GB2378457A

GB2378457A - Support for a floor, ceiling or wall

Info

Publication number: GB2378457A
Application number: GB0119635A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John M Twomey
Original assignee: J M T MAN SERVICES Ltd
Current assignee: J M T MAN SERVICES Ltd
Priority date: 2001-08-10
Filing date: 2001-08-10
Publication date: 2003-02-12
Also published as: GB0119635D0

Abstract

A support for a floor, ceiling or wall comprises a first, resilient part 2 having sound absorbing properties on to which battens of a surface structure can be mounted. The resilient part is mounted on a second part 6 whose linear extent from the first part 2 can be continuously varied over a plurality of settings. The second part 6 comprises first, externally threaded tube 9, a second tube 10 comprising a first internal screw thread at one end for engaging tube 9 and a second internal screw thread at the other end, of opposite twist, for engaging the screw thread of a third, externally threaded, tube 12. A third resilient part is provided for engaging a sub-structure and is sound absorbing. In use, the support 1 can be placed on sub-structure and the level of the first part 2 above the sub-structure varied to any desired setting by rotating the part 10 causing the screw threaded tubes 9 and 11 to move apart.

Description

SUPPORT FOR A FLOOR. CEILING OR WALL The present invention relates to a support for a floor, ceiling or wall, as well as to a floor, ceiling wall constructed using the support and a method of constructing a floor, ceiling or wall using the support.

Floors, ceilings and walls are typically constructed onto a sub-structure by first of all fixing a plurality of longitudinally extending battens to the sub-structure and then fixing board members to the battens so that the board members are held firmly at a distance from the sub-structure. This method of constructing floors, ceilings and walls may be used in many areas, for example in permanent or temporary buildings or other structures such as vehicles, ships, aircraft or to provide level surfaces on ground out of doors.

This method of constructing floors, ceilings and walls is particularly important in the building industry. Many or new or existing buildings comprise structural surfaces such as floors, ceilings or walls which are unattractive and unsuitable for direct placement of surfacing material. The batten method provides a way of constructing a surface on such structures.

It is commonly desired to provide sound absorbing properties to a structure mounted on a sub-structure, to prevent impacts and other noises being transmitted throughout a building and to minimise reflected noise. Indeed, in many modem buildings, a measure of acoustic absorption is required by law. In the past, this has been provided by providing a spacer, commonly called a cradle, of resilient material between the battens and the floor, ceiling or wall or between the battens and the sub-structure.

It is frequently not possible to provide a substructure which has truly level surface.

Accordingly, it is necessary to provide a way of supporting the faces of the battens which are furthest from the sub-structure so that they provide a truly level surface, for laying the board members onto. This is commonly achieved by providing a plurality of

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packing pieces or shivs for insertion between the cradle and the bottom surface of the batten. Particularly, packing pieces of thickness 2mm and 3mm are provided, the surface assemblers selecting the correct combination of packing pieces to achieve the desired packing level for the batten.

Systems of this type are described for example in GB 2354536, and GB 2314351. A particularly successful type of cradle is described in GB 2310227 and comprises a substantially square cradle with four upstanding projections which define between them first and second channels lying at right angles to one another, into which battens may be selectively placed, packing pieces being provided for use with the spacer to achieve the desired height.

In practice, there are many problems with such arrangements.

The accuracy of levelling is limited to the difference in thickness between various packing pieces and typically is in the range 1-2 mm. More accuracy is required in modem flooring in many cases.

There is a limit to the number of packing pieces which can be placed underneath a given batten, which is determined by the height of the projections above the spacer. If too many packing pieces are inserted, the batten is not property supported by the projections. This can be overcome by providing a different spacer in which the thickness of the spacer underneath the batten is higher, but this necessitates providing a large number of relatively bulky spacers which require a lot a storage and can be quite complex to install.

The present inventor has set out to overcome these problems.

The present inventor has realised that a support system is required for floors, ceilings and walls in which a resilient part (provided to give acoustic control) is combined with a second part whose dimension away from the resilient part can be continuously variably set.

The present inventor has further realised that a first resilient part mounted on a second part which comprises a screw can provide a very effective way of varying the level of the first part above the second part, whereby infinitely controllable levelling can be obtained. Further, a very wide range of levels can be accommodated in a relatively simple manner.

Accordingly. The present invention provides in a first aspect a support for a floor, ceiling or wall. comprising a first, resilient, part and a second part, wherein the extent of the second part from the first part is continuously variably settable.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a support for a floor, ceiling or wall, comprising a first, resilient, part and a second part, wherein the extent of second part from the first part is variable by means of a screw.

