[Damnation]

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.

[wildfyr]

Fumes? That chemical is not volatile, it's a salt.

[Damnation]

Whoa! I can't remember where I got that name from. Here's the ingredients:

    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%

[wildfyr]

It must be something in the inert ingredient (probably solvents) none of those are volatile either. What does it smell like?

If the ammoniums are degrading to amines it would smell like something died.

[Damnation]

Thanks for replying.

The fumes don't smell as if something has died. There's never been an easily identifiable smell. It's quite acrid and dank, but also subtle. It's like a rotten lime that's smouldering on the stove. Mind you, it's also noxious.