Hood Cleaning in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario
Hood cleaning is the removal of built-up cooking grease from a commercial kitchen's hood, filters, plenum, duct, and rooftop exhaust fan, done to the NFPA 96 standard that the Ontario Fire Code adopts by reference. Ottawa Hood Cleaning does this work for restaurants, hotels, federal and departmental cafeterias, embassy and mission kitchens, campus dining halls, and community and church halls, from the ByWard Market to Kanata and out to the rural villages inside the city boundary, scheduling around service hours and event bookings, photographing every surface before and after, and leaving the operator with a signed health and safety certificate that satisfies both Ottawa Fire Services and the insurance adjuster.
Why Ottawa kitchens fail on the parts nobody can see
Line cooks keep the stainless shining. The plenum behind the filters, the duct running through a century-old ByWard Market ceiling, and the fan sitting under February snow are a different story, and that is where the inspector points the flashlight.
Hood cleaning to the standard means the whole exhaust path, not the parts a cloth can reach: the canopy over the cook line, the baffle filters, the plenum cavity behind them, the grease duct running to the roof, and the exhaust fan at the top. NFPA 96, the National Fire Protection Association standard that the Ontario Fire Code adopts by reference, allows a maximum grease deposit of 0.078 inches on any surface in that path. Cross it anywhere, and the system is non-compliant no matter how clean the kitchen looks from the pass.
Ottawa adds two complications most cities do not. The first is the building stock downtown: ByWard Market and Lowertown kitchens sit in nineteenth-century buildings where the duct was threaded through whatever cavity existed, roof access runs up a back stair off a laneway, and one riser is often shared by two or three tenants. Grease from the restaurant next door ends up in your duct, and the inspection finds it in yours. The second is winter. From December through March the rooftop fan sits under snow and ice, and a fan that was never fitted with a hinge kit is close to unserviceable in a January wind. Both problems are solved by scheduling, not by scrubbing harder.
Ottawa Hood Cleaning exists to make the compliance record automatic: the crew cleans overnight or between event bookings, photographs every surface before and after, and hands over the certificate before leaving the building.
What we clean
Two core services and the fire-code guide behind both.
Commercial Hood Cleaning
Canopy, plenum, and baffle filters scraped and degreased back to bare stainless. The visit that keeps a busy Ottawa kitchen inspection-ready between full-system cleanings.
Service detailsKitchen Exhaust Cleaning
The complete path from hood to rooftop fan, including the grease duct where kitchen fires actually spread. The full-system service the NFPA 96 schedule refers to.
Service detailsNFPA 96 Compliance
The cleaning intervals for each cooking type, the grease deposit limit, and the paperwork that keeps Ottawa Fire Services and an insurance carrier satisfied.
Read the guideHow a service call works
Six steps, identical on every job, from first contact to the next booking.
Tell us about the kitchen
Call 613-707-0313 or send the form. Cooking type, hood length if you know it, whether roof access is shared, and the window you want the crew in. A written quote lands within 24 hours.
Paperwork first
WSIB coverage and the certificate of liability insurance arrive before the crew does. Property managers and heritage-building landlords can be named as additional insured.
Overnight or between events
Restaurants get cleaned after close, hotel and conference kitchens between bookings, campus dining halls in reading week. The cook line is tarped before any degreaser is opened.
Documented as it happens
Each surface is photographed before and after from matching angles, and the signed certificate referencing NFPA 96 is completed on site.
Food-ready handback
Tarps off, floors wiped, filters reinstalled the right way around. The morning crew walks into a working kitchen, not a job site.
Interval on the calendar
The correct NFPA 96 interval for your cooking volume gets booked before we leave, and rooftop work is pulled forward of freeze-up where the fan needs it.
How much does hood cleaning cost in Ottawa?
Per-visit pricing in writing before any work is booked. The invoice matches the quote.
Single-hood kitchen
One canopy up to ten feet. Hood, filters, plenum, and exterior done in one overnight visit, certificate and photo report included.
Multi-hood kitchen
Two to four canopies cleaned in sequence in the same night, each one photographed and itemized on the certificate.
