Do your job right

[mbryan]

Or don't do it at all. Here is a perfect example of why the job you do as a kitchen exhaust cleaner is so important.

Smoke Explosion Kills Two Boston Firefighters
A sudden fire development that occurred in a Chinese restaurant fire in the West Roxbury section of the city killed two Boston firefighters on 29th August 2007. The fire, that appeared to originate within the ceiling space, was fuelled by a possible build-up of cooking grease in the ceiling area or grease duct.

Full story here: Smoke Explosion Kills Two Boston Firefighters

Property damage is one thing, but the lives of firefighters is another. If you don't know how to get your systems cleaned to bare metal every time, get some training. There are several free resources if you can not afford the training. Ask questions, ask guys for help, there are plenty of guys around that have been through every situation imaginable and can tell you how to get your exhaust systems clean every time.

These fires very rarely start in the ducts, malfunctioning kitchen equipment or operator error causes most of these kitchen fires. All you can do is make sure that every bit of combustible material is gone from the systems you service.

Do not leave it up to chance. Be proactive. The next restaurant that goes up may be one that you decided not to fully clean for one reason or another. Imagine for one second that the restaurant in this story was one of your accounts. Imagine looking in to the faces of their loved ones and asking for forgiveness. The choice is yours.

[HotShot]

This is a horrible story and it really hits home when it comes to thinking of how important the job greasers have to do. Sometimes when it's 3 in the morning and cold and sprinkling a little rain with the wind blowing it feels like bees stinging you, and you don't always feel like giving that system all you got. Or sometimes, you might want to say "I'll get it really good next time"...well, think about this story and these fireman that lost their lives because either

1). Cleaner was a low-balling lazy bass-turd
2). Owner of restaurant only wanted the lowest price and wasn't concerned about quality
3). The AHJ didn't do their job and inspect this place like it should have been..or
4). All of the above.

Whatever the case may be, these were needless deaths and could have been prevented. The Grease Police is doing something about it and I heard that IKECA also is trying to get in on seeing what they can help with to improve the industry. This is really good to hear. Good for them. Not trying to plug my own videos or anything, but I made this video because I personally got tired of seeing other crappy work in my area that could easily fuel the kind of fire that happen in Boston. Click here to see the video if you want.

[Dave O]

Amen

This stuff should not be happening and will not be tolerated.

Think about this:

Many of us take our work seriously and take pictures of shoddy work by others, and collect your company names and even have invoices from owners from previous cleaners, and if you don't think that we do this

Well think again and maybe someday, someone will want all these pictures and invoices of hacks and lowlifes so they can come after you.

Do we have information and pictures on a crap job that you did?

Do you want pictures with your sticker (Company info) out for all to see

If you don't want to do the job right then stay out of this industry

Nothing against regular powerwashing contractors, but when you miss a spot in this industry you don't get the chance to just go back and clean it up like a housewash, deck, or concrete.

A fire is just waiting and does not take a day off when it comes to restaurant exhaust cleaning.

It doesn't matter if it is raining or -30 below in the winter these systems must be cleaned properly. Fire doesn't care if you are too lazy to remove an access panel, lift a fan or scrape a duct

[Douglas Hicks]

you Grease Police guys take your work seriously. Do you have any plans to increase your presence in the industry?

[dodsonish]

I like presents...

[gman2022]

The main reason hood duct system cleaning is not as profitable as it should be is because there is no regulatory agency. Anyone can set themselves up in business and be cleaning hoods tomorrow. I go in to a pigsty that has not been cleaned properly ever and give the owner a price for a single cleaning that makes him laugh. If I do ten estimates a month-maybe I get two jobs. He does not care that I care. He does not care that I am insured. He just wants a sticker and the kitchen clean when he comes in.

Until we are required to be licensed and truly regulated there can be no real standard. If fire marshals,health inspectors, or insurance companies weren't
looking at stickers there would be many more fires. After what I have seen out here for the last 20 years, I am amazed that I don't see fires everyday. And anybody cleaning hoods knows that hood sticker is not worth the paper it's printed on.

