In our bedroom, we have a heater that goes along the wall, and on one side, there are 2 pipes that go into the floor. My landlord left the floor underneath the heater completely unfinished (it's just dirt and rocks), and did not attempt to close the hole that the pipes are going through, so it's just a big empty space that goes into the basement. (Note: I've asked him multiple times to get this fixed up, but alas, he has no interest in doing that). I'm looking for a solution that both will keep pests (bugs, mice) out, and also maybe make it look less unfinished. My initial thought was that I should stuff steel wool into the hole to close it, so I did that. But this past week we've had roaches in our bedroom, so I want to ensure bugs can also not come in. I was thinking about expanding foam (on top of the steel wool?), but the internet seems to not totally agree on whether expanding foam is okay to use on heater pipes. I'm also not exactly sure what I can do to the area beneath the heater - there are very small cracks in the floor/wall that I think bugs can come through, and I want to close those as well (foam? steel wool?). But I'm also interested to know if there is something I can put here (caulk?) to seal it off and not have it just be dirt & rocks.
tl;dr: should I use steel wool + foam to seal off a hole around my heater pipes along the wall & floor near the heater? or maybe caulk? or is there a better solution?
