US3309830A

US3309830A - Slotted block wall construction with interfitted wire tie

Info

Publication number: US3309830A
Application number: US308869A
Authority: US
Inventors: Fitzgerald Isabel
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1963-09-13
Filing date: 1963-09-13
Publication date: 1967-03-21
Anticipated expiration: 1984-03-21

Description

March 1967 E. T. FITZGERALD SLOTTED BLOCK WALL CONSTRUCTION WITH INTERFITTED WIRE TIE Filed Sept. 13, 1965 FIG! INVENTOR.

EDWARDT FITZGERALD wry ATTORNEYS United States Patent Office 3399,836 Patented Mar. 21, 1967 assasso SLO'ITED BLOCK WALL CONSTRUCTION WITH TERFITTED WIRE TIE Edward T. Fitzgerald, 4 Stevens Place, Melrose, Mass. 02177; Isabel Fitzgerald, administratrix of said Edward T. Fitzgerald, deceased Filed Sept. 13, 1963, Ser. No. 308,869 2 Claims. (Cl. 52-513) This invention relates to wall construction and more particularly comprises an improved means for tying a brick or tile facing to a cement or cinder block wall and an improved method of mortar-lug the end joints of a cement or cinder block wall.

This invention is equally applicable to walls made of either cement or cinder blocks with either brick or tile facing, and in the following description wherever cement blocks and bricks are mentioned, it is to be understood that the alternate materials may be substituted.

It is customary in the construction of cement block walls with brick facing to secure ties in the bed joints of the cement blocks, which extend forwardly to anchor in the mortar of the brick facing. At the present time a number of different types of ties are available, but all basically have the same failings; namely, none are really suited to be adjusted to compensate for differences in elevation between the bed joints of the cement blocks and the bricks of the facing. Certain of the ties now used are made of thin galvanized sheet metal which may be bent when the bed joints of the wall and facing are not in horizontal alignment, but when the ties are bent the galvanized coating is fractured and the ties in time deteriorate. 7

One important object of this "invention is to eliminate the need for bending ties or breaking the facing bricks or tiles to facilitate the alignment of the ties with the joints in the facing of a Wall.

Another important object of this invention is to modify the configuration of cement blocks to allow the ties anchored to the blocks to be adjusted vertically without bending them.

Still another important object of this invention is to provide a cement block which by its very shape accomplishes the foregoing objects and which may be fabricated at no additional cost.

To accomplish the recited and other objects this invention includes among its features the provision of vertical slots in the outer vertical panels of a cement block wall, which slots communicate with the cells of selected ones of the blocks. Ties are positioned in those slots and are anchored in the cells so that they may be raised and lowered as desired within fixed limits before the slots are filled with mortar so that the ties may be aligned with the bed joints in the brick facing. In one embodiment of this invention the slots are in communication with the open or end cells of the blocks, and the slot margins are beveled or chamfered so that they may be filled with mortar. When the slots communicate with the end cells they are coincident with the end joints, and when those joints are provided with chamfered sides, a bricklayer may mortar all the end joints at once after constructing the wall by mortaring only the bed joints.

These and other objects and features of this invention along with its incident advantages will be better understood and appreciated from the following detailed description of several embodiments thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary top view partly in section of a wall constructed in accordance with this invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary front view of the end joint between a pair of adjacent'cement blocks shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view of aportion of the wall shown in FIG. 1

FIG; 4 is a plan view of a cement block comprising a second embodiment of this invention; and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary front. view of a block shown in FIG. 4.

In FIG. 1 a portion of a wall is shown that includes cement blocks 10, 12 andv 14, bricks 1'6, 18 and 20,

ties

22 and 24, and'mortar 26. Each cement block has a front vertical panel 28, a rear vertical panel 30 and four parallel

vertical webs

32, 34, 36 and 38 that together define in terior closed

cells

40, 42 and 44, and

open end cells

46 and 48. It will be noted in FIG. 1 that the

open cells

46 and 48 are approximately half the width of the

interior cells

40, 42 and 44, and each end cell cooperates with the end cell of the adjacent block to form a closed cell when the adjacent blocks are secured together by mortar. The basic overall shape of the blocks 10, 12 and 14 (which are identical) is conventional, except for the slots which communicate with certain of the cells.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-3, specially formed slots are coincident with the end joints 5!) between adjacent blocks in the same course. The slots which form the vertical joints are defined by the adjacent edges 52 of adjacent vertical front and rear panels 28 and Stl. Each edge 52 is shown in FIGS. 1-3 to be chamfered or beveled inwardly of its outer and

