GB2302923A - Finishing collar - Google Patents

Abstract

A plastic collar 10 is fitted over a waste pipe 16 and is pushed flush to the wall 20 to give an excellent cosmetic finish to the hole that is knocked out of the wall to accommodate the waste pipe. The collar 10 has a feathered edge to the inner radius enabling a tight fit over the waste pipe allowing it to self lock to the waste pipe, therefore dispensing with the need to drill or glue the collar to the wall or pipe. The collar is manufactured in two sizes to accommodate waste pipes of 32mm and 40mm, and in four colours namely, white, black, brown and grey. As well as giving an excellent cosmetic look the collar actually saves labour time to the fitter as it gets rid of the need to fill around the hole with sand and cement.

Description

Improvements Relating to Building Practices This invention relates to building practices, and is an invention designed to enhance the appearance of buildings.

By the expression "buildings" as used herein is meant any appropriate structure which normally will be used for the housing of people, but need not be. Indeed as will be clear from the description which follows, the "building" could simply be a wall. Additionally, the material from which the wall is constructed can be varied although the main application of the invention as will be clear relates to a building constructed of conventional building materials such as cement, concrete, brick and/or stone, the invention can be applied to a building of any material.

Bearing the above in mind, it is convenient to describe the particular application of the invention in relation to the main application for which the invention was created, and therefore in the following much reference will be made to the application of the invention to the walls of domestic dwellings.

Frequently, it is necessary for pipes to be caused to extend through building walls, and especially waste pipes in domestic dwellings extend through building walls and then turn downwardly (by the use of appropriate couplings) to ground level to an appropriate drain. To enable this to happen, the plumber usually knocks a hole through the wall to receive the pipe. In making this hole in the wall, especially if it is of concrete, brick or stone or the like, it is usual for the edge of the hole to the outside of the wall to become fragmented and irregular and certainly it is very difficult for the plumber to make the hole exactly circular or to exactly conform to the shape of the pipe if it is other than circular (sometimes for example square pipes are used).After passing the pipe through the hole, it is usual therefore for the plumber to mix up some sand and cement to form a grout for filling the recesses created around the pipe on the outer wall, basically to tidy up the work.

Although the plumber performs this filling operation, it is invariably unsightly and unsatisfactory. Also, in many cases the plumber will simply not perform the finishing operation making the wall even more unsightly.

The present invention is a simple and imaginative means for overcoming this difficulty, and in accordance with the invention, a collar is slipped over the pipe and pressed against the wall surface, said collar being of appropriate outer dimension to cover the fragmentation around the hole caused by the formation of the hole.

The invantion is applicable in the circumstances even where the hole may have been formed perfectly, because it does provide an excellent aesthetic effect. Thus, in all cases the collar will be of neat and regular appearance. It is very easy to apply insofar as it is simply slipped along the pipe, the collar being provided with an appropriate internal diameter and shape for this purpose. The inner edge of the collar may have a degree of flexibility so that it can be used with pipes of different sizes, but of the same cross section.

The collar will preferably be of circular shape, although it might be slightly dished 8o as to have a slight conical form.

It may be a moulded element produced by thermoforming so that it is hollow and comprises a shallow conical portion to the outer diameter of which is provided a flange for seating against the wall with which it is to be used. The collar may be moulded in a plastics material of the same colour as the pipe (when it is of plastics) to which it is to be fitted.

Not only does the collar enhance the aesthetic effect at the junction between the pipe and wall, it can also provide an economic advantage insofar as the plumber's time can be saved as it will not be necessary to fill the region around the pipe where it meets the wall, and secondly the collar if thermoformed can be made particularly inexpensively and for even less than it would cost to procure and mix sand and cement.

The collar can of course be of any appropriate colour and textural finish, and it can be formed in any appropriate shape although the most likely shape is circular. If required, a range of collars can be provided for the standard range of pipes used in the building trade.

The invention has particular application to waste pipes emanating from the building walls.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, wherein: Fig. 1 is a front view of a collar according to the present invention; Figs. 2, 3 and 4 respectively are a side view, a front perspective and a rear perspective view of the collar of Fig.

