US2645825A - Lumber shake - Google Patents

Description

R. A. WILDE July 21, 1953 LUMBER SHAKE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed 000. 2, 1951 INVENTOR.

RAYMOND A. WILDE BY ATTORNEY 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 R. A. WILDE LUMBER SHAKE IN VEN TOR.

July 21, 1953 Filed Oct. 2, 1951 RAYMOND A.W|LDE BY ATTORNEY Patented July 21, 1953 UNITED I L PATENT OFFICE LUMBER SHAKE Raymond A. Wilde, swat, Wash. H Application Qctober z,195l,fSerial No.249,364

This invention relates broadly 'to side "wan shakes, and to exteriorlumber siding-material for building walls, and also to prefabricatedsura facing members and panels designed to produce the general appearance and effect 'on a side wall of a surface covered with wooden shakes.-

' More specifically, this invention relate's to prefabricated individual wooden members designed to be used on a side wall in place of ordinary shakes. There are several disadvantages in'the use of ordinary shakes for surfacing a building wall. Due to the fact that ordinary shakes are made in random widths-and lengths and aretapered quite thin at one end, it is almost impossible to manufacture them with their sides accurately parallel and perpendiculartoithe buttend. As a result the proper laying of ordinary shakes requires considerable laborexpense. Care must be taken not only tonset the shakes. straight with respect to adjacent shakes but eachv row must also be properly spacedand horizontally. alined. Since in ordinary shakes the endopposite the butt end is tapered quite thin it is of course impossible to have tongue andgroove joints or even overlapping joints *along theadjacent side edges of the shakes. As a consequence ordinary shakes must benlaid in double courses .1 Z-Claims. (01. 20-4) in order to make a water tight surfacing. There areother well known-objectionsto theuse of ordinary shakes. 3

An object of the present invention isto provide a prefabricated woodensidewallsurfacing which can be used in place of ordinary'shake surfacing and which will avoidthe objectionable features involved in the use of ordinary shakes but which will produce .a surfacing resembling a surface of ordinary shakes in general appearance. p I

A related object of the invention is to provide an improved lumber shake, which can be used very advantageously in place. of.. ordinary shakes for. surfacing a building wall and which will also provide a heavier, more satisfactory and more durable wall surfacing.

Another object of the invention is tog provide a wooden side wall shake which will have tight lateral joints with the adjacent membersoon both SideS.' I: LC. j'f I A further ObjECtyOfthe invention is-to provide an improved. wooden side wallshakeiwhich will have the same' thickness throughout. its extent, thus enabling a much larger portion of thes-hake member to belaid to the weatheriiwithout any reduction in weather tightness orr in durability of the exposed surface, and consequently with a more efficient use of the surface-area of such wooden member. An additional'objectis to provide an improved lumber shake from which surface water will f drain quickly, and'which will have less tendency to rot than some other surfacing which imitates shingles and shakes in appearance.

' 'Another object of the inventionis to provide an improved substitute for ordinary shakes on a side wall which 'willrequire less skill and less time in laying than ordinary shakes.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a wooden shakewhich can be made from smallpieces of boards which might otherwise be considered waste lumber and which would therefore have considerable economic as wellras commercial value. i The manner in which the above indicated oo-' jects are attained and the manner in which my improved lumber shake is made and used in constructing the desired shake-like woodenside wall surface, will be understood from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings. s In the drawings:

- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of av lumber shake formed in accordance with my invention, the view being taken from the top end of the shake; Fig. 2 is a top end elevation of the same shake drawn to a larger scale;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of one of the upper corners of the shakes; I Fig. 4 is an elevation of the front face =0 the shake drawn to a smaller scale; I

Fig. 5 is an elevation of a portion of a building wall surfaced with my lumber shakes; and Fig. 6 is a vertical section of the same wall surface taken on line B6 of Fig. 5. g r 7 Referring first to Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4 my improved'lumber shake is formed from a rectangular piece of board of uniform thickness, having a tongue 10 and a corresponding groove l l extending along opposite longitudinal side edges for the entire length of the piece of board, and having a top end 12 and a bottom or butt end I3 cut at right angles to the side edges. The piece of board comprising the entire body of-j'mv shake may be of any Width and is out toa length somewhat greater (thus, for example, froininch to 1 /2 inch or more) than the desired length for which it is intended to havethe finished shake laid to the weather.

One face of the piece of board is fluted as indicated as a whole by the reference character H. so that the resulting fluted surface will resemble, in general appearance, the face of an ordinary shake. Preferably in the fluting or grooving of the surface the bottoms of the troughs or valleys I5 are cut to such depth that they will all lie in the same plane (see Fig. 2), which plane will extend parallel to the opposite or rear face of the board. Such a plane is indicated by the line 16 in Fig. 3. The reason for this will be explained later.

After the iiuting H is completed the flutedsurface is then cut away in a transversely-extending path of uniform width along the top edge, so as to form a strip I! having a flat plane bottom sur face which preferably extends in the same plane as the bottoms of the troughs or valleys l5. This cut away strip I! may be of any width desired,

Lumber shakes formed in this mannerv from board pieces of the same length and of the same thickness, and either of uniform or various widths, and consequently with all of the shakes being in the shape of perfect rectangles, with identical tongues and identical grooves on their respective longitudinal side edges, are arranged and mounted as illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6 so as to form the desired shake-like surface. The lumber shakes are laid in overlapping horizontal rows beginning at the bottom of the wall to be covered. The individual members in each row are set close together so that a tight tongue and groove joint will result between each two members. The bottom or butt ends of the members in each successive row extend entirely over the transverse strip H at the top of the preceding or underlying row with the butt ends engaging the top ends of the ridges or flutes of the fluted surface of the members of the preceding row. Since the members will all be exactly the same length, and since the top transverse strips of all the members are exactly the same width, no particular skill is required in setting the rows of shakes in place and no guides for the rows are needed once the bottom row has been attached to the wall. Since each shake is a perfect rectangle with the side edges perpendicular to the top and butt edges no skill is required in arranging each shake properly in its row.

