Disgusting smell plaguing my house

[Orangelover]

Pretty much as it says on the tin!

A couple of weeks ago me and OH noticed a disgusting smell in our kitchen that pretty much smelt like gone off, sour milk rotting somewhere

We assumed that it was either the fridge - which I cleaned out and disinfected and found no obvious source of odour, or the bin - emptied and zoflora'd the whole thing. Smell still there...

Cleaned the kitchen whole kitchen and downstairs to within an inch of its' life (Which has been done multiple times in the last few weeks anyway as we've just sold the house!), had everything out of all of my cupboards. The smell still lingered!

The kitchen is all integrated, so OH has took the bottom panel out and we've looked underneath all of the cupboards to no avail. The smell just continues to waft throughout the kitchen diner.

The downstairs is reasonably open plan so I then moved onto the living room - done a full clean of the carpets and sofa. Pulled sofa out - nothing underneath. Had doors and windows open throughout constantly to air anything out.

I feel like I've pretty much tried everything to locate the disgusting smell. It even seems to be evolving into a drainy smell! I've mr muscled all the sinks just incase but I'm really at a loss now with what else to try. I'm very conscious that we'll be moving house in a few weeks and I really don't want the nice lady who's buying it to be stuck with this revolting stench that I can not source! I'm pretty good at maintaining my cleaning standards so this is greatly upsetting me without trying to be too dramatic!

Anyone had similar? Is there anything glaringly obvious that I have overlooked in my quest to rid myself of this pungent pergatory

My first thought is a rotting mouse somewhere.

Do you have underfloor heating? I rented a place with it once, and we had a terrible smell in the kitchen for weeks! We eventually discovered a mouse had nibbled through the waste pipe of the dishwasher, and all the dirty water/food particles had been leaking out each time we used it, and was slowly being 'cooked' by the underfloor heating. (not envy!) ''twas revolting.

Electrical/wiring issues can sometimes smell like rotten fish? We had it about 25 years ago. Absolutely stunk, but not consistent. Turned out there was some very dodgy wiring and when ever whatever it was was being used it would smell.

Dead mouse - a right pain if it's under the floorboards and you can't get at it. Can last 4-6 weeks... light some candles!

Tbf our building is riddled with mice and I've never smelled a dead mouse from under the floorboards. More likely drainage related I would say.

Neighbour found 2 dead rats under the kickboard in the kitchen after the pest controller had visited the house a few weeks earlier.
The vile smell was like cooked cabbage.

We had a dead rat behind a fridge in our garage. It had climbed up the back of the fridge freezer and become stuck.

It was as you describe. Worse when we opened the freezer door. I still remember having some ice cream that tasted awful. I now realise it was Eau du rat 🤢

Cough it be neighboirs drain?

This is exactly what happened to us !

There was a foul stink in the kitchen. We have two sinks and one of them does not get used as much. Sometimes when I use it there is a bad eggy smell but not on this occasion.

We looked at everything and even looked in the outside drains. I left bleach down the sinks and in the downstairs loo and it still smelled.
We pulled up the floorboards in the adjoining room as I thought there was a dead rat under the boards.

I had new lino laid in the kitchen. When they pulled up the old lino it was wet and smelled like a sewer. The second sink had a leak which by- passed the unit which was dry going down the back of it and went onto the floor and seeped under the lino.

We had to get strong disinfectant and then have it dried out with a fan heater and a humidifier for about two days.

The leak was mended and new lino laid and no smell.

I am now invested in finding out what it was. OP please update!

OH got home from work reeeeeally late last night and has promised me tonight is the night for fridge moving and going behind the oven.

My kitchen has massive, hard gloss tiles so if there was anything under there in the floor boards I'd be surprised if I could smell it!

House is about 21 years old, no chimney breasts for dead birds or anything.

I'm convinced it's either something strange behind the oven or the dodgy fridge tray theory. Both will be investigated tonight

So gross! If it's a mouse my cat needs to be taking note.

I tell you, check your oven mitts first

I do love these threads though - just like the "what's that intermittent beep in my house" ones.

We had something like this - it turned out to be some weird drainage bit at the back (ie outside back) of the fridge that had got blocked with food detritus from the fridge. It was seemingly a design flaw with that particular fridge (we googled it), so might be worth doing this?

We had a truly disgusting smell in the downstairs toilet two or three years ago; it turned out to be dead rats in the roof space of the extension. It's apparently a common problem - the builders didn't cap off the old drain when the new one went live so the rats got in that way. It was awful!

We had this once and when we pulled out the built in fridge , there was a little tray with absolutely rank water in it with scum on top . I can only imagine some thing had leaked into the drain hole in the back of the fridge .

If you haven’t managed to locate it yet, have you got an extractor fan above your cooker?

We had a god awful smell Almost like rotten fish, that was centred around our kitchen/hallway/landing.
I couldn’t get rid of I despite cleaning absolutely everything. I even pulled up the stair carpet thinking it was that. Turned out it was the extractor above the cooker and every time it was switched on the smell was getting pushed back into the hallway and therefore the rest of the house.

Gave the whole thing a thorough clean inside and out, (the amount of grease build up inside was rank!) smell disappeared.

A dead mouse smells. A dead STINKS!!!!!

Oops. That should have said "A dead mouse smells. A dead rat STINKS"!!!!!

I'm over involved now. I need to find out what the smell was.

Every time we've had similar it's been a rancid potato. They are VILE.

Oh no, they were investigating on Wednesday night and haven't been heard of since!

I moved into my flat and there was a stench, anyway it was the kitchen sink plug clogged and caked in grime from washing up and the pipes under the sink, same smell as you say, I cleaned all the plug, and have poured hot water and washing up liquid and soda crystals, vinegar etc through the pipes and have the door open and kitchen window open alot, you couldn't smell it now

Before you pull out the fridge double check stored potatoes thoroughly. We had a lingering smell and husband assured me he’d already checked the vegetables. Sure enough a small one in the corner of a bag looked okay but on closer inspection was oozing. Rank! 🤮

Overcome by the stench Hollowtalk

I was thinking mouse or rat. Or the fridge we had that. We clean it ( the hole)and move it fairly often now.

Drip tray of fridge for me. I had to take a panel off the back.