GB2587318A

GB2587318A - Floor layers cutting and marking tool

Info

Publication number: GB2587318A
Application number: GB1909937.3A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Kinsella Tom
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2019-07-10
Filing date: 2019-07-10
Publication date: 2021-03-31
Anticipated expiration: 2039-07-10
Also published as: GB2587318B; GB201909937D0

Abstract

A cutting and marking tool is used when installing vinyl flooring material when a cap and cove finish is required. It marks the wall at the correct height for installation of the capping strip and then cuts the flooring material at the correct point for installation of the material in a curve around the floor/wall joint and into the capping strip. The tool has upper and lower body parts 1, 2 slidably connected to enable height adjustment, and a locking means. The height is indicated on a height adjustment scale 15. The tool has means 7 for marking a wall 21 at the correct height for fixing a capping strip 18, and a preferably hooked blade 10 for cutting the material 19 at the correct height for insertion into the capping strip. The lower body part may have smooth strips 12 underneath to allow the tool to glide along the material, and the upper body part may have guides 14 that are in contact with the material when it is being cut and in contact with the wall when the wall is being marked.

Description

FLOOR LAYERS CUTTING AND MARKING TOOL

The present invention is a hand held cutting and marking tool more particularly for use in the building trade by floor layers when working with vinyl floor 5 coverings which are to be fitted using a method known as "Cap and Cove".

"Cap and Cove" is a trade expression and in this specification it means flooring installations where, at the point where the floor covering meets the wall, the floor covering material curves and rises part way up the wall to finish beneath a capping strip so as to form a smooth rounded junction between the wall and the floor. Curving of the material between the floor and the wall is sometimes assisted by installation of a "cove former' underneath the floor covering.

These "cap and cove" flooring installations are often found in hospitals and similar places where they facilitate cleaning and also improve the aesthetics of the floor/wall junction by elimination the (90 degree) right angle joint between the floor and the wall.

Currently fitting "cap and cove" flooring is performed by hand using a razor sharp knife and a ruler and marking the wall for installation of a capping strip is also a manual job. This is a time consuming job involving measuring and freehand cutting and a considerable degree of skill is required to get it right. Mistakes are often made and this usually leads to wasted time and materials with the associated additional cost.

There are trimming tools available which are designed to cut carpet or vinyl to fit the junction between the floor and the skirting board, These generally have a main body with a bottom surface designed to slide across the vinyl flooring material as it is being cut, most often there are rollers or balls to facilitate a smooth movement of the tool over the surface of the vinyl being laid to the floor.

However the majority of these tools, unlike the present invention, are designed to cut flooring to an exact size to meet the skirting board where it meets at a 90 degree angle to the skirting board.

Examples of the art are as follows US 2011/0197456 This shows a typical vinyl edge cutting tool. It teaches the use of hooked cutting blades and is designed to cut vinyl to meet the skirting board where the vinyl would be at a 90 degree angle to the skirting board. It shows a pivotally mounted hooked blade which both holds the material suspended in the right position and cuts exactly so that the cut vinyl falls back to meet the skirting board.

US 6112417 This is similar to the above example except that the main body of the device is designed to rest against the floor and the skirting board and fit underneath the vinyl. The vinyl passes over the main body underneath the cutting element which is a securely held flat blade. The tool as in the previous example is designed to cut material to fit directly up against the skirting board at a 90 degree angle to the skirting board.

US3653124 Teaches the use of a hooked cutting blade in a tool which slides over the flooring material. It has both front and rear guides where the rear guide extends through the cut material to rest upon the wall to achieve rear stabilization of the cutting tool when moving forward.

US 4549351 This art, unlike the previous examples, is designed to cut vinyl flooring material for a "cap and cove type of installation and is directly comparable to the present invention. It is equipped with rollers on the underside for assisting side to side movement and also half spherical wheels to assist in the forming of the curved coving shape and consequently has to carry the manufacturing cost of providing these items. It has an adjustable cutting height though uses straight blades rather than the hooked variety. However, the main disadvantage of this invention is that in use the invention requires an exact setting for the cutting blades otherwise they will cut into the capping strip causing permanent damage to the surface of the capping strip. There is also no means provided for assisting the installation of the capping strip at the correct height.

The present invention seeks to address the shortcomings of known devices by providing a tool for use when fitting cap and cove type installations which has smooth glide surfaces instead of rollers to reduce manufacturing costs, wall marking means complete with storage for the marking device and a tightly controlled and accurate cutting system and which is completely height adjustable with scale markings to assist in correct height setting.

