Eeeek, what we found in the vent fan

[phelpcd1]

I finally had my carpenter friend out to do some repairs for me. First on the list was to replace the bathroom vent fan that hasn't worked in almost 2 years. Well.........he pulled the fan out and there was a huge dirt dobber nest sitting on the grate that's right on top of the fan itself. The nest was so heavy it bent the metal grate into the fan blades, which i'm guessing is what caused it to burn up. So he proceeded to pull the housing and the entire unit out and it had little ants crawling all over it as well. But then he started backing out of the bathroom - there was a massive live wasp nest in the attic space. Fortunately, it was fairly late in the evening so they were all sitting in the nest doing whatever they do (but not swarming), so a large dose of hornet spray was unleashed upon them causing their demise. We cleaned everything out of the attic and threw out the entire vent fan. He stapled some good screening material all around that opening in the roof to keep out the critters, and replaced the entire fan system. Finally, I can shower and not fog the bathroom completely up!! Sooooooo, beware of possible wasp/bee nests etc. in little placed you'd never think they would be in - we had no idea they were there.

I also had him patch the holes in the underbelly where the mice were coming in..........I thought the mice made the holes, but he said the holes were actually cut with a knife.......does anyone know why the manufacturer would do this? I bought the house brand new and had no idea they cut holes in the underbelly. And the material/glue spray stuff I bought from Mark worked like a charm!!! Great stuff........

[tnt17]

As far as your holes in the underbelly, ours wasn't new, rather 10 years old when bought from a repo place (2200 sq ft place and the price was right!)
but they had cut a small slit under the bathroom. Water had 'bellied' into the belly, most likely from a hookup that still had water in it and wasn't tied in or from unhooking it from the previous owner.
I also found water in the belly up near the master br. This was because the plumbing/setup people didn't tie in ANY lines to that area. So it drained...guess where? Straight into the belly.
Cut the slit, drained the water, and patched it up with belly repair tape.

[Yanita]

HI,

Just a note of caution here. If there has been any water in the belly of your home you should remove all the wet insulation. Once insulation is wet it is worthless. Then you can go ahead and repair the underbelley material. Further more you will want to let those areas dry out so as not to have mold growing.

JMO.

Yanita