Roofing Felts Manufactured by G-I Holdings

Product Description

Roofing felts were a foundational component of the American construction and industrial roofing industry for much of the twentieth century. These products—also commonly referred to as roofing underlayment, tar paper, or saturated felt—served as weatherproofing barriers installed beneath surface roofing materials such as shingles, tiles, and built-up roofing membranes. Their primary function was to provide a secondary layer of moisture resistance, protect structural decking during installation, and extend the overall service life of roofing assemblies.

G-I Holdings, through its predecessor and affiliated entities, was a significant manufacturer in the building products sector, producing a range of roofing and construction materials under the GAF brand and through related operations. GAF Corporation—whose successor entity became G-I Holdings—was one of the largest roofing manufacturers in the United States, supplying commercial, industrial, and residential markets across the country for decades. Roofing felts bearing this lineage were distributed broadly throughout American construction, appearing on industrial facilities, commercial buildings, warehouses, and large-scale infrastructure projects.

The company’s involvement in asbestos-containing building products has been the subject of extensive civil litigation. G-I Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001, citing overwhelming asbestos-related liabilities, making the company’s products a central subject of ongoing legal proceedings rather than a resolved trust fund process.

Asbestos Content

Roofing felts produced by G-I Holdings and its predecessor GAF Corporation were alleged by plaintiffs in litigation to have contained asbestos fibers incorporated into the felt substrate or binding compounds. Asbestos was historically added to roofing felts and saturated roofing papers for several practical reasons: it enhanced tensile strength, improved fire resistance, increased durability under thermal stress, and allowed the felts to better withstand the high temperatures associated with hot-mopped built-up roofing systems.

Asbestos-containing roofing felts were generally manufactured by blending mineral fibers—including chrysotile and, in some formulations, amphibole varieties—into a base mat of organic or inorganic fibers, which was then saturated with asphalt or coal tar compounds. The resulting product was typically sold in rolls and used in single-ply or multi-ply roofing assemblies.

Litigation records document that G-I Holdings and GAF Corporation manufactured and distributed roofing felts that contained asbestos during portions of the mid-to-late twentieth century, though the precise years of production and the specific asbestos content percentages associated with individual product lines are established through discovery materials, internal corporate documents, and witness testimony developed in the context of individual lawsuits rather than through a centralized trust fund disclosure process.

How Workers Were Exposed

Exposure to asbestos from roofing felts occurred primarily through the handling, cutting, tearing, and application of these materials in the field. Industrial workers generally represent the documented exposure population for G-I Holdings roofing felt products, encompassing a broad range of trades and occupational settings.

Cutting and Trimming: Roofing felts were routinely cut to size on the job site using utility knives, snips, or mechanical cutters. Plaintiffs alleged that this activity released asbestos fibers into the breathing zone of workers performing the cuts, as well as bystanders in the immediate area.

Dry Laying and Mechanically Fastening: When roofing felts were unrolled and nailed or stapled to roof decking, the manipulation of the material—including tearing, folding, and overlapping seams—was alleged to generate airborne fiber release under certain conditions.

Hot-Mopping Operations: Built-up roofing systems required multiple plies of felt to be mopped with hot asphalt or coal tar pitch. Litigation records document allegations that the heating process, combined with mechanical embedding of the felt into hot bitumen, could cause the release of asbestos fibers from the felt substrate, particularly at seams, edges, and areas of overlap where fibers were exposed or disturbed.

Removal and Demolition: Industrial workers engaged in the tear-off of existing roofing systems faced potentially significant asbestos exposure. Aged roofing felts, dried and weathered over years of service, could become friable—meaning the material could be crumbled by hand pressure—and release fibers during mechanical removal using pry bars, shovels, and similar tools.

Bystander and Maintenance Exposure: Workers performing other trades on the same job site—pipefitters, electricians, boilermakers, and general laborers—could be exposed to asbestos fibers released by nearby roofing operations. Maintenance workers who later accessed roofs containing installed G-I Holdings or GAF roofing felts may also have disturbed aged materials in the course of routine inspections, repairs, or equipment installation.

OSHA standards codified in 29 C.F.R. § 1926.1101 recognize roofing operations involving asbestos-containing materials as a category of regulated activity requiring specific hazard controls, reflecting the agency’s documented concern about fiber release during roofing work.