CertainTeed Corp.

Company History & the Asbestos-Cement Pipe Industry

CertainTeed Corporation traces its origins to 1904, when it was incorporated in the United States as the General Roofing Manufacturing Company. The name was later changed to CertainTeed Products Corporation — a name coined to convey the message that customers could be "certain" of the quality of the product they were purchasing. For decades CertainTeed was one of the most recognized brand names in American residential and commercial construction, supplying roofing, siding, pipe, insulation, and gypsum board to builders, municipalities, and contractors across the country.

From early in its history, CertainTeed relied heavily on asbestos as a raw material. Asbestos fibers — principally chrysotile, or white asbestos, mined primarily in Quebec, Canada, and the Appalachian region of the United States — were blended into roofing felts, shingles, siding products, and most significantly, asbestos-cement pipe. The pipe division became one of the company's most commercially important product lines. Asbestos-cement pipe offered construction advantages that made it extremely popular: it was dimensionally stable, corrosion-resistant in the presence of soil acids, relatively light compared to iron or concrete, and could be produced in large diameters suitable for municipal water mains and sewer trunk lines.

The manufacturing process for asbestos-cement pipe — sometimes called the Mazza process — involved mixing chrysotile asbestos fiber, Portland cement, and silica, then winding the slurry onto mandrels to form pipe sections under pressure. The finished pipe contained between 15 and 20 percent chrysotile asbestos by weight, thoroughly integrated into the cement matrix. While the fiber was relatively stable when the pipe was undisturbed and in good condition, cutting, drilling, grinding, or breaking the pipe released clouds of extremely fine, respirable asbestos dust — the kind of fine, airborne fiber that, when inhaled repeatedly over years, causes mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer.

CertainTeed's asbestos-cement pipe was installed in enormous quantities throughout the mid-twentieth century. Municipal water authorities in California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and dozens of other states specified CertainTeed pipe for water mains, storm drains, and sanitary sewer lines. Contractors used it for building drain-waste-vent systems and for industrial drainage applications. By the time the use of asbestos was phased out of new pipe production in the late 1970s and early 1980s, hundreds of millions of linear feet of CertainTeed and competitor asbestos-cement pipe had been buried under American streets, parks, yards, and buildings.

In 1977, CertainTeed Corporation became a wholly owned subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, the French industrial conglomerate founded in 1665 and one of the world's largest manufacturers of construction and high-performance materials. Saint-Gobain's acquisition of CertainTeed brought the American company under the umbrella of a deeply solvent, multi-billion-dollar multinational corporation — a fact that has profound implications for asbestos litigation today. Because Saint-Gobain remains financially strong and publicly traded on the Paris stock exchange (Euronext: SGO), CertainTeed has never had reason to seek the protection of United States bankruptcy law. That means there is no asbestos bankruptcy trust fund from which victims can make claims. Instead, those injured by CertainTeed asbestos products must pursue their compensation through civil litigation in state and federal courts — directly against CertainTeed and, where appropriate, Saint-Gobain itself.

Today, CertainTeed continues to operate as a major North American building products company, selling fiber glass insulation, roofing shingles (now asbestos-free), vinyl siding, gypsum wallboard, and ceilings under the Saint-Gobain umbrella. Its asbestos legacy, however, remains an active and ongoing source of civil liability. Asbestos personal injury cases involving CertainTeed are regularly filed in California, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and other jurisdictions with active asbestos dockets.

CertainTeed Asbestos Products & Exposure Mechanisms

CertainTeed produced a range of asbestos-containing building materials across several decades. The products below represent the principal sources of occupational and residential asbestos exposure tied to the company. Each product type carried distinct exposure risks depending on how the material was handled, cut, installed, or disturbed during later renovations or repairs.

Of all CertainTeed's asbestos products, asbestos-cement pipe presents the most persistent ongoing risk because it was installed underground where it cannot be readily observed, inventoried, or removed. Workers who encounter this pipe decades after its installation — during street repair, utility replacement, or private plumbing work — may have no idea that the pipe they are cutting contains asbestos. The cement matrix can degrade over time, and cutting aged pipe with a power saw can produce fiber concentrations far exceeding current occupational exposure limits.

