Guide
Duct cleaning cost: what a quote is actually built from
Updated
Two quotes for the same kitchen can differ by a lot, and it usually is not the hourly rate. It is what each one included, and what each one left out.
What contractors are actually pricing
A duct cleaning price is time on site plus access. Time depends on the length and shape of the run, how bad the deposits are, and how many people can work at once. Access depends on whether there are usable access panels, how high the ductwork is, and whether the fan needs roof access. On a first clean of a system with no access panels, the panel work can be a bigger line than the cleaning.
The exclusions to look for
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| The extract fan | Usually the dirtiest single component and often the hardest to reach. A clean that stops at the fan housing is not a clean system. |
| The discharge point | Grease at the outlet is both a fire risk and the source of most neighbour complaints. |
| New access panels | Ductwork can only be cleaned where it can be reached. Without panels, large sections stay dirty and unverified. |
| Vertical risers | Awkward, sometimes needing rope access or dismantling, and easy to omit from a written scope. |
| Post-clean verification report | The deliverable your insurer and fire risk assessor actually want. The first thing dropped from a cheap price. |
| Making good and reinstatement | Panels fitted, ceilings replaced, area cleaned. Somebody has to do it and it should be named. |
| Waste and used chemical disposal | Small but real, and occasionally billed separately after the fact. |
How to compare two quotes honestly
- Get both to survey. A price given without seeing the system is a placeholder, and comparing two placeholders tells you nothing.
- Ask for the scope broken into canopy, filters, ductwork, fan and discharge, each marked in or out. Most price differences disappear once you do this.
- Ask what happens if the deposits are worse than surveyed, and how any extra is charged.
- Ask for a sample verification report from another site, with the client details removed. This is the fastest way to tell a serious contractor from a cheap one.
- Ask about access panels specifically: how many are needed, whether they are included, and who makes good.
- Ask about the working window, since an overnight price and a daytime price are not comparable.
- Check insurance and competence: public liability cover, confined space and working at height arrangements, and who is actually attending.
We do not publish a price per metre or per canopy on this site. The spread between a straightforward single-canopy job and a multi-riser hotel system is wide enough that any figure we printed would mislead most readers, and the scope differences between quotes matter more than the rate does anyway.
Where the money is well spent
- Access panels fitted properly on the first clean. They make every subsequent clean cheaper and every subsequent report more complete.
- Verification with measured readings. It is the difference between a receipt and evidence.
- A realistic schedule based on your actual usage, rather than the longest interval you can talk someone into.
- Filter management in-house. Weekly filter cleaning slows the whole system's deterioration and costs you nothing but labour you already have.