Neglect proper duct cleaning and upkeep at your peril

Jonathan Brennan, Chair of the National Association of Air Duct Specialists UK (NAADUK), and part-owner of Specialist Hygiene Services, and Peter Reid, the Association’s President, who founded dedicated ventilation and air hygiene services company, Overclean, in 1981, explain how a better understanding of cleaning and maintaining ductwork can improve the design of ventilation systems and reduce fire risk.

How can we all work together to make buildings safer, and how can a better understanding of cleaning and maintaining ductwork improve the design of ventilation systems and reduce fire risk? Ductwork ventilation systems can present a considerable fire hazard in kitchens, as they accumulate grease and other contaminants. Good design, that enables regular cleaning and maintenance, can reduce these risks. The National Association of Air Duct Specialists UK (NAADUK) recognises that there is a need to have joined-up thinking on how to prevent fire risks – from design to maintenance. NAADUK’s aim is simple: to talk to, and work with, surveyors, manufacturers, designers, installers, maintainers, fabricators, fire prevention associations, fire brigades, and environmental health authorities, to solve such problems together.

Ductwork contaminated by grease and other substances can contribute to kitchen fires if poorly cleaned and maintained. These put at risk the lives not only of staff and the public, but also the fire crews who must tackle them. Although at the time of writing there has yet to be a loss of human life through such fires, damage to, or destruction of, property has become a considerable expense for the courts and the insurance profession. The aim of this article is thus to consider how we make ductwork accessible for cleaning and maintenance, and hence make it firesafe for all. This article includes information on regulatory requirements for inspecting and cleaning ductwork