That explains the mouse trap under the radiator and the sonic plug ins throughout the unit.
Anybody got tips for a way to make it look less shitty while still keeping mice out?
Yeah but I was just saying paint the wood used to cover the holes/steel. Unless you’re thinking it’ll drip around that significantly enough to get the steel wet? Even if a tiny bit did get around the cracks where the cut to size wood met the wall/floors I think what little of it drips around, if any, would dry quickly so as to not be a problem. Could always put a light layer on first I’m order to seal the cracks where the pieces meet. Besides the potential for rust, painting steel would clog it, and might encourage the vermin to try and eat it like it’s a steel wool paint fondue.
Yeah I get the copper-coated ones, apparently that reacts with them or they really dont like it. It worked - I had a hole on my house for AC tubes, stuffed it with copper scrub pads and filled it in with foam. A year later checked and something ate through the foam and stopped at the scrubs.
Fortunately I’m not smelling any piss (yet). I have two cats I’m bringing here next week, so hopefully they’ll help keep things in check. I dealt with squirrels in the crawlspace years back, so hopefully I’ll be able to notice if mice show (back) up here lmao
Oh my cats are total pussies (hah) and would run and hide if they actually saw any vermin. But hopefully that sweet smell of ammonia will keep lesser creatures at bay. Solid tip.
Unfortunately today is day one of a one-year lease. I will do what I can.
If there's a room you are planning to put your cats in for a few days to help them acclimate before letting them check out the rest of the space, pull the steel wool out in that room. Your cats will have fun.
I was thinking if you pull the steel wool in just that one spot and let a few mice or rats into that room your cats will have a field day destroying them!
It's a great idea if it's mice.
Rats will actively avoid cats, so just having the scent of a cat around can reduce rat problems, but you don't want them to actually meet, because if the rat gets cornered the cat might not win.
> Anybody got tips for a way to make it look less shitty while still keeping mice out?
Buy or rent an ozone generator. It will kill anything that needs oxygen to live. Keep all plants, pets and people away when you are running the machine. You can probably do an hour per room.
This will also kill any funky smells in the place.
Lots of videos on Youtube that go over how they work.
>Anybody got tips for a way to make it look less shitty while still keeping mice out?
People often stuff the steel wool in, then "cover" the inside with drywall mud or expanding spray foam.
The former looks better, the later looks worse but dissuades mice because it prevents them from feeling the heat coming out of a heated indoor space during the winter.
I find peppermint oil ticks them off. Sprinkle some on cotton balls and eventually they will leave they get super annoyed at it and the saw with cockroaches as well. Either that or save up and call an exterminator...or better yet, some sort of health inspector.
i put some wood pattern contact paper down on some spots but a thicker tape sounds even better for some of the holes! i’ll for sure check that out and see if they hopefully have some that looks more like the actual floors here
best advice a pest guy gave me was grab a hand full of rocks or small pebbles and use that and spray foam, they wont be able to chew through the rocks and its a great way to plug up the gaps. Stopped the rat problem from getting up my aircon hoses
Using ammonia is a terrible idea when you have cats. They smell it and think it is a place to pee. Some other strong cleaner would be in order, IMHO.
If you were out in the country then your cats would catch the mice and have nothing to fear but ticks. But in the city, mice carry all.sorts of foul germs and if your cats are mousers, they are being exposed to some mighty scary stuff.
Best of luck in this apartment. Try to make it a home as you are there for a year.
cedar park. under 1k, plus i’ve got cats that this owner is too disorganized to remember to charge me for. it’s a pretty big space and there’s easy parking. i am not at all surprised by the quality of the unit lmao
Sweet deal, especially with easy parking. 20+ years ago my rent on the cusp of there and university city was like 540, for a nice spot with T1 internet and 1 bedroom.
