Before a fire inspector opens an access panel, checks the roof, or runs a finger inside your canopy, they read one thing: the dated service sticker on your hood. In a glance it answers whether your kitchen is on its NFPA 96 schedule — and it sets the tone for the rest of the visit.
NFPA 96 puts every commercial kitchen on a cleaning frequency by grease production — monthly for solid fuel, quarterly for high volume, semi-annual for moderate, annual for low. An inspector who’s watched your line for thirty seconds knows roughly which tier you belong in. A charbroiling kitchen wearing a nine-month-old sticker has announced its finding before anyone touches a panel. Know your tier; keep the sticker inside it.
The sticker is the headline; the documentation is the story. NFPA 96 requires each cleaning recorded — company, date, areas cleaned, areas not cleaned and why, technician information, signed certification — kept on premises for the inspector. A sticker with no report behind it is a decoration. A complete binder with photos turns the inspection into a handshake.
A current sticker from a wipe-down outfit means the canopy is clean and the duct isn’t — and inspectors know the pattern, which is why they look up, open panels, and check the fan. The 22% of restaurant fires NFPA ties to failure to clean don’t start on the canopy. What compliant actually includes.
Know the tier. Book the schedule. Keep the binder at the manager’s station. Use a company that cleans the whole system and documents it — so the inspector’s first glance is the easiest part of your day.
Greenville Hood Cleaning — Connecting Upstate restaurants and commercial kitchens with trained, insured kitchen exhaust cleaning companies.
Serving Greenville, Spartanburg, Greer, Mauldin, Simpsonville, Taylors, Travelers Rest, Easley, and the Upstate.
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Information on this site is general guidance on NFPA 96 and commercial kitchen exhaust maintenance, not a compliance determination for your specific kitchen — your local fire authority makes that call. Greenville Hood Cleaning is a referral service and does not itself perform exhaust cleaning, inspection, or certification.