CertainTeed Manufacturing Facilities

CertainTeed operated manufacturing plants in multiple states throughout the twentieth century. Several of these facilities used asbestos in production for many decades, and at least one has been designated for Superfund environmental cleanup due to asbestos contamination.

The Riverside, California plant is particularly significant from both an environmental and litigation perspective. The EPA's Superfund program identified the site as having widespread asbestos contamination affecting soil, groundwater, and nearby properties. Workers who were employed at the Riverside plant, as well as residents of the surrounding community, have been among the plaintiffs in asbestos personal injury litigation against CertainTeed. Documentation from the Riverside facility has been used in numerous trials to establish that CertainTeed's management was aware of asbestos hazards yet failed to adequately protect workers or disclose the risks.

Who Was Exposed: Plumbers, Municipal Workers, and DIY Homeowners

One of the most important — and most frequently overlooked — facts about CertainTeed's asbestos legacy is that exposure did not end when CertainTeed stopped making asbestos-cement pipe in the late 1970s. The pipe is still in the ground. It is under roads, in utility easements, running beneath homes built in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, and connecting to municipal water mains that serve neighborhoods across the United States. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that hundreds of millions of linear feet of asbestos-cement pipe remain in active service in American water distribution and sewer collection systems — making ongoing worker exposure a serious and current public health concern, not merely a historical one.

Municipal Water and Sewer Workers

Workers employed by city and county water utilities, sewer authorities, and public works departments face ongoing exposure risk whenever they repair, replace, or tap into aging asbestos-cement pipe. Routine maintenance tasks — tapping the main to install a new service connection, cutting a section for a repair coupling, removing a broken length during a line failure — all involve physically working with asbestos-cement pipe. Water department crews in California, Texas, New York, and the Mid-Atlantic states have been among the most frequently exposed groups in recent decades precisely because so much CertainTeed-brand AC pipe remains in service in those states. Dry-cutting with an angle grinder or circular saw is particularly dangerous, generating respirable fiber concentrations that can exceed permissible exposure limits by significant multiples.

Plumbers and Pipefitters

Licensed plumbers performing service work on residential and commercial properties built before 1980 routinely encounter asbestos-cement pipe in building drain, waste, and vent systems. When a homeowner reports a slow drain, a broken sewer lateral, or a root intrusion problem, the plumber who investigates and repairs the line may be required to cut out sections of CertainTeed or other manufacturer's asbestos-cement pipe. Many of these workers were never told that the gray-colored pipe they were cutting contained asbestos. Plumbers who worked throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and even the 2000s — long after the manufacture of asbestos products had ceased — have developed mesothelioma as a result of cumulative exposure from this kind of repair work.

Construction Workers and Demolition Crews

The demolition of mid-century buildings frequently uncovers asbestos-cement pipe in the drainage and utility systems. Construction workers who encountered this pipe without proper respiratory protection, and without knowledge that asbestos was present, received significant fiber doses. Large commercial demolition projects that disturbed buried AC pipe have been the source of numerous asbestos personal injury claims filed against CertainTeed.

DIY Homeowners

A significant category of CertainTeed asbestos exposure victims are homeowners who undertook their own plumbing repairs or drain-line replacements. A homeowner who noticed deteriorating pipe in their basement, crawlspace, or yard and decided to replace it without professional help — cutting the pipe with a hacksaw or reciprocating saw in an unventilated space — could have received substantial exposure in a single afternoon of work. Unlike occupational exposure, do-it-yourself exposure often involved no respiratory protection at all and occurred in enclosed, poorly ventilated spaces where fiber concentrations could build to very high levels. These homeowners frequently had no idea the pipe contained asbestos.

The Geographic Concentration Problem

CertainTeed's production facilities in California meant that a disproportionate share of the company's asbestos-cement pipe was distributed in the Western United States. California municipalities — from the San Francisco Bay Area to greater Los Angeles and the Inland Empire — used large quantities of CertainTeed AC pipe in their postwar infrastructure buildout. This geographic concentration means that water department workers in California, plumbers licensed in the state, and homeowners throughout Southern and Northern California have faced elevated risk of CertainTeed-specific asbestos exposure compared to workers in regions where other manufacturers' pipe was more common.

