Not Applicable.
THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to surface coverings for structures requiring horizontal surfacing and edging and in particular to a modular system of tile surfacing having edge rail pieces with skirt pieces that are removable and re-attachable at adjustable heights for covering different thicknesses of substrate and replaceable by other skirt pieces which may be formed composite or synthetic man made pieces or modular seamless pieces cut from granite or other natural stone for a durable finishing surface that is adjustable by a user to meet the user's requirements.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Countertops made of natural stone have become quite popular in kitchens, bathrooms, and offices. The growing popularity of stone countertops is due to the material having high durability, ease of cleaning and sterilization, and natural beauty. The high cost of granite slab installation, downtime for slab fabrication and limited availability of quality fabricators deters most homeowners from installing a granite countertop.
New materials and new methods for stronger and less labor intensive countertop substrates of variable heights. One which is not limited to the simulation of a slab appearance edge, and one which is not restricted to the typical slab thickness dimensions for making a countertop edging component.
As stone products have become more popular as a countertop material, it has been difficult to find a stone edging component which will satisfy the need for countertops and the like with varying substrates. For example, it is typical for some installation methods to “float” a countertop. Floating is the making of a strong countertop substrate which allows for the reliable installation of the final countertop material (i.e ceramic tile or stone). Floating is a typical 2″ height. This two inch height is achieved with a wood base laid on top of cabinets and a mixture of sand and cement placed on top of the wood base.
For other installation methods it is more typical to not “float”, but rather to install a layer of plywood on top of the cabinets followed by a cementous underlayment nailed to the plywood. This is an equally acceptable and strong practice as a substrate for ceramic tile and stone. This method is typically a more economical and less timely preparations for ceramic tile and stone. This type of substrate yields a base much less in height than from floating. Typically about one inch in height is the net of this type of substrate.
Another common substrate height is greater than the typical “floating” height of two inches. It is common for BBQ island manufacturers and heavy countertop bases usually made of steel or cement to exceed the two inch height substrate common to standard floating.
All the various types of substrates require different materials, skill levels, and hence preferences. All are acceptable and common substrates, but unfortunately vary in height. It is unfortunate because previous edging inventions made of ceramic tile and stone can't accommodate substrates of varying heights. Either the edging product isn't tall enough to cover the substrate, or it is too tall and interferes with the underlying structure (cabinet doors and drawers). For example, if a two inch edging component were placed over a one inch substrate, the edging component could interfere with the drawers and cabinet doors. This is common, because full face or “European” style cabinets have doors and drawers which sit near the top of the cabinet structure.
Prior inventions require a bond on the upper edge of the vertical facing member to the lower surface of the upper member, thus restricting adjustability adequate to cover substrates of varying heights. Previous inventions are restricted by limiting front facing height by a limiting bonding location, thus limiting the overall usefulness of those inventions.
If the skirt of the stone edging component could be easily removed to prevent the interference, but still provide a nice aesthetic edge, it would prove to be novel and useful. Furthermore, an edging component which could adjust to cover tall substrates would be additionally useful.
Still common are cabinet doors which sit lower on the cabinet structure.
Contractors, homeowners, and manufacturers have different skill levels and different requirements for a countertop or surface edge component. It would be useful to have a single edge component which could easily be useful for the functional and aesthetic needs of different installation methods with different substrate heights.
A common countertop substrate height is 2″ and is in fact a standard for ceramic tile V-cap. It is standard practice to “float” a countertop to this two inch height, which is considered a professionally or artisan installed substrate.
However with the advent of new materials such as “hardibackerboard” and “wonderboard” a two inch fixed substrate height is no longer a necessity, but rather a chosen professional or artisan standard.
A typical substrate height common to current installation practices is one inch. The installation of a piece of plywood with a layer of cementous underlayment board on top of the plywood yields a one inch substrate height (suitable for countertop strength). Another use for an edging system of varying height is for BBQ islands or stair risers. While it is typical to have a 2″ floated or 1″ substrate for some countertops, it would also be useful to have an edging component, which covers a substrate of greater than the artisan or professionally installed substrate of 2″ for other applications. Manufacturers of BBQ islands typically steel frame their tops or cast a concrete formed top which often yields a substrate greater then two inches.