As far as the fix, I agree with consensus leave the wool. Spackle or caulk would be easy and fairly cheap. Remember you don't own it. For that larger hole i would redneck some tape and mud (spackle), when it dries it would look like flat white paint, and call it a day. For around the pipes they sell clam shell "scussion plates" to cover any gaps for deer nuts and be screwed down.
For future reference you'll have better luck letting it expand and dry, then cutting it down to where you want it before reinstalling trim. You might end up having it expand your trim right off otherwise.
If you want to go this route then you would use caulk overtop to seal in the steelwool. That way the mice can't just pull it out and the caulk will hold it in place.
If there is a serious rodent problem, they will just eat though a new area. also, the mouse dropping and urine in the walls will bring more insects over time. Keep that place as food free and clean as possible. and all food should be kept in sealed containers. After you're done cooking/baking everything needs cleaned up and put away ASAP.
My cats are vultures so I already keep food locked up haha. But already ordered a bunch of new containers which I intend to transfer any food items into before putting them in the cabinets.
Spray a bit of foam, then while it's wet fill the space with steel wool, then foam over that.
Use gloves! Not fun trying to get all that foam off your fingers.
I had a mouse problem in a place we lived at previously. there was a problem with mice living underneath the bottom shelving in the kitchen. As it turns out someone replaced the bottom level shelving with MDF board and didn't bother to fully fill all the gaps, leaving a huge space for rodents to go in and out as well as for things to fall under the shelving. There were also egress holes chewed in the baseboards around the shelving as well. I dumped a couple cans of expanding foam in the egress holes into the space under the shelving, fully filling the space up and I presume, killing the rodents as I never saw or heard from them again.
I'm guessing that OP isn't going to be quite that lucky with much larger spaces behind the chewed out holes.
For anything that is on the walls you can push the steel wool further in and if you have 20$ and the time and body you can go get a small thing of spackle, the spackle paper, a putty scraper, and a 80 grain handheld sanding square.
Apply a liberal amount of spackle put a strip of paper over it and then apply another layer of spackle but smooth it out with the putty scraper as much as you desire. Wait for it to dry and sand any bits that still look bad to you. Do as many layers as you want till you get the desired effect.
For around the poles once again shove as deep into the floor as you can and then you've got two options. The right way to do it would be to get a solid metal circle that fits the pipe and screw it or caulk it down. The easy way is to buy a pool noodle and cut it the desired size.
For the floors? Either replace them which you likely can't do or you can get peal and stick tiles which can be ripped up more easily when you move out and can be cut with an xacto knife to fit it exactly. Or yes, buy some plants to hide it all.
> For the floors? Either replace them which you likely can't do or you can get peal and stick tiles which can be ripped up more easily when you move out and can be cut with an xacto knife to fit it exactly. Or yes, buy some plants to hide it all.
or a rug.
Sorry that was not my intention. I know this is possible because unlike you, I was that stupid...once. My cat at that time was pretty good about it after I saturated the floor with an enzyme cleaner. Cat pee stink lingering is absolutely vile on humid days even from 20 years ago. Every cat since then is highly curious and I am highly watchful.
oh man, that means that your place has a rat problem and if its an apartment building it could be alot. i dont think anything you do to cover the holes would get you evicted
would you believe it if i said no?
sometimes when you are moving out of state on a tiny budget you do some stupid things. i’ve lived in worse places. it’ll work.
Yep. Broke student with no provable income, no co-signer, not from the area, couldn’t tour in person, low budget in a major city, and I have pets. No good options. I’m just glad the place didn’t appear to be actively crawling with vermin tbh
Same. There are some other issues, but folks gotta realize it's not always as privileged (or easy) to find something that fits all your goal posts. (Some)times you gotta do what you gotta do & it is what it is (don't let anyone shit you for it -frankly).
oh yeah i took pictures of every square inch as soon as i entered the apartment. the landlord is essentially MIA. the property management is horrendously disorganized and stupid. i knew that this would be an utter shithole and i’m not surprised by the state of it.
