What Is Actually Included in Your Quote

Our post on what duct cleaning costs in NZ explains the factors that drive price. This one is about something different: what the price is actually buying.

Because when three quotes come back and one is half the price of the others, the usual explanation is not that someone is being generous. It is that they are quoting a smaller job.

The Full Scope, Component by Component

A complete commercial kitchen extract clean covers the whole path the air takes, from the point it leaves the cooking line to the point it leaves the building. That is:

Grease filters

Removed, degreased properly rather than rinsed, and refitted the correct way round. Some quotes assume your staff handle filters, which is often fair enough, but it should be stated rather than assumed.

Canopy and plenum

The visible internal surfaces, plus the plenum behind the filters, the grease gutters and the collection cups. The plenum is the part that gets skipped, because it is out of sight and it takes longer.

The full duct run

This is the heart of it. Every section from the canopy through to the fan: horizontal runs, vertical risers, bends and transitions.

The phrase to look for is “full duct run” or “canopy to fan”. The phrase to be wary of is “accessible ductwork”, which can mean anything from a thorough job to a metre either side of each access panel.

The extract fan

Housing, impeller and blades. Frequently excluded, consistently the dirtiest component in the system, and the one where grease buildup does mechanical damage as well as creating fire risk.

If the fan is not mentioned, ask directly. Do not assume it is bundled in.

Protection and reinstatement

Sheeting down the kitchen, isolating the fan electrically, putting everything back, and leaving the space usable for the morning shift. This should never be a line item, it should simply be how the job is done. If a kitchen needs its own deep clean afterwards, something went wrong.

Documentation

Before and after photographs at each access point, a written report naming what was cleaned and what was found, and a note of anything unreachable or needing attention.

For a building with a compliance schedule this is not a nice to have. It is the evidence your IQP relies on to issue a Form 12A, and what a council auditor asks for. A clean with no documentation is worth very little to you at BWOF time.

What Is Legitimately Extra

Not every exclusion is a trick. These genuinely sit outside a standard clean, and a quote that separates them is being honest rather than evasive.

• Access panel installation. If your ductwork does not have enough panels, fitting them is fabrication work, not cleaning. It is a one off cost that makes every future clean cheaper and better.
• The 12A inspection and certificate. Cleaning and certifying are different services. Many providers offer both, but they are separately priced and they should be.
• Repairs. A worn fan bearing, corroded duct sections, a damaged canopy. Nobody can quote for these before opening the system up.
• Rooftop and height access. Edge protection, permits, sometimes a hoist. Real costs on some buildings and nil on others.
• Building access coordination. In managed buildings, after hours access sometimes carries a cost from the building manager rather than the contractor.
• Genuinely unsocial timing. Most commercial kitchen work is after hours and should be priced as standard. A 3am start on a public holiday is a different matter.
• A first clean on a badly neglected system. A system left five years takes far longer than one on a cycle. That is a real cost difference, not a penalty.

Exclusions Worth Questioning

These are the ones that usually indicate a narrower job rather than an honest boundary.

• “Accessible areas only” with no explanation of what is inaccessible. Ask which sections, and what it would take to reach them.
• Fan excluded without comment. Covered above.
• Photographs as an optional extra. The marginal cost of taking photos on a job you are already doing is zero.
• Vertical risers listed separately. They are part of the duct run. Splitting them out is a way of making a headline price look lower.
• “Degrease” without a standard. Ask what condition the metal will be in when they finish.

Why Frequency Changes the Maths

One thing that is genuinely counterintuitive: cleaning more often usually costs less per year, not more.

A system on a regular cycle carries soft deposit that comes off quickly. A system left for years carries hardened, carbonised deposit that needs scraping and aggressive chemistry, which can take several times as long for the same ductwork.

So the annual cost of two cleans a year on a heavy use kitchen is often close to the cost of one heroic clean every two years, and you spend the intervening time with a system that is not a fire risk. Our guide to how often ducts should be cleaned covers where your kitchen is likely to sit.

Getting a Quote That Is Worth Comparing

To get quotes you can actually put side by side, give every provider the same information:

• What you cook, and roughly how many covers or hours a day.
• How many canopies, and roughly how long the duct runs are.
• Where the fan is, particularly if it is on the roof.
• When the system was last cleaned, honestly.
• Whether you need the 12A certificate as well as the clean.
• What hours the work has to happen in.

Then ask each of them to quote the same scope: full duct run, canopy and plenum, fan housing and impeller, with photographic documentation. Once everyone is quoting that, the comparison means something.

Any provider worth using will want to look at the system before pricing it. A firm number over the phone, sight unseen, is either a guess or a very narrow scope. Our guide to choosing a duct cleaning company covers the rest of the vetting.

To see what we include as standard, read what a professional clean involves, or go straight to kitchen extract cleaning.