Easily insulating a bay window seat?

Morgan19

Hey everyone,

Hopefully I chose the right section to post this in...

I've been renting a townhome this year and have discovered that its bay window seat is incredibly drafty: the inside seat part is sinking down in one corner (getting soft from being exposed to outside moisture, I think), leaving a bit of a hole and a draft coming in from outside. The outside surface of the seat's underside isn't sealed up or anything, so cold air's coming in pretty steadily when I put my hand against the sinking part.

I definitely want to fix the problem, but since I'm only renting for another 6 months at this point I don't particularly want to drag an expensive contractor in, etc. From what I'm reading online the solution could be as simple as getting some insulating foam cut to an appropriate size, slapping it under the outside floor, and then covering that up with something?

I'm new to this sort of thing though, so was hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction for a solution that 1) is inexpensive, 2) I can do myself, and 3) doesn't involve taking the seat or walls apart but rather just insulating what's already there.

Thanks!
m19

jklingel

check w/ the landlord first, but stopping air movement is priority one. if you can do that w/ rigid foam or a can of spray foam, git 'er done. w/out pics, hard to see what is going on w/ the "sinking" part.

Ron6519

You're renting, you don't own the property. If you have an issue, call the landlord.
Wait until you own the property before you apply your home improvement prowess.
Ron

Tom Struble

aww...slapping on some foam and covering it up with something sounded like fun

Ron6519

If some yahoo tenent of mine started modifying the property, I'd cut his nuts off.
Ron

Morgan19

So, back to actually answering the question I had...

warnerww

I would first contact the landlord to see if he will fix the problem. If he refuses then I would try to seal the holes as best I could with expansion foam or insulation with a vapor barrier and I would not worry to much about how it looked. But give the landlord a chance first he or she may not even know the problem exists. Good landlords care about their property and are actually happy to fix problems that could cause damage to their property.