The Owens Corning Trust Was Funded With Approximately $5 Billion at 2006 Formation. The Subfund Payment Percentages Are Now 4.7% and 3.7%.

The Owens Corning/Fibreboard Asbestos Personal Injury Trust was established on October 31, 2006 following Owens Corning’s October 5, 2000 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the District of Delaware. The trust operates two subfunds: the Owens Corning subfund and the Fibreboard subfund. Initial total trust funding was approximately $5 billion. The trust resolves personal injury claims arising from asbestos-containing products manufactured by Owens Corning Corporation and its subsidiary Fibreboard Corporation, including the Kaylo pipe insulation product line that Owens Corning acquired from Owens-Illinois in 1953.

This profile companions the Celotex Asbestos Trust profile in the construction trades trust cluster. Both are major 524(g) trusts that anchor the post-bankruptcy compensation system for workers exposed to asbestos through the 1970s. The current Owens Corning subfund payment percentage is 4.7% of scheduled value. The Fibreboard subfund payment percentage is 3.7%. Mesothelioma is the highest-tier compensation category at Level V in the Owens Corning/Fibreboard Trust Distribution Procedures, with a scheduled value of $210,000.

How the Owens Corning Trust Was Formed

Owens Corning Corporation, headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, manufactured fiberglass insulation, building materials, roofing products, and industrial composites. The asbestos liability that drove the company’s October 5, 2000 Chapter 11 filing in the District of Delaware traced primarily to the Kaylo pipe insulation product that Owens Corning acquired from Owens-Illinois in 1953 and continued to manufacture until production ceased in the early 1970s. By 2000, Owens Corning had been named as a defendant in tens of thousands of asbestos personal injury cases nationally. The Chapter 11 filing was a coordinated reorganization to address the asbestos liability through a 524(g) trust mechanism while continuing operations as a fiberglass and building materials business.

The Plan of Reorganization, confirmed in 2006, established the Owens Corning/Fibreboard Asbestos Personal Injury Trust under 11 USC 524(g) authorization. The 524(g) provision was added to the US Bankruptcy Code by the 1994 Bankruptcy Reform Act and provides a structured mechanism for resolving present and future asbestos personal injury claims through a court-supervised trust. The trust assumed liability for all qualifying asbestos personal injury claims against Owens Corning and Fibreboard, releasing the reorganized company from ongoing litigation exposure for those claims. Owens Corning emerged from Chapter 11 on October 31, 2006, the same date the trust was established.

The Fibreboard subfund operates as a separate accounting subdivision of the trust to address claims arising specifically from Fibreboard Corporation’s asbestos products. Fibreboard manufactured asbestos-containing insulation, acoustic ceiling tiles, and pipe coverings before being acquired by Owens Corning in 1997. The Fibreboard subfund began processing claims on August 27, 2007 with approximately $1.56 billion in initial funding. The Owens Corning subfund began processing claims at trust formation in October 2006.

The Kaylo Product History

Kaylo asbestos pipe insulation was the principal product driving Owens Corning’s asbestos liability. Owens-Illinois originally manufactured Kaylo (the name combined “calcium silicate” with the chemical symbol K for potassium and the suffix “-lo” for low density). Owens-Illinois introduced Kaylo in the 1940s as a high-temperature thermal pipe insulation suitable for industrial applications. Owens Corning acquired the Kaylo product line from Owens-Illinois in 1953 and continued manufacturing the product through the 1950s and 1960s.

Kaylo’s industrial penetration was substantial. The product was widely specified for thermal insulation on hot piping in shipyards, refineries, power plants, chemical plants, paper mills, and industrial facilities. Naval shipbuilders specified Kaylo for shipboard pipe insulation in the postwar era. Refinery and petrochemical operators specified Kaylo for process piping insulation. Power plant operators specified Kaylo for steam line and boiler-room piping. The product’s wide adoption made Kaylo one of the most-cited asbestos insulation products in shipyard and refinery mesothelioma cases. The Houston Ship Channel exposure sites and the Beaumont-Port Arthur refinery corridor investigations document the broader Gulf Coast occupational exposure pattern in which Kaylo was a recurring product on exposure histories.

Owens Corning ceased Kaylo production in the early 1970s following emerging knowledge about asbestos health hazards and the OSHA general industry asbestos standard (29 CFR 1910.1001) that took effect in 1972. By that time, decades of Kaylo had already been installed in industrial facilities, and the legacy product remained in service for decades after manufacture stopped. Workers who installed, removed, or worked near Kaylo (insulators, pipefitters, boilermakers, electricians, and laborers) had significant occupational asbestos exposure. Workers who performed insulation removal during turnaround maintenance or facility demolition encountered concentrated airborne asbestos fiber concentrations.

The 8-Tier Disease Level Structure

The Owens Corning/Fibreboard Trust Distribution Procedures (Amended TDP dated December 2, 2015) establish 8 disease levels with progressively higher scheduled values. The structure follows the standard 524(g) trust pattern, separating asbestos-related diseases into tiers based on severity, medical documentation, and exposure history. Each tier has specific medical criteria and exposure criteria that a claimant must satisfy.

Level I covers asbestosis with lower-grade impairment, requiring radiographic evidence (ILO 1/0 or higher) and pulmonary function test results, plus 10 or more years of asbestos exposure with significant Owens Corning or Fibreboard product exposure. The scheduled value is $2,500.

Level II covers asbestosis with bilateral pleural disease (plaques or thickening), with PFT results meeting threshold criteria. Scheduled value is $20,000.

