Restaurant Hood Cleaning Business Income — How Much Does It Make?

Monthly Revenue

$10K–$30K

realistic range

Startup Cost

$5K–$15K

to get started

Hourly Rate

$150–$300

per hour billed

Complexity

2/4

skill required

The Business

Restaurant exhaust hood cleaning is legally mandated — fire codes require quarterly cleaning. A single restaurant pays $300-600 per cleaning, and there are thousands of restaurants in any metro area. This is pure recurring revenue: once you have 50 restaurants, that's $15K-30K per quarter from the same clients. The work is done after hours (10pm-4am) which most people hate, keeping competition low.

How to Start

Get IKECA or similar hood cleaning certification ($500-1,000). Buy a hot water pressure washer, chemical degreasers, and containment tarps ($3K-5K total). Cold-call restaurants and offer a free inspection — most are overdue. Price quarterly contracts at $350-500. Night work schedule keeps competition thin.

REAL EXAMPLE

A hood cleaning business in Houston scaled from $0 to $928K revenue in 3 years, eventually selling for $2.07M — a documented exit that proves the recurring revenue model.

Equipment Needed

▸Pressure washer (hot water)
▸Chemical degreasers
▸Scraping tools
▸Containment tarps
▸Before/after photo equipment

Licensing

Business license + fire safety certification

Monthly Search Volume

1,400

people/month search for this business

READY TO START?

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Revenue Calculator

Jobs per Week12

Revenue per Job$450

Weekly Hours25 hrs

Startup Cost$8,000

Weekly Revenue

$5.4K

Monthly Revenue

$23.2K

Annual Revenue

$278.6K

Monthly Profit

$22.0K

Break-Even

1 month

Hourly Rate

$216

Monthly costs: $1,200/mo (insurance, fuel, supplies)

CHRIS'S TAKE

“Hood cleaning is the gold standard of boring recurring revenue. Fire codes force restaurants to clean quarterly — they literally can't skip it. One operator documented a $928K to $2.07M exit. That's a 2.2x multiple on a business with near-zero churn.”

PRO TIP

Offer fire suppression system inspections as an upsell — it's a natural add-on that restaurants also need regularly, and you're already on-site.

READY TO MAKE IT OFFICIAL?

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ACQUISITION ROUTE

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TOOLS TO RUN THIS BUSINESS

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