Kitchen odour, help its driving me crazy

[Smellycat32]

Moved into this house 3 months ago.
When I viewed the house it smelt of cleaning products, there was air freshers, diffusers etc, I didn't think anything of it.
On moving in I noticed the kitchen smelt odd-I still can't put my finger on what the smell is.

I have cleaned the cupboards thoroughly-several times, its a good quality kitchen, maybe 10 years old, no signs of damp or stains in the cupboards.

I decided to pull up the lino and put down tiled flooring, I genuinely thought that would solve the issue(not sure why!), under the lino was original tiles, we tiled on top of them.

I've put air freshners in the kitchen, so that masks the issue in the actual room, but inside the cupboards still smell, so much so that the crockery smells.

Its not a terrible smell, its not offensive, but its driving me slowly crazy, sitting eating/drinking and being able to smell "the smell" on the plates/cups.

The kitchen ceiling is painted wood, could that be the issue?

Thinking about ripping out the kitchen just in the hope of solving the problem, but concerned that it won't help.

Any thoughts?

It's probably something behind your backboards or kickboards unfortunately OP. Rip it all out and tell us what you find

Is it the washing machine?

Or behind the washing machine where it has leaked in the past and soaked whatever there is to soak?

Clean the drains? Check for any open but not used drains behind the units. Check atop of the cupboards? Change any filters in extractor hoods? Do other people smell it ?- covid is said to change your sense of smell.
if you could use one word to describe the smell what would it be.?

Burn it. Burn it all.

It will be a mummified mouse under the kick boards laying next to a hard cube of cheese and poison pellets....

Or an old dishcloth that got darked on and kicked under the cupboard an glows green under UV light with spider spunk.....

is it cooking-related smell, such as old fat?

or a food smell, like rotting potato? or spices?

or a drain smell?

or an animal smell?

or an old-person skin smell (sorry, but it is an actual thing)?

have you scrubbed the tops of the kitchen units, especially near the cooker?

Definitely not washing machine, thats in the utility, which doesn't smell, and also doesn't have a wooden ceiling-hence why I wondered if it was wood related

Can you air out the kitchen? Our house had an unidentifiable smell, it took months of airing out to get rid of it. It might be left over smell from something they cooked a lot. So also check the ceiling and hob vent thing (brain fog, hopefully you know what i mean!)

None of those things, I really wish I could think of a word to describe the smell.
When I talk to people about it they instantly say damp, but its not, I've lived in houses with damp before and never smelt this smell prior to now.

When the tiles were laid the tiling man took off all the kickboards to tile under them, then I put them back on, so although I couldn't be 100% sure-I don't think theres anything under there

That sounds like it could work, airing might be the way to go.
Drains- I keep on pouring bleach and zoflora down the sink at regular intervals, I wonder if it could be the drains.

I did read somewhere about cider vinegar? I think it was, I put a bowl of it in one of the cupboards for a few days, the smell in that cupboard disappeared, but once I took the bowl out the smell returned

So the kitchen has a wooden ceiling? (If I’ve read the latest posts right) Could it be cooking smells soaked into it along with grease? Can you get up a step ladder and sniff up close ?

if you do have a wooden ceiling - could something have crept in (crapped) and died..

Its possible that smells have soaked in-would that make the inside of cupboards smell?

I will get the step ladders out and give it a sniff.

I am blessed! with a stupidly sensitive sense of smell, others can smell it, but i think its more prominent for me.

Well wood does seem to soak up smells (according to my nose!). My cupboards next to the extractor had a whiff of grease- previous owner didn’t seem to like cleaning. A really good scrub with bleach and very hot soapy water, then a sock filled with cat litter placed inside for a month, seems to have neutralised the smell. Or - I’ve become used to it. But the smell hasn’t affected any mugs/plates/wrapped goods… which makes yours more of a mystery.

Rotten potato. In my experience, it's always a rotten potato

I have hope now, thank you.
I will have another thorough clean, maybe bleach is the answer.
I had hoped I'd stop noticing the smell, but sadly not, in fact I try not to breathe when I open the cupboards now!
So maybe ripping out the celing as oppose to the kitchen is the solution,

Cockroaches give of a smell.
Like a unpleasant, musty, oil , mildew type smell

Was the house empty for any time? Or owned by an elderly person that may not have used all of the cupboards regularly?

Our house was empty for years and that peculiar musty smell remained trapped in the built in cupboards, lobby etc for years.

If we go on holiday I still get a faint whiff on return nine years later.

Bicarb and leaving the cupboards open, especially at times they might be in direct sunlight may help

I don’t think this is the reason but …
Make sure the drain hole inside at the back of your fridge is clear & cleaned of debris. Poke a straw down it & think of a way to squirt a small amount of bleach or Milton down it.
Pull out the fridge and check that the drainage tray at the base & rear (which starts inside the fridge as above) is clean & clear.
I know from experience that decaying matter & dried up waste moisture can smell terrible.
Took me weeks to work out where the sulphurous odour was coming from . Never had an issue since.
Really weird because I’m very clean in my house.

@Gaveitall i think if you are clean, then the odd nasty whiff really, really becomes a lot more noticeable. Kind of proof that you are clean iyswim.
one bad smell amongst many doesn’t stand out. (My theory and I’m sticking to it!)

Check your fridge's drip tray.

Clean the over hob fan, change the filter?

Hot bleach down the drains?

Remove the u bend from the sink and wash out all the gunk that gets stuck in there if you think it might be drainy.

Can you look behind the runs of cupboards in the service void? Is there an appliance you can pull out crawl in the gap with a torch to see if there's damp on the wall / back of the cupboards? Or like PP said, random plumbing for something (maybe the w.machine used to be in the kitchen) and there's a drain that's not been capped off. A u bend would dry out over time and then you'd get a stink coming up from the drains.

Is there a local general appliance fixed whizz type person? Everywhere I've lived there's been one or two everyone raves about on local Facebook groups. I'd track one down and get them to take a look at all the appliances, change all the filters etc.