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Knight Celotex history
Knight Celotex company history timeline
In addition to plywood, OSB, and gypsum board, impregnated fiberboard produced in 4 ft. widths and varying lengths up to 12-feet has been used as exterior building insulating sheathing in North America since at least 1907.
1,306,283, Patented 10 June 1919, John K. Shaw, inventor from Minneapolis MN, describes improvements for machines for perforating Insulite Boards.
In 1920 insulating board accounted for only about 4 percent of the sheathing used for new residential construction.
In the United States Celotex was a Delaware corporation founded in 1921.
1925: The Celotex Company of Great Britain started trading in 1925 from offices located in Australia House in The Strand, London.
15, 1925, Wilber S. Trader, assignor to Dahlberg & Company, Chicago IL. described an interior-use sound insulating product.
1,598,980, 7 September 1926, described a method and apparatus for drying sheets of artificial heat insulating lumber, known on the market as Celotex, improving the original process. "Reenforced composition board", Treadway B. Munroe et als, United States Patent No.
Masonite® [IPI] hardboard first produced by the Mason Fiber Company in 1926, later re-named MasoniteSee HARDBOARD MASONITE™ & OTHER BRANDS Medex; Medite Nu-Wood® - low-density fiberboard panels used on walls & ceilings & as a plaster lath support.
Masonite® [IPI] hardboard first produced by the Mason Fiber Company in 1926, later re-named MasoniteSee HARDBOARD MASONITE™ & OTHER BRANDS
1930: Celotex opened a U.K. manufacturing plant at Stonebridge Park in the 1930's.
1933: Carey Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary of Celotex, was engaged in the mining, milling and processing of asbestos fiber from 1933 or earlier.
"Before you Build write for this mailing piece and a sample of Insulite", [advertisement], The Literary Digest, 13 September 1940.
In earliest use, fiberboard sheathing material was sold as a means of insulating the home at little additional cost since it was used to replace the horizontal or diagonal tongue-and-groove board sheathing that was in wide practice up to the 1940's or 50's.
22 May 1945 "Sound-absorbing board for walls and ceilings," United States Patent 1,554,180, Sept.
In 1946 James W. Walter borrowed $400 from his father, a citrus grower, and purchased a "shell," or unfinished home, for $895 from Tampa, Florida, builder, O.L. Davenport.
1946: James W. Walter and O.L. Davenport go into business selling shell houses.
James O. Alston came to the company in 1947 and was instrumental in its early growth.
Celotex Sound Conditioning, 1948 Catalog, including perforated asbestos board sheets
https://inspectapedia.com/Design/Carey-Rock-Wool-1950.PDF is an example of Philip Carey rock wool insulation - that may be what you have.
Am involved with a mechanical renovation to what was a 1950's era school that is now office space.
The Celotex insulating board and hardboard product lines were introduced in the 1950's.
1955: The business is incorporated as the Jim Walter Corporation.
A 1955 United States FPL report offers the early history of growth in the use of insulating fiberboard sheathing.
The turning point for the fledgling company came in 1956 when Chicago creditors Walter E. Heller & Company approved a $1 million line of credit.
1964: The company acquires Celotex and goes public.
The company continues in business principally under Jim Walter (since reincorporating in 1964) and Saint-Gobain and as Celotex in the U.K. In the U.K. the company's principal product is polyisocyanurate insulating foam board.
Two paper companies acquired in 1968, Marquette Paper Corporation and Knight Paper Company, rounded out Jim Walter's early acquisitions.
1968: In the U.K. the Stonebridge Park Celotex manufacturing facility was closed and a warehousing / distributing site was opened at Hadleigh (1968).
In 1969 the company bought United States Pipe and Foundry Company of Birmingham, Alabama, for $135 million in stock and cash.
1970: The Celotex Corporation of America introduced an isocyanurate foam ceiling tile (not an asbestos-containing product). By this year, asbestos was widely used as fireproofing in roofs, floors, ceilings.
In 1972 Panacon Corporation, the third-largest Canadian producer of asbestos, was merged into Celotex Corporation.
Assume based on age (for example an acoustical ceiling installed before 1973) that the material may contain asbestos and handle its removal accordingly.
1976: Jim Walter Resources is founded.
Note: however because of public resistance to purchase or use of ACM products, many manufacturers discontinued of asbestos in various products, particularly after 1976.
The company thought its insurance carriers would handle the claims, but coverage after 1977 disallowed asbestos-related claims.
Hipchen, Donald E., Michael J. Skowronski, and Joseph R. Hagan. "Structural laminate and method for making same." United States Patent 4,118,533, issued October 3, 1978.
By 1979, United States Pipe had increased profits five times over.
While the various mergers and acquisitions broadened Jim Walter's base of operations, the bulk of its revenues remained in the building industry, with more than 200,000 shell homes completed by 1979.
Sales in 1979 exceeded $2 billion a year.
Ohashi, Takashi, Toru Okuyama, Akira Suzuki, and Katsuhiko Arai. "Asbestos-metal surfaced urethane modified polyisocyanurate foam." United States Patent 4,292,361, issued September 29, 1981.
During 1982 Jim Walter built 10,000 of the 300,000 homes constructed that year.
In 1984 approximately 21,100 lawsuits representing 25,600 persons were pending against one or more of the subscribers of the Asbestos Claim Facility, including Celotex.
