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Kentile

Kentile Floors, Inc., of Brooklyn, New York, was one of the largest American makers of asphalt and vinyl asbestos floor tile, with plants in Brooklyn, Chicago and Torrance, California, and in the 1970s and 1980s it was among Union Carbide's largest buyers of Calidria asbestos. It filed for bankruptcy in 1992 and emerged as Metex Manufacturing Corporation, which filed again in 2012; the Metex Asbestos PI Trust has paid Kentile claims since 2015.

Draft. The history on this page was written from the documents in our library and has not yet been reviewed by a person.

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History

Our library holds few records of Kentile's early years. A Kentile label in the U.S. Patent Office trademark file, filed by David E. Kennedy, Inc., gives July 10, 1936, as the date of first use in commerce.6 In the 1950s the company appears in Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, as Kentile, Inc.; C. A. Neumann, its vice president of sales, was an officer and director of the Asphalt Tile Institute in 1956 and 1957.78 A 1981 Union Carbide sales profile described Kentile as a privately held company controlled by the Kennedy family, with tile plants in Brooklyn and Chicago and a solid vinyl plant at South Plainfield, New Jersey.1

Asbestos products

In June 1949 Asbestos remarked that only after ordering a Kentile asphalt tile floor for its new offices did it learn the tile contained asbestos, and its September 1949 article "Asbestos and the Asphalt Tile Industry" followed up.9 The article said that "Kentile asphalt tile really contains no asphalt whatsoever" and that it would be more correct to call Kentile "resinated asbestos tile."9 Kentile's own labels and sample cartons in our library call its tiles, such as Agate Chip and Debonair, "vinyl asbestos tile."61011 Union Carbide's 1974 market study estimated that Kentile used 12,000 tons of asbestos in floor tile in 1973, out of an industry total of about 105,000 tons.12

Kentile and Calidria asbestos

Most of what our library holds on Kentile comes from the trial exhibits in lawsuits over Calidria, the asbestos Union Carbide produced at King City, California.13 In 1960 Union Carbide's sales staff reported that Kentile was interested in its new fiber for both vinyl and asphalt tile.14 By 1968 Union Carbide called Kentile its biggest volume customer, buying nearly five million pounds of SG-100 in eight months.3 A 1969 Union Carbide memo noted that in asphalt tile the California fiber was used only in formulas with significant polystyrene, and that Kentile had historically been "borderline" in its use of styrene.15

In January 1974 Union Carbide recorded that Kentile used "Atlas, Carey and Calidria asbestos," with a limited amount of Johns-Manville fiber where whiteness was needed, and that roughly half of its 12,000 tons a year was California asbestos.2 Under a 1975 agreement Kentile was to buy at least 1,350 tons of Calidria SG-104.16 A February 1978 letter confirmed prices of $90 a ton for SG-104 in bulk cars and $107 a ton for SG-103-5 in plastic bags, in return for minimum monthly purchases.17 In 1981 Union Carbide's table of its top ten asbestos accounts included Kentile.4 By October 1983 a Union Carbide review listed Kentile and Amtico as the remaining domestic vinyl asbestos tile makers after Armstrong, Flintkote, GAF and Uvalde withdrew from that production.13

What the documents show

Kentile took part in the industry's response to federal asbestos rules.1819 It was listed as a member of the Asbestos Information Association/North America, and C. A. Neumann of Kentile was among those addressed in a July 1972 association letter advising members how to decide which products needed OSHA's new asbestos warning label.1820 In February 1972 the association's president told OSHA that Kentile was among the companies that might ask to testify at the March 14 hearing on the proposed asbestos dust standard.19

The documents also record dust testing at Kentile's plants. In October 1972 C. W. Nixon, Kentile's assistant vice president for purchasing, sent Union Carbide ten dust samples because Kentile's results differed widely from those of its insurer and of state and federal tests.21 In November 1977 a Union Carbide salesman reported from Kentile's Chicago plant that Kentile was "terrified of OSHA," and explained an unusual bag-size request in that light.22 In April 1980 Union Carbide monitored Kentile's Chicago plant and reported time-weighted averages for weigh-scale and scrap-scale operators of no more than 1.1 fibers per cubic centimeter, "well within current OSHA limitations of 2.0," while noting that one scrap-scale operator's reading was "significantly higher" than the others.23 In 1983 a Union Carbide memo said that Kentile would keep using its asbestos "even if lower emission standards are effected," and when OSHA proposed an emergency standard that year Kentile asked for a quote on smaller 40-pound bags.2425 A February 1985 call report says that at the Chicago plant "two employees have been alerting the OSHA office about asbestos hazards within the plant," which, the report says, triggers an OSHA inspection and makes dust monitoring mandatory.26

Eleven decisions in our case-law library, dated 2005 to 2014, name Kentile as a defendant, several of them in New York City's asbestos litigation.27

Bankruptcy and trust

Kentile Floors filed for bankruptcy in 1992.5 It reorganized and emerged in 1998 as Metex Manufacturing Corporation, which took on Kentile's asbestos liabilities; Metex returned to Chapter 11 in 2012, and the Metex Asbestos Personal Injury Trust was established in 2014 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and has paid claims since 2015.5 The trust pays claims for exposure to Kentile products.5

