What’s in a Real NFPA 96 Cleaning Report — and What the Service Label Should Say

HOOD CLEANING DOCUMENTATION

After every commercial hood cleaning, two things happen — a sticker goes on the hood, and a written report goes to whoever owns the kitchen. Here is what each must contain, written for the people who actually read it.

June 05, 2026 · By Facilitec Southwest

For restaurant owners, facility managers, and property managers responsible for a building with a commercial kitchen, two pieces of paperwork show up every time the exhaust system is professionally cleaned. The first is a service label that goes on the hood itself. The second is a written report delivered to the equipment owner within two weeks. Both are required by NFPA 96, the national fire-safety standard for commercial cooking ventilation. Both are short, and both are specific.

Most operators have never read the actual rule. They know there is supposed to be a sticker on the hood. They know a report should arrive afterward. They are less clear on what each must contain, who is responsible for keeping them, and what a fire marshal or insurance adjuster is looking for first. This guide is a plain-English walk-through, with the NFPA 96 section referenced at the end of every rule so any claim can be verified directly against the standard. The full text of the cited sections is also available on our NFPA 96 Codes reference page.

QUICK DEFINITIONS, BEFORE WE GO FURTHER

NFPA 96 is the National Fire Protection Association’s standard for the design, installation, and upkeep of commercial cooking hoods, ducts, and exhaust fans — the rulebook fire marshals and insurance carriers use across the United States. The current edition is the 2024 edition. Exhaust system is the entire path that pulls cooking smoke and grease out of the kitchen — the hood over the cookline, the filters in the hood, the ducts running through the walls or ceiling, and the fan on the roof. AHJ stands for Authority Having Jurisdiction — the local fire marshal or fire-code office. Facilitec Southwest follows NFPA 96 guidelines for cleaning and inspection of grease buildup.

The Two Things That Have to Happen After Every Visit

NFPA 96 separates the work into two events. The first is an inspection — a properly trained, qualified, and certified person looks at the system and measures grease accumulation against the thresholds in Section 12.6.1.1. The second is the kitchen hood cleaning itself, which is required under Section 12.6 only when the inspection finds grease deposits exceeding those thresholds. The frequency of the inspection is set by NFPA 96, Table 12.4, based on cooking volume and fuel type. The frequency of the cleaning is determined by what the inspection finds.

After either event — inspection alone, or inspection plus cleaning — two pieces of documentation are required:

1. A service label, attached to the hood. Visible to anyone walking past.
2. A written report, delivered to the equipment owner within two weeks.

Missing either one breaks the documentation chain. A fire marshal will notice. An insurance underwriter will notice. A new tenant taking over a kitchen — or a buyer evaluating a restaurant purchase — will notice.

The Service Label on the Hood

NFPA 96 calls for an adhesive label to be securely attached to the hood every time the exhaust system is inspected or cleaned. The rule itself, in the standard, is one sentence:

“After an exhaust system is inspected or cleaned, an adhesive label shall be securely attached to the hood.”

NFPA 96, 2024 Edition, Section 12.6.13

The follow-on rule, Section 12.6.13.1, lists exactly what the label must show. Three items, with no flexibility on any of them:

1. The date the service was performed. NFPA 96 specifies this be shown by a perforation — a punched dot on the label next to the date, the way many service providers print a calendar grid and punch the day they were on site.
2. The name of the person who performed the work. The actual technician, not just the company.
3. The name, address, and phone number of the service provider.

The next rule (Section 12.6.13.2) says the sticker stays in place until the next inspection or cleaning. Removing it, covering it, or letting it peel off breaks the documentation chain. The sticker isn’t a one-time receipt. It’s a continuous record of when the system was last touched and by whom.

There is also a separate label rule for access panels. Access panels are the small doors built into the ductwork so one of our Certified Technicians can reach inside to clean the duct. Whenever a technician opens one of those doors, NFPA 96, Section 12.6.10, requires a small service tag — preprinted with the company name and marked with the date — to be affixed near the panel. On a complex system with multiple panels, several of these will appear in addition to the main hood label.