[JohnB]

Het Matt ... Hey Evryone ... I think the key words in this story are CHINESE RESTAURANT.... " you do for $250 or I clean it myself...." I cleaned a chinese restaurant that was going to reopen it had not been cleaned in 5 years prior to closing for 1 year.. It took me 9 hours to clean a 12 foot hood and a 5 ft duct work with one fan... I gave the owner a bill for $900.00 this price included the fire system inspection as well.. He told me he had to go and get his checkbook, he left and didn't come back ... I think " something for nothing" is what alot of these restaurants expect.. I have never cleaned a chinese restaurant where I have not been confronted with the You do it for $250... Where the heck do they get $250.00

[HotShot]

John....that's the part where you go to the roof and disconnect their motor to the fan and leave with a pleasant note stating that you would be happy to return their fan motor when you get paid.

[gman2022]

We don't do windows or Chinese hoods. Chinese hoods should been cleaned every month. They don't have it done until they are threatened with closure. They do not " understand " english except job add-ons and I pay $250. cash for the $650. job. They stand in your way until you blast them with some caustic. And they want you to do a six hour job in two hours, because they have been there for 12 hours already. I love good Chinese food, and they are, in my experience terrific people. But we don't do no stinking Chinese hoods.

[dig_dougpt]

In washington state, we are required to be certified, licensed, insured, but I know many of the guys cleaning hoods are not. They are hood cleaners, as in they just clean the hood and make it look shiny. They do not clean the ducts for fan. Then they charge a cheap price, so that when we come in to fix their mess, the owners have a fit that we charge twice what they paid for the other guy. And our rates are minimal as it is, as we are new to this side of the mountains and just trying to get established.

Chinese grease, here's our story of last night:

Ongoing issues with their fan, that is still coated in several inches of grease. We've been cleaning them every 3 months, for 1.5 years. We have only charged 190--so even less than that '250' business. So...of course we aren't going to spend all night cleaning a 190 job. Their screens are so ancient they are falling apart. we have said replace them everytime, now we can't hardly clean them for fear they will be blasted apart.

We do a pretty damn good job on their hood and duct, considering they are only every 3 months, and chinese. we get bare metal. just the fan is a problem.

Well, last night did our job. this morning we have 9 calls from them. they say we shut of the gas line, and the fan is not clean at all. we never turn gas off. their shutoff is on the roof, it may be possible the hose drug across it and pulled it, or maybe it's been a problem for a while, we don't know. we do know we had some difficulty relighting the pilots for their woks, but we got them lit, and they stayed lit.

we did our usual job on the fan, everytime we get a little more off. we explain this to them EVERY SINGLE TIME that it's gonna take ages to get it all off, and unless they want to pay us to be there all night to do it, we are not going to, at $190. We have 5 other stores in the same mall, and yet this place has the cheapest rate, for the hardest work.

We already had plans to increase their prices. If they don't like it, they will have to find another hood cleaner who has a $million dollar policy, which is required by the mall property, for such services. I doubt the little pretty hood cleaners in our area have that, as they look to be just a guy with a sponge and garden hose. And when they catch on fire for being non-compliant due to not wanting to pay a fair price for good cleaning, I'm betting we'll be the ones they call to reclean and certify them, and guess what kind of bill we will charge them, upfront cash!

Anyways, they are pissed that their gas was messed up, and the fan is not bare metal, and with no gas they were closed for 3 hours this morning until mall maintenence could figure out the problem {as we slept, due to working until 5 am}, so I'm betting we don't have to worry about cleaning them anymore. They can find someone else with the required insurance, and when they can't, we will be charging them at least double, cash, otherwise they will be non-compliant, and lose their mall lease. If they had worked with us and been reasonable, this never would have been a problem. But I have yet to find chinese restaurant owners who are reasonable.

I seriously doubt they will even pay for last night. guess we'll have to go in and 'inspect' the hood for them, and just rip the sticker off the hood until we get paid.

tina-Doug's wife

[gman2022]

Make sure you document in writing all issues. Ancient filters- tell them to get a filter service because they are out of code, ineffective and can not be cleaned. $190. for a Chinese hood? I don't know what the cost of living is out there, but it can't be that low. How is that even profitable? You need to double that- at least. I know sometimes we need to take a hit on some accounts to stay on the road, but the wear and tear and grease balls in the hair ain't worth it. Just say no to General Tso.
GP

[HotShot]

Tina, I have a nice little letter that I use on "those" type of customers. PM me if you want it. I would not start my truck for $190 especially not chinese. Sounds like you and your husband are trying your best to do QUALITY work, you need to make sure that you are getting quality wages for that work. Don't sell yourself short.