GB2189820A - Brick or tile laying spacer aid - Google Patents

Abstract

A building element spacer means for use in the laying of bricks and tiles particularly by "do it yourselfers" is constituted by a sheet material pressed into or moulded as a multiple recess sheet structure, the recesses appearing as regularly shaped depressions separated by walls of equal height and thickness, additional walls framing the spacer means, <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Brick or tile laying spacer aid This invention relates to a means for assisting in the laying of bricks and tiles for providing wall or floor coverings intended primarily for use by "do-it-yourselfers''.

It is common practice to build up patios and terraces by providing a regular array of brick surfaces, generally longitudinally extending side surfaces or flat bottom surfaces. Not only do the bricks add to the height of the patio by about four inches (10 cm) but they can provide a visually pleasing and hard wearing surface. The laying of such a patio or terrace requires brick laying skills and these are not always possessed by the amateur patio builder. Absence of these skills frequently becomes apparent in the non-flat surface which is presented and in irregular spacing apart of the bricks and what could be a pleasing visual effect is frequently wholly unsatisfactory.

Similar problems occur when laying ceramic tiles whether on the wall or on the floor. Here it is common practice to employ spacer elements which may be integral with the tiles or merely be constituted by pieces of card of suitable thickness placed between the individual tiles. The placing of the tiles into wet cement especially when a wall or floor is not completely flat does not always allow the desired equal tile spacing to be maintained and the pleasing effect of a tile surface may be prejudiced.

According to the present invention, there is provided a building element spacer means which is constituted by a sheet material pressed into or moulded as a multiple recess sheet structure, the recesses appearing as regularly shaped depressions separated by walls of equal height and thickness, additional walls framing the spacer means.

The character of the walls will depend upon the manner in which the spacer means have been formed. Thus, if it has been produced by an injection moulding technique from a plastics melt, the walls at the perimeter of the spacer means will possess the same height as but only half the thickness of the walls which separate the individual depressions. In preparing a floor or wall surface, the spacer means, each with provision for a plurality of building elements, will be placed in abutment, possibly fixed to the underlying surface, and in such a case the combined thickness of two abutting walls will provide walls equal in thickness to the walls between adjacent depressions of a spacer means.

However if the spacer means had been produced by pressing a flat sheet material in for example a stamping press, then generally the depressions will be separated by walls of inverted U-section and at the margins of the spacer means, there will be walls of inverted L-section. When assembling the spacer means, overlapping of such marginal walls will take place to achieve reliable spacing apart of depressions in adjacent spacer means and rigidity of the walls separating recesses of adjacent spacer means.

As will be apparent from the forgoing, the preferred materials for forming the spacer means of this invention are synthetic plastics materials. Both thermosetting and thermoplastic materials can be employed for producing injection moulded spacer means although in the latter case, in particular, a high level of plasticisation is required in order that the spacer means should not be unduly brittle and liable to break when subject to settlement.

Any one of a wide variety of thermosetting plastics materials may be used, including in particular phenolformaldehyde resins, melamine formaldehyde resins, and acrylic resins. For reasons of cost, it is preferred to use thermoplastic materials which will generally have higher impact resistance although the materials used must be chosen so as not to be unduly flexible. Examples of thermoplastic materials which may be employed are polyolefins such as polyethylene and polypropylene, polyvinylchloride, polycarbonate, polyurethane and polyamide. When the spacer means are produced by pressing of sheet materials they will generally be formed of thermoplastic plastics material although it is possible in such cases to consider the use of sheet metals in certain locations.

The dimensions of the recesses or depressions will depend upon the building elements to be utilised therewith. When they are to be used in laying brick surfaces, then the recesses may have a depth as much as 1.5 to 2 cm. When used for laying tiles, the recesses will only have a depth equal to not more than approximately half the tile thickness, that is a depth of about 0.3-0.5 cm.

Although the surface of the spacer means may be smooth, in preferred practice it is textured in order to enhance the adhesion of cement to them, the cement being appropriate to the building element being laid. In addition, the depressions may be formed with openings therethrough for through passage of sand or earth below the spacer element which would otherwise prevent flat emplacement of the spacer means on the underlying surface.

As an initial step in utilising the spacer means of this invention, the spacer means will be disposed over the area to be covered. It is possible to utilise spacer means of this invention in providing a brick patio area on earth.

For this purpose a plurality of the spacer means would be laid on a bed of sand so as to cover the required area. In laying an array of bricks on the spacer means, a layer of cement can be placed over the combination of spacer means and then the bricks in their desired orientation laid over the spacer means so as to nestle in the individual recesses. Cement is then introduced between the bricks by pointing with a small trowel and the brick surface is finally wiped clear of surplus cement.

In an alternative procedure, the base layer of cement will be dispensed with and the bricks merely placed in the recesses and pointed to gether. However in such a case, there is greater risk of the individual bricks becoming loose.

