TL;DR — Air Duct Cleaning Cost At A Glance
- Domestic work is the cheap end: £50–£300. An MVHR service with a duct clean runs £150–£300, a bathroom or kitchen extract fan and its duct £50–£80, and a tumble dryer vent £60–£90.
- Commercial kitchen extract cleaning to TR19 Grease is where the money is: £450–£5,000+. A small café with one canopy starts around £450–£1,200; a hotel kitchen with several canopies runs £2,500–£5,000 and up.
- General ventilation ductwork is often priced by area — roughly £2 per m² of ductwork for offices and supply/extract systems, or £350–£600 for a small office system as a whole.
- London and the South East add about 15–25% on top of rest-of-UK rates, mainly through labour and out-of-hours access.
- The thing that actually triggers the purchase is paperwork, not dirt. Insurers and fire risk assessors want a TR19 Grease certificate. Inspection and certification on its own is £180–£450.
- The UK is not the US. Most British homes have no ducted forced-air heating, so there is rarely a whole-house duct system to clean at all.
Add to Preferred Sources How Much Does Air Duct Cleaning Cost In 2026?
The phrase "air duct cleaning" arrives in UK searches largely from American HVAC marketing, and it does not map cleanly onto British buildings. Very few UK homes have ducted forced-air heating or cooling, so there is usually no whole-house duct network to clean. What UK properties actually have is mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) in newer and retrofitted homes, central mechanical extract ventilation (MEV) in flats, individual extract fans in bathrooms and kitchens, and tumble dryer vents.
Commercially, it is a different trade entirely. Offices and public buildings have supply and extract ductwork served by air handling units, and commercial kitchens have grease extract systems — canopy, filters, ductwork, riser and fan. That kitchen work is governed by the Building Engineering Services Association's TR19 Grease specification, and it is the single biggest slice of UK duct cleaning spend. The table below splits the market the way the UK trade actually prices it.
| Job (unit of sale) | Rest of UK | London & South East |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic MVHR service + duct clean (per system) | £150–£250 | £185–£310 |
| Full MVHR strip-down service (every 3–5 years) | £250–£300 | £300–£375 |
| Bathroom or kitchen extract fan + short duct clean | £50–£80 | £60–£100 |
| Tumble dryer vent clean (domestic) | £60–£90 | £75–£110 |
| Whole-house ducted ventilation or AC clean | £380–£900 | £470–£1,150 |
| Office / general ventilation ductwork (per m² of duct) | from ≈£2/m² | £2.40–£3/m² |
| Small office or retail ventilation system | £350–£600 | £430–£750 |
| Small commercial kitchen extract, TR19 Grease (one canopy) | £450–£1,200 | £495–£1,500 |
| Medium restaurant or pub kitchen extract, TR19 Grease | £1,200–£2,500 | £1,400–£2,900 |
| Large hotel or multi-canopy kitchen extract, TR19 Grease | £2,500–£5,000+ | £3,000–£5,500+ |
| TR19 inspection and certificate only (no clean) | £180–£450 | £220–£550 |
| Minimum charge / call-out (domestic) | £50–£60 | £60–£80 |
Air Duct Cleaning Cost By System Type
The unit of sale changes with the system. Domestic ventilation is priced per system or per visit. Office ductwork is priced by area or by building. Kitchen extract is priced per system and comes with a compliance certificate attached. Here is what each one typically costs and how often the UK standards say it should be done.
| System | What gets cleaned | Typical frequency | Rest of UK | London & South East |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MVHR (whole-house heat recovery) | Filters, heat exchanger, fan, first metres of duct, condensate drain | Filters every 6 months; service every 12–18 months | £150–£250 | £185–£310 |
| MEV (central extract, flats) | Central unit, valves, extract branches | Annually | £150–£280 | £185–£350 |
| Single extract fan + duct | Fan casing, impeller, grille, duct run to the terminal | Annually | £50–£80 | £60–£100 |
| Tumble dryer vent | Vent hose, wall duct, external cowl | Annually, or twice a year with heavy use | £60–£90 | £75–£110 |
| Ducted air conditioning / comfort cooling | Supply and return ducts, grilles, coils | Every 1–2 years | £380–£900 | £470–£1,150 |
| Office supply and extract ductwork (TR19) | Ductwork internals, grilles, dampers, AHU | Every 1–2 years, per risk assessment | ≈£2/m² or £350–£1,200 | £2.40–£3/m² or £430–£1,500 |
| Commercial kitchen extract (TR19 Grease) | Canopy, filters, plenum, full duct run, riser, fan, discharge | Every 3, 6 or 12 months by usage | £450–£5,000+ | £495–£5,500+ |
| Commercial laundry / dryer ducting | Lint traps, duct runs, discharge | Every 3–6 months | £150–£400 | £185–£500 |
What Affects The Cost Of Air Duct Cleaning?