WHAT THE STICKER TELLS AN INSPECTOR IN FIFTEEN SECONDS

A current date, a named technician, and a service provider’s contact information answer three questions instantly: when did the work happen, who did it, and who’s accountable for it. That is the entire purpose of the hood label.

The Inspection Report Within Two Weeks

Every inspection — whether or not it leads to a cleaning — produces a written report to the kitchen owner within two weeks. The rule reads:

“After an inspection for grease buildup is complete, a written report shall be provided to the system owner or owner’s agent (see 4.1.5) within 2 weeks.”

NFPA 96, 2024 Edition, Section 12.6.14 — the two-week inspection report rule

The reference to Section 4.1.5 is the equipment-owner-responsibility rule — the part of NFPA 96 that names the equipment owner as the responsible party. That rule is covered in detail in a later section of this article.

The follow-on rule, Section 12.6.14.1, lists six items the inspection report must record. They cover both what the inspector observed and what the inspector could not observe:

1. Any areas where grease buildup exceeds the thresholds in Section 12.6.1.1 and therefore requires cleaning. The thresholds are 0.002 inches on hoods, grease removal devices, fans, and ducts (Section 12.6.1.1.1); 0.078 inches on other surfaces (Section 12.6.1.1.3); and 0.125 inches on fan housings (Section 12.6.1.1.4).
2. Areas that could not be reached and therefore were not inspected.
3. Areas that could have been reached but were not inspected.
4. The locations of the access panels in the duct.
5. Any place the duct is visibly leaking.
6. Any access panel that is itself leaking.

Items two and three matter more than they appear. They force the inspector to disclose what was not done — which parts of the system are inaccessible, and which parts were skipped. A report that reads “system inspected, all good” without addressing those items is incomplete on its face. Most operators have never thought to ask for those items by name; once they do, the difference between a thorough report and a superficial one becomes immediately visible.

The Cleaning Report Within Two Weeks

After a cleaning, a second written report has to reach the kitchen owner within two weeks. The rule looks almost identical:

“After cleaning is complete, a written report shall be provided to the system owner or owner’s agent (see 4.1.5) within 2 weeks.”

NFPA 96, 2024 Edition, Section 12.6.15 — the two-week inspection report rule

The follow-on rules split into two parts. Section 12.6.15.1 covers the identification information — three items:

1. The date the cleaning was performed.
2. The name of the person who performed the cleaning.
3. The name, address, and phone number of the service provider.

Section 12.6.15.2 covers the detail of what was — and was not — cleaned. Five items:

1. Areas that could not be reached and therefore were not cleaned.
2. Areas that could have been reached but were not cleaned.
3. The locations of the duct access panels.
4. Any place the duct is visibly leaking.
5. Any access panel that is leaking.

The pattern matches the inspection report. NFPA 96 expects the equipment owner — and any inspector or insurance carrier reading the file later — to see exactly what happened and exactly what did not. A clean system documented alongside an honest list of inaccessible areas is more credible than a report that pretends every inch of the system was reached.

FIELD NOTE

Across hundreds of kitchens served by Facilitec Southwest, the most common documentation gap is not the service label on the hood — operators almost always remember that — but the “areas not cleaned” list inside the cleaning report. Most equipment owners have never asked to see it, because they did not realize it was required. Once they ask, the difference between a thorough provider and a less-thorough one becomes obvious in a single page. The inaccessible-areas list is the single most useful item in the report for an insurance underwriter, a property buyer, or a fire marshal trying to assess the risk profile of a kitchen.

Who Owns the File, and Where the Reports Go

NFPA 96 makes the equipment owner responsible for inspection, testing, maintenance, and cleanliness of the cooking ventilation system. The exact rule reads:

“The responsibility for inspection, testing, maintenance, and cleanliness of the ventilation control, fire protection, and cooking appliances of the commercial cooking operations shall be that of the equipment owner.”

