NZ789964A - Modular relocatable piering system - Google Patents

Abstract

piering system includes a stack of one or more pads and optional flexible layers, both with hollow cores. This enables a threaded rod to pass through the entire stack, providing a tight connection between all pads and flexible layers, and allowing for some capacity for vertical height adjustment, both at setup and readjusting after ground conditions have changed. The vertical height adjustment is of the head plate that is in contact with, and can be fixed to, the movable or immovable structure or vehicle being supported. The invention includes the composition of the piers, some methods of constructing the pad components, and some methods for the installation of the piering system with different requirements. both at setup and readjusting after ground conditions have changed. The vertical height adjustment is of the head plate that is in contact with, and can be fixed to, the movable or immovable structure or vehicle being supported. The invention includes the composition of the piers, some methods of constructing the pad components, and some methods for the installation of the piering system with different requirements.

Claims (19)

I claim:

1. A piering system for supporting a movable or immovable structure or vehicle hereafter called the object, where the piering system comprises of at least one set of: 1.1. one or more pads comprising reinforcing mesh welded to a vertical pipe, and surrounded by rigid fill comprising: 1.1.1. concrete; or 1.1.2. lightweight concrete that comprises of replacing some components with at least one of styrofoam beads, or air bubbles, or plastic granules; or 1.1.3. clay; or 1.1.4. rammed earth; or 1.1.5. nylon or plastic or recycled plastic; or 1.1.6. recycled plastic that is mixed with a filler comprised of sand or aggregate; 1.1.7. optionally includes structural reinforcing fibers or structural reinforcing wires in said rigid fill; and 1.2. optionally the top pad can have the vertical pipe protrude past the top surface of the pad; and 1.3. optionally one or more flexible layer, made from flexible material with a hole in them, inserted between pads, possibly including between the pad and the ground, where said flexible material comprises: 1.3.1. solid rubber; or 1.3.2. reconstituted rubber made from rubber flakes; or 1.3.3. recycled Car tyres, with tyre side walls removed, cut to produce a long flat rectangle of tread, that can then be cut into smaller shapes; or 1.3.4. a foam material such as an EVA foam or foamed plastic such as polystyrene; 1.3.5. a robust gel; and 1.4. a commonly available scaffolding base jack, inserted into the vertical pipe of the pad or pads and inserted into the hole of the optional rubber layer, where the scaffolding base jack comprises: 1.4.1. a threaded rod; and 1.4.2. a wingnut or possibly a nut that can be rotated to move up and down the threaded rod; and 1.4.3. a head plate that comprises one of: 1.4.3.1. flat with optional holes enabling accessory plates to be bolted onto the head plate to sandwich the object between the two types of plates; or 1.4.3.2. U shaped to cradle an object with optional holes enabling it to be bolted to an object, possibly with a packer in between; and 1.4.4. the head plate is either fixed possibly by welding to the threaded rod, or fixed to the threaded rod with a bracket and pin such that the head plate can pivot on the end of the threaded rod; and 1.5. an optional washer plate between the wingnut and what is below the wingnut, where the washer plate comprises: 1.5.1. an optional rigid plate with a hole in it that the threaded rod can pass through but the wingnut cannot; and 1.5.2. an optional washer or raised ring that the wingnut can rest on or rotate on; 1.6. an optional top flexible layer, laid on top of the head plate, where said top flexible layer is comprised of flexible material as defined earlier in this claim; and 1.7. an optional wrap strap can wrap under and around the rest of the piering system and over part or all of the object to connect back to itself in a way that can be tightened; and 1.8. an optional tie strap can be fixed to ground and then over the piering system and over part or all of the object and then be fixed to ground again in a way that can be tightened.

