Rexalt Roof Coating by Flintkote

Rexalt Roof Coating was a commercial roofing product manufactured by Flintkote Company, a building materials firm with a broad portfolio that spanned roofing products, cement pipe, floor tile, ceiling tile, joint compounds, and pipe insulation. Like many Flintkote products marketed during the peak decades of asbestos use in American construction, Rexalt Roof Coating has been the subject of personal injury litigation in which plaintiffs alleged exposure to asbestos-containing materials during the course of their work. Workers and tradespeople who handled, applied, or worked in proximity to this product may have legal options available to them.

Product Description

Rexalt Roof Coating was a liquid-applied roofing product manufactured by Flintkote Company, a major building materials supplier that operated extensively throughout the twentieth century. Flintkote’s product lines were sold under various brand names across the roofing, flooring, and insulation sectors, and the company distributed materials through a wide network of building supply channels reaching industrial facilities, commercial construction sites, and institutional projects nationwide.

Roof coatings of this type were typically applied to flat or low-slope roofing systems as protective and waterproofing layers. They were commonly used on industrial buildings, warehouses, schools, hospitals, and commercial structures — settings where flat membrane roofing systems were standard. Application methods included brush, roller, and spray equipment, all of which could disturb or aerosolize the coating material and any fibrous components it contained.

Flintkote operated for many decades before financial pressures related in substantial part to asbestos liability forced changes to the company’s corporate structure. The company’s wide range of asbestos-containing building products has been extensively documented in product liability litigation across the United States.

Asbestos Content

The specific asbestos fiber type and concentration documented in Rexalt Roof Coating have not been universally standardized in publicly available regulatory records, and product formulations varied across manufacturing periods. However, litigation records document that plaintiffs identified Rexalt Roof Coating among the Flintkote products they alleged contained asbestos.

Asbestos was a common additive in roofing products throughout much of the twentieth century. In coatings and mastics, asbestos fibers — most commonly chrysotile, though amphibole varieties such as amosite and crocidolite were also used by manufacturers — served as reinforcing agents and provided thermal resistance, dimensional stability, and weatherproofing properties. These functional characteristics made asbestos a preferred ingredient in liquid-applied roof coatings during an era when the fiber’s health hazards were not disclosed to the workers who used these products daily.

Flintkote’s broader product line is well-documented in asbestos litigation records as having included asbestos-containing materials across multiple categories, and Rexalt Roof Coating falls within the roofing products category that plaintiffs have identified in connection with the company.

How Workers Were Exposed

Industrial workers are among the trades documented in litigation records as having had contact with Rexalt Roof Coating and similar Flintkote roofing products. The nature of roof coating work created multiple pathways for asbestos fiber release and inhalation.

Application workers who brushed, rolled, or sprayed liquid roof coatings directly handled the material in its most concentrated form. Spray application in particular could generate airborne mists and particulates that, if the product contained asbestos, would disperse fibers into the breathing zone of workers and bystanders.

Maintenance and repair crews who returned to previously coated roof surfaces to perform repairs, cut through existing coatings, or apply new layers over aged material could disturb dried or deteriorating coating layers. Weathered and friable roofing materials have long been recognized under AHERA and OSHA regulatory frameworks as presenting elevated fiber release potential compared to undisturbed material in good condition.

Industrial facility workers employed at plants and facilities with treated roofs may have been exposed if roofing materials degraded over time, releasing fibers into the ambient air of interior spaces, particularly in buildings with poorly maintained roofing membranes.

Bystander exposure was also a recurring theme in litigation involving roofing products. Workers in adjacent trades — electricians, HVAC technicians, pipefitters, and others laboring on or near rooftops — could inhale fibers released during coating application or removal without ever directly handling the product themselves.

OSHA’s permissible exposure limits for asbestos, established and subsequently tightened over the regulatory history of the fiber, reflect the agency’s recognition that even brief, intermittent exposures to asbestos-containing materials carry documented health risks. Mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer, and other asbestos-related diseases have latency periods measured in decades, meaning workers exposed to Rexalt Roof Coating during the mid-to-late twentieth century may only now be receiving diagnoses.

Plaintiffs alleged in litigation records that Flintkote and affiliated entities knew or should have known of the hazards associated with asbestos-containing roofing products and failed to provide adequate warnings or protective guidance to the workers who used them.

Documented Product Identification

The following details are drawn from public asbestos litigation records, manufacturer catalog pages, technical manuals, and corporate history materials. Each item reflects the product as documented in those sources.

Documented asbestos-use period: 1940-1982

Corporate context: Flintkote Company was a manufacturer of building materials, roofing products, coatings, and industrial cements. The company produced asbestos-containing products and also purchased and resold asbestos products from other manufacturers.

Brand identification: Products branded under names including Fibrex, Thermalkote, Rexalt, Decoralt, Decocolor, Decobase, Decoturf, Van Packer, Unimastic, Spraykote, Nu-static, Steadfast, Viskalt, Weldon, Skykote, Super Stakool, Flintdek

Documented asbestos components: cement, coating, mastic, felt, board, pipe, siding, shingles, floor tile, chimney components, deadener, sealer, adhesive, putty.

Industries served: Railroad, Roofing, Construction, Automotive, Flooring, Tennis court surfacing, Residential building, Commercial building.

Documented product lines:

  • R.R. Car Cement (1940s-pre 1968). Railroad car cements and sealants produced for various railroad companies including NYC R.R., IC, L&N, Missouri-Pacific, Southern Railway, and Pullman — asbestos components: cement.
  • Plastic Cement (Early 1940s-1982). Roofing plastic cement also known as Viskalt Flashing Cement — asbestos components: cement.
  • Fiber Roof Coating (FRC) (1945-1982). Fibrated roof coating for roofing applications — asbestos components: coating.
  • Fibrex Cement (Early 1940s-1982). Fibrated cement product also known as Fibrex I — asbestos components: cement.
  • GP-8 Tile Cement (Early 1940s-1982). Tile adhesive cement also known as R-14-C — asbestos components: cement.
  • Thermalkote (Late 1940s-1982). Insulating coating product also known as Filler Coat Binder — asbestos components: coating.
  • Asbestos Cement Board (1950-1970). Building board material containing asbestos fibers — asbestos components: board.
  • Asbestos Cement Pipe (1962-1977). Pipe products made with asbestos cement — asbestos components: pipe.

Flintkote manufactured numerous asbestos-containing cements, coatings, and mastics with asbestos content ranging from 1% to 65%. The company also purchased and resold asbestos products from other manufacturers including joint treatment compound, spray texture paint, and ceiling tile.