1 when fitted to a pipe; Figs. 5, 6 and 7 show the sequence of operations in fitting the collar to a waste pipe outlet; Fig. 8 is a side view of the finished job; and Fig. 9 is a perspective view of the finished job.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 4, in Fig. 1, an annular collar 10 is shown, and it comprises a one-piece plastics moulding of which the front face 12 is of a slight tapering angle as shown clearly in Fig. 2. To the outer edge of the front face 12 is a flange 14 which extends in the direction of the axis of the collar. A central bore 14 in the collar is matched to the pipe 16 to which it is to be fitted and is shown as fitted in Figs. 2, 3 and 4. The collar 10 is preferably thermoformed from plastic sheet material, and may be formed in any suitable colour such as white, grey, black or brown. The colour will be selected to match the colour of the pipe 16 to which it is to be fitted.

Figs. 2, 3 and 4 are included simply to show how the collar fits on the pipe 16, but the specific use of the collar is shown more clearly in the remaining figures. Thus, as shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, the collar 10 is fitted to a waste pipe 16 which passes through a building wall 18. When the aperture in the wall is formed for receipt of the pipe 16, at the outer side 20 of the wall the material of the wall surface tends to break away as shown at 22 leaving an unsightly and ragged edge. Conventionally, this edge is filled by the plumber who mixes sand and cement and trowels it into the region 22. The present invention provides a means whereby this can be overcome.After the pipe 16 is inserted through the wall 18, and projects therefrom as shown to receive an elbow 24 of a waste pipe in conventional fashion, the collar 10 is slid over the end of pipe 16 as indicated by arrow 26 so that it takes up the position shown in Fig. 6 in which it conceals and covers the unsightly region 22. The collar 10 will be designed to be a neat friction fit on the pipe 16 so that it will by virtue of the tapering surface 12 remain firmly in position after being fitted. After fitting, the elbow 24 is simply pushed onto the projecting end of pipe 16 as shown in Fig. 7 to complete the operation. In this connection, the end of the elbow 24 is provided with a sealing ring illustrated at 28, which is of rubber or the like, which frictionally engages the end of the waste pipe 16.The waste pipe itself may be clamped to the wall by means of clamps such as 30 as shown in Fig. 9.

It will be understood that fitting of the collar 10 could not be simpler. There may be a range of collars to suit different sizes of pipes, but in the alternative, the region around the aperture 14 may be pared so as to be flexible so that the collar can fit a range of sizes of pipe.

The collar fits flush to the wall providing an excellent aesthetic finish. The need to fill the region 22 by the plumber mixing sand and cement is eliminated and provides considerable time saving. If required, the region 22 could be filled by means of another material such as foam or the like in order to form a seal, such foam being capable of quick application.

To give some indication of the saving which can be achieved by the use of the collar 10 in the conventional method it can take the plumber from 10-15 minutes to mix sand and cement and fill the region 22. The fitting of the collar 10 takes only a second or two. A typical house may have at least four waste outlets and the making good of the regions 22 with the sand and cement mix could therefore take 40 minutes or more. In an average building site comprising thirty houses the time for making good the regions 22 could amount to 20 man hours or more. Almost all of this time could be saved by using the collars according to the present invention.

Although the collars will in the majority of cases be circular, they could be of other configuration and indeed the peripheral configuration of the collar could be of a different shape from the central aperture, but preferably the shape of the central aperture will be matched to the pipe to which it is to be fitted.

The collars can be fitted to other service pipes, and can be used internally and externally of walls.

Claims (6)

aas

1. A collar pushed onto a waste pipe.

2. A collar as claimed in claim 1 that once pushed onto the waste pipe is pushed flush to a flat surface.

3. A collar as claimed in claim 1 and 2 where the inner radius of the collar fits tight to the waste pipe enabling the collar to lock onto the waste pipe.

4. A collar as claimed in any preceding claim that provides a cosmetic look to hole that is made to accommodate a waste pipe.

5. A collar as claimed in any preceding claim which is made solely of plastic.

6. A plastic collar substantially as herein described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.