Patent Application
20210131127
Embodiments of the invention relates generally to methods and systems for repairing a wall. More particularly, the invention relates to a balloon that an be inflated inside a wall to provide a support for applying plaster, joint compound, spackle or other wall repair spreads in a hole in a wall.
The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
Holes can be formed in a wall through various manners and can be presented in various sizes. Conventional wall repair kits include a patch or tape that one applies across the hole. Then, a compound is applied over the patch or tape, sanded and painted.
It such repair kits, one must apply enough compound to cover the patch or tape, so that it does not show, yet cannot apply too much compound as to provide a bulge in the wall. Further, with such patches or tapes, it is difficult to make the repair have any substantial thickness, so that the wall repair area becomes a region susceptible to further damage. These conventional methods do not permit the compound placed over the hole to be even close to the thickness of the original wall.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for systems and methods for repairing walls that can overcome the deficiencies of conventional methods.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a wall repair system comprising a backer board configured to be inserted into a hole in a wall, the wall having an outer side facing a living space and a back side facing an opposite wall back side of an opposite wall, the wall and the opposite wall forming a wall space therebetween; and a pressure generating means for pressing at least a portion of the backer board against the back side of the wall about at least a portion of a periphery of the hole.
Embodiments of the present invention further provide a method for repairing a hole in a wall comprising inserting a deflated balloon into the hole in the wall; inflating the balloon; positioning the inflated balloon to press against at least a portion of an outer periphery of the hole on a back side of the wall; and building up repair material in the hole, against the inflated balloon.
Embodiments of the present invention further provide a method for repairing a hole in a wall comprising inserting a backer board into the hole in the wall, the backer board having at least one threaded opening therethrough; threading at least one screw into the at least one threaded opening; positioning the backer board in a desired position to press against at least a portion of an outer periphery of the hole on a back side of the wall; turning the screw to cause a distal end thereof to press against a wall opposite the wall with the hole, thus securing the backboard in the desired position; and building up repair material in the hole, against the backer board.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings, description and claims.
Some embodiments of the present invention are illustrated as an example and are not limited by the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references may indicate similar elements.
Unless otherwise indicated illustrations in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale.
The invention and its various embodiments can now be better understood by turning to the following detailed description wherein illustrated embodiments are described. It is to be expressly understood that the illustrated embodiments are set forth as examples and not by way of limitations on the invention as ultimately defined in the claims.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well as the singular forms, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one having ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and the present disclosure and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
In describing the invention, it will be understood that a number of techniques and steps are disclosed. Each of these has individual benefit and each can also be used in conjunction with one or more, or in some cases all, of the other disclosed techniques. Accordingly, for the sake of clarity, this description will refrain from repeating every possible combination of the individual steps in an unnecessary fashion. Nevertheless, the specification and claims should be read with the understanding that such combinations are entirely within the scope of the invention and the claims.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be evident, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details.
The present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the invention, and is not intended to limit the invention to the specific embodiments illustrated by the figures or description below.
As is well known to those skilled in the art, many careful considerations and compromises typically must be made when designing for the optimal configuration of a commercial implementation of any system, and in particular, the embodiments of the present invention. A commercial implementation in accordance with the spirit and teachings of the present invention may be configured according to the needs of the particular application, whereby any aspect(s), feature(s), function(s), result(s), component(s), approach(es), or step(s) of the teachings related to any described embodiment of the present invention may be suitably omitted, included, adapted, mixed and matched, or improved and/or optimized by those skilled in the art, using their average skills and known techniques, to achieve the desired implementation that addresses the needs of the particular application.
Broadly, embodiments of the present invention provide a wall repair system that includes a balloon that can be inflated within a wall space behind a hole in the wall. The balloon, or, as described below, a backer board attached to the balloon, can provide a surface for placement or build up of wall repair compound so that the repaired wall has substantially the same thickness of the original wall and so that no tape or patch needs to be placed on top of the wall along any location surrounding the hole. In some embodiments, the backer board can have one or more threaded holes therethrough where a threaded rod can be inserted into the threaded holes to contact a wall surface opposite the hole, causing the backer board to stay in place against the back side of the wall having the hole therein, thus blocking all or a part of the hole.