It is conceivable that substrates of varying thicknesses arise in the construction and preparation of countertop and other surfaces. What is missing in the prior art is an edging component which is flexible enough to be useful for the covering substrates of varying heights. Prior art systems have not adequately solved the problem of providing the skirt of the stone edging component which could be easily removed to prevent the interference with cabinet drawers and doors, but still provide a nice aesthetic edge or an edging component which could adjust to cover tall substrates would be additionally useful.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,258,190, issued Jul. 10, 2001 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,413,337, issued Jul. 2, 2002 both to Sciarrino, claim a natural stone edging tile having a top portion and a generally perpendicular facing portion can be mounted on the forward edge of a countertop substrate and has a portion extending rearward of the forward edge that is approximately half as thick as the forward edge and the same thickness as conventional stone tiles that can be mounted rearward of the edging tile. The conventional tiles have a thickness that is approximately half as thick as a typical stone slab countertop, but to a person viewing the countertop, the entire appears to have the substantial thickness of a typical slab countertop because the forward edge of the edging tile has such a thickness. These pieces are cut from stone slabs and are therefore limited in size of components, such as edging, and also less likely to form mating pieces because of cutting from a thin slab rather than cutting from a large block enabling both vertical and horizontal cuts of any desired dimensions. The present invention does not require a skirt piece adhered to the edge and corner pieces since the actual edge overhang of the edge pieces and corner pieces of the present invention can be cut to any desired dimension to cover what a skirt normally covers, although a skirt may be used with the present invention if desired. The Sciarrino patents show corner pieces which are adhered together from two separate pieces thereby having a seam between the pieces. In the present invention the corner pieces as well as the edge pieces and all the others are each solid seamless pieces cut from solid stone.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,932, issued Oct. 19, 1993 to Nesovic, provides a modular countertop structure. It is supported by an underlying base and has a flat unedged surface-providing sheet supported by the base and having an edge including a peripheral recess, a preformed elongated edge facing with a rearward extending tongue which fits into the recess, and adhesive for directly bonding the sheet to the edge facing through their adjacent surfaces in the recess. The countertop sheet and the edge facing are made of materials which are impervious to moisture penetration, impact and scratching, including natural stone, synthetic stone-like material, ceramic, concrete, glass-like sheets, agglomerated stone, cement materials, metal or terrazzo. They may be made of the same or contrasting materials, so that the edge facing and the countertop present appearances which are the same or consistent with each other. In some embodiments, an underlying substrate will also be used to support the countertop sheets. The modular countertop structure or system of this invention has numerous advantages over the prior systems, such as ceramic tile systems. Components of the system can be pre-fabricated by mass production methods for delivery and simple assembly at the job site and can be manufactured using automated procedures and specialized machinery, thus eliminating the need for the current hand grinding and shaping used to finish such materials, thus reducing the costs of manufacture and installation and insuring uniform fit and finish of the countertops. The Nesovic patent is for slab installments rather than a tile and edging system. Nesovic has a single slab with an indented edge to which a flat (not overhanging) indented edge piece is interlocked to simulate a flat slab with no overhang. Nesovic intentionally provides a variety of different colors or patterns of slab and edging. The present invention claims a tiling type of modular surfacing system including edge rail pieces sufficient in height to cover minimal thickness substrates and with removable and adjustable height skirts to provide an adjustable overhang to cover edges of any of a variety of substrate thicknesses.
The prior art systems are limited in a number of ways including restriction to a fixed height of covering a substrate of 2″, not have the flexibility of a “skirt” or “no skirt” option, not being able to interchange different materials, interchange different colors of the same materials, not being able to slide a longer or shorter or different skirt onto the base, not being able to interchange a different design or etched skirt, and in fact not being able to interchange anything for its existing skirt.
