Commercial kitchens and food service
Extract canopies, ductwork and make-up air that clear heat, steam and grease so the kitchen is workable and compliant.
Ventilation
Ventilation Systems in Welshpool Installed, Repaired and Maintained — For Air You Can Actually Work In
Extract and supply ventilation for kitchens, workshops, washrooms and workspaces, designed around the air changes your building actually needs and installed by engineers who maintain it afterwards.
F-Gas certified and REFCOM registered · Up to £1m public liability · RAMS on request
- F-Gas certified
- REFCOM registered
- 3-year warranty
Multi-brand
Air conditioning, ventilation and cellar cooling, any major brand
F-Gas + REFCOM
Certified and registered refrigerant handling
1–2 hours
Emergency breakdown response, depending on location
3 years
Labour warranty, plus 3-year parts cover
Up to £1m
Public liability insurance, RAMS on request
What ventilation does and why buildings need it
Ventilation is the deliberate replacement of stale indoor air with fresh air. It removes heat, humidity, cooking odours, fumes, dust and airborne contaminants, and it stops carbon dioxide building up to the levels where people get drowsy and stop concentrating. Air conditioning cools the air already in a room; ventilation changes it. Most buildings need both, and confusing the two is why some spaces are cold and still feel stale.
Modern buildings make this worse, not better. Improved insulation and airtightness are good for energy bills and terrible for natural air movement, which is why condensation, mould and stuffiness appear in newer and recently refurbished properties. Commercial kitchens, workshops, gyms, salons, washrooms and any space with sustained occupancy need designed mechanical ventilation rather than an open window and optimism.
Gear Bros Ltd installs, repairs and maintains ventilation across Welshpool, Shrewsbury, Oswestry and the wider mid-Wales and Shropshire area, for commercial and domestic clients. Because we also handle air conditioning and cellar cooling, we can look at ventilation, cooling and heat load as one problem instead of three contractors blaming each other.
Who this is for, and when you need it
Workshops and industrial units
Removing fumes, dust, welding smoke and heat from working areas, with supply air to replace what is extracted.
Offices and meeting rooms
Fresh air rates that keep CO₂ down and people alert, often alongside heat-recovery units so you are not throwing heat away.
Washrooms and changing areas
Extract that actually clears humidity and odour rather than a token fan that has not moved air in years.
Gyms, salons and treatment rooms
High-occupancy or chemical-heavy spaces where air quality is directly linked to whether customers stay and come back.
Homes with condensation and mould
Extract and continuous ventilation for kitchens, bathrooms and utility spaces where damp keeps returning after redecoration.
The cost of leaving it
What poor ventilation does to a building and the people in it
Bad ventilation is rarely reported as a fault. It shows up as a building that people quietly dislike: a meeting room where everyone flags after forty minutes, a kitchen where staff are working in unbearable heat, a bathroom where the same patch of black mould returns three months after every repaint, a workshop with a haze that nobody talks about.
The damage runs in two directions. To the building: sustained humidity condenses on cold surfaces and drives mould growth, timber decay and damage to plaster, decoration and stock. To the people: stale air with elevated CO₂ measurably reduces concentration and productivity, and airborne dust, fumes and grease are health and fire risks in kitchens and workshops.
There is also a legal and insurance dimension for commercial premises. Extract systems in commercial kitchens accumulate grease in the ductwork, which is a well-documented fire risk that insurers take a keen interest in. Employers also carry obligations around exposure to fumes and dust in workplaces.
Condensation and mould
Trapped humidity condenses on cold surfaces and damages plaster, decoration, timber and stock — and keeps coming back after every repaint.
Lost concentration and output
Rising CO₂ in occupied rooms makes people drowsy and slow. It is invisible, and it costs you every working afternoon.
Unworkable kitchen conditions
Inadequate extract turns a commercial kitchen into an endurance test, which affects staff retention as much as service quality.
Grease fire risk
Grease-laden extract ductwork left uncleaned is a recognised fire hazard and an insurance question you do not want to answer badly.