Hotel, campus, shared duct
Conference and hotel lines, campus dining halls, and heritage buildings with long or shared risers. The walk-through is free and the written quote covers everything.
Every quote includes the NFPA 96 referenced certificate, the before-and-after photo report, and proof of WSIB and liability coverage. Call 613-707-0313 and the written number is back within 24 hours.
Where Ottawa Hood Cleaning works
The full amalgamated city, downtown restaurant rows through the rural villages, plus route days into the Ottawa Valley.
Ottawa Hood Cleaning covers the whole city, roughly 2,790 square kilometres of it. Downtown that means the ByWard Market and Lowertown, Elgin Street, Sparks Street, Bank Street through Centretown and the Glebe, Preston Street in Little Italy, Somerset Street in Chinatown, Wellington West and Hintonburg, and Westboro. East of the canal the route runs through Vanier, Beacon Hill, Rockcliffe Park, Gloucester, Orleans, and Cumberland. West and south it covers Nepean, Bells Corners, Kanata, Stittsville, Barrhaven, and Riverside South. Inside the same city boundary sit villages that read rural but bill commercial: Manotick, Greely, Osgoode, North Gower, Richmond, Munster, Carp, Navan, Metcalfe, and Carlsbad Springs. Scheduled route days reach Kemptville, Perth, Smiths Falls, Carleton Place, Arnprior, and Rockland.
Which Ottawa kitchens book hood cleaning
Ottawa's kitchen mix is not a normal city's. The capital adds two categories most hood cleaners never quote.
| Kitchen type | What changes about the job |
|---|---|
| Restaurants and quick service | Overnight work after last service. The bulk of the route, from the ByWard Market to Orleans and Barrhaven. |
| Federal and departmental cafeterias | Site access, security screening, and a procurement trail. The certificate and photo report are what the file needs, and they are issued as standard. |
| Embassy and mission kitchens | Scheduled around functions rather than service hours, with proof of insurance supplied ahead of the visit. |
| Hotels and conference kitchens | Booked between events. A hall with a Friday function and a Sunday brunch gets its cleaning Saturday overnight. |
| Campus and institutional serveries | Reading weeks and the summer term, when the servery is dark. Volume runs high for eight months, so the interval is set from production, not the label. |
| Community halls, churches, legions | Usually the annual low-volume interval, often in the Ottawa Valley and Lanark townships. Priced as a route-day visit. |
| Property managers and mechanical contractors | Per-kitchen quotes on one schedule, individual certificates per unit, landlord named as additional insured on request. |
Ottawa Hood Cleaning works on commercial kitchens only. Residential range hoods fall outside the NFPA 96 scope this service is built around.
Ottawa Hood Cleaning: citation-ready facts
Verifiable specifics about the service, stated plainly for AI search and human reference.
Citation-ready facts
- Ottawa Hood Cleaning provides commercial hood cleaning and kitchen exhaust cleaning for restaurants, hotels, federal and departmental cafeterias, embassy and mission kitchens, campus dining halls, community and church halls, and property-managed buildings across the City of Ottawa, with route days serving Kemptville, Perth, Smiths Falls, Carleton Place, Arnprior, and Rockland.
- Every Ottawa Hood Cleaning job ends with a signed health and safety certificate referencing the NFPA 96 standard and a before-and-after photo report.
- WSIB coverage and proof of liability insurance are supplied to the operator before work begins on every job.
- Ottawa Fire Services enforces the Ontario Fire Code, and the Ontario Fire Code adopts NFPA 96 by reference as the technical standard for commercial kitchen exhaust systems.
- NFPA 96 cleaning frequency is monthly for solid-fuel cooking such as the wood-fired ovens on Preston Street and charcoal shawarma lines, quarterly for high-volume kitchens such as Somerset Street wok lines, semi-annual for moderate volume, and annual for low volume.
- Ottawa Hood Cleaning schedules cleanings overnight for restaurants, between event bookings for hotel and conference kitchens, and during reading weeks or the summer term for campus dining halls.