When the spacer means of the invention is employed in tile laying, in this case they will not have the assistance of the weight of bricks to hold them in place and it will be desirable to secure them to the underlying surface, whether it be a floor surface or wall surface. Preferably fixing of the spacer means takes place by means of nails, screws or staples and for ease of working and reducing the weight to be supported in the case of walls, it is preferred to utilise the pressed plastics sheet type of spacer means.

The use of a plurality of spacer means of this invention enables an attractive surface structure with a regular pattern according to the array of depressions or recesses therein to be achieved relatively simply both in outdoor locations as on terraces or patios or inside the house, especially in kitchens and bathrooms. Indeed, the sheet elements may be produced in such colours as to enable them in their own right to serve as wall coverings to provide an ornamental profiled wall structure.

For a better understanding of the invention and to show how the same can be carried into effect, reference will now be made by way of example only to the accompanying drawings wherein: Figure 1 is a perspective view of one form of building element spacer means embodying this invention; Figure 2 is a plan view of a second form of building element spacer means embodying this invention; and Figure 3 is an end view of the spacer means of Fig. 1 (or Fig. 2) showing bricks emplaced therein.

Referring to Fig. 1 of the drawings, an injection moulded spacer means embodying this invention is of overall square form and is constituted by a frame comprising a base 1 forming the bottom of a plurality of recesses identified by the reference letters A-H separated from one another by solid wall members of rectilinear configuration identified by the reference numeral 2 with the outer periphery of the frame being constituted by like wall members of half the thickness of the other wall members. The height of all the wall members is the same and amounts to 1.5 to 2 cm. The recesses A-H are all sized to match either the area of a longitudinally extending side face or the base of a standard brick.As a brick is twice as iong as it is wide, this enables the array of recesses shown in Fig. 1 to be read ily provided to produce a staggered array of bricks over a patio or terrace surface when bricks are laid in a plurality of the spacer means laid in abutting manner over an area to be covered. The presence of the base gives dimensional stability to the overall spacer means. For reasons of costs, however, it may be possible to dispense with the bases and merely provide an open frame which will be adequate in some circumstances for laying of bricks on firm flat surfaces.

Referring to Fig. 2, a spacer means for providing a similar array of bricks to that of Fig.

1 differs from that shown in Fig. 1 in that holes 4 are provided in the base of each recess. These holes assist in the seating and levelling of the spacer means on a sand substrate in that surplus sand can enter the recesses where it will not cause problems in the laying of bricks with their flat bases providing the top surface of a patio. The sand and/or earth will then merely be located within the frogs of the bricks. Such a form of spacer means is preferably produced by pressing of a preformed sheet plastics material when the pressing can be carried out so as to result in stamping out of the holes. Unlike in Fig. 1, it can be seen here that all of the walls, including the peripheral walls 3, span equal distances to allow the overlapping of the top surfaces of the edge of the spacer means in preparing an array of spacer means for laying of bricks therein.

Finally, referring to Fig. 3, the positioning of bricks 5 in recesses in a spacer means recesses can readily be seen.

Claims (11)

1. A building element spacer means which is constituted by a sheet material pressed into or moulded as a muitiple recess sheet structure, the recesses appearing as regularly shaped depressions separated by walls of equal height and thickness, additional walls framing the spacer means.

2. A building element as claimed in claim 1 which has been produced by injection moulding from a plastics melt, the walls of the perimeter of the spacer means possessing the same height as but only half the thickness of the walls which separate the individual depressions.

3. A building element spacer means as claimed in claim 1 which has been produced by pressing a flat sheet material so that the depressions are separated by walls of inverted U-section and that at the margins of the spacer means, there are walls of inverted L-section.

4. A building element spacer means as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the recesses are sized to the dimensions of a standard brick and have a depth of 1.5 to 2 cm.

5. A building element spacer means as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, which is to be used for the spacing of wall or floor tiles, the depressions having a depth of from 0.3 to 0.5 cm.

6. A building element spacer means as claimed in any preceding claim, whose recess surfaces have a textured surface.

7. A building element spacer means as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein at least one opening therethrough is formed in the base of each depression.

8. A building element spacer means as claimed in claim 7, wherein a single said opening occupies substantially completely the base of each depression.

9. A building element spacer means, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Fig. 1 or Fig. 2 of the accompanying drawings.

10. A method of laying bricks or tiles on a wall or floor surface which comprises applying to said surface one or more building element spacer means as claimed in any preceding claim so as to be substantially incapable of movement on the substrate, introducing to the depressions of the building element spacer means bricks or tiles having a height greater than that of the walls separating the depressions of the building element spacer means, with provision of a cement between the brick or tile and the surface therebelow and applying pointing or grouting between the bricks or tiles respectively.

11. A method of laying bricks or tiles as claimed in claim 10, substantially as described herein.