[0722paul0722]

I know this is DIY, but we hired a professional FRP installer to install our NRP panels in our lab and wanted to get some opinions on the work to help our case.

I don't like to place blame, but when there is blame I'd like to point it in the right direction. Whether it's a materials issue or installation issues, I'd like to find out from those who have experience.

The material is parkland plastics NRP wall paneling or Polywall. Anyways, after installation, there is some horrible bubbling on all of the panels. All of the materials used were supplied and/or recommended by the panel manufacturer.

When I saw the progress, he was 2 days in, never mentioned the issues, and was still wanting to finish the job. I instructed that he stop until we can find a solution. So here we are.

I know the installer is going to blame the manufacturer, the manufacturer is going to blame the installer, so that's the reason for the second opinions.

Regardless of who is to blame, I am just in shock that the installer didn't stop after the first panel. I'm no expert, but wow, you can tell when something doesn't look right.

 

[0722paul0722]

Thanks for the tip. We managed to get in touch with the manufacturer of the panels, and as expected, there are too many variables to pinpoint the problem during installation. They however, don't believe it to be the material, and I tend to agree with them on that. Those panels are what you see on the walls in every Wal-Mart.

In regards to installation, there are too many variables on that end to determine the cause of the issue, without spending more money. Humidity, temperature, adhesive, incorrect installation, etc.. But when you break it down to he-said/she-said, his fault/her fault, the installer should have stopped what he was doing after the first panel and informed someone. It looked terrible from the beginning and I'm not sure how anyone could be okay with putting their reputation on that end-result.

As far as I'm concerned, we are chalking it up to a loss of materials. We pulled a couple of the panels off the wall to see if the sheetrock was use-able, and we got lucky! So we are having all of the panels pulled today and will be re-directing our options to the backup, which is a Catalyzed Water-Based Epoxy paint. That should go a bit smoother!

 

[0722paul0722]

Another thing I though that was a little funny during all of this.. If you notice in one of the photos, there's an off-color sheet.. That is one of the cover sheets for shipping purposes.

 

[0722paul0722]

The adhesive was Liquid Nails #310 FRP adhesive. He also used a notched trowel to apply the adhesive. I included a picture of the trowled adhesive on the wall as well. He went through about 12 gallons of adhesive on about 1000-1200 sqft of wall. The temperature was around 75-80 degrees throughout the day and he just used his hand to press the panels in. A pressure roller would make sense to roll out the panels though.