Kanata Hood Cleaning
Kanata Hood Cleaning Pros is a commercial kitchen exhaust cleaning company working to the NFPA 96 standard across Kanata, Stittsville, Carp and Richmond. A hood cleaning visit strips cooking grease from the entire exhaust path in one pass: the canopy, the baffle filters, the plenum chamber behind them, the duct run above the ceiling and the fan on the roof. Work runs overnight or between service periods so no kitchen loses a shift, every surface is photographed before and after, and pricing starts at $385 per visit.
Kanata is four kitchen markets in one suburb, and they cook on different clocks
Scheduling is the part most exhaust contractors get wrong here, because the west end does not run on restaurant hours.
Kanata joined the City of Ottawa in the 2001 amalgamation, which means it is served by Ottawa Fire Services and inspected against the Ontario Fire Code like every other part of the city. What makes it different from the core is the mix of kitchens packed into it.
The Kanata North Technology Park is the largest technology park in Canada, and campuses that size run corporate cafeterias and contract-catered servery lines that cook hard from seven in the morning until two in the afternoon and then sit dark. Those kitchens cannot be cleaned at dinner service, because there is no dinner service. They are cleaned mid-afternoon or overnight.
The Palladium Drive corridor runs on an entirely different clock. Concession kitchens at the Canadian Tire Centre cook in intense bursts around events and sit idle between them. Hotel kitchens along the same stretch swing between banquet volume and quiet weeks. Retail and restaurant kitchens around Kanata Centrum and Tanger Outlets Ottawa track shopping traffic, not office hours.
Then there is the west end proper. Independent restaurants, pubs and takeout kitchens along Hazeldean Road, Eagleson Road, Castlefrank Road and Stittsville Main Street, plus school and retirement residence kitchens throughout Katimavik, Bridlewood, Glen Cairn, Beaverbrook and Morgan's Grant. These are the standard-hours kitchens, and they are cleaned overnight.
What a hood cleaning visit covers
The exhaust system is one continuous path from the cook line to the roof. A cleaning that stops partway leaves the fuel where it matters most.
The hood and the filters
Baffle filters come out and are washed separately rather than sprayed in place. The canopy interior, the grease gutter and the trough are scraped and degreased to bare metal, and the exterior is polished so the kitchen looks cleaned as well as being cleaned.
The plenum behind the filters
The chamber the filters sit in front of collects the grease that gets past them. It is the most commonly skipped part of the assembly, because reaching it means removing filters and working blind above head height.
The duct run and the riser
Grease condenses along the duct as the air cools, so the heaviest deposits sit at the first elbow, at every transition, and at the base of the vertical riser. Each section is opened, cleaned and photographed on its own.
The rooftop fan
The fan is hinged back, and the housing, blades, curb and drain are cleaned. Grease that reaches the roof deck is a building problem as well as a fire problem, and it is the part nobody in the kitchen ever sees.
How often a Kanata kitchen needs cleaning
NFPA 96 sets frequency by how the kitchen cooks, not by the calendar or the size of the room.
| Frequency | Cooking type | Typical Kanata kitchen |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | Solid fuel | Wood-fired and charcoal lines, smokers |
| Quarterly | High volume | Busy independent restaurants, wok and charbroil lines, event-night concession kitchens |
| Semi-annually | Moderate volume | Pubs, cafes, hotel banquet kitchens, most retail-corridor restaurants |
| Annually | Low volume | Seasonal, day-camp and community kitchens, some corporate serveries |
The judgement call is the one in the middle. A corporate cafeteria that runs a grill and a fryer five days a week is not a low-volume kitchen just because it closes at two in the afternoon, and an arena concession that cooks forty nights a year is not high volume just because those forty nights are punishing. Frequency follows the grease load, and the grease load is what the first visit measures.
Read the full breakdown on the NFPA 96 fire code page, including what an inspector asks to see.
What it costs
Published starting prices, not a callback to find out.
Those are starting figures for a system in normal condition. A first visit on a system that has been neglected for years takes longer and costs more, and a kitchen on a regular schedule costs less per visit than the same kitchen cleaned once and forgotten. The hood cleaning cost page sets out every factor that moves the number.
What you get on paper
An exhaust cleaning is only worth what you can prove about it afterwards.
Where we work
A tight west-end route, on purpose.
Kanata North, Kanata South, Katimavik, Bridlewood, Beaverbrook, Glen Cairn, Kanata Lakes and Morgan's Grant, plus Stittsville, Carp and Richmond. That is a service area you can drive end to end in half an hour, which is the point. A contractor covering the whole National Capital Region gives you the arrival window that suits the truck. A contractor working one corner of the west end can put a crew in your kitchen at the hour your kitchen is actually empty.
Carp and Richmond are village kitchens with their own rhythm: the Carp Fairgrounds draws market and event crowds that make a slow week busy without warning, and Richmond's kitchens serve a community that has grown quickly along the Highway 7 side. Both sit on the same route day as Kanata and Stittsville.
Full detail on the areas served page.
Frequently asked questions
How often should a hood system be cleaned?
NFPA 96 sets the interval by cooking volume, not by kitchen size. Solid fuel is monthly, high-volume cooking is quarterly, moderate-volume cooking is semi-annual, and low-volume cooking is annual. Most Kanata restaurants and pubs land on quarterly or semi-annual. The honest answer for any specific kitchen comes from looking at the grease load on the first visit, because two kitchens with identical menus can foul at different rates depending on how the exhaust is balanced.
What is included in a hood cleaning service?
A full visit covers the complete exhaust path: baffle filters removed and washed separately, the canopy interior and grease trough scraped to bare metal, the plenum chamber behind the filters cleaned, the horizontal duct run and vertical riser opened at each access point and cleaned section by section, and the rooftop fan hinged back so the housing, blades and curb can be cleaned. It finishes with the kitchen surfaces below the hood wiped down, photographs of every area, and a signed certificate.
Is hood cleaning worth it?
It is not optional. The Ontario Fire Code requires commercial kitchen exhaust systems to be maintained, and NFPA 96 is the standard that defines what maintained means. Beyond the code, grease in a duct is fuel sitting directly above a heat source, and an insurer that finds an unmaintained system after a fire has a straightforward reason to dispute the claim. The certificate is the document that settles both questions.
How much does it cost to clean a commercial hood?
A single-hood kitchen up to ten feet starts at $385 per visit. A multi-hood kitchen of two to four canopies starts at $725 per visit. Institutional, contract-catered and multi-tenant systems are quoted on site after a free walk-through, because those buildings vary too much for a list price to mean anything. A neglected system costs more on the first visit and less on every visit after it.
Do you clean during business hours?
Rarely, and only when a kitchen asks. Standard-hours restaurants and pubs are cleaned overnight after close. Corporate and campus serveries in the Kanata North Technology Park are usually cleaned mid-afternoon once the line shuts. Arena concessions and hotel banquet kitchens are cleaned between events. The scheduling conversation happens before the quote, not after.
Which authority inspects kitchen exhaust systems in Kanata?
Ottawa Fire Services. Kanata amalgamated into the City of Ottawa in 2001, so there is no separate Kanata fire department and no separate Kanata bylaw. Stittsville, Carp and Richmond are in the same position. The applicable rules are the Ontario Fire Code and, through it, the NFPA 96 standard.