Product Description

Kentile Floors, Inc. (Brooklyn, New York) manufactured for nearly a century — through 1986 — one of the most widely-installed lines of vinyl-asbestos floor tile, asphalt floor tile, and cutback floor adhesives in North America. Kentile 9-inch and 12-inch square tile was specified in millions of apartment buildings, commercial buildings, school floors, hospital corridors, retail spaces, and industrial facilities through the asbestos era.

Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Kentile vinyl-asbestos tile, asphalt tile, and the cutback asphalt-based adhesive Kentile distributed for tile installation contained chrysotile asbestos throughout the documented production era, and that workers who installed, sanded, scraped, or removed Kentile floor tile released respirable asbestos fibers as a foreseeable consequence of the product design.

Kentile Floors has been named as a Manufacturer Defendant in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation.

Exposure Pathway

  • Tile cutting — score-and-snap and saw cutting released fibers from the tile edge
  • Tile sanding and grinding — subfloor prep and seam-smoothing released bulk fibers
  • Scraping and removal — old Kentile demolition during renovations released both tile fibers and dried-cutback adhesive fibers
  • Cutback adhesive application — solvent-thinned asphalt asbestos adhesives released fibers from the wet film and during cleanup

Workers Exposed

  • Floor-covering installers (BAC, carpenters, dedicated flooring trades)
  • Apartment maintenance workers performing in-place tile repair and replacement
  • Building maintenance and janitorial workforce sanding worn tile surfaces
  • Renovation and demolition contractors removing old Kentile installations
  • General construction workforce during new-build floor installations

If You Worked With Kentile Floor Tile

If you installed, repaired, sanded, or removed Kentile vinyl-asbestos or asphalt floor tile during the asbestos era — including as an apartment maintenance worker performing routine tile replacement — and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer, or another asbestos-related illness, you may have legal rights.

Free, confidential case evaluation: Speak with O’Brien Law Firm — (314) 936-2956