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 Trust Fund / Legal Options
Rexalt Roof Coating is classified as a Tier 2 — Litigated product. No dedicated asbestos bankruptcy trust fund has been identified that specifically administers claims arising from this product under the Flintkote name in the same manner as trusts established for other large asbestos defendants.
Flintkote’s complex litigation and corporate history have been the subject of prolonged legal proceedings. Individuals seeking compensation for asbestos-related illness linked to Flintkote products, including Rexalt Roof Coating, should consult with a qualified asbestos attorney to assess the current legal landscape, including any trust or settlement mechanisms that may have been established through bankruptcy reorganization proceedings, as well as potential civil litigation pathways against solvent defendants in the distribution and supply chain.
Who may have a claim: Workers diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, or other asbestos-related conditions who can document occupational contact with Rexalt Roof Coating or other Flintkote roofing products. Product identification through employment records, coworker testimony, facility maintenance logs, or purchasing records is an important component of building a claim.
What to do next:
- Preserve any employment records, union records, or job site documentation referencing Flintkote or Rexalt products
- Obtain a confirmed diagnosis from a physician experienced in occupational lung disease
- Contact a licensed asbestos litigation attorney for a case evaluation; statutes of limitations vary by state and begin running from the date of diagnosis in most jurisdictions
Litigation records document that Flintkote Company has been named as a defendant in numerous asbestos personal injury cases brought by workers across multiple industries and trades. Plaintiffs alleged that the company’s failure to warn workers of known asbestos hazards caused or contributed to serious and fatal diseases. Workers and their families who believe they were exposed to Rexalt Roof Coating should not delay in seeking legal guidance.