Referring to
In some embodiments, the balloon 10 may be self-filling and be sealed with certain chemicals that create a gaseous product reaction to permit inflation of the balloon upon contact of the chemicals. For example, the balloon may include a first chamber having baking soda and a second chamber with citric acid, vinegar, or the like, so that, when the chambers are combined, the balloon self-inflates.
The system may include a backer board 16 attached to a portion of the exterior of the balloon 10. The backer board 16 may be size adjustable by various means, such as scoring or marking of cut lines, so that the backer board 16 may be sized to be, at least on one dimension, smaller than the hole 32 in the wall 30, permitting the backer board 16 to be inserted with the deflated balloon 10 into the hole 32 as shown in
The backer board 16 may be solid or may include a plurality of holes therethough for permitting the repair compound to engage there with. The backer board 16 may include a plurality of scores 18 to permit easy size adjustment. In some embodiments, as shown in
Referring back to
The wall repair system may be used to repair virtually any sized hole in a wall, provided that it is large enough to permit insertion of the balloon therein. Typically, the wall repair system may be used to repair holes from about 1 inch to about 8 inches, for example.
In the above embodiment, the inflated balloon provides pressure for itself or a backer board to receive the build-up of the wall repair compound. Referring to
The hole facing side 82 of the screw 74 can include a screw engaging shape 84, such as Phillips-head shape, to permit a screwdriver to turn the screw 74. The length of the screw 74 may be pre-sized to fit within standard wall openings. For example, the screw 74 may be from about 3.25 to about 3.75 inches in length for a standard 2×4 wall construction. Other screw lengths may be provided for other wall widths.
The threaded backer board 70 may include hinges 86, or similar structure, to permit folding of the threaded backer board 70. Typically, the hinges 86 may permit folding one or more sides of the threaded backer board 70 outward (toward the hole when the threaded backer board 70 is inserted into place behind the hole in the wall), but not inward (toward the opposite wall 76 in the wall space 34) so that, as the screw 74 is tightened, causing the threaded backer board 70 to push against at least a portion of the inner perimeter of the hole, the one or more hinged sides do not bent inward.
The threaded backer board 70 may be scored to permit size adjustment and may include one or more hinged features to permit folding of the board for insertion and allowing for opening of the hinged features within the wall space. In use, the screw 74 may provide a handle to hold the threaded backer board 70 in the proper orientation for placement thereof.
In some embodiments, the threaded backer board 70 may include a pressure sensitive adhesive with a removable backing strip. The threaded backer board 70 may be inserted into the wall space 34, the removable backing strip may be removed, and at least a portion of the threaded backer board 70 may adhere to the back side of the wall about at least a portion of the periphery of the hole. Such adhesive may hole the threaded backer board 70 in place while the user tightens the one or more screws to more securely hold the threaded backer board 70 in place.
All the features disclosed in this specification, including any accompanying abstract and drawings, may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.
Claim elements and steps herein may have been numbered and/or lettered solely as an aid in readability and understanding. Any such numbering and lettering in itself is not intended to and should not be taken to indicate the ordering of elements and/or steps in the claims.
Many alterations and modifications may be made by those having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it must be understood that the illustrated embodiments have been set forth only for the purposes of examples and that they should not be taken as limiting the invention as defined by the following claims. For example, notwithstanding the fact that the elements of a claim are set forth below in a certain combination, it must be expressly understood that the invention includes other combinations of fewer, more or different ones of the disclosed elements.
The words used in this specification to describe the invention and its various embodiments are to be understood not only in the sense of their commonly defined meanings, but to include by special definition in this specification the generic structure, material or acts of which they represent a single species.
The definitions of the words or elements of the following claims are, therefore, defined in this specification to not only include the combination of elements which are literally set forth. In this sense it is therefore contemplated that an equivalent substitution of two or more elements may be made for any one of the elements in the claims below or that a single element may be substituted for two or more elements in a claim. Although elements may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, it is to be expressly understood that one or more elements from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination and that the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation of a subcombination.
Insubstantial changes from the claimed subject matter as viewed by a person with ordinary skill in the art, now known or later devised, are expressly contemplated as being equivalently within the scope of the claims. Therefore, obvious substitutions now or later known to one with ordinary skill in the art are defined to be within the scope of the defined elements.
The claims are thus to be understood to include what is specifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptually equivalent, what can be obviously substituted and also what incorporates the essential idea of the invention.
This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. provisional patent application No. 62/844,568, filed May 7, 2019, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62844568 | May 2019 | US |