inner corners

54 and 56 to provide a gradually widening joint from the inner surface 58 to the outer surface 60 of the

panels

28 and 30. Thus the edges 52 include angularly disposed walls 64 whose sides terminate a distance from the

corners

54 and 56 so as to leave the

wall segments

66 and 68 perpendicular to the

surfaces

58 and 60 of the panel. As is evident in FIG. 2, the beveled margins of each end joint 50 extend throughout the full height of the blocks, and in FIG. 1 each of the four joints shown in the block wall section are pro.- vided with the same chamfered sides. This arrangement has two particular advantages. First, without regard to the manner in which the facing is secured to the cement block wall, the shape of the end joints 50 is such that the mortar may easily be trowelled into the joints after the adjacent blocks are set in place. As a result a brick layer can most conveniently build an entire wall of cement blocks by assembling the blocks in place and mortaring only the bed joints of each course of blocks. The bed joints will maintain the integrity of the wall, and after the entire assembling is completed and the bed joints are set, the bricklayer can return and in a single continuous operation mortar all the end joints. It will be recognized that this is different from the conventional practice of mortaring the bed and end joints of each block as each is singly laid in place.

The second advantage of the configuration shown in FIGS. l3 is that the end joints may conveniently be used as the anchor for the ties 22. The tie 22 shown in detail in FIG. 3 is made of a relatively heavy copperized steel wire or rod approximately /8 to A in diameter, In FIG. 3 the tie 22 is shown tobe made of a single length of wire twisted together at a portion approximately of the way in from its ends so as to form two arms 70 and a head 72. The head 72 and the arms 7 0 lie in a common plane shown disposed horizontally in FIGS. 1 and 3. The head 72 of the tie 22 is elongated in a horizontal direction, and the neck 74 of the tie lies Within the joint or slot 50. The arms 70 extend beyond the front face 60 of the panels 28 and as is evident in FIG. 1, extend an appreciable distance into the vertical plane of the

bricks

16, 18 and 20.

The head 72 of the tie in the position shown in FIGS 1 and 3, is retained within the cell defined by the

end cells

46 and 48. Because the head 72 is elongated in only one direction, it is evident that the tie rna-p readily be mounted on the block wall by aligning the head 72 with the joint or slot 50, inserting the head through the slot, and turning the tie so that the head extends across the slot or joint in a generally horizontal plane. Once inserted in the slot the tie may be raised or lowered to any horizontal position with respect to the course of the blocks to which it is connected, and it may therefore be readily aligned with the bed of any course of bricks to be secured as a facing to the wall.

The wall shown in FIG. 1 may be assembled in the following manner. First, the wall of cement blocks may be assembled by mortaring only the bed joints. If a tie is used in every second course of blocks and in the courses used are spaced the width of a single block apart (ordinarily 16"), thus lying in every end joint of those courses, the end joints of the intermediate rows of blocks may also be mortared at the same time as or in a group after the bed joints are mortared. The facing of the wall is then commenced, and the facing wall if mad-e of brick may be either spaced from the forward surface 60 of the panels 28 of the blocks a distance sufiicient to leave an air space for insulation, or alternatively, the facing bricks may be mortared approximately 1" from the surface 60 and the gap between the surface 60 and the rear face of the bricks may be filled with mortar. The bricklayer will build the facing wall in the conventional manner until the top of a course of bricks lies intermediate the top and bottom of the course of blocks to which the ties are to be anchored. At that stage the bricklayer inserts the ties by aligning the heads 72 with the joints or slots 50 which have not been mortared to insert the heads into the cells. The ties are then turned so that the arms lie in a horizontal plane and lie on top of the upper course of bricks, and the heads 72 thus traverse the slots or joints so that they cannot be pulled through them. The bricklayer then trowels the mortar into the slots or joints 50 so that the ties are held in place and the joints are closed. Because the slots are chamfered they may readily be filled with mortar with the aid of a trowel, The bricklayer may then form the bed joint for the next course of bricks, and the arms 70 with their outwardly extending flanges 76 are imbedded in the mortar forming the bed joint. Additional courses of bricks are laid until the upper surface of the facing thus far assembled is aligned with a plane intermediate the top and bottom of the next course of blocks in which ties are to be anchored. It will of course be appreciated that if none of the end joints of the cement block wall have been filled prior to the commencement of the laying of the facing bricks, the intermediate rows of end joints will be mortared as they are reached by the courses of brick.