Levels III and IV cover asbestos-related lung cancer with progressively higher severity and documentation requirements. Both require 15 or more years of exposure plus significant Owens Corning or Fibreboard product exposure. Level III scheduled value is $25,000; Level IV is $40,000.

Level V is mesothelioma, the highest scheduled value in the matrix at $210,000. Mesothelioma claims require diagnosis by biopsy, imaging, or physician panel and sufficient Owens Corning or Fibreboard product exposure (no minimum years specified given the substantial-exposure standard for mesothelioma).

Level VI covers primary lung cancer with 15 or more years of exposure but without confirmed asbestosis. Scheduled value is $50,000.

Level VII covers other asbestos-related cancers (larynx, esophagus, colon, stomach, kidney), and Level VIII covers lung cancer with limited exposure documentation.

Actual payment to a claimant equals the scheduled value multiplied by the current subfund payment percentage. For an approved Level V mesothelioma claim against the Owens Corning subfund at the current 4.7% payment percentage, the calculation is $210,000 times 0.047 equals approximately $9,870. Against the Fibreboard subfund at 3.7%, the calculation is $210,000 times 0.037 equals approximately $7,770.

What Payment Percentage Means

The Owens Corning subfund payment percentage of 4.7% and the Fibreboard subfund payment percentage of 3.7% reflect the trust’s actuarial position. Trusts are funded with finite assets at formation and must pay current and future claims over decades. To preserve solvency for future claimants who haven’t yet developed mesothelioma (given the 20 to 50 year latency from initial asbestos fiber inhalation per ATSDR), trusts pay a fraction of the published scheduled value rather than the full amount.

The trust advisory committee, future claimants representative, and trust administrator together review the payment percentage periodically. The review accounts for the actual claim flow, the projected future claim volume, the trust’s investment returns, and the actuarial life of the trust. Payment percentages can be adjusted up or down. The Owens Corning/Fibreboard subfund percentages have been adjusted multiple times since the trust was established in 2006.

Across the 524(g) asbestos trust system, payment percentages typically range from 1% to 25%, depending on each trust’s funding position. Some smaller trusts pay closer to face value because their claim volumes are limited; some larger trusts with high claim volumes pay lower percentages to maintain solvency. KCIC and trust administrator publications track payment percentage changes across the major trusts. The asbestos trust fund payouts overview covers the broader trust system.

Who Can File and How

People diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, asbestosis, pleural disease, or other asbestos-related conditions can file with the Owens Corning/Fibreboard Trust if they have documented exposure to Owens Corning, Owens-Illinois (post-1953), or Fibreboard products. Common exposure pathways include:

• Direct work with Kaylo pipe insulation as an insulator (lagger), pipefitter, boilermaker, or electrician
• Bystander exposure at shipyards, refineries, power plants, chemical plants, paper mills, and industrial facilities where Kaylo was installed
• Demolition or renovation work that disturbed legacy Kaylo installations
• Family member exposure through take-home asbestos dust on a worker’s clothing under the household contact category
• Naval service on vessels with shipboard Kaylo installations

The TDP specifies the medical and exposure documentation required for each disease level. Medical documentation typically includes the diagnostic biopsy report (for mesothelioma and lung cancer), pulmonary function test results (for asbestosis), and physician statements. Exposure documentation typically includes employment records, work site documentation, and exposure history declarations.

Filing is typically coordinated through an attorney who handles mesothelioma cases. The attorney develops the exposure history document (occupational history) and identifies all eligible 524(g) trusts based on the worker’s exposure profile. People with significant Gulf Coast shipyard, refinery, or industrial exposure may be eligible to file with multiple trusts concurrently, including the Owens Corning/Fibreboard trust, the Celotex/Carey Canada trust, the Combustion Engineering trust, the Babcock and Wilcox trust, the Eagle-Picher trust, the Armstrong World Industries trust, the Vanderbilt Minerals trust (newly forming), and others. The total trust filing process can take months to years depending on the volume and the specific trust requirements.

Statute of Limitations Considerations

Most asbestos trust claim deadlines follow the statute of limitations of the state where the claimant lives or where exposure occurred. For mesothelioma, most state statutes of limitations run from the date of diagnosis under the discovery rule, not the date of exposure. The Owens Corning/Fibreboard TDP includes specific filing deadlines for different claim types.

People with new mesothelioma diagnoses generally have one to three years from diagnosis to file under most state statutes, but the exact deadline depends on the state. Texas applies a 2-year statute of limitations from diagnosis under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003. Illinois applies a 2-year statute under 735 ILCS 5/13-202. New York applies a 3-year statute under CPLR 214-c. Filing earlier than the deadline is strongly preferred because trust claim review takes time and the periodic actuarial reviews can reduce payment percentages over time.

A Closing Thesis

The Owens Corning/Fibreboard Asbestos Personal Injury Trust profile is part of the broader 524(g) trust map that anchors the post-bankruptcy compensation system for workers exposed to asbestos through the 1970s. The Kaylo pipe insulation product line drove the underlying liability, and the trust now resolves claims from the workers and family members affected by that product’s broad industrial penetration. The 8-tier disease level structure and the current 4.7% (Owens Corning subfund) and 3.7% (Fibreboard subfund) payment percentages are the operational mechanics of the trust today.

For a person with documented Kaylo exposure now diagnosed with mesothelioma, the practical question is which trusts the worker’s exposure history qualifies for, and how the various claim filings should be coordinated. An attorney who handles mesothelioma cases can identify all eligible trusts and develop the unified exposure history document that supports filings across the system. The companion Celotex Trust profile covers the parallel construction trades trust. Together, the major 524(g) trusts provide the compensation framework for occupational asbestos exposure that occurred decades before the diagnosis.