I haven't done anything. I am creating a punch list for the contractor who recently installed it. I don't want to touch it and have him blame me. I haven't seen any carpenter ants around, though. I'm not sure what is above this; there's a partial attic, but I'm not sure if it extends to that area.

The amount of debris isn't great, but I've wiped the area, turned the fan on again, and it reappears. I can't get a decent photo.

I had this problem in the cabinet under my cook top for years! I had a pest control company come out and they could find nothing. No termites or carpenter ants. He said maybe the movement of the cook top as I cleaned it or placed pans on it caused some friction on the opening. I was just happy it wasn't critters, but mad that I had to continually vacuum out that cabinet and dust the items under it.

I don't remember seeing similar debris before the area was renovated, and there was a fan in the same area. I have some antique furniture in which sawdust accumulates in the drawers, but this isn't antique furniture. It's new fixtures in a house that's only 16 years old.

Feddup, my problem with that cook top saw dust was in a brand new home. I doubt the age of the wood has much to do with it. So you are saying the new fan is in the same place as the old fan and no new cuts were made? That would be weird unless the new fan has a little bigger base or has more vibration. Maybe coating the cut with sealer would fix the problem?

New fan is in same approximate area, but I'm pretty sure they had to cut something because they replaced a combination fan/light with two separate units--a fan and a light. They old fan was noisy; the new one is so quiet, you can barely tell it's on, so it seems it would vibrate less. Maybe someone forgot to clean out sawdust, or whatever it is, before installing.

Shop vac. Yours. Leave the contractor out of it unless a after construction cleaning crew was part of his bid.

Are you saying to vacuum the stuff that has fallen (of course I will), or the area it's falling from (or both)? After construction cleaning crew was part of bid but has already occurred.

Not to excuse it but to a lot of contractors, I think "cleaning" is getting rid of obvious and visible debris. Almost every demo I have done, (which generally involves peeling things away and removing them rather than having someone coming in and bashing it apart in an hour, so when we find "junk" we know it's not from the demo we are currently doing) ...

Almost every one I have done or project I have been a part of, reveals a bunch of left behind sawdust and construction scraps in areas that get covered over like under the cabinet toe kicks and in floor and ceiling cavities. Dirt, sawdust and wood scraps are sometimes the least of it.

I have found empty soda bottles, empty takeout containers, crushed cigarette packs. I have pulled up carpet and found that the carpet was laid over un-vacuumed flooring and debris like cigarettes, crushed cigarette packs, nails. In one house we found a flattened mouse under the wall to wall carpet.

In my own bathroom I uncovered a lot of debris and broken tile below the floor space in the ceiling cavity. I know it wasn't from my demo because it was a different color tile. In the other bathroom I found what I guess were the contents of the old medicine cabinet dumped down in the floor. (Expiration dates on things circa 1988).

The contractor who is working for me now is very tidy, but it probably takes him almost an hour every day to clean up, and then we usually go after him and run the vacuum again. So I am paying someone a relatively high hourly fee to clean.

The first few days of my kitchen redo, I cleaned up after the guys left (even though they did their version of daily cleanup and had the area enclosed in plastic). Pretty soon I realized that was futile and a waste of my time.

My most recent contractor was very sloppy. Even after he put up the supposedly cleaned ceiling fan, his hand prints were all over the blades. Not what I wanted to see first thing in the morning when I opened my eyes. But at least was willing to pay for a professional cleaning crew after. So now that everything is sparkling clean, it's easy to see new stuff.

We tapped hard on the fan cover to loosen up the rest of whatever is falling. I think it must have been on the blades and needed to spin off. Hopefully that is the end of it.

I think that's the right thing to do. Smack it, run it a long time, and hope it's all down.

"The first few days of my kitchen redo, I cleaned up after the guys left (even though they did their version of daily cleanup and had the area enclosed in plastic). Pretty soon I realized that was futile and a waste of my time"

Maybe you are using this as a figure of speech, but cleaning up after contractors even if it's a daily thing and they are going to get the same things dirty the next day, shouldn't be considered a "waste of your time". It's your house and your investment and you have to protect your own investment. Yes, even though you are paying someone to clean up. Why? Because some things that happen are probably more than just cumulative.

A bit of crumbled drywall or a loose nail that gets caught around the edges of something protecting the floor will get ground into the floor if left there for a week. Small bits of grout left behind on the bathtub or shower drain will inevitably be stepped on and scratch the tub.

Sawdust underneath the cabinets is going to be left there and covered up with the toe kick. Even it it's been vacuumed with a shop vac unless you get under there and clean it, a fair amount will be left behind. Your cleaning crew is not coming to the end of the project by which point it will be covered.

The project manager for the last big project I did (who I did not like) left a paper coffee cup on the mantle and after sitting there for over a week it etched a ring in the 170 old fireplace surround. I didn't pick it up because I didn't like her, I was waiting to see if she would ever notice it, (obviously not) and when I finally threw it away myself, that's when I saw that it had eaten into the marble.

I could be all p1ssed off at her (which I was), I could have thrown a big fit, I could have even posted a thread about it. but ultimately I had seen it there myself and was being passive aggressive about it and ultimately ruined my own fireplace by neglecting something I saw.

Even though my contractor cleans up, he is still wearing dirty clothes, and he himself is not clean at the end of the day, so I don't feel that his "clean" is quite as clean as things should be. So it gets cleaned after he cleans. Yes, every time he is onsite and even though he will make a mess the next day. I don't consider this a waste of my time, and I have a full-time job, and work some evenings and have paperwork to do at home too. I don't consider myself too important or too busy to protect my own investment.

I guess it depends on the situation. I wasn't being passive-aggressive. I was being practical. I was talking about cleaning a particular area that had a particular type of dirt. I in no way meant to suggest that you should leave someone's coffee cup on a marble surface.

''I don't consider myself too important or too busy to protect my own investment.''

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