What a hood cleaning certificate must show (and what inspectors check)
A certificate alone proves nothing. The fire marshal wants the dated hood sticker, the written report within two weeks, and photos of the duct and fan. What each one has to show and who can issue them.
A hood cleaning certificate is the document a cleaning company issues after the job stating that your kitchen exhaust system was cleaned to NFPA 96. On its own it is the weakest of the three pieces of paper. What the fire marshal, your insurance carrier, and a franchise auditor actually want is the set: a dated service label on the hood, a written inspection and cleaning report delivered within two weeks, and photographs of the plenum, duct, and rooftop fan that back the report up [1]. Any cleaner who hands you a certificate and nothing else has handed you a receipt.
Here is what each piece has to show, who checks it, and how to tell a real one from a sticker roll.
Who issues a hood cleaning certificate?
The cleaning company issues it. There is no state agency in Oregon or Washington that prints hood cleaning certificates, and there is no form to apply for. You get one by hiring a qualified company to do a full-system cleaning and having them document it. NFPA 96 section 12.6.1 says the work must be done by a "properly trained, qualified, and certified" company or person acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction, which in practice means your fire marshal [1].
So the question "how do I get a hood cleaning certificate" has a plain answer: get the system cleaned by a company the fire marshal will accept. In Portland that means a company holding a Certificate of Fitness from Portland Fire and Rescue, and the label has to carry company and technician certification numbers [2]. Elsewhere in Oregon and across Washington, the fire marshal looks at training and industry credentials, mainly IKECA and PWNA, because Seattle certifies suppression technicians, not hood cleaners [3]. Ask the company what their certification actually is before they get on your roof.
What does the hood sticker have to show?
The sticker (the standard calls it a service label) is what the inspector reads first. NFPA 96 section 12.6.13 requires it to show the date of service, the name of the person who did the work, and the name, address, and phone number of the company. It stays on the hood until the next service replaces it [1].
Portland FIR-8.08 adds two things: the company number and the individual technician's certification number, and a line for areas not cleaned [2]. That last line is the one that matters. A cleaner who cannot reach a section of horizontal duct is supposed to say so on the label, not paste a clean sticker over a dirty system.
Our crews put a dated sticker on every hood we service, and the "areas not cleaned" line is either blank because everything was reached, or it names the section and the reason (usually no access panel), and the photo report shows why. If your current sticker has no company phone on it, or no date, it would not pass a Portland inspection and it will not satisfy an adjuster anywhere.
What does the written report have to include?
This is the piece most cleaners skip, and it is the one the standard is most specific about. NFPA 96 sections 12.6.14 and 12.6.15 require a written inspection report and a written cleaning report delivered to the owner within two weeks of the service [1]. Together they have to list:
- Areas where grease exceeded the limits set in section 12.6.1.1 (0.002 inches on hoods, filters, and ducts, 0.078 inches on other interior surfaces, 0.125 inches in the fan housing).
- Inaccessible areas that were not cleaned, and why.
- Accessible areas that were not cleaned.
- The location of every access panel.
- Any duct leakage found.
Read that list again from the inspector's side. It tells them whether the whole system was reached, where the panels are so they can open one and look, and whether the duct is leaking grease into the ceiling. A report that says "hood cleaned, filters cleaned" and nothing about the duct or the fan is the report of a canopy-only job. The fire marshal knows that. So does the insurance adjuster.
If your last report lists inaccessible areas, the fix is usually a panel, not a different cleaner. Our duct access panel installation page explains where they go and why a long horizontal run cannot be cleaned without them.
What photos should come with a hood cleaning certificate?
NFPA 96 does not require photographs. Insurers and fire marshals expect them anyway, because a photo is the only thing that proves the fan was tipped back and the duct was opened. After a kitchen fire, adjusters examine cleaning logs, service tags, and photo records, and a cleaning that only touched the canopy can be used to argue the operator contributed to the loss [4].
A real photo set shows before and after of at least these five places: inside the hood behind the filters (the plenum), the duct at the first access panel, the vertical riser, the fan bowl with the fan hinged open, and the rooftop around the fan. Our crews shoot every job in CompanyCam and the photo report goes to the customer with the certificate. If a cleaner tells you photos are extra, they are telling you they do not go on the roof.
Need a certificate the fire marshal or your carrier will accept? Get a free estimate or call (800) 973-5573. Every job comes with the certificate, the dated hood sticker, and the photo report.
What does the fire inspector actually check?
Our crews are in kitchens the week after inspections often enough to know the routine. The inspector starts at the hood. They read the sticker for a date and a company. They pull a filter and look into the plenum, because the plenum is the first place a canopy-only cleaner cheats. If the sticker is current and the plenum is clean metal, most inspectors move on.
