The present invention relates to wood framing systems for residential and light commercial buildings. More specifically, the present invention is concerned with a framing system and component designs with built-in thermal breaks throughout the entire external walls.
Standard construction today uses either 2×4 or 2×6 solid lumber generally spaced 16″ on center. Where energy conservation is a concern, most builders frame an exterior wall with 2×6's. Up to 30 percent of the exterior wall (studs, top and bottom plates, cripple studs, window/door jams and headers) is solid wood framing. Thermal bridges are points in the wall that allow heat and cold conduction to occur. Heat and cold follow the path of least resistance—through thermals bridges of solid wood across a temperature differential wherein the heat or cold is not interrupted by thermal insulation. The more volume of solid wood in a wall also reduces available insulation space, and further, the thermal efficiency of the wall suffers and the R value (resistance to conductive heat flow) decreases.
The most common way to minimize thermal bridging is to wrap the entire exterior of the building in rigid insulation to minimize heat loss and cold from entering the building. This effort significantly increases materials, carbon footprint and labor costs and can be undesirable in increasing the thickness of the building walls with non-structural materials.
Attempts have been made to construct framing systems with built in thermal breaks with the use of dimensional lumber (2×4, 2×6, 2×8, 2×10 and 2×12). Such efforts require extensive labor and materials costs and have not resulted in effective thermal breaks throughout the whole wall, corners and building envelope structure.
There is a need to design a framing system with complete thermal breaks throughout the walls, corners and building structure made of non-dimensional lumber with rigid insulation that has increased strength, more surface area for building materials to be fastened to, uses less lumber, has more space for insulation to greatly increase thermal efficiencies.
To understand benefits of the present invention, one must have an understanding of the standard or conventional wood framed building. A 960 square feet building 10 is used here illustratively.
Referring to prior art
Sectionally from the exterior surface to the interior surface typically are located siding 12, exterior air film 14, oriented strand board (OSB) plywood sheathing, fiberglass batt insulation 16 (or blown-in or sprayed-in insulation), 2×6 wall studs 22 16″ on center, interior air film 24 and gypsum board 26. Headers 30 typically comprises two 2×6 with rigid foam insulation 31.
From the plan view (
Prior art
The standard pocket corner 48 is clearly depicted in
A thermal break wall system comprised of 3×6 thermal studs each comprised of two non-dimensional lumber sections with a thermal break section of rigid foam insulation therebetween. The studs are 24″ on center. The studs are used for headers and sills and also may be used for top and bottom plates. The corners have an exterior all wood stud, an interior all wood stud and an interior all wood stud adjacent to the interior wood stud completing the interior corner for nailing gypsum board thereto. This corner has a thermal break space between the exterior and interior wood studs for insulation placement. The corners may also have two 3×6 thermal studs oriented 90 degrees from each other and an interior all wood stud for completing the interior corner for nailing gypsum board thereto. This corner arrangement also has a thermal break through its construction.
A principal object and advantage of the present invention is that the percentage increase in wall construction energy efficiency is approximately 24 to 39% depending on the current energy code within each municipality.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that, according to the US Home Builders Association or www.census.gov, the median home built in America (in 2014) is actually 2043 square feet in size and the present invention would save 110 vertical studs over the standard construction. There are approximately 1,275,000 of these median homes built per year.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that using the International Log Rule on board feet per 16′ section of a tree that is 22″ in diameter and 3 sections per tree equates into a savings of 493,000 trees not being cut down in a single year to build the approximately 1,275,000 median homes in a single year.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that the invention has a smaller carbon footprint than standard building construction simply by use of less materials and labor costs.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that the 3×6 thermal break stud has more surface area to affix the sheathing, air film, drywall and interior trim to the thermal studs.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that it improves sound transmission loss through an interior or exterior wall with a rating system called Sound Transmission Class (STC) improving from a standard wall rating of about 42 to a rating of about 60 for walls built with the thermal break studs of the present invention by breaking the vibration paths by decoupling the interior walls when using the thermal break studs versus standard studs.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that it is 2½″ wide and the actual face of the present invention is rounded similar to dimensional lumber to where the actual face is 2⅜″, or a whole one inch wider than dimensional lumber.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that the total face surface area to attach drywall or exterior sheathing to on our 960 square foot building model is 14,414 square inches—an increase of 11.86% of face area; and yet the present system uses up to 46 less vertical “studs” in its walls compared to standard total face surface area of 12,886 square inches. This amounts to saving in material costs and manpower in framing, sheathing, drywalling, drywall finishing and trim applications.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that because the thermal break stud is significantly wider by 1″, the butting up of two pieces of sheathing or drywall adjoined to a single thermal break stud with 80% more area, the sheathing or drywall is more rigid than anticipated.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that there is more insulation in the wall cavity with less solid wood to increase thermal efficiency.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that the cost to apply 1′ R 5 rigid insulation to the entire outside perimeter of the building is by far more that the costs to build the Tstud and it accomplishes the same or better insulation qualities for one fourth of the price thus giving the Tstud a return on investment.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that the present invention does not absolutely require cripple studs and the Tstud may also be used for top and bottom plates, headers and sills.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that a single 3×6 Tstud has enough integral strength that it may be used as a header for up to 4′ 3″ spans and two (or three) Tstuds may be used for headers up to 8′ 6″ in width with only back nailing through the Tstuds—all without the use of cripple studs.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that the windows and doors have a thermal break all around the window and door openings thus improving the thermal effectiveness of the window and door jams.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that there will be a reduction in the needed and required sizing for furnaces and air conditioning equipment.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that the Tstud design and framing system requires less carpenter time to rough-in a building simply because the vertical Tsuds are 24″ on center and not 16″ on center for the standard building. However, the present invention maybe built with Thermal break studs 16″ on center even though not required.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that the Tstud design and framing system offers greater insulation efficiencies and nailing surfaces without requiring the building walls to be deeper than 6″, especially when rigid insulation added to the entire outside perimeter of the adding to the total 6″ wall depth.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that all these objects and advantages are accomplished without losing any integrity in building performance or structural qualities.
Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is that there will be a reduction on the future utility grid and a reduction on the future carbon footprint required to produce the electricity and gas to heat and cool a home built to according to this invention.
Referring to
Sectionally from the outside to inside of the Tstud wall building is firstly siding 62 on the outside of the building 60. Next there is an exterior air film 64 over the OSB plywood sheathing 66 which is nailed to the thermals break 3×6 Tstud 72 which has more nailing and/or gluing surface area than a dimensional 2×6 stud 22. That is, the Tstud 72 nailing surface is 3″ compared to 2″ of the standard 2×6 stud 22 which makes the carpenter's job of putting up the sheathing 66 more easy with correct nail locations. Next follows fiberglass batt insulation 68. In some cases, blown-in or sprayed-in insulation may be used. Illustratively, the R value efficiency calculations for the fiberglass batt insulation are based on Owens Corning (Toledo, Ohio) fiberglass insulation. Other fiberglass insulation manufacturers may have higher or lower R values.
The 3×6 Tstud 72 construction includes a 3×2 all wood section 74 which may be specially made or ripped from a 2×6 stud 22. Dimensions of this all wood section 74 may range from 1″-1½″ (depth)×2″-3¼″ (width). A middle or sandwiched rigid foam insulation section 76 may range from 2″-3½″ (depth)×2″-3½″ (width). The foam section 76 may be of expanded polystyrene or polyisocyanurate, or other suitable rigid foam or its equivalent. In fact, it is to be anticipated that rigid foams of yet even high R values are on the market now with more being created that are and will be suitable for use with the present invention. A second all wood 3×2 section 78 is similar to the first wood section 74. The foam may be glued to the wood sections 74 and 78 and may also be nailed together with a 5½″ nail 79 or screw or other mechanical fastener. The R value of the Tstud alone may range from 15.62-18.74 depending on rigid insulation type.
After the insulation 68 is placed in the wall system 60, another interior air film 80 is suitably stapled to the Tstuds 72. Thereafter gypsum board, drywall or sheet rock 82 is nailed or screwed to the 3″ faces of the Tstuds 72 finishing the inside of the building wall 60 except for paint or wall treatments.
The Tstud corner 84 has an outer all wood 2×4 stud 86 and an inner all wood 2×4 stud 88 rotated 90 degrees from each other. An inside all wood 2×2 stud 90 is adjacent the inner stud 88 to complete the formation of the inside corner for nailing the gypsum board 82 thereto. By this arrangement, a thermal break 92 is formed in the Tstud corner 84 where fiberglass batt insulation 68 may be placed or spray-in insulation may be blown into the thermal break area 92. As shown in
As seen in
From the plan view (
A comparison of labor cost savings with the standard building 10 and the Tstud building 60 are in the following Table 2:
Referring to
The 3×4 Tstud 110 construction includes a 3×1 all wood section 112 which may be specially made. Dimensions of this all wood section 112 may range from 1″-1½ ″ (depth)×2″-3½″ (width). A middle or sandwiched rigid foam insulation section 114 may range from ½″-1½″ (depth)×2″-3½″ (width). The foam section 114 may be of expanded polystyrene or polyisocyanurate. A second 3×1 section 116 is similar to the first wood section 112. The foam may be glued to the wood sections 112 and 114 and may also be nailed together with a 4″ nail 79 or screw. The R value of the Tstud may range from 6.25-10, depending on the insulation type, versus the R value of a 2×4 of 4.375.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Advantageously, there are no cripple studs 34 along windows 143, doors 145 and headers 94. This Tstud building 140 saves 32 vertical studs over the standard building 10 because the Tstuds are 24″ on center and efficiency is increased with more space for insulation 18. When Tstuds 72 are used for top and bottom plates 102, 104, the Tstud building 140 also has a complete thermal break around its perimeter without the need for expensive rigid foam being nailed to the outer perimeter of the building 140.
The above embodiments are for illustrative purposes and the scope of this invention is described in the appended claims below.
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