When a kitchen exhaust hood, a stack of grease filters or a plenum fan needs cleaning, the first question from a facilities or procurement team is rarely "what machine should we buy?" It is "how many labour hours will this take?" That number drives the schedule, the contract price and whether cleaning happens on the planned date or slips into a shutdown window. The estimate below shows how to build cleaning time from the components themselves rather than from a rule of thumb.
Start with a component inventory, not an area
Estimating by floor area or by "one hood per day" fails because a kitchen ventilation system is a set of parts with very different working times. Before quoting anything, list each item as its own line:
- Hood canopies and filter rails — recorded by linear metres of filters and by number of filter panels.
- Baffle (grease) filters — counted individually, with their condition noted.
- Plenum, fan housing and exhaust fan wheel — recorded separately, because fan work needs access, not just cleaning.
- Duct runs, risers and horizontal laterals — recorded by accessible length and by access hatch positions.
- Fans, dampers and fire suppression nozzles — items that often need to be removed, protected or worked around.
- Adjacent surfaces — stovetops, grills, wall panels and floors around the hood.
Time each line, then add the shared overheads. Two kitchens with identical hood lengths can differ by half a day if one has filters that have been cleaned for years without degreasing and the other is on a monthly cycle.
Break the job into five time blocks
A defensible estimate is the sum of five blocks, each measured against your own crew's past jobs:
| Time block | What it covers | How to size it |
|---|---|---|
| Mobilisation and protection | Equipment in and out, floor and equipment covering, lock-off of the fan, permits, briefing. | Treat as a fixed cost per shift, not per component. |
| Disassembly and access | Removing filters, side panels, access hatches and, where required, the fan belt or impeller. | Count fasteners and access points; note seized or painted-shut parts. |
| Degreasing and cleaning | Actual contact time on filters, canopy interior, plenum and accessible duct. | Price per filter panel and per square metre of cleaned surface. |
| Rinse, wipe-down and waste handling | Removing emulsified grease, collecting run-off, cleaning the surrounding work area. | Scales with grease load, often underestimated. |
| Reassembly and handover | Refitting panels and filters, fan test run, photographs, cleaning certificate. | Fixed per job, plus per access panel refitted. |
For a single restaurant hood with a dozen baffle filters and a short riser, the cleaning block usually dominates. For a central production kitchen with several canopies, long laterals and roof-mounted fans, disassembly, access and waste handling take the lead. That difference is why the same crew can quote two sites of similar size very differently.
Rate-limiting factors that lengthen the estimate
Estimates drift upward when the following apply. Log them explicitly so the customer sees the reason for the hours:
- Grease age and thickness. Fresh grease softens quickly; hardened, baked-on deposits need repeated contact time and mechanical assistance.
- Water volume and rinse logistics. A hose-and-bucket approach multiplies rinse passes and produces run-off that has to be contained and disposed of.
- Downtime windows. Cleaning between 22:00 and 06:00 means fewer people, lighting requirements and slower movement than a daytime shutdown.
- Access geometry. Roof access, ladders, scaffolding or a lift each add setup time that belongs in the estimate.
- Fan and damper condition. Seized bearings, corroded fasteners or missing access panels turn a cleaning job into a repair conversation.
A practical approach is to estimate the base task list at the crew's normal pace, then apply a documented uplift for hardened deposits and night working. Keeping the uplift visible prevents the estimate from becoming a hidden contingency that nobody can explain afterwards.
Choose a cleaning method that matches the estimate
The method changes the time blocks, not just the finish. Cold water and detergent need long dwell times, several rinse passes and large volumes of run-off. High-temperature steam softens and lifts grease with far less water, which shortens the rinse and waste-handling blocks and reduces the protection work around the kitchen. Where a crew is estimating by component, contact time is often the number that falls.
For recurring kitchen work, a fixed machine sited near the cleaning point removes the walk-back to a distant water supply and keeps steam output steady through a long shift. The Fixed Steam Cleaning Machine PowerDe HW02 is a 220 V unit rated at 6 kW heating power, with steam at 160°C and vapour pressure of 0.8 MPa, an 80 L SUS304 tank and selectable dry or wet steam. Those parameters matter when you are building an estimate: higher steam temperature reduces the number of passes over hardened deposits, and the tank capacity determines how often the operator refills rather than cleans. The same page covers commercial kitchen steam cleaning applications, and PowerDe's Cleaning Equipment Series lists mobile and hand-pushed alternatives for sites where the cleaning point moves or where power access is limited.
If your scope goes beyond a standard canopy — a central production kitchen, a food factory extract system, or cleaning that has to be built into a production schedule — PowerDe also offers customised cleaning equipment configured to the site rather than to a catalogue model.
Build a rate card you can reuse
Once two or three jobs are recorded, convert them into rates your team can apply without re-estimating from scratch:
- Hours per filter panel, split between soak, wipe, rinse and refit.
- Hours per square metre of canopy interior and of accessible duct.
- Hours per fan housing, separated into access, blade cleaning and refit.
- Fixed hours for mobilisation, protection, testing and documentation.
- Hours per crew for rinse and run-off handling, tied to the method used.
Record actual hours against each line, not just the total. Within a few jobs you can quote a new site from its component list, defend the number to a facilities manager, and see immediately when the method — for example switching from hot water to steam — changes the hours rather than just the finish.
Checklist before you submit the estimate
- Every ventilation component appears as its own line item, including the fan and dampers.
- Disassembly, waste handling and documentation each have hours, not assumptions.
- The uplift for hardened grease and night working is stated as a percentage with a reason.
- The cleaning method is named, and its water and run-off implications are in the scope.
- Items outside the cleaning scope — repairs, failed dampers, structural corrosion — are listed as exceptions.
- Actual hours are captured after the job and fed back into the rate card.
Facilities teams that estimate kitchen ventilation cleaning this way stop arguing about daily rates and start comparing methods on hours. That is where a lower-water, high-temperature cleaning approach shows its value: it shortens the blocks that dominate the estimate and makes the next quote easier to defend.
