GB2422619A

GB2422619A - Fixing system for decorative lintel or the like

Info

Publication number: GB2422619A
Application number: GB0427754A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Mark Patrick Grazier; Alan Bowler
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2004-12-17
Filing date: 2004-12-17
Publication date: 2006-08-02
Also published as: GB0427754D0

Abstract

A decorative lintel 21, 2a, 2b , sill cladding or corner capping is fixed to a building by means of a pin or stud 7, which may have a head or a separate threaded nut slidably mounted in a lipped channel 6 at the rear of the cladding member, or may be fixed directly to the cladding member. The pin or stud is inserted into an aperture in the building structure and held in e,g, by an adhesive.

Description

IMPROVEMENTS TO A DECORATIVE ARCHITRAVE SYSTEM

This invention is a fixing method for a decorative architrave system for buildings comprising a retro fit lintel system, an apex air vent, a corner block and a window sill trim in which all of the component parts of the system share a common fixing method based on pins or studs fixed to the system by means of either a threaded anchor nut or a bolt or pin in combination with a lipped channel.

It is an improvement to the fixing methods described in our British patent application number GB 0415288.0 for a Decorative Architrave System for Buildings which was filed on 8 July, 2004.

Both steel and concrete lintels are very commonly used in the building construction industry most often above door and window apertures. Today steel Iintels are favoured and a typical pressed steel example which has been welded to form a hollow section can be found in published British Patent application GB 2 227 262 A. This type of lintel is typically surrounded by brickwork and the design of the lintel is such that the brickwork can be formed over the lintel locking it into place in the building.

Lintels of this type can vary in construction but the most common of them is the well known "Catnic" lintels which are made of steel, commonly used above window and door openings and support both the inner and outer faces of a cavity wall. Their advantage is their low cost together with high strength and the fact that because they are built into the wall the facing bricks rest on the base of the lintel and hide the lintel from view.

Prior to the use of such steel lintels traditional stone lintel systems were used in the past particularly in the construction of private homes. These lintels typically had a visible facia which was usually decorated with suitable carving.

Generally this type of lintel is thought to be very desirable because it enhances the appearance of a building. Nevertheless the use of such lintels was abandoned in house construction because of the high cost of the lintels themselves.

Owners wishing to add such stone lintels to a building after construction was finished were faced with a considerable problem because the steel lintel formed part of the fabric of the building And could not easily be removed without considerable cost and disruption to the building.

In order to improve the appearance of buildings by adding lintels to the door and window apertures of buildings, without damaging the existing brickwork and incurring a high installation cost. Many alternatives have been developed.

These alternatives consist mainly of surface fitting decorative artificial lintels which have been developed to incorporate a variety of fixing methods. Typical examples of the state of the art are as follows: - GB 2 346 404 shows a simple three part decorative lintel system fabricated from a fibre, fibreglass or plaster type moulding which is equipped with an adhesive backing for securing the lintel to the wall. The disadvantage with such fixings is that they are seldom permanent and they damage the clean surface of the brickwork making it difficult to revert to the original brickwork at a later date.

US 3 778 945 shows a three part lintel and teaches the principal of the components being adjustably mounted so as to allow one sized set of component parts to be fitted to a variety of differently sized apertures. All of the component parts are fixed to the wall by means of a series of protruding "ears "through which screws, or the like, are passed. These "ears" are visible therefore only lend themselves to installation where their appearance does not matter or where the brickwork will have some form of rendering to cover up the top surface thus hiding the lintels securing "ears".

The present invention seeks to provide a decorative architrave system including a retro fit lintel, an apex air vent, a corner stone and an adjustable width window sill, which incorporates a fixing system designed to improve on the solution described in our British patent application number GB 0415288.0 and to avoid all of the problems so far outlined in the above art.

According to the invention there is provided a first aspect comprising a decorative architrave system typically comprising an adjustable or fixed width lintel comprising one or more parts, an apex air vent, a fixed or adjustable width window sill and a corner stone.

Characterised by, the attachment of an anchor nut to an inside surface of any component of said architrave system together with the provision of an anchor pin with a threaded portion for screwing into said anchor nut which thread may or may not extend to the distal end of the pin for the purpose of securing said component a wall.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a decorative architrave system typically comprising an adjustable or fixed width lintel comprising one or more parts, an apex air vent, a fixed or adjustable width window sill and a corner stone.

