Ruberoid Roofing Felts, Asbestos Cement Shingles, and Asbestos Cement Siding by G-I Holdings

Product Description

Ruberoid was one of the most widely recognized brand names in the American roofing industry for much of the twentieth century. Under the Ruberoid brand, G-I Holdings and its predecessor companies manufactured a broad line of roofing and exterior building products, including roofing felts, asbestos cement shingles, and asbestos cement siding. These products were sold commercially and residentially throughout the United States from at least 1928 through 1978, a span of five decades during which asbestos-containing construction materials were standard across the building trades.

Ruberoid roofing felts were used as underlayment material beneath finished roofing surfaces, providing a moisture barrier and base layer on residential and commercial structures. Asbestos cement shingles served as finished roofing tiles, valued for their fire resistance, durability, and relatively low cost. Asbestos cement siding products, sometimes called “Transite-style” siding in the broader industry, were applied to exterior walls of homes, schools, and commercial buildings as a low-maintenance alternative to wood or brick cladding. All three product lines shared a common characteristic: the intentional incorporation of chrysotile asbestos fibers into their composition.

The Ruberoid Company had been a major manufacturer of roofing materials since the early twentieth century. G-I Holdings, Inc. — itself a successor entity with corporate ties to GAF Corporation — became associated with the Ruberoid product line through a series of corporate acquisitions and restructurings that took place across the middle decades of the century. This corporate lineage is significant to understanding the scope of asbestos litigation that eventually followed.

Asbestos Content

All three Ruberoid product categories identified here — roofing felts, asbestos cement shingles, and asbestos cement siding — contained chrysotile asbestos, the most commercially common form of asbestos used in construction materials during the twentieth century. Chrysotile, sometimes called “white asbestos,” was prized by manufacturers for its flexibility, heat resistance, and tensile strength, properties that made it well suited for embedding into roofing and siding substrates.

In asbestos cement shingles and siding, chrysotile fibers were typically mixed with Portland cement and pressed under high pressure to create dense, rigid panels and tiles. The resulting products contained asbestos concentrations that could be significant, often ranging into double-digit percentages by weight depending on the specific formulation. Roofing felts incorporated chrysotile fibers into an organic felt or paper base, binding them with bituminous compounds to produce a flexible sheet product.

During the production years of 1928 through 1978, the presence of asbestos in these products was not considered a defect — it was considered an engineering advantage. It was only as scientific understanding of asbestos-related disease accumulated through the mid-twentieth century that the serious occupational health risks associated with chrysotile exposure became a subject of regulatory and legal scrutiny. OSHA established its first asbestos permissible exposure limits in 1971, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) later provided regulatory frameworks for identifying and managing asbestos-containing materials in buildings.

How Workers Were Exposed

The primary occupational group documented in connection with Ruberoid asbestos-containing roofing and siding products is industrial workers generally, including those involved in the manufacture, transport, installation, and removal of these materials.

At the manufacturing level, workers who produced Ruberoid roofing felts, shingles, and siding were potentially exposed to raw chrysotile asbestos fibers during the mixing, pressing, cutting, and finishing stages of production. Asbestos fiber release is typically highest when raw fibers are handled in bulk, and manufacturing environments prior to modern dust-control standards could expose workers to substantial airborne fiber concentrations.

During installation, roofers and siding applicators handled finished Ruberoid products in ways that could generate respirable asbestos dust. Cutting asbestos cement shingles and siding panels to fit — whether by hand saw, power saw, or scoring and snapping — released chrysotile fibers into the breathing zone of workers. Drilling or nailing through asbestos cement products similarly disturbed the fiber matrix. Roofing felt installation typically involved cutting the felt to length on the job site, which could also release fibers depending on the specific product formulation and cutting method employed.

Maintenance and renovation workers faced exposure risks when existing Ruberoid products were disturbed, repaired, or replaced. The removal of old asbestos cement shingles or siding — activities that continued well past the 1978 production cutoff as aging buildings were renovated — presented significant potential for fiber release, particularly when materials had become brittle or were broken during the removal process. Because asbestos cement products do not visually identify themselves as asbestos-containing materials, workers were often unaware of the hazard they were encountering.

Litigation records document that plaintiffs alleged inadequate warnings on Ruberoid products regarding the asbestos content and associated health risks. Plaintiffs further alleged that G-I Holdings and its corporate predecessors had access to information regarding asbestos hazards that was not communicated to workers who handled these products in the field.