Cleaning and Stain Removal - Messed up...

Hope this is the right place to ask :confused:

When I bought the house (my first) water ran down the interior wood stove flue whenever it rained so I went up on the roof and sealed the flue to the roof with roofing sealant.

Didn't take into account the heat generated by future fires. So now, instead of water I have black, gooey asphalt dripping along the pipe into the living room.

I went out and got some mortar/caulk specially made for high heat areas so it won't happen again (or, at least, will stop when the stuff I did put up there exhausts itself) but is there a way, other than pure elbow grease, to remove what did drip down along the metal pipe flue?

The only excuse I have is that I'm an idiot! :mad:

If the "stuff" is in an accessible area, you could try heating it with a torch and wiping it off as it melts.
Your flue pipe situation sounds dangerous to me. If it gets hot enough to melt the sealer, it could get hot enough to catch the roof on fire. Everywhere I have lived, double or triple walled pipe had to be used on a fireplace or stove after it exited through a ceiling. Good luck.

On the roof the flue is encircled by and separated from the roof by a built up upside-down cone(?) wrapped in fiberglass and coated with what I thought was tar/asphalt. That is what I patched and is now leaking.

A contractor will soon be doing other major work on the house, I'll run it by him just to be sure there are NO safety issues.