Cement Expiry

[BadgerBadger]

Any thoughts on how sensitive the expiry date printed cement bags is? I've found mixed info online.  I have a number of bags of Mastercrete that expired in Oct, stored outside but seemingly in otherwise good condition.

[nod]

Like plaster The date is meaningless 

If it’s still powder It’s fine to use 

[ToughButterCup]

3 hours ago, nod said:

Like plaster The date is meaningless 

If it’s still powder It’s fine to use 

 

Even if (say) a quarter of the bag is one lump of solid cement, but the rest is powder..... ? I've got one or two of those and I'm about to skip them

[PeterW]

With cement it is the release of the chromium products that causes the issues but tbh cement doesn’t go “off”, just use with caution and preferably somewhere non structural !

[Radian]

13 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

Even if (say) a quarter of the bag is one lump of solid cement, but the rest is powder..... ? I've got one or two of those and I'm about to skip them

Not really necessary IMO. Like nod says, if its a powder it'll be fine. I've put it all through a garden sieve before now to sort out the usable powder from the lumps - I even crush up the lumps and mix into hardcore to make some use of it. That stuff goes off like concrete too eventually. No point wasting expensive materials when they can still serve a purpose. I've trained my nose to tell me when a mix is right. There's a certain smell to the gear when it's good.

 

'Gear' - listen to me trying to sound like a proper brickie 🤣

[SteamyTea]

32 minutes ago, Radian said:

Gear' - listen to me trying to sound like a proper county lines dealer

https://www.swanage.news/swanage-man-and-corfe-castle-woman-charged-with-drug-offences/

[ToughButterCup]

1 hour ago, Radian said:

...

I've trained my nose to tell me when a mix is right. There's a certain smell to the gear when it's good.

 ...

 

And presumably, it has a certain bouquet does it, and when you take a sip , then swill it round your mouth there's a certain fizz is there?

Right....  Must try that later today

[Radian]

2 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

And presumably, it has a certain bouquet does it, and when you take a sip , then swill it round your mouth there's a certain fizz is there?

Right....  Must try that later today

 

Oh yes! But I'd recommend adding a dash of SBR for a certain piquancy!

[ToughButterCup]

I'll have a sniff at least - might even report back if I don't stick my nose to a brick ......

[SteamyTea]

I seem to remember using some old, but we'll stored plaster, it had a very short working life.

The plasterer with me whined like a little boy about it.

Gave home 50 quid to get more, he returned with some from the same batch, from the same merchants.

He happily finished off.

 

I would think that old cement, if it has absorbed moisture, would not be as the manufacturer intended. This might not matter in a lot of instances, but might be catastrophic if the elements were key to the structural integrity.