Characterised by, the attachment of a lipped channel to an inside surface of any component of said architrave system together with the provision of a fixing stud which may or may not be threaded and has a fixed head said head bieng of suitable shape so that in use it may be inserted into said lipped channel from whence in use the stud protrudes for the purpose of securing said component to a wall.

According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a decorative architrave system typically comprising an adjustable or fixed width lintel comprising one or more parts, an apex air vent, a fixed or adjustable width window sill and a corner stone.

Characterised by, the attachment of a lipped channel which in use contains slideably mounted anchor means said lipped channel being fixed into an inside surface of any component of said architrave system together with the provision of a fixing pin which may or may not be threaded which pin has an engagement portion so that in use it may be inserted into said anchor means in said lipped channel from whence in use the stud protrudes for the purpose of securing said component to a wall. Said pin may have a depth stop along its length.

The invention will now be more particularly described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: - Figure 1. Shows the outside surface of three components of the retro fit lintel system assembled illustrating the left wing 2a the right wing 2b and the key stone 1.

Figure 2. Shows the separate components of the retrofit lintel system unassembled where 2a is the left wing, 2b is the right wing and 1 is the key stone.

Figure 3. Illustrates the inside surface 3 of a cross section of any component of the retro fit lintel system.

Figure 4. Is a representation of the inside surface lb of the key stone 1 showing the detail which allows it to fit over either left hand wing 2a or right hand wing 2b.

Figure 5. Shows the cross section 3 illustrated in figure 3 with the threaded anchor nut 4 mounted to the inner surface and the anchor pin which may or may not be threaded along its whole length.

Figure 6. Shows the cross section 3 illustrated in figure 3 with the lipped channel 6 and the stud 7 which may or may not be threaded the head of which in use is entered into the lipped channel.

Figure 7. Shows any component 3 of the system with the anchor nut 4 attached and pin 5 entering cavity 8 in a wall and is secured by suitable fixing means 9.

Figure 8. Illustrates the Air vent Figure 9. Illustrates the corner stone Figure 10. Shows a further pin 13 with depth stop 11 and engagement portion 10. This illustration shows a threaded pin though in practise any securing means between the pin and the anchor or the pin and the wall may be used.

Figure 11. Is an end view of the lipped channel 15 showing the anchor means 16 slideably located within the lipped channel.

Figure 12. Illustrates the lipped channel 15 with slideably mounted anchor means 16. In this illustration the channel is not mounted into an architrave system component. In use only the upper portion of the lipped channel is visible the lower portion being engaged into the architrave system component itself.

Figure 13. Illustrates a lipped channel in use with a stud 7 which in use is captive within the lipped channel.

Figure 14. Shown the lipped channel 15 countersunk into a component of the architrave system and the anchor means 16 which is captive within the lipped channel.

Referring to figure 1 the three main components of the retro fit lintel are shown as the left wing 2a the right wing 2b and the key stone which is mounted between and abuts up to, the left and right hand wings 1. These components may be disassembled and the condition is shown in figure 2, The inside surface of the key stone is shown in figure 4 and in figure 3 the inside surface of any of the system components is shown. Figures 8 and 9 show the apex air vent and the corner stone and there is an additional component which is not shown which is a window sill and shares the same fixing system.

Referring now to figure 5 which is the inside surface of any component of the system with the anchor nut 4 shown in place. The pin 5 will have a threaded portion at least sufficient to allow it to be screwed into the anchor nut. The remaining part of the pin may or may not carry threads, it may be smooth or it may be any other shape to facilitate adhesion. This pin may also contain a stop means as illustrated in as 11 in figure 10.

In use one example of the fixing method is shown in figure 7 where a system component 3 is equipped with an anchor nut 4 which to which pin 5 has been attached. Pin 5 is inserted into cavity 8 which has been filled with a suitable flexible substance which allows the pin 5 the pass and then surrounds the pin which substance, after a suitable time has elapsed, will solidify and secure the pin in place. The said flexible substance may be for example a setting solution such as silicon rubber or any other suitable substance.

