I accidently spilled draino on my carpet. What can I use to neutralize the spill to limit the damage?

Question

I accidently spilled draino on my carpet. What can I use to neutralize the spill to limit the damage?
Drano leaked out of a box that was stored in my living room. Moved the box the other night and noticed a bleached spot on carpet. Used lots of water to try to clean up spill. Ran carpet cleaning machine over spot several times to try to help. Still smell strong "bleach" smell from spot. Carpet fibers are damaged, and can be easily pulled out. Need advice to find something to neautralize leftover draino to limit additional damage.

Answer 1

Good Question!

NEVER DILUTE A BASE WITH AN ACID! ALWAYS USE WATER FOR DILUTION UNLESS THE SUBSTANCE THAT YOU ARE DILUTING IS WATER REACTIVE (SUCH AS ELEMENTAL SODIUM)

Look in the NIOSH Pocket Guide (NPG) for information concerning most household chemicals. If the chemical that you are looking for isn't in the NPG. look in Wikipedia. I've been surprised that they have quite a number of chemicals on Wiki.
If you still can't find it, then contact your local hospital lab for a chemist consult.

It sounds like you've already diluted the NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide) that was in the Drano. Now you have the bleaching caused by the NaOCl (Sodium HypoChlorite); common house bleach and also present in Drano to some degree, to worry about.
No amount of scrubbing or diluting will get the Bleaching out of your carpet. The color has already been changed by the Chlorine solution. The only thing that you can do is to take up the carpet and clean underneath it with soapy water followed by a clean water rinse.
Also, get rid of the carpet and replace it.
I've tried to get carpet dyed before that had been exposed to Chlorine and it doesn't work.
Furthermore, exposing any residual chlorine to Acetic acid (vinegar) will give you some nasty by-products (Chloroacetic Acid - weed killer, and Hydrochloric A cid) that you really don't want in your house.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>.

If you are in doubt about any of this, please ask for a consult from a Chemist at your local hospital.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

I am removing/changing this answer b/c it has been (rightly so) corrected by another poster. While it is SOMETIMES okay to neutralize a base with a weak acid like vinegar, I didn't think about the fact that Drano does contain bleach as well, and that sodium hypochlorite (see the ingredients list below) really shouldn't be mixed with acids. From the wikipedia article:

(quote)Bleach should never be mixed with other household cleaners, especially not with ones containing acid, since this results in the generation of chlorine gas. It should also never be mixed with anything containing ammonia, since chloramine gas can be gained from this combination. Urine contains ammonia, so bleach should not be used to clean urine spills. Both chlorine gas and chloramine gas are highly toxic. Bleaches also react rather violently with hydrogen peroxide.(endquote)

I stand corrected. If Drano contained ONLY sodium hydroxide and water, mixing it with VERY dilute acetic acid would probably work just fine, but because there are bleaching ingredients in the mix as well, DON'T DO IT!

Flush with lots of water and get a professional to repair it.

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drano ingredients, from http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/brands?tbl=brands&id=19001012 if you're interested - if you have the liquid stuff, it's mostly water.

Ingredients from MSDS/Label
ChemicalCAS No / Unique IDPercent
Sodium hydroxide001310-73-21-5
Sodium silicate001344-09-81-5
Sodium hypochlorite007681-52-93-7
Water007732-18-560-100

Answer 3

It is too late now to neutralize since you said yourself that the carpet is damaged and fibers are coming out. You cannot reverse it.
Draino was designed to degrade these fibers...!
Rinse it with the steamer and clean water and use fan with open windows to dry and air the odors. I know that there is a way to patch the carpet by cutting the square out and adding a new square. You will have to match the square to what you have.
Sorry on the bad news!

Answer 4

Drano is strongly caustic - a base. To neutralize, use an acid, but a weak one to keep from having a violent reaction or tipping the scales too far to the acid side.

Best bet is probably already in your kitchen - plain old vinegar. Vinegar is (chemically speaking) dilute acetic acid. It will react with any base left and yield harmless end products.

Answer 5

Dillute the spill as much as possible, try H2o and baking soda. And more water.

Answer 6

have the area around the damaged place cut out and repaired by a carpet professional... or you may have to replace the carpet entirely....

Answer 7

check contents of Drano (think it is a base). identify primary ingredient, look up it's pH. find it's relative opposite (an acid)
be careful! dilute heavily. gradually increase strength until desired results.
consult a professional (this is hypothetical babble)

Answer 8

HCO3- is a great buffer to control chemical spills...usually on the raods...but also in your living room (bi carbonate soda)