The resulting shake-like surfacing, unlike a surfacing of ordinary shingles or shakes, does not require any undercourse of shingles or shakes due to the fact that the individual members are connected by a tongue and groove joint which extends for the entire length of each member. Since, as apparent from Fig. 6, the successive rows of shakes all extend in parallel, slightly oblique planes, the overlapping bottom portion of the rear face of one row and the transverse strip I! along the top of the underlying row will form a tight overlap with the abutting faces, which are both plane surfaces, extending in the same plane, and also in both top and bottom layers of such overlap the tight tongue and groove joints are maintained. Thus it is not necessary to have the transverse strip I! made very wide in order to provide a weather-tight overlap between rows, and this feature enables an economical as well as efficient use to be made of the surfacing lumber.

I have observed in the case of some imitation shingles which are provided with an additional 1 such shingles.

-.sbmke, with the bottoms of the troughs or valleys l5 (Fig. 3) of the fluted surface it all lying in the same plane as the face of the strip ll there is no continuous shoulder along the top edge of composite surfacing extending over the exposed face of the shingle, but not extending over the overlapped portion, that while the omission of this composite outer surfacing along a top strip at the top of the imitation shingle provides a guide for the setting of the next row in much the same manner as the strip ll does in my improved wooden lumber shake, nevertheless there is a tendency for some water to collect along the horimm shoulder at the top of the composite outer surface on such shingles, and this collection of water eventually has a deteriorating effect on However, with my improved the fluted surface. In other words, each trough or valley l5 acts as a drain channel to draw off any water which mighthave a tendency to remain in the base of the overlap. The preventing of anywater collecting at this point, the maintaining of a weather-tight overlap, while still providing a fluted shake-like surface over the entire exposed face portion of the shake, are important features which combine to distinguish my lumber shake from certain other imitation shakes or shake substitutes which, to my knowledge. have heretofore been tried out on the market.

My lumber shake can be made from tongue and groove boards of any thickness as well as of any width and any length, the only requirement being that pieces of the same thickness and length must be used in forming the same surface. Thus pieces of ordinary tongue and groove flooring, for example, are very satisfactory for making my lumber shake, and, since only short lengths or short pieces are required, my improved shake consequently can be readily made from pieces of lumber and flooring which have heretofore been regarded as scrap and generally wasted. When made from such scraps my lumber shake will be much thicker, heavier, stronger and more durable than ordinary shakes and will thus give a more massive effect on a wall surfaced in this manner, such effect often being preferred with some types of architecture, and in addition my lumber shakes provide a more permanent construction as mentioned.

Since the tongue and groove pieces of board from which my lumber shake will generally be made will ordinarily be of only moderate widths, the lateral shrinkage (and subsequent expansion) of such imitation shake on the wall, due to changes in temperature and moisture conditions, will be quite negligible and thus the opening up of any cracks in the surfacing will not occur to any appreciable extent. This fact is also an advantage in enabling the painting of such a finished wall surface to be done more readily than in the case of ordinary wooden shake wall surfaces where the substantial cracks or spaces between individual shakes add considerably to the cost of labor and material involved in painting the shake wall surface.

I claim:

'1. A wooden lumber shake of the character described consisting of a rectangular piece of board of uniform thickness having a tongue and a corresponding groove extending along the opposite longitudinal side edges respectively for the entire length of said piece of board, the front or outer face of said piece of board being fluted, the bottoms of the valleys in said fluting located in a common plane parallel to the rear face of said piece of board, and a transverse strip cut across the flutin-g at the top edge of said front or outer face, said strip being of uniform width, the bottom face of said strip extending in the same plane as the bottoms of said valleys, the upper ends of the ridges of said fluting where said fluting is terminated by said strip thereby constituting a series of short, spaced transverse shoulders. I g

2. An exterior wall covering consisting of a plurality of lumber shakes set in overlapping horizontal rows, each of said lumber shakes comprising a rectangular body of uniform thickness having a tongue and a corresponding groove extending along the opposite longitudinal side edges respectively for the entire length of said body, the front or outer face of said body having a fluted surface to simulate somewhat the appearance of a shake, the bottoms of the valleys in said fluted surface located in a common plane, and a transverse strip extending across the fluted surface of said front or outer face at the top edge of said front or outer face, said strip being of uniform width, the bottom face of said strip extending in the same plane as the bottoms of 6 said valleys, the bottom ends of the shakes of one row overlapping the transverse strips of the shakes of the next lower row and the shakes in each row set tight together with their adjacent edges forming tongue and groove joints, whereby the upper ends of the ridges of said fluted surfaces where said fluted surfaces are terminated by said transverse strips of each row will constitute series of short spaced transverse shoulders which will determine the position of the next higher row and both layers in the overlaps of the rows will have tongue and groove joints, and whereby any water collecting at the base of said overlaps will be drained off by the valleys in said fluted surfaces.

RAYMOND A. WILDE.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 169,666 Altman Nov. 9, 1875 1,634,789 Melby July 5, 1927 1,958,774 Whiting May 15, 1934 2,501,221 Humble Mar. 21, 1950

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