1. Whether The System Is Domestic Or Commercial
This is the dominant driver, and it is a step change rather than a slope. A domestic MVHR service is a two-hour job for one engineer at £150–£300. A commercial kitchen extract clean is a two- to four-person night shift with access panels, degreasers and a compliance report, starting around £450 and routinely passing £2,500.
2. The Length And Layout Of The Ductwork
Price tracks duct metres, not floor area. A single canopy with a three-metre run to an external wall is a fraction of the cost of the same canopy feeding a riser up four storeys to a roof-mounted fan. Office ductwork priced at around £2 per m² makes this explicit — double the ductwork, roughly double the bill.
3. Access Panels And How The Ducts Are Reached
Ductwork can only be cleaned where it can be opened. If a system has too few access hatches, they have to be cut and fitted before work starts: budget £120–£280 for a basic access panel and £180–£450 for a fire-rated one. Ceiling voids, roof-level fans and plant rooms needing edge protection all add labour hours on top.
4. Grease Load And Time Since The Last Clean
A system on a quarterly schedule is a maintenance visit. A system nobody has touched for three years is a remediation job — the same small kitchen can be £450 on a routine clean and £1,200 as a first clean. Contractors also price the risk that heavy deposits hide corroded duct or failed fan bearings.
5. Certification And Reporting
A compliant TR19 Grease job is not just cleaning. It includes pre- and post-clean deposit thickness testing, before-and-after photographs from matched positions, a written defect report and a signed hygiene certificate. That documentation is a real cost. Inspection and certification purchased alone runs £180–£450, and it is the part your insurer will ask to see.
6. Your Location
London and the South East sit roughly 15–25% above the rest of the UK, with Northern England and Scotland typically 10–15% below the national average. Rural jobs can carry travel charges instead. Out-of-hours access — normal for restaurants and offices — adds a further 50–100% premium on labour, so a "cheap" daytime quote may simply not be workable for your site.
What's Included — And What's Not
A standard quote usually covers:
- Pre-clean survey, photographs and deposit measurements where TR19 applies
- Cleaning of accessible ductwork, grilles, filters, canopy and plenum
- Fan casing and impeller cleaning
- Removal and disposal of grease and debris, plus a sheeted, protected work area
- A post-clean report and, for kitchen extract, a hygiene or TR19 Grease certificate
Usually charged extra:
- Cutting and fitting access panels — £120–£280 standard, £180–£450 fire-rated
- Replacement filters — £25–£85 standard, £45–£150 specialist
- Out-of-hours or weekend working — 50–100% on labour
- Next-day or emergency response — 25–50% premium
- Specialist access equipment or powered platform hire — £80–£150 per day
- Repairs: MVHR part failures run £400–£1,500, and a full unit replacement £1,500+
- Additional labour beyond the quoted scope — £45–£85 per hour
Can You Do It Yourself?
For some of this, yes, and it is worth saying plainly.
Changing MVHR filters is a homeowner job. Filters cost £25–£125 a pair and should be swapped roughly every six months; doing it yourself between professional services is sensible and saves money. Wiping an extract fan grille, pulling the lint out of a tumble dryer vent hose and washing metal cooker hood filters are all fine with a brush, a screwdriver and some degreaser.
What you should not do yourself is the heat exchanger strip-down and airflow commissioning on an MVHR unit — wrong airflow rates make the system worse, not better — or anything inside a commercial kitchen extract system. Grease extract cleaning is a fire safety measure under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and self-cleaning produces no certificate. If a fire is traced back to poor maintenance and you cannot show a recognised standard was followed, insurers can and do deny the claim. London Fire Brigade records a kitchen extract duct fire roughly every nine days in Greater London.
Can You Do It Yourself?
For some of this, yes, and it is worth saying plainly.
Changing MVHR filters is a homeowner job. Filters cost £25–£125 a pair and should be swapped roughly every six months; doing it yourself between professional services is sensible and saves money. Wiping an extract fan grille, pulling the lint out of a tumble dryer vent hose and washing metal cooker hood filters are all fine with a brush, a screwdriver and some degreaser.