It will be understood that figure 7 is only one example of how the invention is secured to a wall and that the fixing shown at 4 may be any of the examples described in this specification or shown in any of the drawings. I addition it will also be understood that the means of securing the pin, bolt, stud or other fixing means into the wall may be any gripper means including a surface mounted gripper means through which the pin, bolt, stud or other fixing means, passes.

Referring now to figure 6 an alternate fixing system is shown which employs exactly the same principals except that the fixing means is now a stud with a head which is secured to the system component by means of inserting the head into a lipped channel fixed to the inner surface of the system component.

The head of the stud may be that of a standard bolt with 6 or 8 sides or may be a square section with 4 sides or any other suitable shape designed to engage the lipped channel. The wall fixing is exactly the same as previously describe for the pin.

Referring now to figures 10, 11 and 12, these illustrations combine to show a further alternate fixing system. A lipped channel 15, in use contains an anchor 16 which is slideably mounted within the lipped channel to assist aligning the architrave system components when mounting to a wall. The anchor may be a nut 16, which has a formed upper section 16a which fits the inside profile of the lipped channel 15, and a lower section 16b which is shaped to engage the sides of the channel to prevent the anchor rotating. A pin 13 has a depth stop collar 11 a portion of which 12 is intended to enter the wall, and an engagement portion 10, which mates with the anchor. Portion 10 may or may not be extended to pass through the anchor and engage the bottom of the lipped channel in order to reduce the slide ability once the correct position for any system component has been established.

In use the lipped channel 15 is formed into the body of the architrave component such that the lipped channel protrudes for only part of its depth.

Any means may be used to secure the lipped channel to the architrave system component, though, in this example the material of the architrave system itself flows into the depression at either outer side of the lower part of the lipped channel during the moulding process.

In this example the pin 13 is shown threaded but in practise this may not be so and any securing means may be used between the pin and the wall and between the pin and the anchor means. The depth stop 11 being optional.

The lipped channel may be used in short lengths at various places on the rear face of the architrave system component, when because of the obstruction p 11 caused to either end of the lipped channel by the countersinking of the lipped channel into the rear face of the system component the anchor means will be captive as will any stud or bolt with a fixed head. However in one embodiment the lipped channel may be attached along the whole or part length of the system component so as to expose the full face of the end of the lipped channel at the end of the system component thus allowing the captive component to escape.

As was previously mentioned there is an additional system component which is a window sill which is not illustrated, primarily because there are many varied shapes and novelty is only claimed for the fixing system which is the same for all system components.

The components of the architrave system themselves are not claimed to be novel. Novelty is claimed for the combination of components and fixing methods described herein together with any variations on those methods which are substantially similar when used with any decorative architrave system for buildings.

There are many different possible variations of configuration and shape of the various system components and each system component disclosed in this specification including the drawings, may be replaced by alternative components serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise each component disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar components.

Claims

A decorative architrave system comprising an adjustable or fixed width lintel comprising one or more parts, or an apex air vent, or a fixed or adjustable width window sill or a corner stone, Characterised by, any means of attachment of an anchor nut to an inside surface of any component of said architrave system
2 A decorative architrave system according to claim I with the provision of an anchor pin with a threaded portion for screwing into said anchor nut which thread may or may not extend to the distal end of the pin for the purpose of securing said component a wall.
3 A decorative architrave according to claim I and 2 where the said anchor nut and the said anchor pin may be combined to form one fixing stud which may or may not be threaded.
4 A decorative architrave system according to any previous claim where the said means of attachment is by securing a lipped channel to an inside surface of any component of the said architrave system.
A decorative architrave system according to claim 4 where the said lipped channel in use receives a fixing stud which may or may not be threaded and has a fixed head said head being of suitable shape so that in use it may be inserted into said lipped channel from whence in use the stud protrudes for the purpose of securing said component to a wall.
6 A decorative architrave system according to claim 5 where the said lipped channel in use contains slideably mounted anchor means which in use may receive a fixing pin which may or may not be threaded or partially threaded which pin has an engagement portion so that in use it may be inserted into said anchor means in said lipped channel from whence in use the pin protrudes for the purpose of securing said component to a wall. Said pin may have a depth stop along it's length.
7 A decorative architrave system according to claim 6 where the said slideably mounted anchor means is a nut containing a female thread or other securing means intended to receive a fixing pin.