and him pulling a permit. He advised me if he pulled the permit it would have to be for the full job not just electric so it would be better if I pulled an home owners inspection permit because I'm doing the basement in stages. I called and requested this and I was told it was 71.50 a sq ft and 4.50 per something else. Well I have 1200 Sqt so just adding that together that tells me that can't be right as that is about 85,000 bucks. I question why it would be so much to to finish my basement and was told thats the system and they hung up on me. I called back and got someone else and rephased the question still to get told they needed to know the full amount I was going to spend to finish the basement.

Anyone have any insight on this?

completely full of silt and mud. Water that collects at the bottom of the stairs eventually drains out (over a period of days) but a heavy rain will quickly overwhelm the area, and water comes in under the basement door.

I haven't been able to pry the drainplate off, but could probably chip out enough concrete to do that if I thought I could get the muck out of the well by removing it.

Covering the basement stairs is a possibility, but not an easy one in this case.

Any suggestions?

Anyone have ideas on how to do it yourself and make it look like real wood.

proof(specially the ceiling and stair well area. So should I do something like a rigid blue on the concrete area?, just do a good pink R30 something, moisture barrier, spray foam, wedges any ideals?