Celebrating a decade of DEXcell Roof Boards

DEXcell Roof Boards is celebrating a decade in the roofing industry and Warren Barber, product sales manager for DEXcell® Roof Boards at National Gypsum, recently visited with Roofing Contractor to discuss the growth of the product line, recent innovations and why coverboards are essential for low-slope roofing.

Art Aisner, editor-in-chief at Roofing Contractor, met with Barber at the 2024 International Roofing Expo in Las Vegas in March 2024. Following are excerpts from the conversation edited for clarity. Please click here to watch the full interview.

Aisner: Tell us what’s new and exciting with DEXcell?

Barber: We are celebrating 10 years of DEXcell being a coverboard in the low-slope roofing industry. We've been working over the past 10 years really building relationships with contractors, with system manufacturers and doing the testing, getting the listings. We're on the verge of being able to say that DEXcell can be used in any low-slope roofing system out there. It's a big deal for us. It's been a lot of work over 10 years, but we're proud of the fact that we've achieved parity with other coverboard manufacturers. So that's our big story for this year.

Aisner: Let's dive into that a little further. Ten years. Not a significant amount of time in the scope of roofing as an industry, but long enough where you know what contractors like about your product. Tell us a little bit about that. What are you hearing?

Barber: DEXcell is a hard coverboard and really what that means is we act as a protector layer. We protect the insulation below and we protect the membrane above our coverboard. The whole idea is, especially now with the energy codes and the new focus on more insulation, one of the biggest investments in a low-slope roof now is in the insulation. The membrane isn't cheap, but a hard coverboard protects the insulation below from foot traffic, from hail, impact, equipment being put on it. Then, obviously, we have to protect the waterproofing above because we got to keep the building dry. Protect the insulation below, the waterproofing above and all that extends the life of the building for the owner and for the contractor.

Aisner: Are there any new innovations or new things you're exciting about for 2024?

Barber: Yes, we are in the very severe hail space. Factory Mutual and insurance companies have put a big emphasis on hail. And we have solutions. We've just developed a product in the last two years, DEXcell FA VSH™ Glass Mat Roof Board. It can be used in single-ply, very severe hail systems whether it's mechanically attached, fully adhered. We're in the process of rolling that out with the system manufacturers, the single-ply manufacturers, and then we're working through Factory Mutual testing and all that. So, hail is a big deal.

Click below to watch the full Roofing Contractor interview.