Bag of cement with lumps

[Saycheese5]

Hi,

I've got builders to do some work around the house. I noticed a couple of bags of cement have been lying on the ground for a few days, so after work I removed them and noticed a few hard lumps on one side of the bags. The bags are unopened, waterproof and their use by date is at the end of December.

Should those bags still be fit for their purpose, or shouldn't they be used at all?

It's not the first time I've seen that and I know that some builders merchants store their bags outdoors even when there's frost.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[Mw Roofline]

A bash with a shovel mate and it will soon soften up.

 

[tony1851]

If they've been stored at the bottom of a pallet, for instance, they would have carried considerable weight, and this can make the stuff apparently go hard.

But as above, a few hard bashes will soon break the lumps up, and the mortar will be OK.

I've recently used some which was in a sealed bag over 12 months past the date, and it was perfectly OK. The plastic bags are a big improvement on the old paper bags.

 

[HawkEye244]

I had this problem not long ago with some blue circle cement, almost the entire bag was rock hard and there was no way I'd get it back to powder - I returned the bag and got a refund. The bag was within the use by as well which seemed even more odd - every time I buy bags now I press my thumb into them to make sure there's softness