Air Conditioning, Ventilation and Refrigeration
Commercial Ventilation System
A stuffy open-plan office and a fume extractor that hasn’t been examined in two years look like different problems. Both can be compliance gaps, because the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and COSHH set legal duties for how ventilation is provided and maintained.
Robinsons Facilities Services looks after commercial ventilation across Yorkshire and the Humber. Our engineers maintain and repair general ventilation systems, and we bring in specialist partners for installation, duct cleaning, kitchen extraction, smoke control, and LEV testing, so you deal with one contractor for all of it.
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Commercial ventilation in Great Britain is governed chiefly by the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. Regulation 6 requires every enclosed workplace to have sufficient fresh or purified air. Regulation 5 requires mechanical ventilation to be maintained, including cleaned as appropriate, in efficient working order. Local exhaust ventilation must be thoroughly examined at least every 14 months under COSHH.
Your legal obligations for commercial ventilation
Three sets of rules cover most commercial ventilation, and which apply depends on what the system does.
Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992
Regulation 6 requires enough fresh or purified air in every enclosed workplace.
Regulation 5 is the maintenance duty, and it names mechanical ventilation systems specifically. They must be maintained, including cleaned as appropriate, and where appropriate kept under a suitable system of maintenance. Our guide to workplace ventilation covers fresh air requirements in more detail.
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH)
Extraction that captures dust, fumes, or vapours at source is local exhaust ventilation (LEV). Under regulation 9, LEV must be thoroughly examined and tested at least once every 14 months, or more often for certain processes, with records kept for at least five years. See our LEV testing page.
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
Smoke ventilation and automatic opening vents (AOVs) form part of a building’s fire safety provision. Article 17 requires fire safety facilities and equipment to be maintained in efficient working order and good repair.
Commercial ventilation services
Ventilation splits into more specialist disciplines than most building services, and each has its own page.
Ventilation system maintenance
Planned maintenance and repairs for general supply and extract systems, covering fans, filters, ductwork checks, and controls. Our engineers carry out most of this in-house, with specialist partners on more complex plant.
Ventilation system maintenance →
Commercial duct cleaning
Cleaning of HVAC and general ventilation ductwork to the BESA TR19 Air standard, with a certificate for your records. We arrange it through specialist duct cleaning partners.
Commercial kitchen ventilation and extraction
Kitchen canopies, extract fans, and grease ductwork need their own specialists. Kitchen extract ductwork is cleaned to TR19 Grease rather than TR19 Air, because grease build-up is a fire risk. We coordinate the partners and keep the paperwork in one place.
Commercial kitchen ventilation →
Commercial kitchen extraction system →
Commercial kitchen duct cleaning →
Smoke ventilation
Testing, maintenance, and repair of smoke control systems and AOVs, which help keep escape routes clear of smoke during a fire. This work is carried out by fire specialists we work with.
LEV testing
Thorough examination and testing of fume and dust extraction, carried out by specialist testers we coordinate, with a written report for your records.
Indoor air quality
Monitoring, testing, and assessment of the air inside your building, useful when staff complain about stale air or you need evidence that ventilation is working.
Air handling units and heat recovery ventilation sit with our wider HVAC services. See AHU maintenance and heat recovery ventilation units.
How we deliver commercial ventilation services
Most sites combine a planned contract with reactive support for faults between visits.
PPM and compliance contract from £385+VAT/year
We build a planned schedule around your ventilation assets using SFG20 maintenance schedules, and bring any specialist disciplines your building needs into the same contract. Contract customers get:
- Priority attendance for ventilation faults
- Preferential rates on reactive work and parts
- Compliance documentation for each asset and visit
- Access to our customer portal for schedules, reports, and site documents
Contract terms run from 12 months to five years.
Find out more about PPM contracts →
On-demand repairs from £80+VAT/hour
If you don’t have a contract, we attend ventilation faults during business hours, with rates confirmed before the visit. Follow-on work is quoted before it goes ahead.
Quoted works from £100+VAT
New installations, replacement fans and units, and remedial work found during maintenance are priced as fixed, itemised quotes. Installation is carried out by specialist partners, with us managing the job.
Why choose Robinsons Facilities Services for commercial ventilation
Many buildings need more than one ventilation specialist, and running them separately is where records tend to go missing. We’ve looked after commercial buildings across Yorkshire for decades, and we give you one contract and one set of records for every system on site.
Our engineers handle general ventilation maintenance and repairs, and we use a vetted network of approved local suppliers for installation and specialist work. Clients include multi-academy trusts, healthcare providers, managing agents, hotels, and industrial occupiers.
We’re SafeContractor approved, CHAS accredited, a Constructionline Silver member, and hold UKAS-certified ISO 9001. Our teams work on sites from Bradford, Halifax, and Wakefield to Thirsk, Scarborough, Goole, and Hull.
Get a quote for commercial ventilation →
Prefer to speak to someone? Call us on 01423 226578 →
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Commercial Ventilation System FAQs
Yes. Regulation 6 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 means every enclosed workplace needs an adequate supply of fresh or purified air, from either windows and vents or a mechanical system. Where you rely on mechanical ventilation, regulation 5 also requires it to be properly maintained and cleaned.
Employers are responsible for the workplaces they control. Anyone else who controls a workplace in connection with a business, which can include a landlord or managing agent responsible for shared plant, must also make sure it complies for the matters within their control. In multi-let buildings, the lease usually sets out who maintains which system.
For general ventilation, the law doesn’t set a fixed interval. Maintenance has to be adequate for the system, so frequencies come from its type, how heavily it’s used, and manufacturer guidance. LEV is the exception: COSHH caps the gap between thorough examinations at 14 months, with shorter intervals for some processes. For routine service intervals, see our ventilation system maintenance page.
It depends on how you want to work with us. PPM contracts start from £385+VAT per year, on-demand repairs from £80+VAT per hour, and remedial work and installations are priced as quoted works from £100+VAT. Job-specific detail sits on each service page, such as duct cleaning and LEV testing. Send us an enquiry or call us on 01423 226578 for a quote.
Yes. Our planned ventilation maintenance follows SFG20, the industry-standard maintenance specification published by BESA, which sets out the tasks and frequencies for each type of asset. That gives you a documented regime you can show an auditor or insurer, rather than a record of ad hoc visits. Our article on what SFG20 is explains how it works.
Most commercial buildings use natural ventilation, mechanical extract, mechanical supply, or balanced supply and extract, often with heat recovery. Alongside these sit specialist systems with their own rules, including kitchen extraction, local exhaust ventilation for fumes and dust, and smoke control for fire safety. Many sites have several at once.
General ventilation supplies fresh air and removes stale air across a space, and falls under the Workplace Regulations. Local exhaust ventilation captures harmful substances such as welding fumes, wood dust, or solvent vapours at the point they’re released, and falls under COSHH, which carries its own examination and testing duty. If your site has both, they’re handled separately.
Sometimes. Under regulation 6(2) of the Workplace Regulations, ventilation plant must include a device giving a visible or audible warning of failure where that’s necessary for health or safety. It comes down to the risk if the plant stopped working, which your workplace risk assessment should identify.
Yes. We arrange installation through specialist ventilation partners and manage it as a single job, with a fixed, itemised quote agreed before work starts. Once the system is in, it can go straight onto your planned maintenance contract.
Last updated: 06/10/2026
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