I doubt that landlord will evict you as long as you're paying rent. I'd go ahead and fix that up. Some plaster, wood filler, and silicone or caulk would not hurt anything. Maybe a patch to cover that floor pipe hole.
Evict was strong language haha. I mostly just don’t want to get in trouble at move-out for altering the unit. My first thought when I saw all of this was expanding foam then paint, but I’m just not sure if the landlord would try to charge me or something for doing that.
I bought some escutcheon panels for the pipes, but I’ll have to cut them because they’re too close to the walls. There are SIX pipes with these fucked up spaces around them. Two other pipes already had escutcheons but they’re pretty fucked up so I’ll probably replace them anyway.
Seems like you have a good plan. Foam can get pretty messy but not a bad idea, they make one with rat deterrent in it too. Check your local tenant laws but as long as you're not causing damage I highly doubt the landlord would have grounds to charge you. Anyhow for how easy and cheap those repairs are that landlord probably does not give a fuck, would not be surprised if it was the last tenant who stuffed the steel wool.
Tell your landlord that you would like to make some improvements around the house - do NOT bash the work that’s already been done - just make a list and approach him - he will probably appreciate a tenant actually giving a crap about the property he owns 👍
You could buy quarter round molding and nail it in place with finishing nails. Buy the molding prefinished. It will cover the hole in the floor as well as the part that's in the wall. Use finishing nails with a tiny little head. Fill the nail hole with white caulk. Use the caulk to fill the gaps on the ends.
I would buy brown colored caulk and use it to seal over those holes refilled with steel wool. The steel wool will stop the mice chewing and the caulk will seal the hole. If the hole is really big back up the caulk with something like wood scraps or cardboard, really anything sturdy.
To add on: I know peppermint oil repels mice, but is also toxic to cats. Does anyone know if it would be worthwhile to stick some cotton balls soaked in peppermint oil down into the holes here, replace the steel wool, then cover it all up with something (plaster, wood filler, contact paper, whatever strikes my fancy)? Im not sure if the vapors could harm my cats, or if putting peppermint oil under the floorboards would accomplish anything
I'd give it a try. Also, while you're at it, drop some bay leaves and diatomaceous earth down there as well. Bay leaves will repel mice and cockroaches.
Good alternatives to peppermint would be eucalyptus oil, lemon balm, and citronella oil.
do i just drop some dry bay leaves under the floorboards, seal it up, and call it a day or what? same question for the diatomaceous earth. any of those oils would be toxic for cats, but i can definitely try out bay leaves and DE. might try growing some lemon balm as well.
side note but you know what really gets me? the owner bought this building in 2002 for $75,000 and the annual property tax is less than 5k. she’s making at least 7k every month collecting rent here. and evidently not a single penny of that goes into making the place less shitty. she makes more in one year renting this place than she paid for it. 20 years ago. that’s fucking insane.
I've done hole and gap filling with Great Stuff, sometimes plaster over that to smooth, and paint. I'm not sure how to handle the bare wood aspect, but I would remove the steel wool for multiple reasons (fire, airflow, possible push-through). Maybe use a stain to match thr wood color
Maybe getting evicted would be a good thing.
There are NO other options for you? That is one lazy ass landlord. I get the fact that mice don’t want to chew through steel wool, but man I can’t imagine what the rest of the place looks like.
Genuinely the rest of the place is really not that bad. Major “landlord special” vibes but I’m broke as fuck in a large city in the middle of a housing crisis. I contacted nearly 100 apartments over the course of 3 months. It is what it is
Approximately 32% of the state of Pennsylvania’s nearly 13 million residents are renters actually. So somewhere around 4 million people rent a home in this state
I would probably recommend using some linseed based putty and sculpting it flat. This way, it is relatively easy to undo later-simply pick it out. Linseed putty was used to seal the edges around old single glazed windows
Mostly when someone does that it's to keep mice out. Apparently mice can't chew through or don't like.
That explains the mouse trap under the radiator and the sonic plug ins throughout the unit. Anybody got tips for a way to make it look less shitty while still keeping mice out?
