It's the hardest part of this business when you're starting out, and honestly a lot of guys who have been doing it for years are still leaving money on the table.
Step One: Know Your Own Numbers First
Before you copy anyone else's price list, figure out what a job actually costs YOU. Your break-even on any job is:
Labor (with payroll burden) + drive time + chemicals + equipment wear + overhead = your floor.
Two things guys always forget: drive time and chemicals. A job 45 minutes away is 1.5 hours of labor you're not billing. And chemicals add up fast if you're buying premixed degreaser at retail — that's one reason we mix our own degreaser for a couple bucks a gallon instead of paying $20+.
Once you know your floor, add your margin on top. Most service businesses target 20–40% profit. The math is simple: break-even ÷ (1 − margin) = your price. $400 in costs at a 30% margin = $570. That's your quote.
The 4 Ways Guys Actually Price Hood Cleaning Jobs
There's no single industry standard, but almost everyone is using one of these four methods — or a mash-up of them.
1. Flat Rate Per Job (Most Common)
You look at the system and quote one number. This is what most established companies do because it's fast and customers like a firm number. Across the industry right now, typical flat rates land in these ranges:
| Kitchen Type | Typical Per-Visit Range | Usual Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Small single hood, low volume (church, café, seasonal) | $300 – $600 | Annual |
| Standard restaurant, single hood, moderate volume | $450 – $900 | Semiannual |
| High-volume / multi-hood / heavy frying | $600 – $1,500 | Quarterly |
| Large or complex (multi-hood, solid fuel, 24-hour, hospital) | $1,200 – $3,500+ | Monthly–Quarterly |
Metro areas run at the top of these ranges or beyond (NYC and LA jobs routinely hit $1,200–$2,500), rural areas at the bottom. Know your market.
2. Per Component (The Old-School Breakdown)
Some guys build the quote line by line. The numbers floating around the forums:
- $10–$20 per linear foot of hood
- $40–$60 per exhaust fan
- Ductwork at $5+ per linear foot (add a buck or two per foot for oversized ducts or heavy cooking like woks and charbroilers)
- $55–$75 per access panel if they need to be opened or installed
- Filters cleaned at $5–$40 each depending on your market
Even if you quote flat, this is a great way to sanity-check your number in your head.
3. Hourly
Industry-wide, crews bill around $100–$180 per hour depending on crew size and region. The national average sits near $100–$120/hr for a two-man crew. Hourly protects you on nightmare jobs, but customers hate open-ended numbers — so most guys only use it for first cleans and disaster systems, then switch the account to flat rate once it's on a maintenance schedule.
4. Per Filter (The Quick Mental Shortcut)
Guys quoting $40 per filter are landing right around $400 on a standard 10-filter hood. It's not precise, but it's a fast way to eyeball a quote on the phone before you walk the job.
Set a Minimum and Never Break It
This is the rule that separates profitable companies from busy broke ones. Sending a crew, a truck, and equipment out the door costs real money. Most companies won't roll for less than $300–$450 no matter how small the system. If a customer balks at your minimum, they were never going to be a good account anyway.
Charge More for the First Clean — Always
A system that's been on a quarterly schedule and a system that hasn't been touched in two years are two completely different jobs. Neglected systems with hardened grease can take 2–3x longer — more scraping, more chemical, more time on the roof.
Industry standard: the initial/deep clean runs 1.5x to 2x your maintenance price, or gets billed hourly. Then once you've got it back to bare metal, you move them onto a recurring schedule at your normal rate. One forum guy put it perfectly: regulars quoted $375, new neglected account — $800 for the first one.
The Add-Ons That Move the Number
When you walk a job, any of these should push the quote up:
- Long or complicated duct runs — commonly $150–$400 per 10 feet as an add-on
- Multiple fans or multi-story vertical runs — +$100–$400 for the access hassle and safety gear
- No access panels — they have to be installed before the duct can be cleaned right; charge for it or sub it out, but don't eat it
- After-hours / overnight work — most hood cleaning happens at night anyway, but emergency or same-day turnaround jobs command 20–50% premiums
- Violation response / fire marshal on their back — rush compliance work, +$200–$500 is normal
The Real Money Is Recurring Accounts
One-time cleans are how you feed the business this month. Recurring accounts are how you build the business.
NFPA 96 tells you exactly how often a kitchen needs service based on cooking volume — monthly for solid fuel, quarterly for high-volume and 24-hour operations, semiannual for moderate, annual for low. That's your sales pitch AND your route map. Offer 10–20% off per visit for a signed recurring schedule. You'll make a little less per visit, but the jobs get faster (less buildup), the schedule fills itself, and the account value over a year dwarfs any one-time ticket.
A quarterly account at $800/visit is $3,200 a year from one restaurant. Stack ten of those and you've got a business.
Quoting Rules That'll Save You
- Walk the job before you quote. Hood, plenum, duct, fan, roof — all of it. A quote without a walkthrough is a guess, and guesses lose money.
- Write the full scope on the quote. Hood interior, filters, ductwork, fan, rooftop, and your documentation. It justifies your price and separates you from the $200 filter-wash cowboys.
- Don't race the low-ballers to the bottom. The guy quoting $200 is cleaning the hood face and leaving the duct full of grease. That's not your competition. When the fire marshal or the insurance company gets involved, that restaurant will be calling you.
- Review your prices every year. Chemicals, fuel, insurance, and wages all went up — your prices should too.
The Short Version
Know your costs, add your margin, set a minimum and stick to it. Charge double for neglected first cleans. Walk every job before you quote. And build your book on recurring NFPA 96 schedules — that's where the real money is.
And if your chemical cost per job is eating your margin, that's fixable too — one gallon of Brubbles turns into 100+ gallons of foaming degreaser when you mix it yourself.
Got a pricing question on a weird job? Call us — we've quoted a few thousand of these.
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