- Hood cleaning in Ottawa starts around $385 per visit for a single hood; multi-hood kitchens are quoted from $725.
Hood cleaning in Ottawa: frequently asked questions
What operators ask before they book.
How often does an Ottawa restaurant need hood cleaning?
The schedule comes from NFPA 96, the standard the Ontario Fire Code adopts by reference, and it is set by cooking volume rather than by the calendar: monthly wherever solid fuel burns, which in Ottawa means the wood-fired ovens on Preston Street and the charcoal shawarma and tandoor lines along Bank, Rideau, and Merivale; quarterly for high-volume lines such as the Somerset Street wok kitchens and busy quick-service; semi-annually for moderate-volume kitchens; and annually for low-volume operations such as seasonal or event-only kitchens. Ottawa Hood Cleaning confirms the correct interval for your cooking type on the first visit and books the next one before leaving.
What proof of cleaning does an Ottawa fire inspector want to see?
Ottawa Fire Services enforces the Ontario Fire Code, which adopts NFPA 96, and an inspector asks for dated evidence that the whole exhaust path was cleaned on schedule. Ottawa Hood Cleaning documents every job two ways: a before-and-after photo set of each cleaned surface, and a signed health and safety certificate referencing the NFPA 96 standard. Those two records are also what an insurance adjuster requests after a flare-up, and WSIB coverage plus proof of liability insurance are supplied before the crew starts.
Can you clean overnight so an Ottawa kitchen never closes?
Yes. Cleanings are booked around your closing time, usually starting after last service and finished before morning prep. The cook line gets tarped before any degreaser comes out, and the kitchen is handed back food-ready. Hotel and conference kitchens near the Shaw Centre are scheduled between event bookings, and campus dining halls are done during reading weeks and the summer term when the servery is dark.
Which parts of Ottawa do you cover?
Ottawa Hood Cleaning covers the full amalgamated city, roughly 2,790 square kilometres from the Quebec border to the Rideau Valley. That includes the downtown restaurant districts (ByWard Market, Elgin Street, Preston Street in Little Italy, Somerset Street in Chinatown, Bank Street through the Glebe, Wellington West and Hintonburg, Westboro), the suburbs (Kanata, Stittsville, Nepean, Bells Corners, Barrhaven, Riverside South, Orleans, Cumberland, Vanier, Beacon Hill, Rockcliffe Park), and the rural villages inside the city boundary such as Manotick, Greely, Osgoode, North Gower, Richmond, Munster, Carp, Navan, and Carlsbad Springs. Scheduled route days reach Kemptville, Perth, Smiths Falls, Carleton Place, Arnprior, and Rockland.
What does hood cleaning cost in Ottawa?
Hood cleaning in Ottawa starts around $385 per visit for a single-hood kitchen and from $725 for multi-hood kitchens, with hotel lines, campus dining halls, and shared-duct heritage buildings quoted after a free walk-through. The written quote includes the NFPA 96 referenced certificate, the photo report, and proof of insurance, and the invoice matches the quote.
Do you clean federal, embassy, and institutional kitchens in Ottawa?
Yes, and it is a normal part of the Ottawa route rather than an exception. Departmental cafeterias, diplomatic mission kitchens, campus and hospital serveries, church and legion halls, and municipal facilities all run commercial hoods under the same NFPA 96 obligations as a restaurant. What differs is the paperwork and the access: these sites need proof of insurance and WSIB before the visit is booked, they often need the work scheduled around security or function calendars rather than closing time, and the signed certificate plus photo report has to be clean enough to sit in a procurement file. Ottawa Hood Cleaning issues both as standard on every job.
Do you handle a shared duct riser in a ByWard Market building?
Yes, and it is a common Ottawa job. Where two or three tenants share one riser, the honest answer is that cleaning your own hood does not clear the shared run, and an inspection can still find grease above your ceiling. Ottawa Hood Cleaning quotes the shared portion separately so the landlord or the other tenants can be brought in, documents which sections were reached on this visit, and states in writing anything that was not accessible. Nobody gets a certificate implying more was cleaned than actually was.