Stone working – Splitting – shearing – and punching
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-16
2003-12-09
Nguyen, George (Department: 3723)
Stone working
Splitting, shearing, and punching
C125S013010, C052S610000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06659099
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to stone masonry, and in particular to the construction of stone surfaces and corners using veneer stone.
2. Background Description
Formerly stone is laid as a structural component or as an aesthetic cladding or veneer on houses, buildings, walls, chimneys and as paving or flooring.
Stone comes in different types: thin stone one-half inch to three inches thick that is either a field stone or is quarried and split to the appropriate size; and building stone, which is a three inch to nine inch thick stone that is either a field stone or is quarried and split to the appropriate size. Thin stone and building stone are generally the same stone except for their different thicknesses.
There are many other types of stone: flag stone, granite, marble, dimensional stone that typically comes in thin panels flat or polished. Also there are boulders and edging, none of which are of concern to the present invention. Only thin stone and building stone are of concern to the present invention.
The advantages and disadvantages of thin stone are as follows. Thin stone is inexpensive to buy, easy and inexpensive to lay, and easy and inexpensive to transport. However, thin stone leaves an unsightly joint on the outside corners of the wall, house, building or whatever is being laid. At the outside corners, the thickness of the stone can be readily ascertained because the thin edge of the stone is visible, which shatters the illusion of a thick (4 inch to 9 inch) stone cladding most preferred by customers. It should be noted that inside corners are not a problem, because the thin edges do not show and there is no difference in the appearance between building stone and thin stone. The difficulty is with the external corner.
There are two inadequate solutions in the prior art. First, building stone is laid instead of thin stone, which solves the problem of unsightly corners of thin stone. The down side of building stone is it's expensive to buy, hard and expensive to lay, and heavy and expensive to transport.
Second, culture or imitation stone may be used to provide an illusion of thick stone at the corners. Culture stone is made of poured and cast concrete to which is applied a thin cladding layer of simulated rock on the front and edges. Culture stone comes in a two part system. Flat stones (½ inch to 3 inch thick) laid on the wall surface and corner pieces shaped like a 90 degree “L” (½ inch to 3 inches thick) laid on the corners of the wall. Laid together, these surface and corner pieces give the illusion of thick stone, but it is light in weight compared to thick stone and it has the easy laying character of thin stone.
The drawbacks to this solution are as follows: culture stone costs as much per square foot of surface area as thick building stone. Culture stone can't be cleaned with commercial acid based masonry cleaners to remove mortar stains, as this would corrode the “stone” appearance and void the warranty. Culture stone can't be used in constant contact with water (ponds, swimming pools and the like), unlike real stone. Furthermore, culture stone doesn't lend itself to fit and finish as well as thin stone. Typically, thin stone is trimmed a bit with a hammer and/or flipped over to fit in various spots in a wall.
FIG. 2A
shows a thin stone
200
with edges
210
. Trimming the thin stone
200
reveals a new edge
220
, which has the same texture and attributes as the stone itself. Culture stone trimmed up exposes the unsightly inside of the piece since the stone look of the piece is provided by a thin coating. Culture stone can't be flipped over to fit a space since the coating is only on the front.
FIG. 2B
shows a culture stone
250
with edges
260
. Trimming the culture stone
250
reveals a new edge
270
, which does not have the cladding of edges
260
. Instead, the edge
270
shows a cladding layer
275
(not shown to scale) formed over concrete
280
.
It is to be noted that another potential solution is not workable. Culture stone corners cannot be used with thin stone walls because the texture of the culture stone cladding is noticeably different from thin stone, and makes the corners unsightly on that account.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a way of constructing outside corner stones for veneer stone surfaces which hide the seams which appear when thin stone veneer is used at the corners.
Another object of the invention is to provide for efficient use of building stone by making two outside corner stones from a single building stone.
The invention is implemented as follows. On a typical wall utilize thin stone to lay the field of the wall. Then cut 90 degree corners out of building stone squares and rectangles so as to leave a corner piece ½ inch to 3 inch thick to match the thickness of the thin stone on the field of the wall. Lay these on the corners of the wall. This will give the illusion of a thick building stone wall with nearly the low cost and easy laying of thin stone; the wall with these corner pieces costs much less than a wall laid with culture stone, and is nearly as light.
In one embodiment, the method of the invention constructs non-seamed stone corners for first and second thin stone walls of thickness T
1
and T
2
, respectively, joined at right angles at an external edge, by selecting a building stone having a height H, a depth D and a width W, the building stone having top and bottom surfaces H
1
and H
2
, respectively, front and back surfaces D
1
and D
2
, respectively, and left and right surfaces W
1
and W
2
, respectively. Then a first cut is made in the selected building stone, the plane of the first cut being parallel to the plane of surface W
1
and extending to a uniform depth from surface H
1
, such that the distance between the plane of the first cut and the plane of surface W
1
is T
1
, and such that the uniform depth is equal to (H−T
2
). Then a second cut is made in the building stone, the plane of the second cut being parallel to the plane of surface H
1
and extending to a second uniform depth from surface W
2
, such that the distance between the plane of the second cut and the plane of surface H
2
is T
2
, and such that the second uniform depth is equal to (W−T
1
).
These two cuts separate from the building stone a residual piece, leaving a corner stone. In a further embodiment of the invention, the residual piece is large enough for use in making a second corner stone. The residual piece is re-oriented as a workpiece so that neither the left surface nor the bottom surface is formed by either the first cut or the second cut, since the left and bottom surfaces (as viewed in preparation for the initial cut) will show on the corner and should be a natural stone surface rather than a saw cut surface. Three such re-orientations are possible. After such re-orientation, the residual piece will have a height H′, a width W′ and a depth D′. The residual piece will also have top and bottom surfaces H′
1
and H′
2
, respectively, left and right surfaces W′
1
and W′
2
respectively, and front and back surfaces D′
1
and D′
2
, respectively. Essentially the same method used to create the first corner stone is then used upon the re-oriented residual piece to create a second corner stone. A third cut is made in the residual piece, the plane of the third cut being parallel to the plane of surface W′
1
and extending to a third uniform depth from surface H′
1
, such that the distance between the plane of the third cut and the plane of surface W′
1
is T
1
, and such that the third uniform depth is equal to (H′−T
2
). A fourth cut is made in the residual piece, the plane of the fourth cut being parallel to the plane of surface H′
1
and extending to a fourth uniform depth from surface W′
2
, such that the distance between the plane of the fourth cut and the
Nguyen George
Whitham Curtis & Christofferson, PC
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