No Asbestos Trust Fund — Claims Require Civil Litigation

Many people diagnosed with mesothelioma or other asbestos-related diseases assume that the path to compensation runs through an asbestos bankruptcy trust fund. For many companies — Johns-Manville, Owens Corning, Armstrong World Industries, and dozens of others — that assumption is correct, because those companies did file for bankruptcy and did establish section 524(g) trusts under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. CertainTeed is different.

Why There Is No Trust

CertainTeed Corporation has never filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. The reason is straightforward: it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, the French industrial giant with annual revenues exceeding €40 billion and operations in more than 70 countries. Saint-Gobain's financial strength has allowed CertainTeed to defend and settle asbestos claims from its own resources without resorting to the bankruptcy reorganization that overwhelmed smaller asbestos defendants. From an asbestos plaintiff's perspective, this is actually good news in one important respect: there is a solvent, well-capitalized defendant with deep pockets available to pay judgments and settlements.

How Civil Litigation Works

Filing a civil asbestos lawsuit against CertainTeed follows the same procedural framework as any personal injury case, with some asbestos-specific features. An attorney experienced in asbestos litigation will typically begin by taking a detailed occupational history to identify all of the asbestos products the plaintiff was exposed to, in what jobs, during what time periods, and in which states. Because many asbestos victims were exposed to products from multiple manufacturers, a single lawsuit may name CertainTeed alongside several other defendants.

The lawsuit is filed in a court with proper jurisdiction — typically the state where the plaintiff lived and worked, or where the exposure occurred. California, Texas, Pennsylvania, and New York have particularly active asbestos court dockets with judges and procedures specifically designed to handle asbestos personal injury cases efficiently. After filing, the case proceeds through discovery, during which both sides exchange documents, take depositions, and retain expert witnesses. Many cases settle before trial; others proceed to verdict. Juries in asbestos cases have awarded substantial compensatory and punitive damages against CertainTeed and its parent company.

The Statute of Limitations

The single most important reason to consult an asbestos attorney immediately after a mesothelioma or asbestos disease diagnosis is the statute of limitations. Each state sets its own deadline for filing an asbestos personal injury or wrongful death claim, and these deadlines are strictly enforced. In most states, the clock begins running from the date of diagnosis — not from the date of exposure, which may have occurred decades earlier. Statutes of limitations for asbestos personal injury claims typically range from one to three years, depending on the state. Missing the deadline means losing the right to recover compensation entirely, regardless of how strong the underlying case might be.

Because mesothelioma has a latency period of 20 to 50 years from initial exposure to clinical diagnosis, many victims are diagnosed at an advanced age, often with a shortened life expectancy. An attorney who handles asbestos cases understands how to file suit quickly, how to prioritize cases for expedited trial when a plaintiff's health is deteriorating, and how to preserve testimony through depositions in the event the plaintiff cannot appear at trial.

What Plaintiffs Must Prove

To recover compensation from CertainTeed in civil litigation, a plaintiff generally must establish four things. First, that the plaintiff was exposed to asbestos from a CertainTeed product — this requires evidence such as work history records, coworker testimony, site records showing what pipe or roofing materials were specified and installed, and expert testimony about the fiber-releasing characteristics of the product. Second, that the exposure was sufficient to have contributed to causing the disease — typically established through expert medical and industrial hygiene testimony. Third, that the plaintiff has developed a recognized asbestos-related disease — mesothelioma, lung cancer in an asbestos-exposed individual, asbestosis, or another covered condition. Fourth, that CertainTeed was negligent — that the company knew or should have known about the hazards of asbestos, failed to warn users, and that this failure was a proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries.

Internal CertainTeed and Saint-Gobain documents produced in discovery in prior cases have shown that company officials were aware of scientific evidence linking asbestos to serious disease well before warnings were placed on products or production was discontinued. This documentary record has been central to plaintiffs' ability to prove both negligence and, in some cases, reckless or knowing disregard — the factual predicate for punitive damage awards.

What Compensation May Be Available

Successful CertainTeed asbestos litigation can result in compensation for past and future medical expenses, lost income and lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of consortium for the claimant's spouse and family. In cases where the company's conduct is found to have been particularly egregious — particularly where internal documents show suppression of safety information — courts have also awarded punitive damages. The amount of any settlement or verdict depends on many factors including the severity of the disease, the plaintiff's age and work history, the strength of the exposure evidence, and the specific court jurisdiction.

Frequently Asked Questions