2. A piering system for supporting a movable or immovable structure or vehicle hereafter called the object, where the piering system comprises of at least one set of: 2.1. one or more pads comprising a hollow core, and surrounded by rigid fill comprising: 2.1.1. concrete; or 2.1.2. lightweight concrete that comprises of replacing some components with at least one of styrofoam beads, or air bubbles, or plastic granules; or 2.1.3. clay; or 2.1.4. rammed earth; or 2.1.5. nylon or plastic or recycled plastic; or 2.1.6. recycled plastic that is mixed with a filler comprised of sand or aggregate; 2.1.7. optionally includes structural reinforcing fibers or structural reinforcing wires in said rigid fill; and 2.2. optionally one or more flexible layer, made from flexible material with a hole in them, inserted between pads, possibly including between the pad and the ground, where said flexible material comprises: 2.2.1. solid rubber; or 2.2.2. reconstituted rubber made from rubber flakes; or 2.2.3. recycled Car tyres, with tyre side walls removed, cut to produce a long flat rectangle of tread, that can then be cut into smaller shapes; or 2.2.4. a foam material such as an EVA foam or foamed plastic such as polystyrene; 2.2.5. a robust gel; and 2.3. an adjustable jack, inserted into the hollow core of the pad or pads and inserted into the hole of the optional rubber layer, where the adjustable jack comprises: 2.3.1. a threaded rod; and 2.3.2. an optional wingnut or possibly a nut that can be rotated to move up and down the threaded rod; and 2.3.3. a head plate that comprises one of: 2.3.3.1. flat with optional holes enabling accessory plates to be bolted onto the head plate to sandwich the object between the two types of plates; or 2.3.3.2. U shaped to cradle an object with optional holes enabling it to be bolted to an object, possibly with a packer in between; and 2.3.4. the head plate is either fixed possibly by welding to the threaded rod, or fixed to the threaded rod with a bracket and pin such that the head plate can pivot on the end of the threaded rod; and 2.4. an optional washer plate between the wingnut and what is below the wingnut, where the washer plate comprises: 2.4.1. an optional rigid plate with a hole in it that the threaded rod can pass through but the wingnut cannot; and 2.4.2. an optional washer or raised ring that the wingnut can rest on or rotate on; 2.5. an optional top flexible layer, laid on top of the head plate, where said top flexible layer is comprised of flexible material as defined earlier in this claim; and 2.6. an optional wrap strap can wrap under and around the rest of the piering system and over part or all of the object to connect back to itself in a way that can be tightened; and 2.7. an optional tie strap can be fixed to ground and then over the piering system and over part or all of the object and then be fixed to ground again in a way that can be tightened.

3. The piering system of claim 2, wherein the hollow core of the pad is created by the presence of a vertical pipe in the pad comprised of cardboard or plastic or metal.

4. The piering system of claim 3, wherein the top pad can have the vertical pipe protrude past the top surface of the pad.

5. The piering system of claim 2, wherein the pad includes reinforcing mesh.

6. The piering system of claim 3, wherein the pad includes vertical pipe welded to reinforcing mesh.

7. The piering system of claim 2, wherein the adjustable jack is a commonly available scaffolding base jack.

8. The piering system of claim 2, wherein the pad consists of wood, either a singular piece or more than one piece fixed together.

9. The piering system of claim 2, wherein the pad consists of metal in a singular piece or sheet or slab with optional holes to fix it down to the ground or concrete.

10. The piering system of claim 2, wherein the pad consists of metal as more than one piece fixed together to form a pad with a hollow core.

11. The piering system of claim 2, wherein there are at least 2 pads.

12. The piering system of claim 2, wherein there is at least 1 flexible layer.

13. The piering system of claim 1 or 2, wherein the wrap strap or tie strap is comprised of chain and tightened by inserting a bolt with optional washer through the chain at each end or through a slack portion of the chain and then optionally putting another washer on the bolt and then tightening the nut to tighten the chain.