What is needed is a skirt of the stone edging component which could be easily removed to prevent the interference with cabinet drawers and doors, but still provide a nice aesthetic edge or an edging component with a flexible and/or adjustable skirt which could adjust to cover different substrate heights and also a modular surfacing system of solid natural stone modular pieces cut for matching coloration and pattern and cut into any desired sizes with wide edging of any desirable thickness and outside corners as well as mating modular surface tiles.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a modular stone countertop comprising edge rail pieces formed from composites or synthetic man made materials or cut from thick blocks of natural stone to produce edge overhang portions extending down a sufficient distance to cover the edge of common substrates and further provide skirt pieces attached by a break away bonding material, such as a chemically based adhesive material, to an inner vertical surface of the overhang portion so that the skirt piece may be removed from the edge overhang portion of the edge rail piece by fracturing only the adhesive material and not damaging the skirt piece or the edge rail piece by the user installing the tile pieces, and the edge rail piece used alone to cover edges of minimum thickness substrates or with the skirt piece re-attached to the inner vertical surface of the edge overhang portion at any desired height relative to the edge overhang portion to adjust the height of the skirt piece extending below the edge overhang portion forming an adjustable height skirt piece to cover an edge of a any of a variety of thicknesses of substrates in a variety of different applications. The non-standard and exaggerated dimensions of the facing member in addition to the weak adhesion to the backside of the edge overhang portion allow for the present flexible stone edging invention to be useful by meeting the need of edging countertops and the like with varying substrate heights.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a new and novel solution for solving the problem of capping off countertops, tables, barbeque islands, stair edges and other structures having a variety of different substrate thicknesses requiring surfacing with one adjustable skirt height edge overhang product that is modifiable by the user during installation.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an edge overhang portion of the edge rail piece which covers the substrate height and does not extend below the substrate, especially necessary for full face or “European style cabinets” with doors that extend nearly to the top of the cabinet which would interfere with an edging component that extended below the substrate.
One more object of the present invention is to provide a tile edging component which allows for the mixing of different materials and different colors of the same material.
A yet further object of the present invention is to provide an attractive and cost effective modular surfacing system which may be fabricated from composite or synthetic man made materials or cut into solid seamless or laminated natural stone modular pieces cut into any desired sizes with wide edging of any desirable thickness and outside corners as well as mating modular surface tiles and mating modular backsplash pieces which may be installed with minimal tile setting skills to produce an attractive all matching and lasting surface.
The present invention serves both a functional purpose of edging countertops and other surfaces with substrates of varying thicknesses, and the aesthetic purpose of easily mixing different materials and different colors of materials using the same base component. For the functional purpose, what is required is an edge rail piece with a skirt piece of adjustable height to allow for adjustment to cover the substrate in a wide array of stone or tile installations.
In brief, the present invention incorporates a modular tile system which includes edge rail pieces having edge overhang portions extending down a sufficient height to cover edges of minimal substrate thicknesses and having removable and replaceable skirt pieces which are re-attachable by a user at any desired height on the edge overhang portion of the edge rail piece to provide an adjustable overhang portion of the skirt piece to cover substrates of varying heights. This flexible edging invention is achieved by using a break away chemical adhesive material or other easily fractured initial bonding material to attach a front surface of a skirt piece to a back vertical surface of the edge overhang portion of the edge rail piece which allows for the removal and discarding of the skirt piece or removal and reattachment of skirt piece lower down relative to the edge element by the end user. The skirt piece may be broken away, without damage to either component, to use just the edge rail for minimal substrate heights so that the edge overhang of the edge rail does not affect the opening of cabinet doors or drawers below. For typical height substrates the integrated edging component is used as is. For thicker substrates, the skirt may be broken away and re-attached at lower positions on the edge overhang of the edge rail so that the skirt covers a range of substrate thicknesses including the very thick substrates.
This is not obvious in the prior art because prior inventions require the upper edge of the vertical facing member permanently bonded to lower said surface of top member. This bonding does not allow for adjustability of the skirt along the back surface of the facing edge.
Furthermore, it is apparent in the art, embodiment and claims of the Scarrino invention that the intent is to simulate the look of slab, and make its edging system from defacto ¾″ slab material, which is limiting in appearance and function.