NFPA 96, 2024 Edition, Section 4.1.5.1 — the owner-responsibility rule

That is the default. The standard also recognizes that in a typical restaurant lease, the kitchen equipment may be owned by the landlord and operated by the tenant — or owned by the tenant who built out the space, depending on the deal. Section 4.1.5.2 allows the equipment owner to assign that responsibility to the cooking operator, a management firm, or a managing individual. The assignment must be in writing — in the lease, in a written use agreement, or in a management contract. Verbal assignments do not satisfy the rule.

For most restaurant operators, the practical answer is: if you operate the kitchen, you almost certainly hold the file even if the landlord owns the equipment, because the lease almost certainly says so. For property managers, the right step before the next inspection is to confirm the lease and the operating agreement specify who holds the documentation. A recurring Maintenance Program can also assign cadence, paperwork, and documentation storage to the service provider — useful for multi-site operators who want a single point of accountability across portfolios.

PLAIN-ENGLISH GLOSSARY, MIDWAY THROUGH

AHJ stands for Authority Having Jurisdiction — the local fire marshal or fire-code office. In Texas, that is usually a city fire department (Dallas Fire-Rescue, Houston Fire Department, Austin Fire Department, and so on). In Louisiana, it is the Louisiana State Fire Marshal at the state level. Grease-laden vapor is the technical term for what cooking puts into the air — the smoke and fine droplets pulled up through the hood that condense as grease on the way to the roof. Plenum is the empty space inside the hood, above the filters, where grease collects first.

One more rule worth knowing: in some jurisdictions, the fire marshal requires that copies of the inspection and cleaning reports be submitted directly to the AHJ. NFPA 96, Section 12.6.16, covers that case: “where required, the reports required by 12.6.14 and 12.6.15 shall be submitted to the authority having jurisdiction.” Whether that requirement applies in a given city depends on the local code adoption.

What a Complete Documentation Set Looks Like

For a single visit that included both inspection and cleaning, a complete file holds five things:

ITEM	WHAT IT IS	WHERE TO FIND THE RULE IN NFPA 96
Hood label	Adhesive sticker on the hood with date, technician name, provider contact. Stays on until next service.	Section 12.6.13 (the hood-label rule) and 12.6.13.1, 12.6.13.2
Access-panel tags	Small service tags near each access panel that was opened, with company name and date.	Section 12.6.10
Inspection report	Written report to the kitchen owner within two weeks of the inspection. Lists grease findings and inaccessible or skipped areas.	Section 12.6.14 (the two-week inspection report rule) and 12.6.14.1
Cleaning report	Written report to the kitchen owner within two weeks of the cleaning. Names who did the work and details what wasn’t cleaned.	Section 12.6.15 (the two-week cleaning report rule) and 12.6.15.1, 12.6.15.2
Copy to the fire marshal	Some jurisdictions require the reports be sent to the local fire marshal. Whether yours does depends on the city.	Section 12.6.16 (the AHJ submission rule)

A file with those five items, kept current, is what NFPA 96 expects. Anything less is missing required content — and the missing content is exactly what an outside reviewer notices first.

How Facilitec Southwest Builds the File

At the end of every kitchen hood cleaning visit, our Certified Technicians affix the hood label per Section 12.6.13, with the perforation date, the technician’s name, and the company contact information. Where access panels were opened, the access-panel service tag is placed near each one per Section 12.6.10. Within two weeks, the equipment owner receives a written report that addresses every item NFPA 96 calls for — including the items most operators do not realize are required, like the inaccessible-area list and the duct-leakage notes. Copies are kept on our side as well, and we provide copies to the local fire marshal where the jurisdiction requires it under Section 12.6.16. For multi-site portfolios, our NFPA Compliance Services consolidate this documentation across every location, so the file is in one place when an underwriter or marshal asks.

