Static structures (e.g. – buildings) – Sheetlike element assembled parallel to existing wall,... – Assembled with fastening device
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-21
2001-10-30
Friedman, Carl D. (Department: 3635)
Static structures (e.g., buildings)
Sheetlike element assembled parallel to existing wall,...
Assembled with fastening device
C052S516000, C052S478000, C052S783100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06308486
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a waterproof surface cladding system for example a system for cladding walls and ceilings. Especially the invention relates to hard wearing wall and ceiling cladding systems for use in agricultural or industrial locations in which the walls are frequently subjected to pressure spraying with water or other liquids. Additionally the wall system of the invention may be useful in recreational and domestic environments such as swimming pools, public washrooms, bathrooms, etc.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There have been long standing problems in providing durable, waterproof, sterilized wall surfaces in many environments. In barns to house animals it is important to provide wall surfaces that may be washed down with strong disinfectants and which will stand up to destructive animals such as pigs. For swimming pools, campground washrooms and shower stalls and domestic bathrooms, car wash premises, etc., a main problem has been water vapour penetration of wall coverings to damage supporting wood frames. A secondary problem has been the difficulty in providing any partial solution to the first problem while presenting any type of reasonable aesthetic appearance.
Many efforts have been made to overcome these problems.
In animal barns, it is common place to provide a lower wall margin of concrete or metal cladding to guard against the destructive effects of the animals. Sometimes these lower parts of the walls are merely covered with painted plywood. Indeed, the upper parts may also be clad with plywood. Whatever the quality of the paint, such painted plywood is not wholly durable and detached paint chips may be a toxic hazard. Moreover, water penetration to the wood frame is frequent.
In public washrooms and domestic bathrooms ceramic tiles are frequently used to provide a waterproof surface but these are subject to grout mildew and breakage. Some public washrooms have painted brick walls, which, while not proof against vandalism, appear to be the best currently available. There is a very great need to provide an aesthetic, inexpensive cladding for public facilities, which, if not vandal proof, is at least easy to repair.
In commercial environments such as carwashes and other industrial premises, the walls may be clad with metal sheet or may simply be painted brick or concrete. None of these solutions are inexpensive or wholly satisfactory. Moreover, none of them provide any significant degree of heat insulation.
In commercial vehicles such as cargo vans or cargo airplanes, the insides of the cargo bays of such vehicles may be clad with plywood or specially formed plastic coverings. However, plywood is difficult to adapt to the irregularly shaped surfaces of the cargo bay, and specially formed plastic coverings are relatively expensive.
In some environments, specialty paints have been used for waterproofing but these always require a substrate such as drywall or plywood.
To replace wall board, plywood or rigid metal cladding, it would be desirable to provide a plastic coating over the whole wall surface of walls to be subjected to frequent pressure spraying or humidity. Difficulties concerning the durability of any such cladding and a watertight method of attachment have seemed insurmountable. Also, it has been conventional thinking that air access to the wood frame us important.
In fact, such air access to the wood frame is not very important if a truly waterproof surface to guard against ingress of water vapour or water spray is provided. In any event, air access to the frame may be provided from the exterior of the frame.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The inventor of the present invention has addressed the use of corrugated plastic sheet material as wall cladding in order to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art discussed above.
“Corrugated plastic sheet material” as used herein means composite plastic sheet material having a longitudinal dimension and a lateral dimension and a thickness dimension and comprises a pair of parallel surfaces spaced apart by plastic spacers which are continuous in the longitudinal direction. Thus, corrugated plastic sheet material may include a structure formed of plastics material which is strictly comparable to corrugated paperboard, i.e. two sheets of material separated by a intermediate corrugated sheet. Alternatively, it may include a structure comprising two sheets of plastics material separated by longitudinal spacer bars, for example Coroplast (trademark) manufactured by Coroplast Inc.
According to the invention there is provided a wall cladding system comprising battens formed of corrugated plastics sheet material for direct attachment to a wall or wall frame, wall cladding of corrugated plastics sheet material and double sided adhesive tape to attach said cladding to said battens at least at margins of said wall cladding.
The double sided adhesive tape should preferably be foamed plastics material having some resilience.
The battens may be attached to a wall or wall frame by any convenient attachment means such as nails, screws, staples or the like. The double sided adhesive tape may be applied over any such attachment means. This may provide an additional guard against any water ingress around the attachment means. The wall cladding is then applied over the double sided adhesive tape to seal the wall cladding to the tape at least at its margins. Where the edges of the two sheet of cladding abut one another, they are applied over a single piece of tape to form a water tight seal.
It is possible to use secondary attachment means for the wall cladding. For example, pegs may be driven into the batten through the wall cladding and the double sided adhesive tape. The wall cladding may be provided with predrilled holes for this purpose. While the tape and battens could be predrilled also, this is not necessary. It may, however, be convenient to mark them with indicia for convenient peg spacings. Such pegs may add reassurance to the user that the system is securely fixed. However, since very reliable double sided adhesive foam tape is available, such secondary attachment means may not be wholly necessary.
For the purpose of providing water proofing at corners of a building, it is desirable that a continuous plastic surface should extend through the corner to guard against water penetration at such a water retaining location. For this reason it is preferred that two sheets of corrugated plastics sheet material not be abutted at such corners. Better waterproofing may be obtained by coining a bend line in a single sheet of corrugated plastics sheet material so that it may be bent about the corner. Alternatively the margin of one sheet may be provided with a coin line so that it may be bent at the corner. The margin may then be overlapped over an adjacent sheet at the corner.
It is possible that the coining will cause a break in one of the parallel surfaces of the composite sheet material but the other surface should remain in tact to allow proper waterproofing at the corner. Indeed, it may be desirable to slit one surface of the corrugated plastic sheet material at the outer edge of the corner so that a clean bend may be achieved. It is immaterial whether the corner be an outside corner or an inside corner.
Where the system is to be used in a particularly aggressive location, such as in barns where animals can be exceedingly destructive and may damage the lower part of the wall, the wall cladding of corrugated plastics sheet material may be used on the upper part of the wall where animal damage is less prevalent. The lower part of the wall may be clad with high density polyethylene sheet which may be applied in place of, or over the top of, the corrugated plastics sheet material. If the installation is a new installation, the high density polyethylene sheet may be applied to a wooden wall frame before the frame is set on its foundation. In this case, the high density polyethylene sheet may be wrapped around the bottom of the frame for additional insurance against water penetration.
Where a horizontal joi
Friedman Carl D.
Ridout & Maybee
Slack N.
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