According to the invention there is provided a cap and cove cutting and marking tool for use when laying vinyl floor coverings which has a height adjustable body consisting of an upper body pad and a lower body pad which are slideably connected with an accompanying height adjustment scale. Locking means is provided to secure the upper and lower body parts in the required position. The said tool has two functions a first which is marking the wall at the correct height for installation of a capping strip and a second function which is cutting the vinyl flooring material at exactly the right point to allow it to be inserted into the capping strip.

Attached to the said lower body pad are smooth glide strips which in use are located on the underside of the said body and when the tool is in use the said glide strips slide along the floor with which they are in contact.

The upper body part has a handle for holding and operating the tool, which handle; when the tool is in use. is at the rear of the tool nearest to the operator.

A wall marking means is also provided which can be a pencil or any other suitable marking means The front of the upper body part is that pad which in use is nearest the wall and this part is provided with guides, which guides, in use, are in contact with the vinyl flooring material when cutting the flooring material or in contact with the wall when marking for installation of the capping strip. They ensure the correct positioning of the tool for both cutting and marking. They are also positioned to ensure that when pressed against the floor covering to be cut; which flooring is resting against the wall; then the said guides are not in contact with that pad of the flooring material which is passing over the cove former. The said cove former is a shaped curved filler strip lying between the vinyl and the wall and is set into the junction between the vinyl and the wall underneath the vinyl to ensure a smooth uniform curve on the vinyl.

A marking device is provided which is removed from a storage position in the upper body part and in use is placed in a holder in the upper body part which holder is located so as to ensure that the said marking device is positioned above the tool in the correct position for marking the wall at the correct height for positioning a capping strip. The said capping strip is a decorative edging strip attached to the wall underneath which strip the edge of the cut vinyl is finally located.

The upper body part is also provided with the cutting means which in a preferred version is a hooked knife blade. The blade is contained in a holder which is positioned so as to ensure correct cutting of the flooring material without damage to the capping strip and without the vinyl disengaging from the hooked blade. The relationship between the guides and the blade is important and is expressed in a preferred example accompanying this specification and the accompanying drawings.

In this specification a clamp nut or nuts refers to securing means which may be a nut or a bolt or any combination of nut and bolt or any other suitable securing means. Or the body of the tool may be threaded to accept a bolt which is to be the securing means.

The invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1. Is a view of the tool from the rear where the height adjustment is visible and the marking device both in use and in it's storage position.

Figure 2. Is an overhead view where the relationship between the cutting blade and the guides can be seen Figure 3. Is a frontal view and clearly shows the height adjustment scale the front guides and the position of the marking means in relation to the guides and the cutting blade.

Figure 4. Is an expanded view of the height adjustment scale.

Figure 5. Shows the underside of the tool and the positions of the slide bars which in use would be in contact with the floor.

Figure 6. Illustrates the profile of the cove former Figure 7. illustrates the profile of the capping strip Figure 8 Shows both the cove former and the capping strip in position underneath the floor covering which has been cut and fitted into the capping strip.

Figure 9. Is a side view of the tool in use. The guides can be seen holding the vinyl against the wall and the cutting blade is engaged into the vinyl.

Figure 10. Shows the preferred relationship between the cutting blade and the shoulder.

Referring now to Figure 1, this is a rear view of the tool showing most but not all, of the major elements of the tool. A lower body 1 and an upper body 2, are connected together by sliceable means consisting of height adjustment slots 3 and height adjustment clamp nuts 4. A scale is present to assist in correctly setting the height which is not shown in this figure. A handle 5, for holding the tool, is provided as part of the upper body and this has a corrugated surface to assist gripping the tool. Wall marking means 7 is stored in cavity 8, and for use it is removed and inserted into holder 6, where stabiliser 13 is engaged in one of the handles corrugations. The hooked cutting blade clamp 9, is seen from the rear in this illustration as is the blade itself 10. The blade 10 is secured into the holder by clamp nut 11. The holder for the blade consists of a cavity in the main body which receives the blade 10 and which is not shown in this illustration (fig 1) and the blade clamp 9 which presses on the top of the blade 10 to secure it into the cavity in the upper body 2. The clamp is secured by clamp nut 11. It can be seen that an identical arrangement is present on both sides of the tool. Glide bars 12 are provided on the underside of the lower body 1, and in this figure (1) the outer edge of the glide bar 12, can be seen.