The present invention uses a break away bonding method to allow the skirt member to be used in various positions or not used. The bonding agent is not a typical epoxy used in the tile fabrication industry.
The primary advantage of the present invention is that it provides a modular edging system which provides flexibility in applications and allows in-the-field adjustment of the invention to adapt to a wide variety of counter situations including a wide range of substrate height and various matching combinations of components.
An advantage of the present invention is that it provides attractive and cost effective modular tile pieces.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the skirt pieces are removable and re-attachable to the inner vertical surface of the edge overhang portion of the edge rail piece so that the skirt pieces are adjustable in height relative to the edge overhang portion and interchangeable with other skirt pieces of various heights, types, colors, and patterns.
A further advantage of the present invention is the use of edge rail overhangs extending downward a sufficient distance to cover edges of substrates of minimal thickness, the extra height of downward extension enabled by cutting them from thick blocks of stone or forming them from composites or man made synthetic material, thereby enabling the edge rail to be used with no skirt and also enabling a skirt when used to attach to any desired vertical position on the edge overhang to adjust for different height substrates and to enable a 2″ typical skirt or a longer(adjusted) skirt for full tile BBQ island applications with interchangeable skirts to change to any different color, size, material, etc.
These and other details of my invention will be described in connection with the accompanying drawings, which are furnished only by way of illustration and not in limitation of the invention, and in which drawings:
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The modular pieces 20A, 20B, 20C, and 20D may be all cut from the same stone block 50 larger in each dimension than a corresponding dimension of the modular piece or formed from composite or man made synthetic material so that the modular pieces may be cut or formed into any desired vertical dimensions, any desired horizontal dimensions, any desired depth dimensions, and any desired shapes. The modular pieces 20A, 20B, 20C, and 20D are preferably cut side by side from the stone block 50 in the same configuration that they will be arrayed to form a surfacing system covering an external surface, such the top 34 with the standard built-up siding and layers 31, 32, and 33 of a cabinet 30 to form a natural stone countertop, as shown with the modular surfacing pieces 20A, 20B, 20C, an 20D aligned for covering in
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All of the modular surfacing pieces in each system may be cut from the same block of solid stone, such as granite or marble or other finishing type of stone. The modular surfacing pieces may be applied to countertops, fire places, stairs, treads, barbeques or any other desired places where an attractive durable natural surface finish is desired. Since all pieces of the system are cut from a thick block of stone both horizontal and vertical cuts may be made of any desired length to create truly matching modular pieces of any desired dimensions.
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The edge rail piece 10, comprises a piece with a flat horizontal surface covering portion 22 and a vertical edge overhang portion 23 extending orthogonally down from the horizontal surface covering portion and extending down a sufficient distance to cover an edge of a substrate of minimal thickness, such as a piece of plywood 32 topped by a piece of cementous underlayment 36, as shown in
The skirt piece 23 comprises a flat cut stone element with a front outer surface 26A and an inner surface 26B facing the structure to be covered. The skirt piece is removable attached on a front face 26A by a break away adhesive substance 27, such as a silicone adhesive material or other chemically adhesive material more easily fractured than the material of the pieces, to the inner vertical surface 25 of the edge overhang portion so that the skirt 23 piece may be removed from the edge rail piece without damage to either piece so that the edge rail piece 10 is alternately installed with or without the skirt piece 23 in different applications.
In a first application, as shown in
In a second application, as shown in
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The removable and re-attachable skirt piece 23 is interchangeable with any of a number of other skirt pieces of a variety of heights, types, colors and patterns.
A series of the edge rail pieces 10 with or without the skirt pieces are used with a series of flat modular surface tile pieces for covering a horizontal surface having at least one edge.
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The modular surfacing pieces may be solid seamless cut natural stone modular pieces, composite material or synthetic material shaped into modular pieces.
It is understood that the preceding description is given merely by way of illustration and not in limitation of the invention and that various modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention as claimed.
This application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. utility patent application Ser. No. 11/056,993 filed on Feb. 11, 2005.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11056993 | Feb 2005 | US |
Child | 11395009 | Mar 2006 | US |