What does commercial hood cleaning cost in Oregon and Washington?
Industry cost guides put a single-hood restaurant cleaning in the hundreds and a large multi-hood job in the thousands. What moves the number, what the cheap quote leaves out, and the six things we need to price yours.
Commercial hood cleaning cost depends on five things: how many hoods you have, how big they are (filter count is the quick proxy), how far and how high the duct runs to the roof, what you cook on, and how long it has been since the last real cleaning. Industry cost guides published for 2026 put a standard single-hood sit-down restaurant at roughly $450 to $1,200 per visit, a high-volume multi-hood kitchen at $600 to $1,800, and large or complex operations (casinos, hospitals, solid fuel, many hoods) at $1,000 to $3,500 or more [1]. Those are national market figures, not our prices. We do not publish a price list, because two kitchens with the same hood count can be a two-hour job and a nine-hour job.
Here is what moves the number, what the low quote usually leaves out, and what we need from you to give a real one.
What are the market price ranges for hood cleaning?
Two published 2026 guides give a useful picture. Facilitec Southwest publishes industry-typical ranges (they say plainly the figures are not their own pricing) by cooking tier [1]. Total Fire Protection publishes a New York market breakdown by hood count with common surcharges [2]. Together they look like this.
- Single hood, low-volume (church, camp, senior center). Typical per-visit range (market data): $300 to $700. Usual NFPA 96 tier: Annual.
- Single hood, standard sit-down restaurant. Typical per-visit range (market data): $450 to $1,200. Usual NFPA 96 tier: Semiannual.
- Multi-hood, high-volume, 24-hour. Typical per-visit range (market data): $600 to $1,800. Usual NFPA 96 tier: Quarterly.
- Large or complex (many hoods, solid fuel, casino, hospital). Typical per-visit range (market data): $1,000 to $3,500 and up. Usual NFPA 96 tier: Monthly to quarterly.
- Add-ons seen in market guides: after-hours, emergency or violation, heavy grease, extra duct footage. Typical per-visit range (market data): Roughly $100 to $500 each. Usual NFPA 96 tier: n/a.
Sources: Facilitec Southwest 2026 cost guide [1]; Total Fire Protection 2026 cost guide [2]. These are third-party market ranges. Oregon Hood Cleaning does not publish pricing, and Pacific Northwest labor costs run above the national average, so treat the low end as optimistic here.
The annual math matters more than the per-visit number. A quarterly kitchen at the middle of the standard range spends a few thousand a year on the exhaust system. A grease fire that closes the kitchen for a week costs more than a decade of cleanings, and cooking equipment caused over 60 percent of fires in eating and drinking establishments in the NFPA's 2014 to 2018 data [3].
What are the factors that set hood cleaning cost?
Our crews price a job on what they will actually have to do, and it comes down to these.
Number of hoods and filter count
The obvious one. Each hood is its own plenum, its own filter set, and usually its own duct. Filter count is the quickest proxy for hood size, which is why our estimate form asks for it. A 6-foot hood with 4 filters and a 16-foot hood with 10 filters are not the same job.
Duct length, elbows, and building height
The duct is where the time goes. A short vertical riser through the roof of a one-story building is a fast clean. A long horizontal run over a drop ceiling with three elbows, in a two-story building, takes hours and needs access panels to reach at all. Building height also sets the ladder or lift situation on the roof, which is why we ask how many floors.
Cooking type and grease load
A charbroiler and a wok range throw more grease than a soup station, and a 24-hour kitchen throws it around the clock. NFPA 96 tiers inspection by exactly this: monthly for solid fuel, quarterly for high-volume, semiannually for moderate, annually for low-volume [4]. Heavier grease means more scraping before the degreaser can work, and market guides put the heavy-grease surcharge in the hundreds [2].
Time since the last real cleaning
A kitchen that has been on a proper schedule is a maintenance clean. A kitchen that has been "cleaned" twice a year by a canopy-only outfit for five years is a restoration job on the first visit, because the duct and fan have never been touched. Our crews see this constantly: the sticker on the hood is current, and the fan bowl on the roof has a decade in it. The first visit costs more. The second one costs what it should.
Access and the roof
No hinge kit on the fan means the fan has to be unbolted and lifted to clean the bowl, which is slower and rougher on the wiring. No access panels on a long run means part of the duct cannot be cleaned and gets listed as inaccessible on the report, as NFPA 96 requires [4]. Both are one-time fixes that make every future cleaning faster and cheaper: the exhaust fan hinge kit and duct access panels.