What you should not do yourself is the heat exchanger strip-down and airflow commissioning on an MVHR unit — wrong airflow rates make the system worse, not better — or anything inside a commercial kitchen extract system. Grease extract cleaning is a fire safety measure under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and self-cleaning produces no certificate. If a fire is traced back to poor maintenance and you cannot show a recognised standard was followed, insurers can and do deny the claim. London Fire Brigade records a kitchen extract duct fire roughly every nine days in Greater London.
How To Save Money On Air Duct Cleaning
1. Get on a schedule
Quarterly visits to a small commercial kitchen run £320–£580 each against £450–£1,200 for a one-off deep clean of a neglected system — cheaper per year, and compliant.
2. Fit access panels once
Paying £120–£280 a panel hurts on the first visit, but every clean afterwards is quicker and cheaper because the contractor is not cutting steel.
3. Bundle systems on one visit
Kitchen extract, dryer ducting and general ventilation cleaned in the same mobilisation avoids paying set-up and travel three times.
4. Book daytime slots where you can
Out-of-hours working adds 50–100% to labour. A café that closes at 4pm rarely needs a night shift.
5. Change your own filters
£25–£125 a pair, twice a year, does more for MVHR performance than an extra service visit.
6. Fantastic Club members pay a £89 annual fee
Discounted rates and service credits across the Fantastic Services range are worth checking if you are booking more than one job a year.
How To Hire A Good Duct Cleaning Contractor
Ask for BESA membership or demonstrable TR19 and TR19 Grease competence, and ask which version of the standard they work to — TR19 covers general ventilation hygiene, TR19 Grease covers kitchen extract fire risk, and they are not interchangeable. Check public liability insurance and, for commercial work, a written method statement and risk assessment.
A proper quote names the systems, the duct metres or areas involved, the access panels needed, working hours and exactly what documentation you receive. Red flags: a price given over the phone without a survey, no mention of deposit thickness testing, "certificates" issued for canopy-and-filter cleaning only, and any contractor unwilling to photograph inside the duct before and after.
Book your duct and extract cleaning today!
Whether it is an MVHR system untouched since handover or a kitchen extract system that needs a TR19 Grease certificate before insurance renewal, a professional clean is quick to arrange and priced against a proper survey.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Often Should A Commercial Kitchen Extract System Be Cleaned?
TR19 Grease sets minimum intervals by daily cooking hours: every three months for heavy use of 12–16 hours a day, every six months for moderate use of 6–12 hours, and every twelve months for light use of 2–6 hours. Grease should not exceed a mean 200 microns between cleans. Your fire risk assessment can require more frequent cleaning than the baseline.
Will My Insurer Ask For A TR19 Grease Certificate?
Very often, yes. Many commercial policies explicitly require adherence to a recognised standard, and TR19 Grease is the recognised one in the UK. If a fire is traced back to grease build-up and you cannot produce certificates showing the system was cleaned to standard, the insurer may refuse the claim — even though you paid someone to clean it.
How Much Does It Cost To Clean MVHR Ducts?
Budget £150–£250 for a routine MVHR service including a duct clean at the terminals, and £250–£300 for a full strip-down service with the heat exchanger removed. A small property with six or seven vents sits at the lower end, around £185 including new filters; a larger home with fourteen vents is nearer £250.
Is Air Duct Cleaning Worth It In A Normal UK Home?
Usually not as a whole-house job, because most UK homes have no ducted air system to clean. What is worth doing is servicing an MVHR or MEV unit, clearing tumble dryer vents, and cleaning bathroom and kitchen extract fans — £50–£300 in total. Treat any quote for "whole-house duct cleaning" in a house with radiators with real scepticism.
What Is The Difference Between TR19 And TR19 Grease?
TR19 is the BESA specification for internal cleanliness of general ventilation systems — offices, schools, supply and extract ductwork. TR19 Grease is a separate specification covering fire risk management in kitchen extract systems. Kitchen work needs TR19 Grease. A contractor quoting "TR19" for a restaurant canopy is either being loose with language or is not the right contractor.
Does The Price Include The Extractor Fan?
In a compliant TR19 Grease clean, yes — canopy, filters, plenum, full duct run, riser, fan and discharge point are all in scope, and the certificate covers the whole system. Cheaper quotes sometimes cover only the canopy and filters, which is the visible 10% of the grease. Always check that the fan and the full duct run are named in the scope.