1985: Celotex struggles under the load of asbestos lawsuits.
In 1986 the company maintained 103 sales offices scattered through 29 states, most of them in the South.
1986: Celotex-owned Carey Canada Inc., asbestos mine closed.
By the time Kohlberg Kravis Roberts moved to acquire the company in 1987, pending lawsuits exceeded 50,000, only to climb again, to 58,000, in the following year.
Jim Walter Corporation was sold to Jasper Corporation in April 1988.
In 1989 Houston attorney Stephen D. Sussman, of Sussman Godfrey, filed a suit on behalf of asbestos victims in Beaumont, Texas, an industrial area where many of the plaintiffs lived.
1989: Company is forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
When asked by Financial World in 1991 why he would come out of retirement to take over such a troubled company, Durham replied, "There is not a whole lot of fun to running a company that is doing well." Jim Walter continued as chairman of Walter Industries.
1991: The company's long-time CEO Joe Cordell steps down, and Robert "Bull" Durham takes over.
1994: The courts find Walter not liable for Celotex asbestos claims.
The financial picture was strong enough by December 1995 for the company to be able to retire the $490 million in junk bonds that it had used to finance the reorganization plan just nine months earlier.
1995: Walter emerges from Chapter 11 and is taken public the following year.
The company's troubles seemingly over, Durham himself then retired in June 1996, with Hyatt becoming chairman, CEO, and president.
KKR remained committed to its investment, however, and by January 1997 had increased its stake to 26 percent.
Part of the payment was in the form of Walter Industries stock; by early 1997 the fund claimed a 10.9 percent stake in the company.
1997: KKR increases its stake in Walter to 26 percent; Walter returns to profitability.
J.W. Window Components was sold off in 1998, and the coal-mining subsidiary Jim Walter Resources, building product manufacturer Vestal Industries, industrial materials and tool provider Southern Precision Corporation, and coke and slag wool company Sloss Industries were targeted for divestiture.
1998: The company identifies core business components and begins efforts to sell off the rest.
1998: Celotex asbestos injury trust fund created ($1.246 million). Claims against Celotex and its asbestos mining subsidiary Carey Canada for asbestos exposure and mesothelioma claims.
By August 2000, Walter Industries' success was reversed.
At the October 2000 shareholders' meeting, Tom McKay, manager of an investment fund that controlled two percent of the company's stock, raised a vote on the question of liquidating Walter.
2000: Walter begins a three-year stretch in the red with a loss of $104.7 million.
2000: BPB PLC, a U.K. firm, purchased Celotex's ceiling product line and Celotex's gypsum wallboard operations.
According to the Tampa Tribune in February 2001, "Burton's brusque management style" and his elimination of 375 jobs--about five percent of Walter's workforce--created a great deal of ill will among employees and did little to reverse the company's losses.
In September 2001, however, high hopes were put aside when methane explosions killed 13 miners 2,140 feet below Brookwood, Alabama, in Jim Walter Resources (JWR) Mine No.
2001: Amid continuing struggles, Don DeFosset takes over as CEO in November.
Standards pertaining to fiberboard insulating sheathing: ASTM C 208-95 (2001) – Standard Specification for Cellulosic Fiber Insulating Board.
2002: In the U.K. Celotex and Sundeala had merged and de-merged by 2002, resulting in move of the U.K. Celotex headquarters to Hadleigh, Suffolk.
Love, Thomas. "Pressed ceramic fiber board and method of manufacture." (patent) US20020098336 A1 (2002)
"Directive 2003/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 March 2003 amending Council Directive 83/477/EEC on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to asbestos at work". Publications Office of the European Union.
In 2003 sales dropped again to $1.3 billion, and Walter lost $29 million.
A.F.A. (2003): Fiberboard Sheathing test results
In 2004, the company's fortunes turned once again.
2004: Coal prices rise, bringing Walter Industries back to profitability.
Li, Xiaobo. "Physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of bamboo and its utilization potential for fiberboard manufacturing." (2004).
By the beginning of 2005, Walter Industries stock jumped from an average price between $10 and $15 per share to an average price around $30 per share.
2008: Celotex production of laminated plasterboard PL4000 was begun as a product used for dry-lining installations.
In 2008 Celotex introduced a Class O fire rated board product FR4000, a PIR product available only from Celotex.
5 (2010): 2561-2567.Abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of hot waste oil vapor on some of the physical and bending properties of commercially manufactured thin medium density fiberboard (tMDF) panels.
2012: Celotex Corporation continues operations in the U.K. selling foam board (polyisocyanurate foam) insulation.
The HOME REFERENCE BOOK - the Encyclopedia of Homes, Carson Dunlop & Associates, Toronto, Ontario, 25th Ed., 2012, is a bound volume of more than 450 illustrated pages that assist home inspectors and home owners in the inspection and detection of problems on buildings.
Henry Clay patented a paper-based wallboard panel for interior use on walls and as door panels in 1772. (Gould 2014).
Mauney, Matt, "Celotex Corporation" [Web article], retrieved 2017/11/08, original source: https://www.asbestos.com/companies/celotex.php
and hoping it doesn't contain asbestos but with cutthroats like people in that industry in those years the dollar was king - so who the hell knows if they mixed some in, and people like myself in 2019 still have to deal with this crap.
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