Want a real number instead of a range? Request a free estimate with your address, hood count, filter count, building floors, cooking equipment, and last cleaning date. Or call (800) 973-5573 any hour.
Why is the cheapest hood cleaning quote usually a bad one?
Because the price was built for a canopy wipe-down. There are five tells of a bad hood cleaning that the fire safety industry has been warning operators about for years: the cleaner never asks about roof access, there are no before and after photos, the filters go back in immediately so nobody sees the plenum, the exhaust fan switch gets left off, and there is a mess left behind [5]. Every one of those is a way to shave time off the job, and time is what the low quote is selling.
The cost shows up later. A fire marshal who pulls a filter and finds a caked plenum writes a citation with a re-inspection date, and now you are paying for an emergency cleaning at a surcharge. An insurance adjuster who finds a canopy-only service history after a fire can argue the operator contributed to the loss [6]. A landlord who finds grease on the roof membrane sends a repair bill. The cheap quote is the most expensive one on the table, it just invoices in a different year.
How does recurring service change the price?
It lowers it, for a plain reason: a kitchen on the right interval never gets to restoration condition. Market guides put maintenance-program pricing 10 to 20 percent below one-time calls [1]. Our version of that is a schedule set to your NFPA 96 tier, a reminder before each due date, and a crew that knows your roof. For operators with more than one kitchen, the multi-location accounts program puts every store on one schedule and one compliance file, which is where the real savings are, in the hours nobody spends chasing paperwork.
What should a hood cleaning quote include?
Ask for these in writing before anyone gets on a ladder.
- Scope that names the hood, plenum, filters, duct run, and rooftop fan. If it says "hood and filters," it is a canopy job.
- Whether the roof is included and whether the fan will be hinged open or unbolted.
- Whether inaccessible sections will be listed on the report, and a price to add panels if so.
- What you receive after: a dated hood sticker, a certificate, and a written report within two weeks, which NFPA 96 sections 12.6.13 through 12.6.15 require [4], plus photos.
- After-hours scheduling. Most cleanings run after close, and that should be normal, not a surcharge surprise.
Our commercial hood cleaning page lays out the scope we quote against on every job.
Frequently asked questions
How much does hood cleaning cost per hood?
Industry cost guides for 2026 put a standard single-hood restaurant cleaning at roughly $450 to $1,200 per visit and a low-volume single hood at $300 to $700 [1]. Per-hood pricing drops as hood count rises because the crew is already on site and on the roof. These are market figures, not our prices.
Why won't hood cleaning companies publish prices?
Because hood count alone does not set the job. Duct length, building height, cooking type, and the condition of the system on arrival can double the time. A quote built from those six facts is accurate. A price list is a guess.
Does hood cleaning cost more at night?
Some market guides list an after-hours surcharge of $150 to $300 [2]. Most commercial kitchens have to be cleaned after close, so ask whether after-hours is the normal price or an add-on before you compare quotes.
Is hood cleaning tax deductible for a restaurant?
It is an ordinary operating and maintenance expense for a commercial kitchen. Ask your accountant how to treat it for your entity; we clean hoods, we do not do taxes.
How often will I pay for hood cleaning?
As often as NFPA 96 Table 12.4 puts your kitchen: monthly for solid fuel, quarterly for high-volume, semiannually for moderate, annually for low-volume [4]. The tier is set by the heaviest appliance on your line.
What makes the first cleaning cost more than the rest?
Condition on arrival. If the duct and fan have never been properly cleaned, the first visit is a restoration job. Once the system is at baseline, maintenance visits are faster and priced that way.
Get a price built on your kitchen, not a chart. Free estimate, or call (800) 973-5573. We answer any hour.
Sources
- Facilitec Southwest, "Commercial kitchen hood cleaning cost: 2026 guide" (industry-typical ranges, explicitly not the company's own pricing; five pricing factors; maintenance programs 10 to 20 percent lower) (facilitec-sw.com)
- Total Fire Protection, "Kitchen hood cleaning cost" (2026, New York market; hood-count ranges and surcharges) (tfp1.com)
- Ansul, "Two NFPA restaurant fire stats," citing NFPA data for 2014 to 2018 (ansul.com)
- NFPA 96 Chapter 12 summary (Table 12.4, 12.6.13 through 12.6.15 documentation), Facilitec Southwest (facilitec-sw.com)
- Pye-Barker Fire and Safety, "Five ways to avoid a bad hood cleaning" (pyebarkerfs.com)
- Kitchen Guard, "Why NFPA 96 certified hood cleaning protects your restaurant and insurance coverage" (kitchenguard.com)