The present invention further provides a method of constructing a floor, ceiling or wall comprising placing a plurality of supports according to the present invention on a substructure and placing at least one surface structure on the supports.

In a further aspect, the present invention provides a floor, ceiling or wall, comprising a sub-structure having mounted thereon a plurality of supports according to the present invention and, mounted on the supports, at least one surface structure.

Hereinafter, for brevity, the support for a floor, ceiling or wall will be simply referred to as"a support".

The support may find application in any suitable area, for example temporary or permanent buildings, vehicles and others structures or providing a level surface on ground out of doors.

In all aspect of the invention, the surface structure may comprise at least one panel means defining at least part of a floor, ceiling or wall. Alternatively, it may comprise a plurality of longitudinally extending members such as battens and at least one panel

fixed to the longitudinally extending members, defining at least part of a surface of a floor, ceiling or wall.

In use. the first resilient part is adapted to be placed in contact with one of the substructure or the surface structure or either of them.

In a preferred embodiment, the first resilient part is for contacting the surface structure and comprises at least one longitudinally extending channel formed therein for receiving a longitudinally extending member of the surface structure.

The resilient part is formed of any suitable resiliently deformable material. Its purpose is primarily to provide acoustic performance to the floor. It is provided to reduce transmission of noise generated at floor level to the sub-structure, thereby preventing noise spreading throughout the building, vehicle or the like. It also helps to reduce reflected noise from the surface structure.

It may be constructed for example of open cell resilient material such as foam or closed cell resilient material. In a preferred embodiment, it comprises a plurality of resilient crumbs or beads adhered together by heat, adhesive or pressure. For example, crumbed rubber material may be used, for example obtained from recycled aircraft, vehicle or other tyres.

There may be a third resilient part located on the other side of the second part to the first part, whereby sound transmission from the surface structure to the sub-structure may be further reduced.

Any suitable means may be provided to continuously variably set the extent of the second part from the first resilient part.

For example, the second part may comprise parts slidable with respect to one another the parts being fixed in position by fixing means such as clamp. Alternatively, the second part may comprise two components which are movably mounted with respect to one another and whose position with respect to one another is controlled a wedge, cam

or screw thread on one component engaging a corresponding surface on the second component.

A cam, wedge or screw thread is particularly preferred at it can allow the setting of the second part to be accurately set in a continuously variable manner.

It is particularly preferred that a screw means be used. A screw allows a wide range of settings to be obtained simply by rotating the first component with respect to the second component through the required number of rotations or part rotations.

Suitably, the pitch of the screw thread is relatively fine to allow considerable accuracy of positioning. For example, the screw thread may make at least four full turns within one diameter, more preferably at least eight full turns within one diameter and most preferably at least ten full turns within one diameter.

The respective screw threads on the first component may be configured such that they are in contact for a plurality of full turns, for example at least four full turns, to provide good load transfer via the second part from the surface structure to the sub-structure.

The screw thread may comprise a single start screw thread or a plurality of starts.

Whilst the first aspect of the invention requires that the extent of the second part is continuously settable with respect to the first resilient part, it is possible within the second aspect of the invention, when using a screw thread for example in combination with ratchet means, that the extent of the second part is discretely variable with respect

to the first part, for example by small steps. Preferably, these steps are no more than 0. 1 mm apart.

The second part is made of any suitable material, for example metal or plastic.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the second part comprises at least three components, comprising a first, screw threaded component comprising a first screw thread engageable, a second component having a first screw thread engageable with the screw thread of the first component and a second, oppositely directed screw thread, and

a third component comprising a screw thiead engaged with the second screw thread of the second component. In this way, a wide range of movement can be obtained per rotation of the second component. The first and third components may remain rotationally fixed, the second component being rotated to vary the extent of the second part.

The first, and optionally, the third component of the second part may comprise internally or externally threaded tubes, the second component comprising and externally or internally threaded tube respectively.

The diameter of the threaded surface of the first component is suitably in the range 10- 50mm more preferably 25-40mm.

In a further preferred embodiment, at least one of the first, second or third component may be replaceable with a replacement component having an identical screw thread or screw threads but having different overall linear dimensions. In this way, if it is not possible to provide sufficient alterations in the dimensions of the second part with the existing first, second or third component, it may be replaced by a larger or smaller replacement component whereby different overall dimensions may be obtained.

The first resilient part and the second part and, optionally, the third part may be permanently fixed together or they may be releasably attached to one another. By providing releasable parts, replacement of worn parts or parts with different dimensions may be obtained.