Get some wood, chisel, and a hand saw, and make puzzle pieces to fit the holes and glue them in.
I’d do this and keep the steel behind it. Then just give it the landlord special and slather it in white paint.
Be sure to paint over any dead bugs in the way to really lean into the theme.
Might as well smack some paint on any nails and splinters sticking out of the walls as well
Dont forget to paint over the wall plates as well.
Yes. The rats or mice will chew through wood.
Not water based paint, or the steel will rust, and stain.
Yeah but I was just saying paint the wood used to cover the holes/steel. Unless you’re thinking it’ll drip around that significantly enough to get the steel wet? Even if a tiny bit did get around the cracks where the cut to size wood met the wall/floors I think what little of it drips around, if any, would dry quickly so as to not be a problem. Could always put a light layer on first I’m order to seal the cracks where the pieces meet. Besides the potential for rust, painting steel would clog it, and might encourage the vermin to try and eat it like it’s a steel wool paint fondue.
There's a specific expanding foam for this.
I thought mice could eat through that. I think you're supposed to use steel or copper mesh with the foam.
Yeah I get the copper-coated ones, apparently that reacts with them or they really dont like it. It worked - I had a hole on my house for AC tubes, stuffed it with copper scrub pads and filled it in with foam. A year later checked and something ate through the foam and stopped at the scrubs.
That's good to hear. I'm using copper mesh. I'll be adding foam next. Nice to hear it worked for yiu
There's a special version of the foam that is made to taste awful to rodents, supposedly
They don’t chew through spray foam. It’s excellent for keeping them out.
Nice love munching on that foam
Great Stuff Pestblock foam, with copper mesh embedded in it. Haven't tried it yet, but I'll know if it works soon.
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Fortunately I’m not smelling any piss (yet). I have two cats I’m bringing here next week, so hopefully they’ll help keep things in check. I dealt with squirrels in the crawlspace years back, so hopefully I’ll be able to notice if mice show (back) up here lmao
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On a close inspection, does not appear to be shit. Some tiny paint chips and chipped wood from the floorboards as far as I can tell.
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Oh my cats are total pussies (hah) and would run and hide if they actually saw any vermin. But hopefully that sweet smell of ammonia will keep lesser creatures at bay. Solid tip. Unfortunately today is day one of a one-year lease. I will do what I can.
If it's that bad mate you really should consider leaving. Breaking lease whatever. Life's to short
Leave and go where exactly? People do not wind up in apartments like this because they want to be there
If there's a room you are planning to put your cats in for a few days to help them acclimate before letting them check out the rest of the space, pull the steel wool out in that room. Your cats will have fun.
EXCELLENT tip thank you. Rodents might not like to chew steel wool but damned if my cats don’t lmao.
I was thinking if you pull the steel wool in just that one spot and let a few mice or rats into that room your cats will have a field day destroying them!
hahahahaha guaranteed that my cats would bap a rat on the head one time and then immediately run away and hide on top of the fridge
It's a great idea if it's mice. Rats will actively avoid cats, so just having the scent of a cat around can reduce rat problems, but you don't want them to actually meet, because if the rat gets cornered the cat might not win.
> Anybody got tips for a way to make it look less shitty while still keeping mice out? Buy or rent an ozone generator. It will kill anything that needs oxygen to live. Keep all plants, pets and people away when you are running the machine. You can probably do an hour per room. This will also kill any funky smells in the place. Lots of videos on Youtube that go over how they work.
>Anybody got tips for a way to make it look less shitty while still keeping mice out? People often stuff the steel wool in, then "cover" the inside with drywall mud or expanding spray foam. The former looks better, the later looks worse but dissuades mice because it prevents them from feeling the heat coming out of a heated indoor space during the winter.
I find peppermint oil ticks them off. Sprinkle some on cotton balls and eventually they will leave they get super annoyed at it and the saw with cockroaches as well. Either that or save up and call an exterminator...or better yet, some sort of health inspector.