If the sticker is missing, expired, or the plenum is caked, they ask for the report. In Portland, FIR-8.08 requires the inspection and cleaning reports to be kept on site and available to the Fire Marshal's Office on request [2], so "it's at the office" is a finding. A good inspector also asks about the roof and may go up. Duct access panels get opened. Grease in the fan bowl or a grease-streaked roof around the fan is a citation on its own.
In Washington the inspection runs the same way under WAC 51-54A-0606, which requires the system to be operated, inspected, and maintained per NFPA 96 Chapter 12 [5]. Different form, same questions: sticker, plenum, report, roof.
What does the insurance company check?
Carriers use NFPA 96 as their benchmark. At renewal or during a loss-control visit they ask for proof of periodic exhaust cleaning at the interval that matches your cooking type. After a fire they pull the cleaning log, the service tags, and photos [4]. Some carriers write NFPA 96 compliance documentation into the policy as a condition [6].
The certificate is the summary page. The report and the photos are the evidence. Keep all three together in the same file as your suppression inspection tags. For operators running more than one kitchen, keeping one compliance file per store is the job our multi-location accounts program exists for.
How can I tell if my last certificate is real?
Five checks, all of them things our crews get asked to verify when a new customer shows us the last company's paperwork.
- Does the sticker have a date, a technician name, and a company phone number? No phone, no good.
- Did a written report arrive within two weeks, and does it mention the duct, the fan, and access panel locations?
- Are there photos of the fan bowl with the fan hinged open? If the fan never opened, the fan was never cleaned.
- Did the cleaner ask for roof access before the job? If not, they did not plan to go up.
- Did the filters go back in immediately after the job? Cleaners who reinstall filters before you can look are hiding the plenum [7].
If two or more of those fail, the certificate is a receipt for a wipe-down. The cleaning you paid for is not the cleaning the fire marshal is going to look for. What a full-system job covers is laid out on the commercial hood cleaning service page, and the compliance side is on the NFPA 96 hub.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get a hood cleaning certificate?
Hire a qualified hood cleaning company to do a full-system cleaning. The company issues the certificate, applies the dated sticker, and delivers the written report within two weeks. There is no government office that issues one.
Is a hood cleaning certificate required by law?
The certificate itself is not named in NFPA 96. The service label on the hood and the written inspection and cleaning reports are (sections 12.6.13 through 12.6.15) [1]. Portland FIR-8.08 requires the label and the on-site records outright [2]. Most fire marshals and insurers treat the certificate as the cover sheet for those.
What is the difference between a hood cleaning certificate and the sticker?
The sticker is the label on the hood that shows the date and the company, so an inspector can read it in ten seconds. The certificate is a document stating the system was cleaned to NFPA 96. The report is the detail behind both: what was cleaned, what was not, where the panels are, and any leaks.
How long is a hood cleaning certificate good for?
Until the next required inspection, which NFPA 96 Table 12.4 sets at monthly, quarterly, semiannual, or annual depending on how you cook [1]. A certificate from a semiannual kitchen is expired at six months no matter what the paper says.
Will the fire marshal accept a certificate from any company?
Only from one that is acceptable to that authority. Portland requires a Certificate of Fitness and certification numbers on the label [2]. Other jurisdictions look at training and membership. Ask the company what credential the local fire marshal will recognize.
Do I need before-and-after photos?
NFPA 96 does not require them, but insurance adjusters look for photo records after a loss [4], and fire inspectors ask for them when the sticker and the plenum disagree. Photos are the only proof the duct and fan were actually opened.
Get the certificate, the sticker, and the photo report on one visit. Request a free estimate with your address, hood count, and cooking equipment, or call (800) 973-5573 any hour.
Sources
- NFPA 96 Chapter 12 summary (12.6.1 qualified company, 12.6.1.1 grease thresholds, 12.6.13 service label, 12.6.14 and 12.6.15 written reports within two weeks, Table 12.4), Facilitec Southwest (facilitec-sw.com)
- Portland Fire and Rescue policy FIR-8.08 (Certificate of Fitness, label contents, records on site) (portland.gov)
- Seattle Fire Department certification packet (suppression technician certification, no hood cleaning certification) (seattle.gov)
- Kitchen Guard, "Why NFPA 96 certified hood cleaning protects your restaurant and insurance coverage" (kitchenguard.com)
- Washington Administrative Code 51-54A-0606, Section 606.3 (app.leg.wa.gov)
- Bowmar Industrial, hood cleaning frequency guide (insurance documentation) (bowmarindustrial.com)
- Pye-Barker Fire and Safety, "Five ways to avoid a bad hood cleaning" (pyebarkerfs.com)