Benzalkonium chloride leaked into basement floor

[Damnation2]

A cheap bottle I had containing benzalkonium chloride, for household cleaning, leaked entirely into one spot on my basement floor. The leakage wasn't noticed until after my carpet was bleached orange and the benzalkonium chloride solution was already dry. The carpet and padding have both been replaced since then; however, the fumes emanating throughout my basement have not gone away! Do I need to peel-up the padding and scrub the concrete surface using a special surfactant? I have no clue about how porous basement concrete can be, but maybe the liquid penetrated deep into the concrete material.

How bad can this be? All thoughts and advice will be greatly appreciated. Please offer any insight you can. Thank you.

 

[DaveE]

Unless your concrete was coated with a sealer, it is probably quite porous.
Otherwise I'm useless here. I have no idea how to clean it up.
You could try painting the floor with a concrete sealant. They are easy to find at hardware stores in California.

 

[Damnation2]

Sorry, ignore 'benzalkonium chloride'. I've discarded the bottle and I wasn't able to find the actual ingredients until now.

Here they are:

Active Ingredients
Alkyl (C14, 50%; C12, 40%; C16, 10%) 0.034%
Octyl Decyl Dimethyl Ammonium Chloride 0.026%
Didecyl Dimethyl Ammonium Chloride 0.013%
Dioctyl Dimethyl Ammonium Chloride 0.013%
Inert Ingredients 99.914%

Unless your concrete was coated with a sealer, it is probably quite porous.
Otherwise I'm useless here. I have no idea how to clean it up.
You could try painting the floor with a concrete sealant.

Thanks. The concrete surface wasn't sealed before the leakage. If these fumes really are coming from the concrete, are you saying a concrete seal might be able to contain the fumes, or that it might prevent a similar problem from occurring in the future?

 

[techie52]

Hi Damnation2. I am not a chemist, but a quick Google of one of the ingredient names suggests that they are quaternary ammonium compounds, a group that includes benzalkonium chloride.

Your bottle had less than 0.1% of the active ingredient. I work with solutions of ~2% benzalkonium chloride frequently - it's great for getting rid of mold, mildew, algae on concrete etc. (see product "Wet and Forget"). I find those solutions nearly odorless. I don't know what you are smelling, but it is more likely to be related to the "inert" ingredients of the product that leaked, or (more likely IMO) the replacement padding and carpet you installed, than the active ingredients of the product that leaked.