Figure 2, Is a top view showing all of the same components as are shown in figure 1 with the addition of the frontal guides 14, which cannot be seen in figure 1. The guides 14, in use, are in contact with the wall during marking and the vinyl during cutting. There is a preferred relationship between the position of the guides, and the blade 10, which is shown in more detail in later figures.

Figure 3, this is a frontal view showing the face of the tool which in use is in contact with the wall during marking and the vinyl flooring material when cutting.

The position if the guides 14 can be seen. In this figure the height adjustment scale 15, is shown and an expanded view of this scale is shown in Figure 4. The lower body or base 1, is slideably connected to the upper body 2, The height can be seen on the scale 15, and is set by tightening of the clamp nuts 4.

Figure 5 is a view of the underside of the tool showing the lower body 1, mounted upon which (in this example) are three glide bars 12, which assist the tool in sliding along the floor or the vinyl when in use. The glide bars are mounted upon a shoulder 20 which is pad of the upper body part 2.

Figures 6,7 and 8, are provided for clarity and can be dealt with together beginning with figure 8. Figure 8 shows a cross section of a typical flooring installation fitted by means of a cap and cove system. There are three elements involved, The vinyl itself, illustrated by the curved lines in figure 8, the cove former 17, shown in figure 6 and the capping strip 18, shown in figure 7. It can be seen from figure 8 that the vinyl 19, is fitted into a cavity in the capping strip and this is the reason that it is necessary to cut the vinyl accurately, Also it can be seen that the capping strip is visible therefore it is important that any cutting operation is accurate and does not mark the capping strip.

Figures 9 and 10 show one preferred version of the invention where the relationship between the blades 10 and the guides 14, have been fixed in order to provide smooth operation of the tool this does not exclude other arrangements. The height between the shoulder and the floor is of course variable because of the slideable relationship between the upper and lower body parts and would be set to ensure that the vinyl is pressed against the wall without being influenced by the presence of a cove former.

Figure 9, Is a side view showing that there is a gap "A" between the top of the 20 guide 14 (which is mounted upon the shoulder 20) in which the preferred dimension is 28mm. There is also a gap "B" between the front edge of the blade 10 and the face of the guide 14 which is 6mm.

Figure 10, Is a top view clearly showing gap "B" from figure 9 but in addition also showing that the tip of the blade 10 and the edge of the guide 14 are separated by 1 mm.

Figure 11, is included for clarity and is a cross section of the tool in use in a flooring installation The floor 16, meets the wall 21, at an angle of 90 degrees and the cove former 17, is fitted to help form the curve of the vinyl. The capping strip 18 if fitted to the wall 21, and the vinyl 19 is in the correct place for cutting. The tool is placed on the vinyl 19 running on its glide bars 12, and the shoulder 20 together with guide 14 are holding the vinyl against the wall. The blade 10 is engaged with the vinyl and cutting can commence by moving the tool sideways.

Claims

CLAIMS1 A cap and cove tool which has both cutting and marking functions for use when laying floor coverings which tool has a height adjustable body with locking means consisting of an upper body part and a lower body part which are slideably connected to enable height adjustment which height is indicated on a height adjustment scale the said tool in use has a means for marking a wall at the correct height for fixing a capping strip to the said wall and also has a means for cutting the flooring material at the correct height to enable the said flooring material to be inserted into the said capping strip. C\I (.0
2 A cap and cove tool according to claim 1 where the underside of the said CD lower body part which in use would be nearest to the floor has smooth glide strips which in use are in contact with the floor covering material and are provided to allow the said tool to glide along the surface of the floor covering material.
3. A cap and cove tool according to any previous claim in which the said upper body part incudes a handle for holding and operating the tool.
4 A cap and cove tool according to any previous claim where the said upper body part which in use is nearest to the wall is provided with guides which guides in use are in contact with the floor covering material when cutting the floor covering material and in contact with the wall when marking the wall for installation of a capping strip.
A cap and cove tool in accordance with any previous claim which has a removeable marking device which in use can be placed in a holder in the upper body part which holder is located so as to ensure that the said marking device is positioned above the tool in the correct position for marking the wall at the correct height for positioning a capping strip on the wall.
6 A cap and cove tool in accordance with any previous claim where the said upper body part is provided with a cutting means which my be a C\I hooked blade where the said means is contained in a holder which (.0 15 holder is positioned so as the ensure that the flooring material is cut in the correct place without damage to the capping strip and without the flooring material disengaging from the said blade.