SideQuest 10: Skunk Battles & Sewer Scopes: The Art of Diagnosis

If you have a low tolerance for chaos, the How to Handyma’am podcast might not be for you—but if you have a home, you’ve likely experienced the "Organized Chaos" of a repair that just won’t stay fixed.

In our 10th SideQuest, we’re tackling the most overlooked step in any DIY project: The Diagnosis.

Don’t Let the Pros Gaslight You

We recently consulted with a listener, Q, who had been living with a recurring sewer smell for four years. She’d spent $6,000 on multiple contractors who all told her "it’s fine".

Here’s the Handyma’am rule: If it smells like poop, it isn’t fine.

A reputable contractor should always be willing to show you the "why." For sewer issues, that means a camera scope. As we discussed in the episode, always ensure your contractor provides a video of the scope on a thumb drive. It’s your proof of what’s actually happening underground—whether it’s a grease clog from the previous owners or a tree root protruding through 1914 clay tiles.

The Skunk in the Living Room (Literally)

Emily shared her own diagnostic journey this week involving a skunk living 10 feet from her HVAC intake. After considering trying coyote urine pellets and trying orange peels (which the skunk seemingly enjoyed), she leaned into the "why." Skunks are nocturnal and hate light. By prying up a porch board and dropping in a simple plug-in lightbulb, she reclaimed her home without traps or toxins.

The "How it Works" Method

Whether it's a mortise lock from the turn of the century or a modern toilet that won't stop running, the first step is always to find a diagram.

• Look it up: How is it supposed to function?

• Compare: What is missing or broken in your version?

• Verify: Don't take a "professional's" word for it if your gut (or your nose) tells you otherwise.

Want more "Organized Chaos"? Join the nearly 800 women in our Facebook Village to share your diagnostic wins and fails. And remember: a five-star review on Apple Podcasts helps us reach the women who are still being told their home's problems are "normal."

Transcript:

Here is the clean transcript for your blog post, edited for clarity and readability without the names in front:

Hello! Welcome back to the SideQuest. If you hate that intro… bye! This might not be the show for you if you have a low tolerance for chaos. I’m a hardcore believer that you don’t have to be good at something to enjoy doing it, and I think that about singing. I think so too; I just think sometimes you have to be good at it to do it around other people—which is why I don’t sing!

This is How to Handyma’am, the episode where we allow ourselves to go down little bunny trails that we try to stay away from in the main episode. It’s a big try, because we definitely still go down bunny trails there. One of the three of us is usually reining the others in, and that definitely changes from time to time. It depends on who has squirrels running around upstairs. Just to remind the listeners, my squirrels are named Gerald and Geraldine. I actually do talk to squirrels, but not in a psychotic way. I don’t expect them to respond—unless they are telling me their names.

Anyway, I have an animal living under my porch. I think it’s a kitty, but I hope it’s not a skunk. We are putting up a trail camera to see what it is. If it’s a stray cat, I might get it fixed and give it a blanket.

I need to explain why I know when skunk mating season is. My neighborhood has a skunk… I don’t want to say infestation, because they live there, but they are the indigenous population. I looked up how to get rid of them online. They said coyote urine pellets—yuck. My dog eats anything, so that was a bad plan. Then they said they don’t like oranges. I threw oranges in the hole, and they probably just thought, “Mmm, my house smells delicious now.”

They are living under my porch, which is ten feet from my HVAC intake. When they sprayed their "smelly smells" to attract mates in January and February, I was losing my mind. I couldn't sleep; it was so smelly. So, I came up with a solution. Skunks are nocturnal. I pried up a porch board—this was my Moby Dick moment, I was Ishmael going insane—and I put a plug-in cord with a lightbulb under there. No more skunks! They don’t want to share space with a light.

That is a long introduction to tell you that this episode is about diagnosing your problems. As a chronically curious person, I always want to know why and how something is happening. That is specifically good for "handy-peopling," because the why helps you figure out the how.

We’re going to tell you a story about a specific diagnostic situation. We had a listener reach out who has been dealing with a sewer smell inside and outside of her house for four years. Multiple contractors told her it was “fine,” and she has spent $6,000 trying to fix it. We FaceTimed with her on Saturday. Usually, a sewer smell comes from one specific source, often a floor drain that has dried out. If you have a floor drain you don’t use, you just need to pour a five-gallon bucket of water down there to restore the seal. But that wasn't her problem.

We were asking, "Where is the smell? When do you smell it? Is it worse in the heat?" She told us she still smelled it even when it was in the negatives last week. What surprised us was that after four years and $6,000, nobody had done a camera scope of the sewer drain. A sewer scope is a reasonable, non-invasive diagnostic tool that costs around $250. You need to know if the pipe is broken underground.

This listener lives on a shale cave system with a lot of seismic activity. She actually has an active sinkhole in her backyard that has the sewer smell coming out of it. If the house is settling, and the septic tank is on one side and the sinkhole is on the other, the settling could be prying the pipes apart. You could have sewage seeping into the earth or straight into the sinkhole. She’s having guests over for a party, and she’s like, “Here’s your hamburger with a side of poop smell.”

A reputable contractor who does a sewer scope will always give you a thumb drive with the video proof. You need to see the "why" before you spend thousands on the "how." Don’t let men tell you something is normal when your gut tells you it isn’t. No one wants to live with a sewer smell.

The best way to figure out how to fix something is to figure out how it works. When I was first learning to be a Handyma’am, I was given a project with mortise locks—those old-fashioned rectangle boxes. I looked up a diagram of how they work, and I realized, “Oh, there’s supposed to be a spring here, and this one doesn't have one.” You’ll never know a spring is broken if you don’t even know there is a spring inside. Exactly—investigate, take pictures, and do research to get a handle on what it’s supposed to look like.

This weekend at our daughter Hannah’s house, the basement faucet broke. I looked at the replacement in the store and opened the box to look at the diagram. I realized it was for a copper pipe direct-connect, which wasn't the setup she had. I saved myself the trip of buying and returning it just by looking at the instructions. Equip yourself with the knowledge of how it works, and you’ll feel a lot better. And if you’re still frustrated, call your Handyma’ams!

Post videos in our Facebook group. Someone else is likely having the same problem you are. We are running at 25 minutes, so we’re going to wrap it up to honor our unofficial, non-real rule of staying under 30 minutes. We will see you on Friday! Don’t forget to visit us at "How to Handyma’am" on socials or join our group.

If you love what we’re doing, the coolest thing you can do is listen the day the podcast comes out and leave a five-star review. It helps the Apple algorithm suggest us to strangers who need to hear this! We love you! See you soon.