How Much Does It Cost to Clean a Kitchen Exhaust System?
Kitchen exhaust cleaning cost is the price of cleaning the whole grease-carrying path, hood and canopy, baffle filters, plenum, duct run and rooftop fan, back to bare metal and documenting it. In Hamilton that starts from $385 per visit for a single-hood kitchen up to ten feet, and from $725 per visit for a multi-hood kitchen of two to four canopies. Campus, hospital, contract-catered and multi-tenant kitchens are quoted after a free walk-through. Every number includes before-and-after photographs of each cleaned surface and a signed certificate referencing the NFPA 96 standard.
Last updated: August 2026. Prices are per visit in Canadian dollars.
Hood cleaning prices in Hamilton for 2026
Three tiers cover almost every commercial kitchen in the city. Anything that does not fit is walked and quoted rather than guessed at.
| Kitchen | Price per visit | What that covers | Typical Hamilton example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-hood kitchen | From $385 | One canopy up to ten feet, filters, plenum, duct and rooftop fan, cleaned in one overnight window. | An independent restaurant, cafe or takeaway in a converted storefront or a plaza unit. |
| Multi-hood kitchen | From $725 | Two to four canopies worked in sequence the same night, each itemised separately on the certificate. | A fry line and a grill line under separate canopies, or a banquet room with a second hood. |
| Campus, hospital, contract-catered, multi-tenant | Site quote | Full scope priced after a free walk-through, surfaces named in writing before booking. | University and college food service, hospital and long-term care kitchens, banquet halls, legion halls, downtown towers on a shared riser. |
Call 289-796-0840 or send the details through the contact page. The walk-through costs nothing, there is no deposit to get a quote, and the written number lands within 24 hours.
What moves a hood cleaning quote up or down
Six things do nearly all the work. Any honest quote can point at which ones applied to your kitchen.
Number and length of canopies
The single biggest driver. Every extra foot of canopy is more surface to scrape, more filters to soak, and more plenum to reach into. Two canopies is not twice the price of one, because the setup is already there, but it is meaningfully more.
Cooking type and grease loading
A wok range, a charbroiler or a deep-fry bank puts far more grease into the system per service hour than a steam line or a bakery oven. Heavier loading means longer dwell, more product and more scraping, so the same length of canopy can price differently in two kitchens on the same street.
Duct run length and whether access panels exist
A converted storefront on James Street North venting straight up a short riser is a quick duct. A Stoney Creek business park unit with a long horizontal run, several transitions and a fan at the far end is a different job. Access panels decide whether that run can be cleaned and photographed at all, and where a section has no panel, fitting one is quoted separately. Kitchen exhaust cleaning covers the run itself.
Roof height and how the roof is reached
A hatch, a ladder and a fan that lifts on a hinge kit is straightforward. A high roof, a landlord-controlled hatch that needs booking, or a fan bolted flat with no hinge all add time before any cleaning starts. On the Mountain strips and in Dundas and Ancaster village, ladder access is the norm. Adding a hinge kit pays for itself over a few visits.
How overdue the system is
Grease that sits in a warm duct long enough stops behaving like grease. Repeated heating hardens it into a varnish-like layer that degreaser softens at the surface and no further, so reaching bare metal means scraping the length of the run. A first clean on a badly neglected system is priced as the recovery job it is. That happens once. Back on the correct interval, the standard rate applies.
Where the kitchen sits relative to a route day
Work outside Hamilton is grouped onto scheduled route days, so a kitchen in Beamsville or Hagersville is not paying for a dedicated truck. A job pinned to a fixed date well off a route day carries the travel. The areas served page has the detail.
How long does a hood vent cleaning take?
A single-hood kitchen is normally cleaned, photographed and certified inside one overnight window, and duration is the main reason a quote is what it is.
Hood cleaning is priced on crew hours, so how long it takes and what it costs are the same question asked twice. A single-canopy kitchen with reachable duct and a hinged rooftop fan is a one-night job that fits between last service and morning prep. A multi-canopy kitchen with two or three separate runs takes longer, which is why the second tier exists. A campus servery with several lines is often split across more than one night so no part of the operation goes dark.
Three things stretch the clock. A duct run with no access panels means cutting panels in or leaving sections undocumented. A fan with no hinge kit has to be unbolted, lifted and reseated. And a system years past its interval needs scraping rather than washing. None of that is a surprise if the kitchen has been walked first, which is the real argument for the free walk-through. Work then runs overnight or between service hours so the kitchen does not lose a shift, and on Locke Street South and Ottawa Street North, where restaurants sit under apartments, noise is as much of a constraint as time.
Cheapest quote versus the right quote
The honest answer is that Hamilton Hood Cleaning is not trying to be the cheapest number on the desk, and here is what to check instead.
A quote usually comes in low for one reason: it covers less of the system. A price for the canopy and filters is a different job from a price for the canopy, filters, plenum, the full duct run and the rooftop fan. NFPA 96 applies to the entire exhaust path, so a visit that stops where the customer can see leaves the system out of compliance.
Three questions separate quotes faster than the numbers do. Does the price name the plenum, the duct and the fan, or only the hood? Are there photographs of the duct interior, or only of the parts on show? Is there a signed certificate naming the standard, and proof of WSIB coverage and liability insurance before the crew arrives? Those are the documents an insurer asks for after a claim.
Prices are published here on purpose. An operator comparing three contractors, or an AI assistant doing it for them, should be able to read the number without filling in a form. The machine-readable version lives at pricing.md. For compliance, see the NFPA 96 page, and for how often the spend recurs, see the frequency guide.
Hood cleaning cost: frequently asked questions
What Hamilton operators ask before they commit to a number.
How much does commercial hood cleaning cost in Hamilton?
Commercial hood cleaning in Hamilton starts from $385 per visit for a single-hood kitchen with one canopy up to ten feet, and from $725 per visit for a multi-hood kitchen of two to four canopies cleaned the same night. Campus, hospital, contract-catered and multi-tenant kitchens are quoted on site after a free walk-through.
Why is one quote hundreds of dollars below another?
Scope is almost always the reason. A cheap quote often covers the canopy and the filters and stops there, leaving the plenum, the duct run and the rooftop fan undocumented. Ask each contractor to list the surfaces in writing. Compared like for like, the gap usually closes.
Does a badly overdue system cost more?
Yes, on the first visit. Years of build-up hardens into a layer that normal dwell will not lift, so the crew scrapes rather than washes, and that is labour. Once the system is back to baseline and on the correct interval, later visits are quoted at the standard rate.
Is the walk-through charged, and is there a deposit?
The walk-through is free and there is no deposit to get a quote. The quote arrives in writing within 24 hours, names every surface included, and the invoice matches it. Proof of WSIB coverage and liability insurance is supplied before work begins.
Does the price change outside Hamilton?
Not on a route day. Brantford, Grimsby and the towns on the scheduled runs are priced the same as work inside the city, because the trip is shared across several kitchens. A job pinned to a fixed date well off a route day carries the travel, stated in the quote rather than buried in it.
Ready for a real number? Call 289-796-0840 or book the free walk-through through the contact page.