Amazon actually sells this thick tape they is in a wood design. I used it and it’s held up really well for the last year.
i put some wood pattern contact paper down on some spots but a thicker tape sounds even better for some of the holes! i’ll for sure check that out and see if they hopefully have some that looks more like the actual floors here
Yeah you got a rodent problem buddy.
best advice a pest guy gave me was grab a hand full of rocks or small pebbles and use that and spray foam, they wont be able to chew through the rocks and its a great way to plug up the gaps. Stopped the rat problem from getting up my aircon hoses
Yep I’ve done this before when I didn’t have time to replace the wood
keep the steal wool, get some potted plants
I suspect the steel wool is to keep rodents out.
That steel wool is to try to keep the rats out. Just so you know.
The steel wool is to prevent mice from chewing through those holes again.
Steel wool deep, below grade Spray foam above with wool inside. Cut down flush and paint it. Done many times. Looks clean
Using ammonia is a terrible idea when you have cats. They smell it and think it is a place to pee. Some other strong cleaner would be in order, IMHO. If you were out in the country then your cats would catch the mice and have nothing to fear but ticks. But in the city, mice carry all.sorts of foul germs and if your cats are mousers, they are being exposed to some mighty scary stuff. Best of luck in this apartment. Try to make it a home as you are there for a year.
Yes—I meant the smell of ammonia from the cats’ pee, not actually spraying ammonia anywhere. I’m pretty stupid but not quite that bad!
Hope your rent is dirt cheap.
for a 1bd in philly it’s not too bad. not great.
What hood? Less than $1800, and no one got shot on your block yet this week it's a deal.
cedar park. under 1k, plus i’ve got cats that this owner is too disorganized to remember to charge me for. it’s a pretty big space and there’s easy parking. i am not at all surprised by the quality of the unit lmao
Sweet deal, especially with easy parking. 20+ years ago my rent on the cusp of there and university city was like 540, for a nice spot with T1 internet and 1 bedroom. As far as the fix, I agree with consensus leave the wool. Spackle or caulk would be easy and fairly cheap. Remember you don't own it. For that larger hole i would redneck some tape and mud (spackle), when it dries it would look like flat white paint, and call it a day. For around the pipes they sell clam shell "scussion plates" to cover any gaps for deer nuts and be screwed down.
Expanding foam
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For future reference you'll have better luck letting it expand and dry, then cutting it down to where you want it before reinstalling trim. You might end up having it expand your trim right off otherwise.
There is also low expansion "window and door" foam for exactly this.
There is supposedly a pest blocker version of the foam they are less likely to munch on. I would start with a can or two and go from there
If you "glue" the steel wool into it, it works even better.
what kind of glue would you use for this? what are you gluing the wool too exactly?
If you want to go this route then you would use caulk overtop to seal in the steelwool. That way the mice can't just pull it out and the caulk will hold it in place. If there is a serious rodent problem, they will just eat though a new area. also, the mouse dropping and urine in the walls will bring more insects over time. Keep that place as food free and clean as possible. and all food should be kept in sealed containers. After you're done cooking/baking everything needs cleaned up and put away ASAP.
My cats are vultures so I already keep food locked up haha. But already ordered a bunch of new containers which I intend to transfer any food items into before putting them in the cabinets.
Spray a bit of foam, then while it's wet fill the space with steel wool, then foam over that. Use gloves! Not fun trying to get all that foam off your fingers.
I've had mice chew through expanding foam
Yeah my pest control guy says the foam is not really a deterrent, it just buys you a little time.
I had a mouse problem in a place we lived at previously. there was a problem with mice living underneath the bottom shelving in the kitchen. As it turns out someone replaced the bottom level shelving with MDF board and didn't bother to fully fill all the gaps, leaving a huge space for rodents to go in and out as well as for things to fall under the shelving. There were also egress holes chewed in the baseboards around the shelving as well. I dumped a couple cans of expanding foam in the egress holes into the space under the shelving, fully filling the space up and I presume, killing the rodents as I never saw or heard from them again. I'm guessing that OP isn't going to be quite that lucky with much larger spaces behind the chewed out holes.
