We clean from the ceiling down

Construction dust lands on every kitchen surface

A new build or a remodel leaves dust everywhere, and most of it sits where nobody looks. Sanding drywall and cutting tile both throw fine powder into the air. It hangs there for hours, then settles on top of the hood, inside the duct, along the shelving and in the gaps behind the cook line. A kitchen can look clean at eye level and still drop dust into food for weeks.

So we work in one direction, from the ceiling down to the floor. Overhead ducts and light fixtures come first, along with the top of the hood, because anything we knock loose up there falls onto what is below. The walls and shelving get wiped next. Equipment and prep tables follow. The floor is last, since it catches whatever the earlier steps shake free.

Dust comes off before any disinfectant cleaner goes on. Disinfectant sprayed over a dusty table just turns the dust into a film, and the surface under it never gets treated. Once the prep tables and the inside of the reach-in coolers are clean to the touch, we apply disinfectant cleaner. It stays wet for the time printed on the label. Then we wipe it down, and the surface is ready for food.

• Overhead ducts and light fixtures dusted first
• Hood filters and exhaust fan cleared of debris
• Walls and shelving wiped to bare surface
• Prep tables treated with disinfectant cleaner
• Floors scrubbed and grout haze removed

New hoods collect debris during construction

The hood and duct system collects more construction debris than any other part of a new kitchen. Installers cut and weld the duct on site, and metal scraps and bits of sealant fall inside it. Other trades leave tape and cardboard sitting on the filter rack. You cannot see any of it from the cook line, and it sits right where grease will collect once cooking starts.

We pull the hood filters and clean the space behind them, then work up the duct toward the roof. The exhaust fan on the roof gets opened and cleaned too. If that fan does not tilt open, we can fit an exhaust fan hinge kit. Then it swings up for this cleaning and every one after it. Debris left in a new duct soaks up grease from the first day of cooking, and that is a fire risk.

When the job is done right, you can look up past the filter rack and see bare metal. The fan blades on the roof are clean too. Kitchen exhaust cleaning is the main work we do, so a new hood gets the same care as an old greasy one. One customer, Mark Moreno, put it this way in a Google review: "Good communication left my hood spotless". A new kitchen should open with its hood in that same condition.

Phoenix dust keeps settling after the build

Most commercial buildings around Phoenix are concrete block or tilt-up concrete, with stucco on the outside. Cutting block and patching stucco make a gray, gritty dust that is heavier than drywall dust and harder to wipe clean. In dry desert air it does not clump. It stays fine and loose, and it moves again every time a door opens or the air conditioning turns on.

That is why we ask for the air conditioning to be running, with fresh filters, before the final pass. The first few times the system runs, it pushes out dust that settled inside the new ductwork and vents. If the final wipe happens before that, the dust is back on the tables the next morning. A monsoon dust storm does the same thing through any door left open during the build.

Phoenix tap water is hard, which means it carries a lot of minerals. New stainless steel that gets washed and left to air dry ends up covered in white spots that look dirty even when the surface is clean. So every stainless surface we wet, we dry by hand. Storefront glass gets the same treatment, because mineral spots show up the moment the afternoon sun hits it.

Floors and sidewalks get cleaned last

Restaurant kitchens are usually tiled with quarry tile or porcelain, set in grout. When the tile setter finishes, a thin haze of grout stays on the face of every tile. A mop will not take it off. It needs a scrub and a lot of clean rinse water. The dust that settled in the grout lines has to come out too, or it turns to gray paste when the floor gets wet.

Many dining rooms around Phoenix have sealed concrete floors. Construction leaves paint drips and stucco splatter stuck to them, plus tape residue where the floor was covered. Those come off with a plastic scraper and a floor scrubber, never a metal blade, because a scratch in a sealed floor stays there. Scraping first and washing second keeps the grit from dragging across the finish.

Outside, we pressure wash the sidewalk and the entry once the trades are gone. Concrete trucks and stucco crews leave a gray film and mud tracks across the front of the building. The dumpster pad usually gets the worst of it. Washing all of it before opening day means the first customers walk in on clean concrete, and nobody tracks that dust back onto the new floors.