Gatorboard Delamination

[Roderick Treece]

I just wanted everyone to know that my journey with the Gatorboard delamination issue is still going on. After having a huge job a few years go bad due to delamination issue I was reimbursed a mesly amount to cover my material costs leaving me with eating the labor costs and a bad reputation with my largest client. I was told by 3A composites the make of gatorboard and Dibond that they had reformulated the exterior gatorboard and I would not have the problem again.
Well I went ahead and purchased a sheet of 2" white, used it on an exterior sign a month ago. When back into my sheet storage area to use the rest of the sheet for another project and found the edge was delaminating. I had contacted my supplier and was blown off. I contact the 3A rep and never got a call back. I finally got ahold the the san Diego rep and set up an onsite inspection appointment which of course he blew off and never heard back from them.
I just wrote an e-mail to the CEO at 3A. I don't expect to heard back from him but it made me feel better.

Mr Wynne,
I am a long time user of Gatorboard. Awhile back I was faced with a huge delamination issue that cost my company thousands of lost dollars due to your product delaminating. I was reimbursed for the materials but again lost thousands in labor costs not to mention my credibility with my largest client.
I have been told by your company and my suppliers that the exterior Gator board product was reformulated so as not to delaminate so when I had another project that needed dimensional exterior quality I purchased a sheet of 2" white exterior Gatorboard. I finished the project and installed it. So far so good. What I am concerned with is the fact that when I went to go use the balance of what was left of the 4' x 8' panel I noticed that the edge in fact started to delaminate again ! You can imagine my concern over this discovery. I call my rep at Interstate Electric to report the issue and was told 3A stone walled him. I call my 3A rep Steve Anderson and never heard back from him. I talked to the other rep Jeff Bostic and had set up an on site inspection appointment with him and he never called back or showed up.
I just wanted you to know that I am very disappointed with the way I have NOT been taken care of and as a result will not be using your product any longer. I also will be letting all the associate I have in the sign world know of my experience with 3A and about the issues with Gatorboard.
I am very sorry that your product is joining a growing list of materials that have become unusable in my industry.

Your truly

Roderick Treece

[pat mackle]

You have clearly laid your product performance concerns squarely out on "front street". As clear as the sign on the wall. Can't wait to hear their reply. If there is one.

[Lee Littlewood]

Hmm, more bad news. I have Gatorfoam letters that are 15 years old, exterior, and still looking good. Sounds like something has changed, and not for the better.

Are any of the other 'foamboards' holding up? I remember there was one with a plastic face...
Or do we go back to pink insulating foam?

[Roderick Treece]

Hi Lee,
You should be ok with the older material. The GB I had trouble with was about 6 years ago.So here is what when down.

I received an e-mail from the CEO Jay Wynn with and hour and two reps came out within two hours ! Here is Mr Wynn e-mail.

May I say first that I apologize for your experience with our product. If in fact Steve or Jeff never responded I won’t make excuses. We are better than that & I ‘m most disappointed.
Both are copied on this e mail & I expect both of them to reach out to you. The other two people on the email are our manufacturing folks.
Product performance wise we have struggled with exterior performance of G’Foam for a while. If the product is delaminating in your shop don’t use it as this should absolutely not be the case. I’ll ask Jeff to make a personal visit & inspect the sample, if it is as you say we will authorize a credit thru Interstate. Exterior applications are a small percentage of how the product is used & therefore feedback is underwhelming.
Our exterior performance problems are a result of marginal water resistance. Although we have made modifications over time apparently we continue to fall short.
Would you allow us to win back your confidence by becoming a test site as we continue to modify our product for exterior use ? If so I would be willing (in writing) to unconditionally guarantee the product which would include all out of pocket expense.
Understand this is NOT your everyday variety of Gator but specially prepared samples that would need to carry special traceability .
If you turn me down I do understand & can only apologize again for our shortcomings.


Here is my response to him.

Jay,
Thank you for making our meeting happen the other day. For some reason I was not here when Jeff stopped by for our original appointment. I apologized to Jeff for that.
Both Steve and Jeff inspected the delaminating panel and agreed it was in fact delaminating. Steve made a comment ,"It was only happening on edges. that the middle was good". I told him because of the delamination of the panel I would no longer be using Gator Board. They offered me no options at that point. He asked me if I would like to file a claim for the panel. I told him I will keep an eye on the sign I created using the bad panel and if in fact it does show signs of delamination I would file a claim at that time.

I find it unfortunate that this is occurring because Gator board for decades has been the go to material for so many things. That will no longer be the case.


Thanks for your time.

Bottom line I will no longer be using this products !

[Mark Summers]

A while back Laminators Inc. had a problem with their Luster Board (alum/ply) material. They started to use a softwood core
and I experienced a del-lamination of the aluminum and ply. They have since gone back to the harwood core. I'm guessing
this solved the problem. I got off easy on my go round. I'm just trying to imagine others that put out a large project only
to have the stuff de-lam on you. Sorry about your experience Roderick. Thanks for letting us know too. I too will stay
away from them.

Mark