I thought I had an old thread on this but I couldn't find it. Oh well.
Long story short, my master bath ceiling fan is not adequately venting. The builder strongly suspects that there is a wasp's nest in the vent pipe. I tend to agree with him, since he obviously knows more about houses than I do.
The question now is how to fix it.
I crawled up into the attic space today and found the vent pipe. It is some sort of soft flexible grey material; I would compare it to the material they use for HVAC runs in attics around here. It is about 4"-5" in diameter. There are two approximately 90-degree kinks in the pipe, and the total run length is maybe 6 to 7 feet between the fan in the bathroom and the roof vent. The pipe is attached to the exterior vent with what looks to be a large white zip tie.
I figure I have a couple of options:
1. (Builder's suggestion) Shove a garden hose from inside the bathroom up through the ceiling fan exhaust port to dislodge and fragment the wasp's nest. I could try this but am concerned about perforating the side of the pipe. Advantage is that it is a relatively easy thing to try.
2. (My best idea if I want to be cheap) Crawl back up into the attic with a pair of scissors or utility knife, cut the zip tie, remove the pipe from the exterior vent, clean it out from that end, then reattach with either (a) another zip tie, or (b) strapping tape that I already have on hand.
3. (My best idea if I don't want to be cheap) Call the builder and have him help me find someone to come in and do similar to #2. Advantage is this person could maybe also assess if the 90-degree bends are causing a problem (the house has always had this problem) and would maybe know what to do about that. Disadvantage is this person might not be careful and could hurt themselves or put a foot through my ceiling drywall, and it's not his house so he may not do a good job fixing it.
4. Other?
Advice?