14. The piering system of claim 1 or 2, wherein the tie strap is anchored by either: 14.1. bolting to the top of a ground anchor; or 14.2. drilling a hole and inserting a bolt into set concrete with the thread protruding from the concrete, fixing the bolt in any common way such as glue or expanding bolts; or 14.3. inserting a bolt into wet concrete with the thread protruding from the concrete; or 14.4. inserting one end of the chain into the wet concrete.

15. A method for constructing a pad used in any piering system above consisting of concrete or lightweight concrete or clay or rammed earth (collectively referred to as the mix), the method comprising the steps of: 15.1. setting down a flexible plastic bucket; 15.2. optionally spraying the inside of the plastic bucket with a mix release agent; 15.3. optionally inserting the reinforcing mesh; 15.4. creating the hollow core by inserting the vertical pipe; 15.5. inserting something like a threaded rod into the vertical pipe that sticks out past the vertical pipe to prevent mix from entering the vertical pipe and to provide a handle by which you can vibrate and adjust the vertical pipe and visually ascertain how vertical the vertical pipe is; 15.6. pouring mix into the flexible plastic bucket; 15.7. optionally vibrating the mix to release air bubbles, by shaking the sides of the flexible plastic bucket in at least one of various axes; 15.8. optionally vibrate the protruding threaded rod to release air bubbles; 15.9. optionally use a concrete vibrator to release air bubbles; 15.10. look at the threaded rod to visually ascertain how vertical the vertical pipe is; 15.11. grasp the protruding threaded rod to make it more vertical if necessary; 15.12. optionally trowel the top surface to be flat; 15.13. wait for the mix to dry or press with high pressure to make the mix set more quickly; 15.14. optionally shake the sides of the flexible plastic bucket to detach it from the hardened mix which is now a pad; 15.15. remove the pad from the bucket, possibly by tipping over the bucket and pulling on the sides of the flexible plastic bucket; 15.16. remove the threaded rod by pulling, or if it was fixed in by some stray mix, by hitting the end of the threaded rod with a hammer; 15.17. cleaning up any remaining mix from the sides of the flexible plastic bucket should be unnecessary or very easy compared to traditional mix forms, as mix is not inclined to stick to flexible plastic and because flexing the plastic makes the mix crack and fall

16. A method for constructing a pad used in any piering system above consisting of concrete or lightweight concrete or clay or rammed earth (collectively referred to as the mix), where the pad has a vertical pipe protrude past the top surface of the pad, the method comprising the steps of: 16.1. creating the form, comprising the steps of: 16.1.1. setting down a flexible plastic bucket on a supporting panel where the supporting panel is any panel that is rigid enough to support the form when filled with mix, and soft enough to gouge out a recess; and 16.1.2. drilling a hole into the bottom of the bucket and in maybe 25 millimeters into the support panel, where the hole is marginally wider than the threaded rod; and 16.1.3. gouging out a recess in the support panel maybe 25 millimeters into the support panel and bounded by the hole drilled; and 16.2. then using the form in the same way as described in the method of claim 15, except placing the vertical pipe through the hole in the bottom of the bucket and into the recessed area of the supporting panel.

17. A method for constructing a piering system to support and level a movable or immovable structure or vehicle hereafter called the object, in a simpler way, the method comprising the steps of: 17.1. only having to roughly level the site; 17.2. marking out the required location of each piering system support; 17.3. setting out the piering system for each pier comprising the steps of: 17.3.1. optionally, at each mark, remove the grass turf in the size of the bottom pad; 17.3.2. optionally, fill each shallow hole back up to ground level with compactable aggregate and compact it; 17.3.3. optionally lay down a wrap strap under where each bottom pad will go; 17.3.4. place a pad, then optional flexible layer; 17.3.5. repeat the previous step as necessary, if ground is uneven you can repeat more in the low spots; 17.3.6. optionally add a washer plate on top; 17.3.7. insert the adjustable jack through the optional washer plate, and all of the pads and flexible layers, trimming the length of the adjustable thread if necessary; 17.3.8. use the optional wingnut to adjust the height of the head plate to be level with all other head plates, possibly using a leveling device such as a laser level; 17.4. set the object to be supported down upon the head plates; 17.5. optionally fix the object to each head plate, method varying for the situation, but often comprising: bolting through the head plates into the object, with spacers if necessary; or bolting accessory plates onto the head plates to sandwich the object such as an I beam between the two types of plates; 17.6. optionally wrap the wrap strap around each pier system and part or all of the object, then fix to the other end, then tighten.