Fume and dust exposure
Workshops without proper extract expose staff to welding fumes, solvents and dust that should be removed at source.
Wasted heating energy
Ventilating by opening windows dumps the heat you have paid for. Heat recovery keeps most of it while still changing the air.
Common mistakes we are called out to fix
- Fitting a small domestic-style fan to a space that needs a designed extract system.
- Extracting air with no route for replacement air, so the fan fights the building and moves almost nothing.
- Running flexible duct in long, kinked runs that destroy the airflow the fan was rated for.
- Never cleaning kitchen extract ductwork or replacing filters.
- Terminating extract into a loft or void instead of outside.
- Treating recurring mould as a decorating problem rather than a ventilation problem.
Our process
A step-by-step system, so you always know what happens next
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01
Site assessment
We look at the space, its use, occupancy, heat and moisture sources, existing provision and where duct routes and terminations can realistically go.
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02
Airflow and system design
Required extract and supply rates are established for the application, then fans, ductwork sizes, filtration and terminations are specified to deliver them in practice, not just on paper.
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03
Free written quotation
A clear price covering equipment, ductwork, electrical work and making good, returned the same or next working day depending on job size.
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04
Installation
Fans, units, ductwork, grilles, canopies and controls installed, with penetrations properly formed and sealed and the work kept tidy around your operation.
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05
Balancing and testing
Airflows are checked and the system balanced so each grille or extract point delivers what the design intended, then controls and interlocks are set up.
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06
Handover and maintenance plan
We show you the controls and filter access, cover the work under our guarantee, and set out a cleaning and servicing schedule — which can go onto a maintenance agreement.
What you get
Specific outcomes, not vague promises
Air that feels fresh
Designed air change rates instead of guesswork, so rooms stop feeling stuffy by mid-afternoon.
Condensation and mould controlled
Moisture removed at source stops damp returning to the same walls and ceilings year after year.
Workable kitchens and workshops
Heat, steam, grease, fumes and dust extracted properly, with make-up air so the extract can actually do its job.
Heat recovery where it pays
MVHR-style units recover warmth from outgoing air, so ventilating does not mean heating the outdoors.
Quieter than you expect
Correctly sized ductwork and fan selection mean the system does not have to shout to move the air.
Lower fire and health risk
Clean, accessible ductwork and proper filtration reduce grease build-up and airborne exposure.
Maintained, not forgotten
Filters, fans and ductwork included on the same servicing agreement as your air conditioning.
One contractor for air
Ventilation, cooling and cellar cooling handled together by engineers who understand how they interact.
In detail
Ventilation types, ductwork and applications
Ventilation covers a wide range of equipment. The right choice depends on what you are removing, how much of it, and what has to replace it.
Extract ventilation
The most common form: fans remove contaminated, humid or hot air at source and discharge it outside. Bathrooms, washrooms, kitchens, workshops and process areas all rely on it. Effective extract needs three things — a fan sized for the duty, ductwork that does not throttle it, and a path for replacement air to enter the space. Miss the third and the fan runs while the room barely ventilates.
Supply and balanced systems
Supply ventilation pushes filtered fresh air into a space, often used where you want slight positive pressure to keep contaminants out. Balanced systems run supply and extract together at matched rates, giving predictable air change without the pressure imbalances that cause draughts, door problems and whistling.
Heat recovery ventilation
Heat recovery units pass outgoing stale air and incoming fresh air through a heat exchanger, transferring most of the warmth from one to the other without mixing them. In well-insulated commercial and domestic buildings this is the sensible answer to the tension between airtightness and air quality: you get the air changes without discarding the heating you have already paid for.
Commercial kitchen extract
Kitchen extract is a specialist application. Canopies must cover the appliance line, capture velocities must be adequate, grease filtration must be effective and accessible, ductwork must be cleanable, and there must be a designed source of make-up air — otherwise the extract simply cannot pull what it is rated for.
Grease accumulation in ductwork is a genuine fire risk, and access panels for cleaning need to be part of the installation, not an afterthought. We factor in cleaning access at design stage.
