A mile and a half south of Maidenhead’s town centre, and joined to it without a break, the village of Bray carries more Michelin stars than most cities, and it is useful here only as a reminder of a plain fact: below any kitchen floor, the drain has no idea what the food cost. Fat from a tasting menu cools and sets at the same temperature as fat from a kebab, and the trap that catches it is emptied the same way. TrueFlow services traps for Maidenhead food businesses of every kind, in the village and behind the counters of the High Street alike, once or on a repeating schedule, and each collection leaves a Waste Transfer Note behind. A step-by-step account of the service lives at grease trap cleaning.
The same method at every price point
The trap is emptied completely, the floating layer, the water beneath it and the sludge at the bottom together, because a unit that is skimmed and left with its sludge is half full the moment the engineer leaves. The chamber, baffles and outlet tee are scraped by hand; the unit goes back together, is refilled, and flow is checked through the outlet and the pipe beyond it. Before and after photographs and a note of any defect go on the record. Where the outlet is slow, the kitchen line is jetted during the same visit; jetting is priced from £150 including VAT and runs at up to 4000psi, and it clears the grease that passed the trap before the clean. The case for all of this, in law and in practice, is made at kitchens and restaurants.
Removal, recorded
What leaves the kitchen is controlled waste, carried by TrueFlow Ltd under its Upper Tier waste carrier registration, with the Waste Transfer Note signed at the kitchen door. What that note records, how long to keep it and who asks for it are answered in the questions below, and the rules behind it in the FOG regulations guide.
Where the visit goes in the day
Visits go where the kitchen is quietest. For a restaurant that is an early morning or the hour after the last table; for a café, before opening; for a takeaway, mid-afternoon. Bray’s restaurants work lunch and dinner services, so there the gap is the closed day or the middle of the afternoon, and a High Street café’s is the hour before the shutters go up. Each is a plain booking, since the line is open day and night, all year.
What a Maidenhead trap costs
Trap size and emptying frequency decide the cost, so every kitchen is priced on its own trap and its own frequency, with the amount confirmed in advance and no charge for the visit that sizes it. A unit that overflows while the kitchen is serving is an emergency. The rest of a premises’ drainage, from the yard to the washrooms, is handled under commercial drainage in Maidenhead.
Maidenhead grease trap FAQs
Does a trap have to be emptied before a food hygiene inspection?
No rule requires it, but a trap that is full or smelling will be noticed, and drainage that backs up is a hygiene matter in its own right. What an inspector is more likely to ask for is evidence: a run of dated Waste Transfer Notes showing regular collection by a registered carrier. A kitchen on a proper schedule has that file already and needs nothing special done before a visit.
What happens to the grease trap contents after they leave the kitchen?
They travel as controlled waste to a site permitted to receive them, and the Waste Transfer Note stands as the record of that handover: a description of the load, the quantity, the date, the carrier’s registration and the signatures of both parties. The kitchen discharges its own duty by checking the carrier’s registration, getting the note and keeping it for two years, which is why the registration matters as much as the clean.
Is there a risk of spillage inside the restaurant when the trap is emptied?
Very little when it is done properly. The contents are removed sealed rather than carried through the kitchen in open containers, the floor along the route is protected, and the unit is scraped into the container rather than onto the floor. The engineer cleans the working area before leaving, and the photographs taken after the clean show the unit and its surroundings as they were left.
A clean file for the kitchen
One clean or a standing programme, in Bray or in the town: dial 0808 175 7440, or describe the kitchen online and a sizing visit is booked from there. Maidenhead’s homes have their own page.