TR19 Grease Cleaning
TR19 Grease Cleaning Certificate
What is a TR19 certificate?
A TR19 certificate is the record left behind after a commercial kitchen extract system is cleaned to the TR19 Grease specification. It states the wet film thickness measured before and after work and names the access points that were opened. Photographs go with it, along with a list of any ductwork that could not be reached. Insurers and environmental health officers ask for it as evidence the system was actually cleaned.
What does a TR19 certificate contain?
A certificate worth having reads like a survey record. These are the parts that matter when someone else picks it up:
| Item | What it says |
|---|---|
| Wet film thickness readings | Grease depth measured at named access points, before and after cleaning, so the result comes out as a number. |
| Access point register | Where every hatch is, which ones were opened, and any run that could not be reached. |
| Photographs | Before and after, tied to the access point they were taken at. |
| Areas not cleaned | Any section that could not be reached, and what would be needed to reach it. On an older system, a certificate showing no exclusions at all usually means nobody looked that hard. |
| Method and date | What was used, who attended, and when the work was carried out. |
| Next service interval | Based on cooking hours, with the reasoning stated. |
The line that gets skipped most often is the fourth one. A system with limited access cannot always be cleaned end to end, and saying so is what makes the rest of the document credible.
What grease thickness does TR19 allow?
BESA publishes two figures that decide whether a system needs cleaning:
| Reading | What it means |
|---|---|
| 200 microns average | The maximum average wet film thickness before cleaning is required |
| 500 microns | Triggers a localised spot clean at that point |
Cleaning intervals follow cooking hours, with BESA giving three, six and twelve month bandings as a baseline. Those bandings are subject to a competent person conducting a cleanliness risk assessment.
Why does my insurer ask for a TR19 certificate?
Most commercial insurers treat TR19-compliant kitchen extract cleaning as a condition of cover or a key factor in assessing fire claims. Failing to keep your extract system TR19-compliant, or lacking documentation, can jeopardise your right to indemnity and give your insurer grounds to dispute or reduce a claim.
Read that carefully, because the trade tends to overstate it. What is documented is that insurers treat compliant cleaning as a condition or a factor in assessing a fire claim. Anyone telling you a claim is automatically refused without a current certificate is going further than the published evidence goes.
What does a TR19 clean cost?
Prices in the South East start from around £495 for ductwork cleaning and £350 for extract cleaning. How long the duct run is, how many access points it already has, and how long it has been left all push the figure up or down. Working outside service hours costs more.
A quote given without seeing the system is a guess, and so is a certificate issued without readings.
Sources
- TR19 Grease specification and wet film thickness guidance: Building Engineering Services Association
- Insurance wording follows Aviva’s Loss Prevention Standard, RISCAuthority RC68 and QBE guidance, none of which state that a claim is refused for a missing certificate.