horrible brown liquid (like balsamic vinegar) seeping out of the bricks in my kitchen HELP!!!!!

[pellmell]

It's above a double oven, in an unused fireplace with a chimney over-head. We dont have an extractor above the cooker. there is just a metal insert blocking (and preventing things falling in I presume)
The liquid is actually bleeding out of the bricks just below the chimney and splashing all over the cooker top.
Any theories ?

maybe santa actually got stuck up there and is now slowly decomposing?

morningpaper, you are a sicko

Have you seen the Amityville film?

so thats why i didnt get any presents

MP

Just asked DH and he is not sure either, did ask has it rained with you?

Grease?

Have you been using this fireplace over the oven for a long while, or is it a recent addition?

Did you have the chimney swept before the oven went in?

lol at MP ] but I would imagine that it is accumulated liquefied grease and cooking debris.

does ths outside of the chimney look like this?

What does it smell of? Does it smell sulphorous or sooty?

oh that picture did make me laugh.
It doesn't feel greasy at all and smells a bit like rusty metal.
The oven was there when we moved in six years ago.

Does it remind you of creosote?

yes actually it does?

yes actually it does?

Steam from the cooker going up into the chimney and reacting with the metal insert causing rust and then dripping/seeping down?

It sounds like your chimney hasn't been lined and the condensation rising from steamy pans etc is causing the sooty deposits from the inside of the chimney (which will have built up naturally over time) to dissolve, drip down and then come out through the bricks.

I would get someone in to make sure that your flue has been fully lined and would install an extractor hood.

the metal insert should be stainless steel so wouldn't be rusting.