Did you know that cement has an expiry date?
No no… it’s not an expiry date. It’s shelf life, and cement quality can deteriorate over time after that shelf life period.
Many users prefer “Cement Expiry Date,” so I also call the same word instead of shelf life in this article.
When we started our first building, a laborer one day said — “sir, it’s old stock cement. That’s why it has so many lumps in this cement bag.“
That time I asked our laborer how to know if it was old or new cement bags.
One mason answered.
That time only I came to know about cement expiry duration.
Out of curiosity, I researched online—I understood the cement expiry period at that time.
Every cement you buy has some shelf life/expiry period. After that period, cement loses strength and forms lumps inside the bag.
The shelf life of cement depends on various factors such as storage conditions and the manufacturing date of the cement as well.
Generally, cement should be used within three months from the date of manufacture. Beyond this period, cement quality will deteriorate and lose its strength.
Unlike food items, cement has no standard Expiry Date on the cement bags. Instead, all cement bags come with the Manufacturer’s date.
So there is no strict deadline for it.
But it’s recommended to use cement within 3 months of the cement’s manufacture date.
Cement Expiry Date Check
You might already know that cement bags don’t have any expiration date on them, so you cannot check the cement expiration date on them.
Instead, what you can do is…
Check the manufacturing month on the cement bag, which is mentioned in every cement bag, and add 3 months to it to get the cement expiry date.
Try to use that batch of cement bags before expire period that you just calculated.
How to Know Cement Manufacturing Date?
Every cement has some date printed on the cement bags. If you observe neatly, you will notice the date.
The date that looks like a code is the cement manufacturing date. I will explain how to understand that date.
In the above image, you will see the date is mentioned on the side of the cement bag like — “W07 M02 Y22“
W07 = 07th Week in the year 2022
M02 = 02nd Month
Y22 = 2022 Year
So…
07th Week of 2022 == 14th Feburary 2022 to 20th Feburary 2022
02nd Month of 2022 == Feburary 2022
In both cases, you will notice February is the month, and 2022 is the year. The exact manufacturing date is mentioned in a week format instead of the specific exact date.
Now you understand how to read the date mentioned on the cement bags.
If you want to know the cement expiration date, just add +3 months extra to the cement manufacturing date.
In my case, I will consider 14th Feb 2022 as the manufacturing date.
If I add 3 months to the above date, my cement expiry date becomes 14th May 2022.
It’s recommended to use that cement before 14th May 2022.
Want to Buy Fresh Cement Always?
If you buy cement from nearby local vendors, you will get somewhat stocked/old cement bags.
If you want to buy fresh cement always, I recommend you go through my cement pricing secret guide to know where to find the right supplier to buy cheap and fresh cement.