NFPA 96 Hood Cleaning: Who Can Do It, and What You Must Keep

Published 07.27.2026. Written for restaurant operators, kitchen managers, and facility owners. This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice; your local fire code authority has the final word.

NFPA 96 is the fire safety standard for commercial kitchen ventilation, and it is the document your fire marshal and insurance carrier point to when they ask about hood cleaning. Most jurisdictions adopt it directly through the fire code. Here is the part operators actually need.

Looking for how often your system must be cleaned? Use the hood cleaning frequency calculator, which works it out from what you cook and how much. This page covers the part the calculator does not: who is permitted to do the work, and what you need to be able to show afterwards.

The required inspection frequencies

• Monthly: systems serving solid fuel cooking, such as wood or charcoal.
• Quarterly: high-volume cooking operations, including 24-hour cooking, charbroiling, and wok cooking.
• Semiannually: moderate-volume cooking operations, which covers most full-service restaurants.
• Annually: low-volume operations, such as churches, day camps, seasonal businesses, and senior centers.

Technically these are inspection frequencies: the system must be inspected on that schedule, and if the inspection finds grease contamination, the entire exhaust system, from hood to fan, must be cleaned to bare metal. In practice, any kitchen doing real volume will need cleaning at each inspection, which is why the schedule is commonly described as a cleaning schedule.

Who is allowed to do the work

Routine filter washing and wiping the visible hood is staff work. The system inspection and cleaning must be performed by properly trained, qualified, and certified companies or persons acceptable to your local authority having jurisdiction. Reputable hood cleaning companies provide before and after photos, a signed certificate with the date and the areas cleaned (and any areas not accessible), and a sticker on the hood. Keep every certificate: fire marshals ask for them during inspections, and insurers ask for them after a fire.

Why enforcement is getting stricter

Cooking equipment is a leading cause of restaurant structure fires, and a grease-loaded duct turns a small flare-up into a building fire. A missed cleaning cycle is also one of the easiest findings for an insurer to use when disputing a claim. Against that backdrop, a few hundred dollars per cleaning is one of the cheapest risk reductions available to an operator.

Find a hood cleaning company

Browse verified restaurant hood and exhaust cleaning companies in the directory, and check your metro page for who covers your area: Cincinnati, Columbus, or Dayton.