Organic Floor Leveler???

GeneSilman

At the request of my client I was forced to use Mapei's Novaplan 2 floor leveler. I purchased this material from 3 different Lowes stores and bought all they had.

I noticed on the side of the packaging there was a stamp that read "EXP08/08".....so I asked the clerks at all three locations if this is an expiration date. All three replied "It wouldn't make no sense to put on expiration date on concrete, it must be a warehouse or batch number".

So I used it on a 4,200 sq ft floor. After day 2 when I walked on it I could hear it crack underneath my feet. The entire floor is ruined and needs redone now. Frustrated I called Mapei and spoke to their technical service rep Sean who told me that I would need to call back and instead of accusing them I would need to politely ask for help. I called back and spoke to rep Carlos he assured me that their products are perishable and compared my using expired concrete to buying and eating expired food.
I asked him to look at the package label and tell me where I overlooked the sentence "Do Not Use Beyond Expiration Date"...but it doesn't exist it is implied. Why an expiration date is implied for concrete is beyond me.

Guess it is my fault for not knowing that EXP08/08 on a bag of concrete material means it will become rotten.

I'm never using any of Mapei's junk on any of my jobs ever again. I plan on creating a website showing and explaining the problems I encountered dealing with Mapei's demeaning customer service and even worse products.

I think Mapei needs to stop selling trash to the public without some sort of disclaimer showing the 30 day shelf life.


Has anyone else had this problem with mapei and their poor quality of products?

jogr

August 2008 ain't over yet. That stuff might be junk but it hasn't reached the expiration date on the label yet. Squawk like crazy to the manufacturer and to Lowes.

Bud Cline

ALL Self Levelling Compounds, Thinsets, and Grouts have an absolute shelf life and they do in fact expire. Just because that product was still technically within the limits that doesn't mean it hadn't already gone bad. It all depends on how the products are handled as they move through the marketing chain.

Just a few weeks ago I also had an issue with some Custom Level Quick. In this case the product went to hell upon installation. There was no expiration or manufacturers code on the bags I bought so I couldn't determine how old the product really was. I called Custom and when I described the problem the techie first told me it sounded like an installer error.

Well.......I set his ass straight in a heartbeat and he then nice-up and offered to immediately replace the product I needed at no charge. When I explained what it was doing he then said he recognized those issues as "out-of-date" product. That's fine and I appreciate that part but WHAT THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THE CRAP I HAD ALREADY INSTALLED. Who's gonna take that out and redo it?

What makes then think all installers are idiots?

I think we all should hammer all the manufacturers at every opportunity to make them print life cycle information on all of their products that have the ability to expire on the shelf. I don't mean secret hidden codes, I mean plain English up-front dates and warning statements for all to readily see and use.

It's a pisser for sure!