequency by the NFPA 96 cooking-volume table, not the calendar, and delivers the measured, photographed record a sticker alone can't — the kitchen that's always inspection-ready, across one site or a national route.
NFPA 96 Kitchen Exhaust — commercial FAQ
What documentation do we get, and will it satisfy our fire insurer and the fire marshal?
Every visit produces a time-stamped before/after photo set, grease-depth (mils) readings at hood/duct/fan, a dated NFPA 96 sticker on the hood, and a signed service report — delivered to your compliance portal or franchise system. That packet is built to be exactly what a fire-insurance carrier and an AHJ want to see. A sticker alone is not a compliance file; the measured, photographed record is.
How is our cleaning frequency determined?
By NFPA 96, not by a sales target. We survey your cooking volume and fuel type and assign the code-required interval — monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual — then lock it into your contract so you're never cleaning too often or falling out of compliance. A high-volume wood-fired line and a low-volume sandwich kitchen do not belong on the same schedule, and we won't put them there.
Can the cleaning happen without shutting down service?
Yes. After-hours and overnight scheduling is standard for our multi-unit clients — we work the line cold so your kitchen opens to a compliant, clean system and your operations never see us. It's a scheduling premium, and for most operators it's the only sane way to do it.
Our duct can't be fully reached — what then?
That's an NFPA 96 "inaccessible area," and the worst answer is to ignore it. We document and photo-tag every section that can't be cleaned, give you the punch-list, and scope the code-compliant access doors — hinged grease-rated doors at every change of direction on a welded riser, UL-listed panels at IMC 16-inch spacing on horizontal runs. Once it's accessible, every linear foot is cleanable — and provably so.
One contract. One compliance standard. Every location.
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