For example, the first and/or the third part may each be removable from the support means and replaceable with a replacement first part or replacement third part. For example, the replacement parts may be of different dimensions, for example being greater in linear extent. This allows coarse variations in the linear extent of the support to be achieved. Subsequently, fine variation of the dimensions of the support may be achieved by variably setting the second part.

The second part may comprise a stop means for deeming t minimum or maximum extent of the second part from the first part. This can be useful during the assembly of a surface using the support of the invention. A first support may be defined as datum and fixed at the minimum or maximum extent, all further supports being levelled with respect to the datum support.

The first part, and optionally the third part may comprise a rigid structure for smoothly transferring load applied to the first or third resilient part to the second part. This is particularly valuable where the second part comprises a screw threaded tube which may be of relatively small diameter compared to the width of the first or third part.

For example, the minimum extent of the second part from the first part may be in the range 20mm-300mm more preferably 30mm-250mm.

In use, it is possible for the first and, optionally, third resilient part to be disconnected from the second part. The first, and, optionally, third resilient part may then be fixed directly to a sub-structure for supporting a surface structure at points where only a particularly small distance between the surface structure and the sub-structure is available.

The present invention may be used in many context. For example, it may be used in commercial, industrial or domestic flooring or in offices. It may be used to provide level floor spaces on ground out of doors or within temporary structures such as marquees. The present invention has the particular advantage that many of the components may be made of plastic or rubber which are weather proof and damp proof and will not rot. It may be used to support temporary or permanent floors. The support of the present invention allows flooring to be constructed with access space beneath it for services such as electricity, power, communication etc.

The present invention will be further described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.

Figure 1 is a side view of a support according to the present invention Figure 2 is a schematic perspective view of a support according to the present invention in partly disassembled state.

Figure 3 is a schematic view of supports according to the present invention used to construct a floor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 shows a support according to the present invention. It is adapted to support a floor, ceiling or wall on a sub-structure.

For convenience, the functions of the support will be described with reference to supporting a batten type floor. For this purpose, the dimensions parallel to the length of the page will be described as the height and dimensions parallel to the width of the page will be described as the width or diameter of the respective structure.

The support, generally designated 1, comprises at the top a first resilient part 2. This resilient part 2 is constructed of moulded crumbed rubber obtained from recycled tyres.

It is of width 100mm. As will be described further below, it comprises a base 3 and a plurality of projections 4. The base 3 is of height 10mm, the projections 4 extending 20mm above the base. The first part 2 is mounted on a rigid dish member 5 which is formed of hard plastic, for transferring load applied by the floor structure to the second member 6 which will be described below. The first member 2 is adhered to the dish member 5 with adhesive. In use, a circular pad of double-sided adhesive foam sheet material can be provided to fix the first member to the dish member 5. The dish member 5 comprises a central bore 7 for receiving the second part 6. The dish member 5 further comprises strengthening ribs 8.

The second part 6 extends away from the first pan 2. Its extent can be continuously variably set at a plurality of positions. It comprises a first component 9 comprising a externally screw threaded tube, a second component 10 which comprises a tube which, at one end, is internally threaded with screw threads adapted to engage with the screw threads of the first component 9. At the other end of tube 10, there is a second internal screw thread of opposite twist. This is adapted to engage a third component 11, which comprises an externally threaded tube of opposite thread to the tube 9. The outside of the tube 10 is ribbed to provide grip.

The bottom of the tube 11 is received in a socket 12 in a lower dish member 13, which is identical in design to the upper dish member 5. It comprises strengthening ribs 14, which correspond to the strengthening ribs 8. Finally, a third, resilient part 15 is provided at the bottom of the support for engagement with the sub-structure (not shown). The third part 15 may be adhered to the lower dish part 13. For example, a double-sided adhesive circular foam pad may be used.

The combination of upper dish member 5, second part 6 and lower dish member 13 is typically referred to in the art as a pedestal.

In figure 1, a pin 20 is shown. This pin projects through a hole in the tube 10 into the interior of the tube. In use, this prevents the lower end of tube 9 or the upper end of tube 11 descending or ascending in tube 10 to more than a specified height, thereby providing minimum height positions of these tubes with respect to tube 10.

The internal diameter of the tube 10 and the external diameter of the tubes 9 and 11 is 30mm. They are of wall thickness 3mm. The sockets 7 and 12 may be screw threaded to receive the tubes 9 and 11.

The third part 15 is of height 10mm.

In use, each of the first part 2 and the second part 3 may be replaceable with a replacement first part or replacement third part of different height, to allow coarse variations in the height of the support to be achieved.

