AU606293B2 - Building construction - Google Patents

Description

IC--3C I rRAIIAL& P/CO/011 Form PATENTS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

FOR OFFICE USE Short Title: Int. Cl: 60 6290- Application Number: Lodged: 6 0 This document contains the amrendments made under Section 49 and is correct for printing.

(Complete Specification-Lodged: 0 Accepted: 0 a Lapsed: Published: 1, "Rriority: Related Art: 0 00 0i I

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TO BE COMPLETED BY APPLICANT NORMAN TONKIN ,'Name of Applicant: Address of Applicant: Actual Inventor: 27 PARK AVENUE, OATLEY, NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA NORMAN TONKIN S0092 17 02/0/813 Address for Service: SMITH SHELSTON BEADLE, 7/207 Great North Road, FIVE DOCK SYDNEY NEW SOUTH WALES AUSTRALIA Complete Specification for the invention entitled: "BUILDING CONSTRUCTION" The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:- 'Note: The description is to be typed in double spacing, pica type face, in an area not exceeding 250 mm in depth and 160 mm in width, on tough white paper of good quality and it is to be inserted inside this form.

14599/78-L Printed by CJ.T SON, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra P1 9770 dated 9 August 1988 k 11 2 I I I This invention relates to the construction of buildings, in particular but not exclusively to the construction of, for example, farm houses, holiday lodges and other single storeyed, multi-roomed buildings likely to be located in more or less remote areas.

The erection of conventional or traditional buildings, for example those made of bricks or with timber frames standing on in-ground concrete foundations or cast in-situ floor slabs, requires a lot of on-site labour. This is expensive in all situations but becomes virtually a prohibitive in situations remote from large population oo I centres when the cost of accommodation of imported labour 00 is added to normal wage costs. Therefore an object of the present invention is to provide a building construction oo 00 o '15 which minimises on-site labour.

The invention achieves that object by providing pre- 0 0fabricated, concrete components adapted to be secured together to form a wall module adapted to form part of the 0 0 °o0 opermanent exterior or interior walls of a building and 0020 having a sufficiently large "foot print" to enable the o0 0 module to be set directly upon a compacted earth site, except, preferably, for an interposed water-proof plastics or other membrane, without need for additional foundations.

00 That is to say the module includes a base portion having a large under surface adapted to impose a bearing pressure on the ground that is low enough to ensure the stability of the module. In preferred embodiments the base portion serves as a part of the building floor.

The basic module of the invention comprises a prefabricated rectangular base slab and at least one prefabricated wall panel; the slab and panel being formed with key formations which may be inter-engaged, with the panel then extending upwardly from the upper face of the slab with its centre plane coinciding with one or other of a pair of intersecting orthogonal axes defined by the j i i Y~ formations of the slab, and the slab being sufficiently extensive to ensure the stability of the module for building purposes when standing upon compacted earth.

Preferably the key formations comprise female formations or recesses in the slab and male formations or projecting lugs on the lower edge of the panel adapted neatly to enter the recesses in the slab.

Preferably the slab is square and two sizes of panel 0oo are provided, namely a full panel of a width equal to that .oI0 of the slab and a half panel of a width equal to the 0 0 distance from a side face of a full panel already engaged o0 with a slab to an edge of that slab.

0 S0 By way of example, an embodiment of the above described invention is described in more detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawing which is an :00 exploded isometric view of a module according to the a o invention.

0 The illustrated module comprises a base slab 1, a full 0 0 wall panel 2 and a half wall panel 3, being three initially separate components, each of reinforced concrete.

00 4 4 1 0 The slab 1 is square, which is the usual case, but if desired one dimension may be increased to enable the slab to cover more of the floor area of a building assembled from modules according to the invention. The slab 1 is pierced by four rectangular slots 4, two of which have their longer centre lines coinciding with one orthogonal axis X X and two with their longitudinal centre lines coinciding with another orthogonal axis Y Y. In this embodiment the X and Y axes coincide with centre lines of the slab 1.

