GB2328958A - Clayware wall cladding - Google Patents

Abstract

A rainscreen has, between two adjacent vertical rows of tiles (10), a vertical spacer element made up of discrete portions (20) each of which bridges the horizontal interval (21) between two adjacent horizontal courses of the tiles. Vertically adjacent portions (20) of the spacer element are commonly held in position by a location element (22) engaging a rail (13) nearest to said horizontal interval (21). The ends of the spacer element portions (20) slide laterally into channels of the location element (22) so that the spacer element can be built up, either from the top of the wall downward or from the bottom up, as the tiles (10) are slid into position on the rails (13) to make up successive horizontal courses.

Description

"CLAYWARE WALL CLADDING" This invention relates to clayware wall cladding, by which is meant the construction of a screen of clayware plates or tiles to provide the outer, exposed leaf of a cavity wall. Such cladding may provide a rain screen for a new timber, metal or concrete frame or masonry structure or it may be applied as overcladding to an existing wall to provide an omamental exterior effect, for example by simulating brickwork, at the same time enhancing weatherproofing and providing the insulating benefits of a cavity wall. Any such structure to be clad is hereinafter referred to as "the inner wall". European Patent Specification N6. 0 278 842 exemplifies clayware wall cladding of the kind with which the present invention is concerned.

The Specification of our co-pending British Patent Application No. 9701690.1 filed on 28th January 1997 (to which reference is made for a fuller understanding of the present invention) discusses the fact that a clayware rainscreen needs to be ventilated and ventilation is achieved inter alia by supporting tiles 10 on their rails 13 by spaced apart seating elements 16, one seating element 16 supporting adjacent corners of the nibs 12 of two adjacent tiles 10 in the horizontal course of tiles supported by a given rail. Water can escape to the front of the rainscreen through the gaps between adjacent seating elements 16. The Specification of our co-pending British Patent Application No. 9708418.0 filed on 26th April 1997 (to which reference is made for a fuller understanding of the present invention) discloses an improvement whereby unintentional removal of individual tiles is prevented and whereby a special tool has to be used when tiles are to be removed. These systems have in common that the tiles are supported by horizontal rails which can be fixed to an inner wall or like structure before the tiles are mounted on them and particular advantages of the systems disclosed in our said co-pending Patent Applications over prior art systems are that vertical rows of tiles can be built either from the top downward or from the bottom upward and that individual tiles can be removed or replaced without having to damage or destroy them.

To achieve particular aesthetic effects it is desirable that the gap between two adjacent vertical rows of tiles, or at least some of the rows making up a wall, should be relatively wide - say 8 mm - but this of course will permit the ingress of rain water especially when driven by wind.

If the gap is very small - say 2 mm - any such ingress will be minimal because rain drops will be dispersed by the tile edges as they attempt to enter the narrow gap and will drip down the tile edges. To fill a relatively wide gap the obvious solution would be to provide long, narrow spacers extending the full height of the wall. These would have the advantage of assisting in aligning the adjacent vertical rows of tiles, but if used in connection with the systems of our said co-pending Applications they would prevent lateral movement of the adjacent tiles and thus make it impossible to build or disassemble a wall in the manner described.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide vertical spacer elements extending the full height of a wall, thereby retaining the advantage of assisting the alignment of vertical rows of tiles, but in which each vertical spacer element is built from individual, individually removable components such that the spacer element is built optionally from the bottom up or from the top down simultaneously with the location on the support structure of horizontal rails of the tiles making up the vertical rows between which the spacer element is located.

In accordance with the present invention there is provided a rainscreen comprising horizontal courses of clayware tiles or the like supported by respective, horizontal rails such that the tiles form vertically-aligned rows between any two of which a vertical gap exists which is substantially filled by a vertical spacer element, wherein the spacer element is made up of individual portions of its length, each said portion bridging a respective one of the horizontal intervals between the tiles of one course and the tiles of the course next above or below it, each said portion being held in position commonly with another portion above or below the same by a location element which engages the rail nearest to said horizontal interval, each said location element comprising a head portion to engage said rail and a tail portion depending from said head portion, said tail portion comprising means to retain one end of each of two spacer element portions extending respectively upwardly and downwardly from the location element.

Preferably each rail has a downwardly-opening concavity with a relatively restricted, horizontally elongated opening and the head portion of each location element is shaped such that it may be inserted through said opening from below with said location element in a first attitude after which the location element may be rotated through 900 to a second, operative attitude in which the head portion is trapped in the concavity.

The said retaining means of each said location means tail portion preferably comprises oppositely-opening channels into each of which a respective end of a spacer element portion may be slid laterally.

Each said location means tail portion may comprises lateral fins which, in the operative position of the location means, extend downwardly and inwardly with respect to the tiles next below the head portion of said location means so as to deflect toward the rear faces of the same any water penetrating the said horizontal interval.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying Drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a view from in front of a clayware rainscreen, Figure 2 is a sectional elevation through part of the rainscreen of Figure 1, and Figure 3 illustrates one of the location elements and two of the spacer element portions used in the assembly of Figure 2.

As described in the Specification of our co-pending British Patent Application No. 9708418.0 filed on 26th April 1997 (to which reference is made for a clearer understanding of the present invention) a clayware rainscreen is made up of tiles 10 supported by horizontal rails 13. Each tile 10 has a rearwardly extending nib 12 with a downstand which locates over the associated rail 13, while the top of each tile 10 has a nib which locates in a downwardly-opening concavity in the underside of the rail 13 above it. At each corner of each nib 12 each tile 10 is supported by two elements 16. These can be slid along the associated rail 13 when it is desired to remove one of the tiles 10 which they support. The top of each rail 13 has a downwardly and outwardly sloping portion which deflects water penetrating between the tiles so that it is shed in front of the tiles 10 through the gaps between the elements 16.