In use, the support 1 is placed on a sub-structure (not shown) with the third part 15 in contact with the sub-structure. Battens of a floor structure may be engaged between projections 4 in a manner known in the art and the top sides of the battens levelled in a manner known in the art, for example using laser levelling means. In order to adjust the height of the support I to provide levelling, tube 10 is rotated so that the tube 10 is pushed up from the tube 11 and tube 9 is pushed up from the tube 10, thereby varying the height of the top of the support above the sub-structure.

Figure 2 is a schematic perspective view of the support 1 of figure 1 in partly disassembled state.

It can be seen that the first part 2 comprises four projections 4 which define between them two intersecting channels 16. In use, wooden battens may be placed in one or both of the channels 16 so that they are firmly held by the projections 4.

The first part 2 has not yet been adhered to the upper dish member 5. The third part 15 has not yet been adhered to the lower dish member 13.

Figure 3 shows a method of assembling a floor using a plurality of supports 1 according to the present invention.

The floor is constructed on a sub-structure generally designated 17. A plurality of supports 1 according to figure 1 and 2 are mounted in a rectangular grid pattern of predetermined design on the sub-structure 17. In the top part of the diagram, it can be seen that battens 18 have been placed in the channels 16 of the resilient parts 2 of the supports 1. The top surfaces of the battens 18 have been levelled to the desired degree of accuracy (for example, a fall of no less than. 5mm over a distance of I metre) for example using a laser levelling means. In the top right hand comer of the diagram, it can be seen that floor panels 19 has been fixed on to the battens 18, for example using screws or adhesive.

In the support of figure 1, the tubes 9 and 11 are configured to be replaceable with the longer tubes if required. For example, a set of tubes of lengths in the range 15mm to 105mm may be employed.

In general, it is preferred that the screw thread of the tube 9 or 11 should overlap the internal screw thread of the tube 10 for at least 5mm. Accordingly, the maximum extent of the tube 9 or 11 from the tube 10 will be the length of the tube 9 or 11 minus 5 mm.

Accordingly, the maximum lift achievable using the second part 6 is (length of tube 9 minus 5mm) plus (length of tube 11 minus 5mm). For the set of tubes described above, a minimum lift of 20mm (15 minus 5 plus 15 minus 5) and a maximum lift of 200mm (105 minus 5 plus 105 minus 5) can be obtained.

In use, if a particularly small distance between the sub-structure and the floor structure is required, the first part and, optionally, the third part 15 may be detached from the rest of the structure and used either on their own or together, optionally with the use of packers underneath the battens within the channel 16.

The plate thickness of the dishes 5 and 13 is 2mm.

The support 1 described above can be used equally to support a ceiling below a ceiling sub-structure or a wall with respect to a wall sub-structure.

The present invention has been described above by way of example only and modifications can be made within the spirit of the invention, which extends to equivalents of the features described. The invention also consists in any individual features described or implicit herein or shown or implicit in the drawings or any combinations of any such features or generalisation of any such features or combination.

Claims

CLAIMS :

1. A support for a floor, ceiling or wall, comprising: a first, resilient, part and a second part, wherein the extent of the second part from the first part is continuously variably settable.

2. A support according to Claim 1, wherein the extent of the second part from the first part is variable by means of a screw.

3. A floor support, comprising: a first, resilient, part and a second part, wherein the extent of the second part from the first part is variable by means of a screw.

4. A support according to any preceding claim, wherein the resilient part is sound absorbing.

5. A support according to any preceding claim, wherein the resilient part comprises crumbed rubber.

6. A support according to any preceding claim, wherein the resilient part is for contacting a surface structure of a floor, ceiling or wall.

7. A support according to any preceding claim, further comprising a third, resilient, part located on the other side of the second part to the first part.

8. A support according to any preceding claim, wherein the screw comprises a first screw threaded component and a second screw threaded component rotatably mounted with respect to the first screw threaded component.

9. A support according to claim 8, wherein the first screw threaded component is externally threaded and the second screw threaded component is internally threaded.

10. A support according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the second screw threaded component comprises a second screw thread of opposite twist to the first screw thread, there being a third screw threaded component having a screw thread for engaging the second screw thread of the second component.

11. A method of assembling a floor, ceiling or wall, comprising placing a plurality of supports according to any preceding claim on a sub-structure and mounting a surface structure on the support.

12. A floor, ceiling or wall comprising : a sub-structure a plurality of supports according to any of claims 1 to 10 mounted on the sub-structure and a surface structure mounted on the supports.

13. A support for a ceiling, floor or wall, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

14. A method of constructing a floor, ceiling or wall, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

15. A floor, ceiling or wall, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.