We did not do this work. However we have been asked to fix another company's work. The plastic laminate has fallen off every surface on the millwork in a reception area and office. It appears the glue did not adhere due to too much open time. The other milworker blamed low humidity in the office but i disagree personally with that. Could that be a factor? Millwork is only 4 years old.

What is the substrate? Particle board and some MDF will move from season to season, but most office's maintain controlled temp and humidity.

Rich, vertical is particle board the rest i will have to double check. The glue feels very thinly sprayed on. Even if these substrates move i dont recall seeing this much delamination in so many items.

Chances are Both surfaces were not sprayed, for a massive fail like this it would have to be a lack of adhesive, lack of adhesives on both surfaces, bad adhesive, wrong adhesive.
We have adhered hundreds of thousands of Plam to substrates without fail. Mdf and PCB are acceptable substrates if sealed correctly.
please bring pictures this is interesting to know.

I have witnessed two different mystery contact glue failures in 20 years. The first was my job where after about five years the laminate pretty well fell off. I am sure it was the glue. It was Dural and I only used it once.
The other was a job I was called in to look at. Good glue, the client had set up environmental monitors for temp and humidity. It turned out to be contamination of the p lam surface at the p lam facility. It took forever to find the cause with the adhesive chemists, p lam techs, cabinet shop and facility managers involved. This was about three or four years ago. I think the laminate was Arborite.

Were there any fire retardants used on this project?

I will take pics and post. Its quite surprising actually how bad it is.

When did it start failing in the last four years?

Sounds like 30 years ago when Wilson art came out with their blue water based glue, it stuck for about a year and then everything peeled off, would be nice to know what product was used so we will all stay away from it

Re Adam: The first water based glue was terrible. it would fall off after a year. Many shops were using it since they did not have a spray booth with a fire hood. I worked for a company that had several kitchens that had to be removed, brought back to the shop, stripped and re-laminated with contact cement.
I agree and concur with your assessment and am now curious to see what the cause of this problem is.

Err, Idk maybe you're right, but I have a different experience with the water-based glue used in kitchens. In my line of work, the glue adhered well and provided a durable bond over time. Ok, it's important to note that the success of any adhesive depends on various factors, and perhaps the problems you encountered were specific to certain circumstances or an issue with the specific brand or type of glue used...