Equipment for cleaning contractors and installers

The annual cycle: inspection and cleaning in one round

In practice, specialist cleaning contractors often clean their clients' ducts every year, linked to the annual inspection. That is a working arrangement between you and your client, not a legal duty. KHN (Royal Dutch Hospitality Association) writes that the cleaning frequency for kitchen extraction in hospitality is not laid down by law, but that fire insurers do require regular maintenance. Such requirements are set out in policy conditions: the insurer Goudse asks hospitality businesses to have the extract duct and motor inspected every year and, where necessary, cleaned by a specialist. Rabobank advises professional cleaning at least once a year, and twice a year for a restaurant that deep fries.

Outside hospitality an annual rhythm also works well. The NVRL quality mark for cleanliness is valid for 1 year if the hygienic limit values are met. EN 15780:2025 links inspection intervals to cleanliness classes, and VDI 6022 mentions a hygiene inspection every 2 years for installations with humidification and every 3 years without. Which interval suits which building is explained under duct cleaning frequency for cleaning contractors.

The benefit of that fixed cycle for you: predictable work and clients who come back every year. The benefit for the client: contamination never gets so bad that a heavy intervention is needed.

Which duct cleaning equipment for contractors suits each type of client?

Your clients determine your kit. A care home asks for something different than a restaurant with deep fryers. This overview is based on information from Lamers and Danduct Clean (checked on 6 October 2026).

For most business clients, electric duct brushing machine for cleaning contractors is the workhorse: you feed the shaft into the duct and the machine does the rest, also vertically and through 90 degree bends. Danduct supplies it in a Medium package with shafts of 10 and 20 metres and in a Large package with shafts up to 30 metres, a trolley and an aggressive brush set. For the thin pipes you add the air nozzle duct cleaning for cleaning contractors.

Care clients often ask about the air management plan; background is available under ventilation in elderly care. In the food sector, Alimento and TNO advise against compressed air where flour dust is present; the background is under ducts in food processing plants.

Fictional worked example: the business model of an annual contract

This is a fictional worked example to explore your business case. The amounts come from public price quotes and are indications, not rates charged by Lamers. In April 2026 one provider quoted €150 to €350 per unit for smaller commercial premises and €450 to €950 for a camera inspection. Another cleaning contractor uses no fixed price per m² or per building, because building type, number and length of ducts, contamination and accessibility all differ.

Run the numbers with your own figures: deduct travel time, staff and consumables from the revenue and divide the investment from the quotation by your margin per annual round. That shows you after how many clients your kit has paid for itself. The strong point of the model is repetition: a client who comes back every year costs no new acquisition. More on how prices are built up is under ductwork cleaning cost.

Growing your duct cleaning business with extra services

Many cleaning contractors and installers already visit clients for filters, grilles or general maintenance. Duct cleaning is then a logical extension, because you already know the client and the building. Think in steps:

1. Cleaning extraction in commercial kitchens. Grease is a specialism of its own with its own measuring method. The NVRL quality mark scheme, drawn up with TNO, uses an intervention value of 500 µm of grease and a maximum of 200 µm after cleaning. Background for your client is under commercial kitchen ventilation cleaning.
2. Cleaning mechanical ventilation ducts in homes and small premises. Milieu Centraal (Dutch public information centre) advises having the extract ducts of mechanical ventilation cleaned at least once every 8 years; Itho Daalderop calls that a task for the installer with the HRU ECO 200. Light equipment is sufficient here: Danduct PD4 for cleaning contractors with a shaft of 2.5 to 7.5 metres. PD2 duct cleaning tool is also in the range; request the specifications and compare them with the duct sizes you come across most often. More under mechanical ventilation cleaning.
3. Inspection as a separate service. Camera footage shows the client why cleaning is needed. KHN points out that severe contamination is often not visible to the naked eye.
4. Creating access. Fitting resealable access hatches where openings are missing. Eurovent recommends openings no more than 10 metres apart.

That way your ventilation cleaning kit grows along with your client base: first the core machine, then camera, spraying system and extra brushes.

Reporting to the client: photos, video and measurements

A report turns an invisible job into a demonstrable achievement. For hospitality, KHN mentions reporting, photos and a certificate as a way to show that the duct is clean. Cleaning contractors therefore work with a camera inspection beforehand, sometimes with wipe samples, and a photo report, assessed against EN 15780 and insurer requirements.

Be careful with claims about standards. According to trade publications, the dust limits per quality class under EN 15780 are 0.6 g/m² (high), 3.0 g/m² (medium) and 4.5 g/m² (low), but those values have not been verified from the standard itself. Buy the standard or state the source in your report. The differences between EN 15780 and VDI 6022 are explained under duct cleaning standards for cleaning contractors.

For care and VDI 6022 inspections, the advice is to keep cleaning and hygiene inspection separate, so that the assessment stays objective. You clean and report, someone else inspects. That actually makes your report more credible.

Working under negative pressure: keeping dust out of your client's rooms

A client who finds dust on the desks after cleaning will not call you next year. Keep every duct section being cleaned under continuous negative pressure with an extraction unit. If that unit exhausts inside the building, a HEPA filter of 99.97 percent at 0.3 µm is needed. Danduct has VT extraction fans with hoses and filtration, duct sealing balloons and foam caps for valves and diffusers for this. See the options under negative pressure HEPA extraction for cleaning contractors.

Also choose the brush to match your client's duct material. The EPA advises soft brushes for fibreglass duct board and sheet metal. Danduct supplies soft, standard and more aggressive Tynex brushes from 100 to 600 mm. Which one to use when is explained under duct cleaning brushes for cleaning contractors.

Checklist before you send an annual quote

A good quote for cleaning an air ventilation system starts with the right questions to your client:

• Which duct sizes and materials are installed? Round, rectangular, flexible, duct board?
• How long is the longest run between two openings, and are there enough hatches?
• Does the work have to be done under negative pressure with HEPA, for example in care or food?
• What reporting does the client expect, and does the insurer require a certificate?
• Who carries out the hygiene inspection, and in which month does it fall?
• Are there explosion (EX) zones or special risks such as grease or flour dust?

Write down the answers per site, so that your quote, your planning and your report all start from the same facts. If you receive more and more requests from factories, also look at extraction ducts in factories.

Requesting a quote for your ventilation cleaning kit from Lamers

The Lamers product pages have the buttons Request a quote, Call me back and Ask a question. Include as much as possible about the work you want to take on in your request:

• Which types of client you serve: care, offices, food, hospitality, industry.
• The duct sizes and run lengths you come across most often.
• Whether you deal with grease, dust or flour.
• Whether you already have a camera, compressor or extraction unit.

Then Lamers can advise a kit that suits your annual round. You can see all machines side by side under ventilation duct cleaning tools for cleaning contractors, and through request a quotation for cleaning contractors you put your question to Lamers directly.