Facilitec Southwest follows NFPA 96 guidelines for cleaning and inspection of grease buildup, serving commercial cooking establishments across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Arkansas. The documentation chain — the service label on the hood, the access-panel tags, and the written reports to the equipment owner — is part of that scope, not a separate add-on. The purpose is straightforward: an equipment owner, a fire marshal, or an insurance adjuster who picks up the file should be able to read the recent history of the system in a single sitting. That is what peace of mind looks like on paper.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is required on a hood cleaning service label?

Three items, by name and by date: the date the service was performed (shown by a perforation — a punched dot on the label), the name of the technician who performed the work, and the name, address, and phone number of the service provider. The label remains on the hood until the next service. The hood-label rule is NFPA 96, Section 12.6.13.1, with the “leave it up” rule in Section 12.6.13.2.

How long does a kitchen hood cleaning company have to send a written report?

Two weeks. The equipment owner must receive a written report within two weeks of the work — once for the inspection (Section 12.6.14) and again for the cleaning (Section 12.6.15).

Does NFPA 96 require a written cleaning report?

Yes. After a cleaning is finished, a written report must reach the equipment owner within two weeks. The report must list the date of the cleaning, the technician who performed it, and how to reach the company. It must also list anything that was not cleaned — areas the technician could not reach, areas that were reachable but skipped, the locations of duct access panels, and any duct or panel leakage. The cleaning-report requirements are NFPA 96, Sections 12.6.15, 12.6.15.1, and 12.6.15.2.

What does an inspector look for on the hood after cleaning?

The service label first — a recent date, a named technician, and a service provider they can call. Then the written report on file. Then they measure the grease remaining on the surfaces against the thresholds in Section 12.6.1.1. The thresholds are 0.002 inches on hoods, grease removal devices, fans, and ducts (Section 12.6.1.1.1); 0.078 inches on other surfaces (Section 12.6.1.1.3); and 0.125 inches on fan housings (Section 12.6.1.1.4). Any threshold crossed requires cleaning.

Who keeps the written hood cleaning report?

The equipment owner. NFPA 96, Section 4.1.5.1, places responsibility for inspection, testing, maintenance, and cleanliness of the equipment on the equipment owner. If the kitchen is leased, Section 4.1.5.2 allows the responsibility to be assigned in writing to the cooking operator, a management firm, or a managing individual. In some cities, the fire marshal also requires a copy of the report under Section 12.6.16; that portion is local.

What is the difference between an inspection and a cleaning under NFPA 96?

An inspection is the measurement step — a properly trained, qualified, and certified person evaluates the system on the schedule set by Table 12.4 and measures grease accumulation against the thresholds in Section 12.6.1.1. A cleaning is required under Section 12.6 when the inspection finds grease deposits exceeding those thresholds. Table 12.4 is an inspection schedule, not a cleaning schedule — the two are deliberately separated in the standard, even though in high-volume kitchens the inspection and the cleaning often happen at the same cadence.

Sources and notes: NFPA 96, 2024 Edition — Section 4.1.5.1 (equipment owner responsibility); Section 4.1.5.2 (written assignment of responsibility); Table 12.4 (inspection frequency by cooking volume and fuel type); Section 12.6 (cleaning of exhaust systems); Section 12.6.1 (qualified persons); Section 12.6.1.1.1, 12.6.1.1.3, 12.6.1.1.4 (grease-depth thresholds); Section 12.6.10 (access-panel service tag); Section 12.6.13, 12.6.13.1, 12.6.13.2 (hood service label); Section 12.6.14, 12.6.14.1 (two-week inspection report); Section 12.6.15, 12.6.15.1, 12.6.15.2 (two-week cleaning report); Section 12.6.16 (submission to AHJ). Verbatim rule text is quoted; supporting explanation reflects Facilitec Southwest field experience with commercial cooking establishments across the Southwest since 1986. Facilitec Southwest follows NFPA 96 guidelines for cleaning and inspection of grease buildup.