Duct Work Cleaning – Commercial Cleaning London – Kitchen Health and Safety

Duct Work Cleaning – Meeting Your Basic Health and Safety Responsibilities

As a restaurant owner, if you avoid duct work cleaning as part of your health and safety requirements, you are putting staff and customers at risk and could damage the reputation of your business.

Making health and safety a priority is a legal responsibility for employers and is designed to reduce accidents and provide a healthy work environment. The first step is to carry out a risk assessment to ensure that all the right safeguards are in place. 

Duct Work Cleaning

Although maintaining your duct work cleaning may not be one of the first things that springs to mind, the consequences of not doing so can be considerable, leading to a dangerous build-up of grease in the pipework. 

At a low level, avoiding duct cleaning can lead to staff sickness and lost work hours; but in the worst case scenario it can lead to fatalities, resulting from major incidents such as fires. By failing to tackle duct cleaning, you could face the possibility of legal action against you, which will damage the reputation of your restaurant, and may ultimately lead to business closure.

Duct work cleaning should be part and parcel of your risk assessment, and it is essential to assign a staff member with responsibility for this, which can either be you or a manager.  The cleaning work should to be carried out by experts, so it is important to call on a commercial cleaning company that specialises in this area – such as Ingot, which serves customers in London and across the UK. 

What Can Happen if You Don’t Meet Your Responsibilities

Staff off sick – Each year millions of work days are lost through work related accidents or illnesses. This can have a detrimental effect on your company as lost work days create a backlog that can be hard to catch up on. Small companies, in particular, rely on healthy staff to keep the business running. 

Damage reputation of business – If your staff or customers fall ill as a result of badly maintained duct work and air conditioning systems, this can have a knock-on effect on your business. Yet, organising the cleaning and maintenance is so simple to do: it just takes one phone call to the specialists who will take the worry out of your hands.

Risk of fatalities – Dirty duct work is a fire risk and can have potentially life threatening consequences. Contacting the experts in commercial kitchen cleaning can prevent fatalities and create a safe working environment. 

Insurance becomes invalid – If a fire breaks out on your premises and the cause is down to the lack of duct work cleaning, this can invalidate your insurance; the costs can be considerable and could ultimately lead to business closure.  

Potential court cases – If a staff member sustains a work related injury, this can leave you wide open to legal action.  However, having a regular maintenance programme will avoid this by showing that you have taken your health and safety responsibilities seriously, and will save money in the long run by avoiding pricy legal battles.

About Ingot Services

To find out more on how Ingot can help with your duct work cleaning and to obtain a free quotation for their services, telephone Ingot on 0800 731 7892 or click on the above link.

Certified Kitchen Extract Cleaning Professionals Protect The Catering Industry as Insurers Toughen up on Grease-laden Ductwork

The extreme fire risk of uncleaned kitchen extract systems has been highlighted profusely by the Fire Authority, but it is the refusal of insurance companies to pay out and hefty fines that have brought the matter to the industry’s attention.

Despite changes over five years ago to the Fire Safety Order, giving building owners responsibility for ensuring that all possible precautions and actions are taken to protect occupants from the dangers of fire, some restaurateurs have not taken their responsibility seriously in an effort to cut costs.

Alan Maynard of Ingot Services, a nationwide commercial kitchen cleaning company, says, “In these tough economic times it is all too easy to cut corners, but uncleaned kitchen extract systems present one of the highest fire risks, so it’s just not worth it. Not only do building owners have to fully comply with the Fire Safety Order laws, but most insurers now insist on the regular cleaning of grease extract ventilation systems by certified specialist cleaners as part of their fire risk assessment.”

Last year saw Gregg’s, the nationwide network of bakeries, landed a £50,000 fine, plus £20,000 in costs for breaching the Fire Safety Order. And the London Liverpool Street outlet of Burger King was the scene of a major fire caused by inadequate duct cleaning.

“Often, the flue goes up the centre of the building and if it catches fire it can potentially gut the entire place, putting staff and customers at risk,” explains Alan, who provides cleaning services for many famous restaurants in London and commercial kitchens across the UK.

With the various accreditations needed to comply with insurance policies, Ingot Services operates an invaluable nationwide Kitchen Extract Cleaning service to the catering industry. They provide a Certificate of Cleanliness, a full report with before and after photographs and an around the clock service to ensure the kitchen is fully functional for when the chef arrives.
Kitchen Extract Cleaning - Contact us now on 0800 731 7892 for a free quotation.