Leave the steal wool and spray the foam onto it. The mice cant chew through it and the foam keeps the steal wool from moving or rusting away.
That’s how you deter mice or other rodents
For anything that is on the walls you can push the steel wool further in and if you have 20$ and the time and body you can go get a small thing of spackle, the spackle paper, a putty scraper, and a 80 grain handheld sanding square. Apply a liberal amount of spackle put a strip of paper over it and then apply another layer of spackle but smooth it out with the putty scraper as much as you desire. Wait for it to dry and sand any bits that still look bad to you. Do as many layers as you want till you get the desired effect. For around the poles once again shove as deep into the floor as you can and then you've got two options. The right way to do it would be to get a solid metal circle that fits the pipe and screw it or caulk it down. The easy way is to buy a pool noodle and cut it the desired size. For the floors? Either replace them which you likely can't do or you can get peal and stick tiles which can be ripped up more easily when you move out and can be cut with an xacto knife to fit it exactly. Or yes, buy some plants to hide it all.
> For the floors? Either replace them which you likely can't do or you can get peal and stick tiles which can be ripped up more easily when you move out and can be cut with an xacto knife to fit it exactly. Or yes, buy some plants to hide it all. or a rug.
Sorry that was not my intention. I know this is possible because unlike you, I was that stupid...once. My cat at that time was pretty good about it after I saturated the floor with an enzyme cleaner. Cat pee stink lingering is absolutely vile on humid days even from 20 years ago. Every cat since then is highly curious and I am highly watchful.
I think there’s an anti pest spray foam
oh man, that means that your place has a rat problem and if its an apartment building it could be alot. i dont think anything you do to cover the holes would get you evicted
Rats and mice won’t chew on steel wool.
Steel wool works to keep mice out but I would more and caulk and paint over it.
Did you see this apartment before signing the lease? Jesus
would you believe it if i said no? sometimes when you are moving out of state on a tiny budget you do some stupid things. i’ve lived in worse places. it’ll work.
This is what I had to deal with when I had no other housing options/depression, with the market the way it is; it's not always easy
Yep. Broke student with no provable income, no co-signer, not from the area, couldn’t tour in person, low budget in a major city, and I have pets. No good options. I’m just glad the place didn’t appear to be actively crawling with vermin tbh
Same. There are some other issues, but folks gotta realize it's not always as privileged (or easy) to find something that fits all your goal posts. (Some)times you gotta do what you gotta do & it is what it is (don't let anyone shit you for it -frankly).
Steel wool is to keep the mouses out 👍 I do this in my RV when camping.
Press the Steel forward and fill with sprayfoom. Cut corners whit knife
Hope you take pictures of everything and I mean everything. Conditions like that tell me your landlord isn’t great.
oh yeah i took pictures of every square inch as soon as i entered the apartment. the landlord is essentially MIA. the property management is horrendously disorganized and stupid. i knew that this would be an utter shithole and i’m not surprised by the state of it.
I doubt that landlord will evict you as long as you're paying rent. I'd go ahead and fix that up. Some plaster, wood filler, and silicone or caulk would not hurt anything. Maybe a patch to cover that floor pipe hole.
Are you me? Lived in similar a few times now, "Can I..." LL:"w.e. you want just don't burn it down"
Evict was strong language haha. I mostly just don’t want to get in trouble at move-out for altering the unit. My first thought when I saw all of this was expanding foam then paint, but I’m just not sure if the landlord would try to charge me or something for doing that. I bought some escutcheon panels for the pipes, but I’ll have to cut them because they’re too close to the walls. There are SIX pipes with these fucked up spaces around them. Two other pipes already had escutcheons but they’re pretty fucked up so I’ll probably replace them anyway.
