Home renovations and repairs are all about trial and error. If you have ever ventured into any type of home repair then you know where of I speak. Once in a while the trial part can develop into a comedy of errors.

That doesn't mean every do-it-your-self home repair will end up as a joke but some do. Most of the time the joke won't have any weight for a day or two, the anger and frustration needs time to mend. Lots of funny things can happen when we find ourselves elbow deep into something we have little or no experience with. This is when we depend on our common sense to guide us.

Often when we start in on a project that we can't predict the outcome we find ourselves flying by the seat of our pants. Opening a wall to find a water leak is truly a voyage of discovery. We just don't have any idea what we will find but we gotta find something and fix it. This is the trial and error part. Water can come from lots of places when we are working on home improvement.

Water can come from outside, a leaking water pipe or a drain pipe. It can come from a connection to a sink or an appliance like a dish washer or washing machine. Last week we were looking for the source of a bad smell. It was coming from somewhere down stairs. There is a washing machine, a small vanity, a toilet and a laundry tub. Nothing appeared to be leaking.

That doesn't mean that one or the other wasn't leaking we just couldn't find out where it was. A bad smell or sewer smell tells us that it comes from a drain that is not working properly and allowing the dirty water to flow somewhere other than the drain to the street. If you look under any sink in your house you can see a drain pipe that has a "P" shape. It's called a p-trap, go figure.

Its purpose is to trap a small amount of water so the sewer smell can't get back into the house. What a grand idea. It kinda makes you think about that first guy with indoor plumbing before they figured out that p-traps would be a good idea. What did his house smell like? Every drain in your house has a p-trap. The only ones you can see are the ones under the sinks. The rest are under the floor or in the wall.

A floor drain can have p-trap under the floor but if it's used very seldom or not at all it can dry out and this can be a source of stank in your basement that can be very hard to find. Trial and error, trying to find what drain is causing the trouble. Showers in the basement that never get used can be at fault too. The solution is rather obvious - run some water through it.

Our trouble was a broken drain pipe that ran into the floor. It was a crack that we could only see when we cleaned the pipe off and even then it was hard to detect. Only when I ran my hand over it did I notice where the crack started. It was even tougher to find where it ended. The house had been vacant for some time so there was no evidence of moisture that could have guided us to the leak quicker.

The end of the story is that we had to replace the entire pipe back to the spot where the crack began. After we had disturbed the pipe the overwhelming smell told us we were on the right track. It was not the most industrious use of my talents but now that it's over it's a great source of comedy. If I had any common sense that day I would have hired someone.