Flintkote Roof Coating

Product Description

Flintkote Company was one of the most prolific manufacturers of construction and industrial materials in twentieth-century America, producing an extensive product line that included roofing materials, floor tiles, ceiling tiles, cement pipe, pipe insulation, and joint compounds. Among its roofing-related offerings, Flintkote manufactured roof coating products intended for use on commercial, industrial, and residential structures. These coatings were applied as protective or waterproofing layers over existing roof surfaces, serving to extend roof life, seal seams and penetrations, and provide weather resistance against moisture infiltration.

Flintkote’s roof coatings were part of a broader roofing product category that the company marketed aggressively throughout much of the twentieth century. The company supplied these materials to contractors, building owners, and industrial facilities across the United States. Flintkote operated manufacturing facilities in multiple states and distributed its products nationwide, meaning that workers in virtually every region of the country may have encountered Flintkote roofing materials at job sites spanning decades of construction activity.

The company itself became the subject of significant asbestos-related litigation before eventually entering bankruptcy proceedings. Flintkote’s legal and financial history is closely tied to asbestos liability, making its products—including roof coatings—a documented subject of occupational disease claims.

Asbestos Content

Asbestos was widely incorporated into roofing and coating products during the mid-twentieth century because of its practical properties: it resisted heat, provided dimensional stability, improved adhesion characteristics, and added durability to materials exposed to harsh outdoor conditions. Asbestos fibers were commonly blended into bituminous and asphalt-based roof coatings to reinforce the material and prevent cracking or separation under temperature extremes.

Litigation records document that plaintiffs alleged Flintkote roof coatings and related roofing products contained asbestos as a component material. The specific fiber type, percentage by weight, and precise formulation of Flintkote roof coatings varied across product lines and production periods; litigation records do not establish a single uniform specification for all products sold under the Flintkote name. However, plaintiffs alleged that the asbestos content in these roofing materials was sufficient to generate respirable fiber releases during ordinary application, disturbance, and removal activities.

Flintkote’s broader product catalog—spanning cement pipe, floor tile, ceiling tile, pipe insulation, and joint compound—demonstrates that the company’s manufacturing operations routinely incorporated asbestos across multiple product categories throughout the decades when such use was standard industry practice and largely unregulated.

How Workers Were Exposed

Industrial workers generally represent the primary occupational group documented in connection with Flintkote roof coating exposure claims. Roofing and coating work inherently involves direct, repeated contact with the product being applied, and in the context of asbestos-containing materials, this contact created conditions for fiber release and inhalation.

Litigation records document that plaintiffs alleged exposure occurred during several phases of roofing work:

Application: Workers who applied roof coatings using brushes, rollers, sprayers, or trowels worked in close proximity to the material. When coatings were mixed, thinned, or agitated prior to application, plaintiffs alleged that asbestos fibers could become airborne and be inhaled by workers in the immediate area.

Surface Preparation: Before applying new coating, workers typically scraped, abraded, or otherwise disturbed existing roofing surfaces. Plaintiffs alleged that disturbing old Flintkote roofing materials during preparation activities released asbestos fibers into breathing zones.

Removal and Demolition: Tear-off of existing roofing materials—including coating layers—is among the most exposure-intensive activities associated with asbestos-containing roofing products. Plaintiffs alleged that cutting, scraping, and disposing of old Flintkote roof coatings generated significant fiber release.

Bystander Exposure: Workers performing adjacent tasks on rooftops or in buildings undergoing roofing work were also identified in litigation records as potentially exposed through proximity to coating application and removal activities, even when they were not directly handling the product.

Industrial facilities represented particularly concentrated exposure environments. Workers in manufacturing plants, warehouses, refineries, and other industrial settings often worked on large roof surfaces requiring repeated application and maintenance of coatings over many years. This chronic, repeated exposure pattern is the type most closely associated with the development of asbestos-related disease.

OSHA’s current permissible exposure limit for asbestos is 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter as an eight-hour time-weighted average, with a short-term excursion limit of 1.0 fiber per cubic centimeter over thirty minutes. These standards were not in place during much of the period when Flintkote roof coatings were in production and widespread use, and workers of earlier decades had little to no regulatory protection or workplace monitoring to alert them to fiber exposure.

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.