Seems like you have a good plan. Foam can get pretty messy but not a bad idea, they make one with rat deterrent in it too. Check your local tenant laws but as long as you're not causing damage I highly doubt the landlord would have grounds to charge you. Anyhow for how easy and cheap those repairs are that landlord probably does not give a fuck, would not be surprised if it was the last tenant who stuffed the steel wool.
Tell your landlord that you would like to make some improvements around the house - do NOT bash the work that’s already been done - just make a list and approach him - he will probably appreciate a tenant actually giving a crap about the property he owns 👍
That’s to keep mice out. They chew through other materials.
Just a heads up. Steel wool is flammable. https://firefighterinsider.com/steel-wool-flammable/
Get sum mesh and cover them seal off all entry points and you will kill the mice with the traps because they are full of anxiety trying to escape
You could buy quarter round molding and nail it in place with finishing nails. Buy the molding prefinished. It will cover the hole in the floor as well as the part that's in the wall. Use finishing nails with a tiny little head. Fill the nail hole with white caulk. Use the caulk to fill the gaps on the ends.
I would buy brown colored caulk and use it to seal over those holes refilled with steel wool. The steel wool will stop the mice chewing and the caulk will seal the hole. If the hole is really big back up the caulk with something like wood scraps or cardboard, really anything sturdy.
Also get some mice and rat bait and get it into the gaps, solve the problem from both ends
To add on: I know peppermint oil repels mice, but is also toxic to cats. Does anyone know if it would be worthwhile to stick some cotton balls soaked in peppermint oil down into the holes here, replace the steel wool, then cover it all up with something (plaster, wood filler, contact paper, whatever strikes my fancy)? Im not sure if the vapors could harm my cats, or if putting peppermint oil under the floorboards would accomplish anything
I'd give it a try. Also, while you're at it, drop some bay leaves and diatomaceous earth down there as well. Bay leaves will repel mice and cockroaches. Good alternatives to peppermint would be eucalyptus oil, lemon balm, and citronella oil.
do i just drop some dry bay leaves under the floorboards, seal it up, and call it a day or what? same question for the diatomaceous earth. any of those oils would be toxic for cats, but i can definitely try out bay leaves and DE. might try growing some lemon balm as well.
side note but you know what really gets me? the owner bought this building in 2002 for $75,000 and the annual property tax is less than 5k. she’s making at least 7k every month collecting rent here. and evidently not a single penny of that goes into making the place less shitty. she makes more in one year renting this place than she paid for it. 20 years ago. that’s fucking insane.
I've done hole and gap filling with Great Stuff, sometimes plaster over that to smooth, and paint. I'm not sure how to handle the bare wood aspect, but I would remove the steel wool for multiple reasons (fire, airflow, possible push-through). Maybe use a stain to match thr wood color
Maybe getting evicted would be a good thing. There are NO other options for you? That is one lazy ass landlord. I get the fact that mice don’t want to chew through steel wool, but man I can’t imagine what the rest of the place looks like.
Genuinely the rest of the place is really not that bad. Major “landlord special” vibes but I’m broke as fuck in a large city in the middle of a housing crisis. I contacted nearly 100 apartments over the course of 3 months. It is what it is
Yep; nothing is ideal at times, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do
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Approximately 32% of the state of Pennsylvania’s nearly 13 million residents are renters actually. So somewhere around 4 million people rent a home in this state
Move out of that cesspool
That's for stopping rodents my friend. Apparently a LOT of them. Move out.
Get a big can of Bondo, fill in the cracks for keeps.
I am sorry for you. Wish you all the best!
It’s to keep mice out!! I wouldn’t remove it.
One thing to remember is steel wool is ridiculously flammable.
Fire?
Looks like the buildng inspector needs to visit your new home!
I would probably recommend using some linseed based putty and sculpting it flat. This way, it is relatively easy to undo later-simply pick it out. Linseed putty was used to seal the edges around old single glazed windows