For aesthetic reasons it may be desirable to provide a gap of, say, 8 mm between adjacent vertical rows oftiles 10. In a given rainscreen all adjacent rows oftiles may have such a gap or only some of them, the remainder having a relatively narrow gap of, say, 2 mm. With a gap of around 8 mm there is a danger of excessive rain penetration, but in preventing this by the provision of a filler or spacer it is undesirable to interfere with the ability to build the tiles 10 from the top of the rainscreen downward or from the bottom up or with the facility to remove a given tile if it becomes damaged. This will generally require that a given tile 10 can move laterally independently of tiles 10 above and below it, and this of course would not be possible if a unitary spacer element were used extending the full height of the rainscreen.

Therefore in accordance with the present invention each spacer element used to fill a relatively wide vertical gap between two adjacent vertical rows of tiles 10 is made up of discrete portions 20 each of which bridges a respective horizontal interval 21 between two adjacent horizontal courses of the tiles. By so bridging these intervals the portions 20 ensure proper vertical alignment of the tiles as they are inserted on the rails 13. As shown in Figure 3 each portion 20 may be a simple, rectangular-section strip which may be of a flexible material such as a suitable plastics material The portions 20 making up each vertical spacer are supported by location elements 22 engaging the rails 13. This they do by inserting a head 23 of a location element in the downwardly opening concavity of a rail 13 which also serves to receive the top nibs of the tiles 10 below it. This concavity has a relatively restricted mouth through which a head 23 can be inserted in a first attitude, but when the location element 22 is then rotated through 90O to its operative position as shown in Figure 2 the head 23 substantially fills the cross-section of the concavity so that the location element 22 cannot move downward relative to the rail 13.

In addition to its head 23 each location element includes a depending tail portion 24 from which there extends forwardly a generally T-shaped formation 25 defining with the tail portion an upwardly opening channel 26 and a downwardly opening channel 27. The bottom of one spacer element portion 20 can slide laterally into the upper channel 26 and the top of another portion 20 can slide laterally into the lower channel 27 until the two portions 20 are in vertical alignment.

Additionally each tail portion 24 has laterally extending fins 28,28' extending forwardly and downwardly. These serve to deflect rainwater penetrating the rainscreen through each gap 21 so that it runs back to the front of the rainscreen through gaps between the elements 16.

The spacer elements made up of portions 20 are used in the following way. As successive horizontal courses of tiles are built as taught in the Specification of our co-pending Patent Application No. 9708418.0, whether from the top of the rainscreen downward or from the bottom up, wherever there is to be a relatively wide gap between adjacent vertical rows of tiles 10 a location element 22 is inserted in each rail 13, twisted round to the operative position and then slid along the rail 13 until its tail portion 24 abuts the tile 10 already in place on one side of the gap. When a location element 22 is in place on the rail 13 immediately above or below a portion 20 can be slid into place so that it is supported between the lower channel 27 of upper location element 22 and the upper channel 26 of the lower location element 22. In this way a continuous vertical spacer element is built from portions 20 as the rainscreen is built, and because each portion 20 spans or bridges the gap 21 between tiles in two adjacent horizontal courses it serves to ensure that the tiles 10 are in vertical alignment as they are put in place. Of course, once the relevant part of the spacer element is in place the next tile in the same horizontal course can be slid into place against it. Disassembly of the rainscreen can be the reverse of this process. It will be observed that the presence on a rail 13 of location elements 22 will not prevent lateral movement along the rail of support elements 16. These can therefore be displaced without removing the spacer element, or portions 20 thereof, when it is desired to remove an individual tile from the rainscreen.

Claims (5)

CLAIMS:

1. A rainscreen comprising horizontal courses of clayware tiles or the like supported by respective, horizontal rails such that the tiles form vertically-aligned rows between any two of which a vertical gap exists which is substantially filled by a vertical spacer element, wherein the spacer element is made up of individual portions of its length, each said portion bridging a respective one of the horizontal intervals between the tiles of one course and the tiles of the course next above or below it, each said portion being held in position commonly with another portion above or below the same by a location element which engages the rail nearest to said horizontal interval, each said location element comprising a head portion to engage said rail and a tail portion depending from said head portion, said tail portion comprising means to retain one end of each of two spacer element portions extending respectively upwardly and downwardly from the location element.

2. A rainscreen as claimed in claim 1, wherein each rail has a downwardly-opening concavity with a relatively restricted, horizontally elongated opening and the head portion of each location element is shaped such that it may be inserted through said opening from below with said location element in a first attitude after which the location element may be rotated through 900 to a second, operative attitude in which the head portion is trapped in the concavity.

3. A rainscreen as claimed in either preceding claim, wherein the said retaining means of each said location means tail portion comprises oppositely-opening channels into each of which a respective end of a spacer element portion may be slid laterally.

4. A rainscreen as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein each said location means tail portion comprises lateral fins which, in the operative position of the location means, extend downwardly and inwardly with respect to the tiles next below the head portion of said location means so as to deflect toward the rear faces of the same any water penetrating the said horizontal interval.

5. A rainscreen substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying Drawings.