Industrial and workshop extract
Workshops need contaminants removed at source: welding fume extraction arms, dust extraction from machinery, solvent and paint fume removal, and general heat extraction from production areas. Extract needs matching supply air, particularly in tight modern buildings, or the system underperforms and doors become hard to open.
Ductwork, grilles and terminations
Rigid ducting in correctly sized runs is what makes a fan perform to its rating. Long, kinked flexible duct is the single most common reason a correctly specified fan delivers a fraction of its rated airflow. Terminations must discharge outside, away from air intakes, openable windows and neighbouring properties, with appropriate cowls and back-draught protection.
Ventilation servicing and cleaning
Ventilation degrades quietly: filters load up, impellers foul, belts slip, grilles clog and duct interiors accumulate deposits. Planned servicing — filter changes, fan cleaning, airflow checks, ductwork inspection and, in kitchens, grease cleaning — keeps performance where it was designed and keeps fire and hygiene risk down. It can sit on the same agreement as your air conditioning servicing.
Commercial versus domestic ventilation
Commercial ventilation is usually about volume, contaminant control and compliance: kitchen canopies, industrial extract, designed air change rates and documentation. Domestic ventilation is usually about moisture and comfort: bathroom and kitchen extract, continuous low-rate ventilation and heat recovery in tighter properties.
We do both, and often alongside air conditioning so the cooling and the fresh air are designed to work together rather than against each other.
Questions
Ventilation — your questions answered
How much does a ventilation system cost in Welshpool?
It depends on the airflow required, the ductwork involved and the application — a washroom extract is a very different job from a commercial kitchen canopy with make-up air. We survey the space and provide a free written quotation, usually the same or next working day.
What is the difference between ventilation and air conditioning?
Air conditioning changes the temperature of the air already in a room. Ventilation replaces that air with fresh air, removing humidity, odours, CO₂, fumes and dust. Most buildings need both, and a space can be perfectly cool and still feel stale if it is under-ventilated.
How long does an installation take?
A straightforward extract system is usually a one-day job. Commercial kitchen extract, workshop systems and ducted heat recovery typically take several days depending on duct routes and access, and we agree the programme with you before starting.
Will ventilation fix my condensation and mould problem?
In most cases it addresses the cause, because persistent condensation is nearly always humid air with nowhere to go. We will confirm at survey whether ventilation is the fix or whether something else is contributing before you spend money.
How often should ventilation be serviced?
Domestic extract and heat recovery units generally want annual attention. Commercial systems usually need more, and commercial kitchen extract needs regular grease cleaning on a frequency driven by how hard the kitchen works.
Can you repair an existing system rather than replace it?
Usually, yes. Fan failures, motor and bearing problems, control faults, blocked or damaged ductwork and poor original design are all things we assess and put right — replacing only where repair genuinely is not economic.
How long does ventilation equipment last?
Ductwork lasts a very long time when it is installed properly. Fans and units are mechanical and depend heavily on servicing — cleaned, filtered and maintained equipment lasts many years longer than neglected equipment.
Do you offer emergency call-outs for ventilation failures?
Yes. Our emergency and breakdown response runs at 1–2 hours depending on the location of the job, which matters when a kitchen cannot operate without its extract running.
Is the work guaranteed and insured?
Yes — a 3-year labour warranty and 3-year parts cover, with up to £1 million public liability insurance and RAMS issued on request for commercial sites.
Which areas do you cover for ventilation work?
Mid-Wales, Shropshire and the West Midlands, including Welshpool, Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Newtown, Llanidloes, Llandrindod Wells and Aberystwyth, plus commercial work up to Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester.
Next step
Get a free ventilation quote
Describe the space and the problem — heat, steam, fumes, damp or stale air — and we will survey it and price the fix, free and in writing.
Call 07530 674866- F-Gas certified and REFCOM registered
- 3-year labour warranty and 3-year parts cover
- Up to £1m public liability, RAMS on request
- Free quotes returned the same or next working day
Request your free quote
Two minutes now, a written price back the same or next working day.
