Have lovely finished (knotty pine) basement; old house 50yrs, tiled floor, fireplace , bar, & colored flood lights at the top, like from the 50's? Is there some way I can insulate the space between the knotty pine and the concrete walls. Concrete walls have been painted with water proof paint 30 years ago, and could possibly be peeling. There is a space at the top of the knotty pine where I could throw in insulation; this may sound like a crazy idea to some of you, but could I throw some styrofoam packing pebbles into that space to insulate it???? I would not have adequate access to put in a vapor barier, other than the paint that's already there. I do not want to rip up the basement to insulate, for one thing , the wood is very dry and brittle, but still looks great and the workmanship would cost a fortune; there is no leakage, but a dehumidifier is necessary in the summer; I took one of these styrofoan pebble an put a flame to it and it caught right away, and I didn't even wait long enough to smell the fumes; could I use vermitculit? What can I do?? Grateful for any advice or ideas. jj

I need to replace my basement stairs. I can not use the existing stringers as a guide to cut my new ones because they were not cut with all of the same size risers. The rise is 84" and the total run is 72". I have not been able to find a calculating tool on the web to confirm my calculations. I figure the riser height to be 8 13/32" (10 risers) and the tread to be 9" (9 treads). If someone knows the proper formula for calculating stairs, I would appreciate it if you would post it. Thank You!