References

  1. UC-2639: Eastern Region Calidria Asbestos Sales Profile and Floor Tile Market Analysis, with Kentile Floors Key Account Profile (1981), p. 5
  2. UC-3871: W. C. Thurber Memo to Files on Conversation with Don Miller of Kentile Floors about Calidria Use in Floor Tile (1974)
  3. UC-350: F. D. Dexter to E. A. Barr and Others Transmitting the Asbestos Workshop Presentation Recommending Divestiture of the Calidria Business (1968), p. 8
  4. UC-2656: GML Asbestos Sales Tables: Top Ten Accounts, Domestic Key Accounts, Distributors and Export Sales (1981), p. 1
  5. Kentile Floors (Metex) Asbestos Trust Claims
  6. Agate Chip (Kentile)
  7. Asbestos magazine, March 1956, p. 38
  8. Asbestos magazine, March 1957, p. 48
  9. Asbestos magazine, September 1949, p. 18
  10. Labels: Kentile Vinyl Asbestos Tile samples and Wedge-Stone package (Kentile Floors)
  11. Kentile Floors: Vinyl Asbestos Tile Sample Carton
  12. UC-209: G. J. Weihs, Chrysotile Asbestos (Group 7, Shorts) Market Analysis (1974), p. 13
  13. UC-2652: T. P. Norris to G. L. Dickson on the SG-100 Product Review for Calidria Asbestos (1983), p. 2
  14. UC-5258: Progress Report Pages on Coalinga Asbestos Pilot Plant Investment Estimates, Sales Prospects and Bishop Studies (1960), p. 2
  15. UC-812: N. J. Setter to F. D. Dexter, W. S. Young and L. P. Jehle on The Asbestos Market in the Flooring Industry (1969)
  16. UC-2230: Union Carbide Supply Agreement Letter to Dan Miller of Kentile Floors for Calidria SG-104 Asbestos (1975)
  17. UC-2226: John L. Myers to A. G. Kennedy (Kentile Floors) Confirming Asbestos Pricing and Minimum Monthly Purchases for 1978
  18. AIA-34: The Asbestos Information Association/North America: Serving A Vital Industry (booklet), p. 4
  19. AIA-90: A. H. Fay to U.S. Department of Labor (OSHA) Requesting Time to Testify at the March 14 Asbestos Dust Standard Hearing (1972), p. 2
  20. Matthew M. Swetonic of the Asbestos Information Association to Member Companies on Labeling Borderline Products (1972)
  21. UC-2905: C. W. Nixon (Kentile Floors) to John L. Myers on Testing Asbestos Dust Samples and Plastic Bag Shipments (1972)
  22. UC-4946: Edward J. Kleber Call Report on Kentile Floors, Chicago, on OSHA Concerns and an Odd-Sized Bag Request (1977)
  23. UC-4871: Fred L. Smith to Rocco Sergi (Kentile Floors) Transmitting Airborne Asbestos Counts from the Chicago Kentile Plant (1980)
  24. UC-2866: G. L. Dickson to J. T. Kelly on the Impact of a 0.5 Fiber/cc TWA Standard on 1984 Calidria Sales (1983)
  25. UC-2653: G. L. Dickson to J. T. Kelly Transmitting the 1983 Calidria Asbestos Sales Summary (1984), p. 6
  26. UC-4179: T. P. Norris Call Report on Kentile Floors, Chicago, Regarding Asbestos Fines in Bulk Cars and OSHA Dust Monitoring (1985)
  27. Kentile (company page)

People

People the documents tie to Kentile, most often named first, with the titles the documents give them.

Asbestos trust

If you or a family member worked with or around Kentile's asbestos products and later developed mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, a claim may be paid by Kentile Floors (Metex) Asbestos Trust Claims. Free case review.

Asbestos products

34 products our documents name Kentile as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

Floor tile (31)

Other products (3)

Court cases

11 court decisions in our case-law library name Kentile as a defendant, newest first.

In our library

2 documents in our library name Kentile, by collection.

Other library documents (2)

In the Union Carbide documents

Kentile is named in 68 Union Carbide documents dated 1960 to 1985 (1 as the source, 68 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Kentile, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Kentile Floors, Inc · Kentile Floors Inc · Kentile Floors · Kentile Floors Incorporated · Kentile Floors Inc., Brooklyn, New York · Kentile Co.

Where this comes from

This page brings together every document in our library that names Kentile, across collections. Titles and affiliations are taken from the documents themselves, and units and subsidiaries are grouped under the company they belong to.

Mentioned on this site

Cite this page

“Kentile.” AsbestosClaims.Law Library. https://asbestosclaims.law/library/organizations/kentile.

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This page is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Every asbestos case turns on its own facts, exposure history, diagnosis, deadlines, available evidence, and applicable law. Reviewing this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, call 833-4-ASBESTOS for a free case review.