Expert: James Ball - 1/6/2009

Question
Hey James. About 7 weeks ago, being the rocket scientists that we are, my husband and I decided to completely dismantle our Performer Cast Iron Woodburning Stove to thoroughly clean it for the coming winter. Except for the stove chamber itself, and its doors, we took everything apart, including the regulator box thing with its rod handle that sits between the flue and chamber. Cap off on the roof; flue pipes removed and disassembled laying on their sides, daylight completely visible through the ceiling, looking up at the blue sky, you know; real experts.  We cleaned everthing and put it all back together, and decided to turn the ends of the flue pipes in different directions before re-assebling them for what we thought would be a better fit, and scooted the stove around some to re-align the flue with the ceiling opening.  Again, geniuses at work.  As soon as it rained, rain poured down the flue on its outside , and ran down from ceiling to the outside of the stove chamber, and onto the floor. My husband went up on the roof and caulked the cap joints, and between the cap and rooftop.  A week or two after that, we built a fire, and sometime later we smelled a weird smell like creomulsion cough syrup and smoke in the living room. Never smelled that before. Walked in and there was this tarry, black stuff leaking down the outside of the flue, and even seeping through the seam where the two flue pipes connect. Where on earth did the two geniuses go wrong?     HELP!!!!

Answer
Hello Rochelle, if every thing worked before then you did not get it right when you put it back together (this you know) I would have a local Certified Chimney Sweep (www.csia.org, there you can look up by zip code to find one near you) take a first hand look at what you have if you have the manual for the pipe and stove that would help them. it might need to be disassembled and re assembled correctly.
keep me posted
James