The full panel 2 has a width equal to the side d dimension of the slab 1. It is furnished with two 4 projecting lugs 5 adapted neatly to enter the slots 4 of either the X or Y axis with the upright edges of the panel 2 then in alignment with opposite edges of the slab 7 and the centre plane of the slab coinciding with the X or Y axis as the case may be.

The half panel 3 has one lug 6 corresponding to lugs 5. The position of the lug 6 and the width of the half panel 3 are such that the upright edges of the panel 3 respectively contact the face of the panel 2 and coincide o. 10 with an edge of the slab 1 when its lug 6 is engaged in an O.OO appropriate slot 4.

00 0 0 00 4 o oo 0 The only site work needed to make the module is to thickly paint the side edges and faces of the lugs 5 or 6, 00 S0as the case may be, with concrete grout and put the panel or panels in place.

0hal The illustrated module comprising a full panel and a half panel is suitable for use at a T-intersection of two 0 00 o 0.0 building walls and it will be apparent that at other 0 locations in a building a full panel may be engaged with a slab to form a module for use as a central part of a wall, a full panel and two half panels may be engaged with a slab to form a module for use at a cruciform intersection of two walls, or two half panels may be engaged with a slab to I form a module for use at a corner junction of two walls (although in the last instance one of the half panels is preferably increased in width by an amount equal to its thickness).

As indicated earlier the foot print of the slab 1 is sufficiently large to enable the finished module to stand stably on a pliable water-proof membrane covering suitably compacted earth. Typically for a single storey dwelling this requires the slab to be about 2000mm. square.

a o 0 t t oo 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 ou Q 00 0 0 0 t a Doors and windows may be emplaced between neighbouring spaced apart modules, or special panels with those items built in may be used.

The building floor may be comprised of slabs similar to slab 1, but, if desired, without slots 4, laid so as to cover the floor area not covered by slabs of tho wall modules. The slabs may themselves be covered with timber flooring, tiles or other conventional flooring.

It will be appreciated that the slots and lugs of the illustrated embodiment may be replaced by any other interengageable formations adapted to easy site assembly and which locate the module components as described above.

It will also be appreciated that the module components may be factory made from any suitable material which is not necessarily the same for both slab and panel. In particular, lighter weight matelrials may be used for the panels in conjunction with, say, concrete for the slabs.

The invention also extends to a method of erecting a building comprising the steps of levelling and compacting the earth of a building site, making a module according to the invention from its two or more components, and standing the module upon the site where required in the finished bui.lding.

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Claims (7)

1. A building module comprising a pre-fabricated rectangular base slab and at least one pre-fabricated wall panel; the slab and panel being formed with key formations which may be inter-engaged, with the panel then extending upwardly from the upper face of the slab with its centre plane coinciding with one of a pair of intersecting orthogonal axes defined by the formations of the slab, and the slab being sufficiently extensive to ensure the stability of the module for building purposes when standing upon compacted earth.

2. P module according to claim 1 wherein said slab is square and said panel has a width equal to the side dimension of the slab.

3. A module according to claim 2 further comprising a second panel also having a key formation which may engage the slab formations with its centre plane then coinciding with the other of said axes and having a width equal to the distance from a side face of the first mentioned panel to an edge of the slab.

4. A module according to any one of the preceding claims wherein said formations comprise recesses in said slab and projecting lugs on the bottom edge of the, or each, panel.

A module according to any one of the preceding claims wherein at least the slab is of reinforced concrete.

6. A building module substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawing.

7. A method of erecting a building comprising the steps of levelling and compacting the earth of a building site, making a module according to any one of the preceding claims from its two or more components, and standing the i i 7 module upon the site where required in the finished building. Dated this twenty-fifth day of October 1990 NORMAN TONKIN Attorney: Robert G. Shelston Fellow Institute of Patent Attorneys of Australia of SMITH SHELSTON BEADLE 044 0*00 0 '4 42 Go a 04 4