Commercial Kitchen Hood Cleaning in Markham
Azzo Wash Co. cleans commercial kitchen exhaust systems for Markham restaurants to the NFPA 96 standard, including the wok lines, hot pot rooms and barbecue ovens that put more grease into a duct than almost anything else in the GTA. Photo documentation and a written compliance certificate come with every service. The on-site evaluation is free, because quoting a Markham kitchen without looking at the duct run is guesswork.
Book a free on-site evaluation · Or call 647-749-0045
Markham kitchens are not average-volume kitchens
Most hood cleaning schedules are written for a moderate-volume kitchen: a full-service restaurant running a gas range and a fryer, cleaned twice a year. A large share of Markham's restaurants are not that.
NFPA 96 sets inspection frequency by cooking volume, not by the calendar. Under Table 11.4, wok cooking, charbroiling and 24-hour operations are high-volume, which means quarterly. If a contractor put your Markham wok house on a semi-annual schedule, they used the wrong tier.
Three Markham kitchen types that routinely get scheduled wrong:
- Wok lines. Sustained high heat aerosolises oil rather than dripping it. It travels further up the duct and condenses in the horizontal run, well past the point most contractors reach. Quarterly is the floor, and a busy line often needs more.
- Hot pot. Steam carries oil into the plenum as a film rather than a crust. It looks clean and gauges heavy. Hot pot rooms are the most commonly under-cleaned systems we see.
- Cantonese barbecue and roast meats. Continuous rendering fat over long hours. If the oven is charcoal-fired rather than gas, it is a solid fuel appliance, and NFPA 96 puts solid fuel on a monthly schedule with its own separate flue requirements.
If you are not sure which tier your kitchen falls into, that is the first thing the evaluation settles.
Shared exhaust in Markham's plazas and food courts
Markham has an unusual concentration of restaurants inside enclosed malls, food courts and multi-tenant plazas: Pacific Mall, Market Village, First Markham Place, Times Square, Commerce Gate, and the retail podiums along Highway 7. That built form creates a problem you will not find on a standalone restaurant's page.
In these buildings the exhaust riser is often shared, the rooftop belongs to the landlord, and access has to be arranged rather than assumed. Three things follow from that:
- Your compliance is affected by your neighbours. A shared riser accumulates grease from every tenant on it. Cleaning your hood and leaving the common duct does not make the system compliant, and a fire in a shared riser does not respect lease lines.
- Access is a scheduling problem, not a cleaning problem. Rooftop access in a managed property needs to be booked with property management, sometimes with a certificate of insurance filed in advance. We carry $5M commercial general liability and can send the paperwork ahead so the night does not get wasted.
- Responsibility is usually in your lease, and it is usually yours. Most commercial leases put the tenant's exhaust equipment on the tenant, even when the riser and fan are base building. If your lease is ambiguous, get it read before an inspector asks.
We will tell you honestly at the evaluation whether the system can be properly cleaned within your access constraints, and what a landlord conversation needs to cover if it cannot.
What a Markham service includes
- Hood, filters, plenum, horizontal and vertical duct runs, and rooftop fan cleaned to bare metal where the surface allows it.
- Access panels checked, and missing ones flagged in writing. Missing panels are the most common reason a system that was "cleaned" still fails inspection.
- Before-and-after photographs of each component, emailed within 24 hours.
- A written certificate recording the date, the scope and the NFPA 96 frequency tier applied to your kitchen.
- Work scheduled overnight, typically between 11 PM and 4 AM, so the line is dry and ready for prep.
Where we work in Markham
Unionville, Markham Village, Milliken, Cornell, Berczy Village, Cathedraltown, Buttonville, Greensborough, Markville, Commerce Valley and the Highway 7 corridor.
The Highway 7 and Woodbine corridors are on our regular overnight route, so a Markham booking does not sit behind downtown work. We reach Richmond Hill, Stouffville, Vaughan and northeast Scarborough from the same run.
Frequently asked questions about hood cleaning in Markham
Does Markham Fire inspect kitchen exhaust systems?
Markham Fire and Emergency Services enforces the Ontario Fire Code, which adopts NFPA 96 for commercial cooking equipment. What an inspector wants is documentation rather than assurance: the dates, the scope, and photographs showing the condition of the duct and fan, not only the hood.
My kitchen runs woks. What schedule should I actually be on?
Quarterly at minimum. NFPA 96 classifies wok cooking as a high-volume operation. Frequency is the inspection interval, though, and the cleaning trigger is measured grease depth. A hard-running wok line can reach the threshold before the quarter is up, which is why we gauge rather than assume.
We are in a food court with a shared duct. Who is responsible?
Almost always the tenant for the hood and the equipment side, with the riser and fan varying by lease and by building. The practical answer is that a shared riser needs a coordinated clean, and we are used to arranging that through property management rather than leaving you to negotiate it.
Can you get on the roof at Pacific Mall or a managed plaza?
Yes, with notice. Managed properties usually require the certificate of insurance in advance and a booked access window. Tell us the property manager at the evaluation and we will handle the filing before the service night.
What if my system has not been cleaned in years?
Common, and recoverable. Heavy accumulation takes longer and occasionally needs a second visit to reach bare metal through the full run. We will tell you at the evaluation what condition the system is in and what it will take, including whether access panels are missing.
Will I get documentation my insurer will accept?
Yes. Before-and-after photographs of hood, ducts and fan, plus a written compliance certificate recording the date, the scope and the standard applied. Keep it on file. It is the first document an insurer asks for after a kitchen fire.
Do you also do pressure washing and graffiti removal in Markham?
Yes, across the same service area. Commercial pressure washing for patios, drive-thru lanes, loading docks and dumpster pads, and graffiti removal on brick, glass, metal and painted surfaces.
Before you book
- NFPA 96 cleaning frequency in Ontario: the inspection table, which tier your kitchen falls into, and the records the Ontario Fire Code requires you to keep.
- What "cleaned to bare metal" actually means: the standard your insurer expects, and why a hood that looks clean from underneath often is not.
- Hood vs. duct vs. exhaust fan cleaning: what each scope covers, and how to check you are buying the whole system.
Book Your Free Hood Cleaning Evaluation in Markham
We will come to your kitchen, gauge the system, tell you which NFPA 96 tier it falls into, and quote from what we find. Fifteen minutes, no pressure.