18. A method for constructing a piering system to support and level a movable or immovable structure or vehicle hereafter called the object, in a more thorough way, the method comprising the steps of: 18.1. only having to roughly level the site; 18.2. marking out the required location of each piering system support; 18.3. setting out the piering system for each pier comprising the steps of: 18.3.1. at each mark, remove topsoil until you arrive at “good ground”; 18.3.2. optionally, fill each hole back up to ground level with either compactable aggregate and compact it; or concrete with optional anchoring; 18.3.3. optionally lay down a wrap strap under where each bottom pad will go; 18.3.4. place a pad, then optional flexible layer; 18.3.5. repeat the previous step as necessary, if ground is uneven you can repeat more in the low spots; 18.3.6. optionally add a washer plate on top; 18.3.7. insert the adjustable jack through the optional washer plate, and all of the pads and flexible layers, trimming the length of the adjustable thread if necessary; 18.3.8. use the optional wingnut to adjust the height of the head plate to be level with all other head plates, possibly using a leveling device such as a laser level; 18.4. set the object to be supported down upon the head plates; 18.5. optionally fix the object to each head plate, method varying for the situation, but often comprising: bolting through the head plates into the object, with spacers if necessary; or bolting accessory plates onto the head plates to sandwich the object such as an I beam between the two types of plates; 18.6. optionally wrap the wrap strap around each pier system and part or all of the object, then fix to the other end, then tighten; 18.7. optionally wrap the tie strap around each pier system and part or all of the object, then fix each end to an anchor in the ground or concrete, then tighten;

19. A method for constructing a piering system to support and level a movable or immovable structure or vehicle hereafter called the object, when the object is already located in its desired location, the method comprising the steps of: 19.1. only having to roughly level the site; 19.2. either raise the object a little, or the object may already be raised for example on wheels; 19.3. marking out the required location of each piering system support; 19.4. setting out the piering system for each pier comprising the steps of: 19.4.1. optionally, at each mark, remove the grass turf in the size of the bottom pad; 19.4.2. optionally, fill each shallow hole back up to ground level with compactable aggregate and compact it; 19.4.3. optionally lay down a wrap strap under where each bottom pad will go; 19.4.4. place a pad, then optional flexible layer; 19.4.5. repeat the previous step as necessary, if ground is uneven you can repeat more in the low spots; 19.4.6. optionally add a washer plate on top; 19.4.7. have the optional wingnut wound to be as close to the head plate as possible; 19.4.8. tilt the stack of pier parts so that you can insert the adjustable jack through the optional washer plate, and all of the pads and flexible layers, trimming the length of the adjustable thread if necessary; 19.4.9. either use the optional wingnut to adjust the height of the head plate to be level with all other head plates, possibly using a leveling device such as a laser level; or use the optional wingnut to adjust the height of the head plate to be just pressing against the object; or use the optional wingnut to adjust the height of the head plate to be forcefully pressing against the object where necessary to push it into level; 19.5. if necessary, lower the object to be supported down upon the head plates; 19.6. optionally fix the object to each head plate, method varying for the situation, but often comprising: bolting through the head plates into the object, with spacers if necessary; or bolting accessory plates onto the head plates to sandwich the object such as an I beam between the two types of plates; 19.7. optionally wrap the wrap strap around each pier system and part or all of the object, then fix to the other end, then tighten; 19.8. optionally wrap the tie strap around each pier system and part or all of the object, then fix each end to an anchor in the ground or concrete, then tighten;