Clorox cleanup

[Rhonda]

I was cleaning up a cupboard and discovered that a bottle
of Clorox bleach leaked and some of it soaked into the
painted wallboard and has dried. I'm afraid if I just clean
it up with water there will still be some bleach left
in the wallboard.

Is there a way to neutralize the bleach?

[Phisherman]

On Thu, 07 Oct 2004 01:47:05 GMT, Rhonda <rhonda@yahoo.com> wrote:

>I was cleaning up a cupboard and discovered that a bottle
>of Clorox bleach leaked and some of it soaked into the
>painted wallboard and has dried. I'm afraid if I just clean
>it up with water there will still be some bleach left
>in the wallboard.
>
>Is there a way to neutralize the bleach?

There are chemicals to neutralize bleach (visit an aquarium pet
store). If the bleach has dried, any damage has already happened.

I might add that household bleach has a shelf life and slowly degrades
over time. For that reason, it is best not to buy more than can be
used in a couple months.

[Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.]

Hi Rhonda

Chlorine is a gas!
In the case of bleach it is held in suspension in a liquid who's pH is
a strong BASE.

If the wall is dry, you can be rest assured there is no Chlorine
remaining in the wall.
Your primary concern should be WHAT Base was used to hold the Chlorine
in liquid suspension.

Bleach at one time used a lye base to hold the chlorine in suspension.
I was told that other bases are used nowadays for this purpose.

The wallboard itself is an alkaline base, a base usually does not harm
a base, so perhaps just resealing the wall with a sealer will prevent
stains from leaching into new surface paint.

TTUL
Gary