The configuration of the slots or joints 50, referring particularly to the

narrow wall sections

66 and 68, contribute to an improved block as well as a neater and structurally superior joint. First, the straight wall sections 66 prevent the mortar at the joint from thinning down to an extremely shallow layer at the edges, which would have little or no structural integrity and which would quickly chip or otherwise deterioriate leaving an unsightly seam. The unsightliness would be particularly undesirable if no facing was to be used. The walls 68 eliminates thin marginal edges which would make the blocks particularly fragile at the edges. Accordingly, the angularly disposed wall 64 does not extend throughout the full thickness of the

panels

28 and 30.

While in the embodiment of FIGS. 1-3, the slots are formed in the end or vertical joints 50 and the ties are anchored in the end open cells of the respective blocks, in the embodiment of FIGS. 4 and the slots communicate with an interior cell. Thus, in FIG. 4 the block 80 includes a front panel 82 and a rear panel 84 joined together by four vertical webs 86 that together define with the panels

interior cells

90, 92 and 94 and open end cells 96. A slot 98 is formed in the panel 82 and communicates with the middle cell 92, and the slot is of the same configuration as the joint or slot 50 in the previous embodiment. Thus, the slot 93 has angularly disposed walls 190 and

narrow wall sections

102 and 104. The width and inclination of the walls 160, are the same as those of walls 64, but the slot as shown in FIG. 5 may extend only half the height of the panel 82. While it is shown in that figure to extend upwardly from the lower surface 106, it could with equal facility extend downwardly from the top surface 108. The height of the slot is determined by two primary considerations; first because while the cement block may be approximately 8" in height, (a conventional dimension), the brick may be only half the height of the block or less, and secondly, a slot extending the full height of the block would appreciably weaken it because it would reduce its cross-sectional dimension effectively to the cross section of only one panel.

It will be appreciated that if the slot 98 is only 4" high, it is nevertheless adequate in size to assure that the ties can be aligned with substantially any bed joint in the facing material, Thus the slots 98 give enough freedom of adjustment to the ties in them so that they may be properly aligned to anchor the facing material to the wall. In the embodiment of FIGS. 4 and 5, the slot 98 is described as communicating with an interior cell and it may of course communicate with any one of the interior cells. It will be noted that the ends of the front and

rear panels

82 and 84 are provided with conventionally shaped square edges. This showing is not intended to preclude the use of chamfered edges at the ends of the panels when a tie slot is provided which communicates with an interior cell. That is, should it prove more desirable to use an interior cell for the anchor of the ties, the end joints may nevertheless be provided with the chamfered edges as shown in FIGS. 1-3.

If the wall is to be made of cement blocks of the configuration shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the blocks may be assembled in the conventional manner, and when the facing is applied the ties 22 may be inserted through the slots 98 and turned, and thereafter may be adjusted vertically to align themselves with the bed joints in which they are to be anchored. When so positioned the slots 98 may be filled with mortar and thereafter the joints of the facing may be mortared with the arms of the ties in place. In the foregoing description, two embodiments of this invention have been described in detail. It will be appreciated from the description presented that adjustability is afforded the ties without adding to the cost of molding the blocks and without incorporating into the blocks expensive metal fittings etc., as has been suggested in certain of the prior art. Because the foregoing description will however suggest certain modifications of the illustrated embodiments, which do not depart from the spirit of this invention, it is not intended to limit the scope of this invention to those embodiments illustrated and described. Rather, it is intended that the breadth of this invention be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is: 1. A wall construction comprising a plurality of courses of hollow blocks, said blocks in each course defining a row of vertically extending cells and a continuous front panel,

spaced vertically extending slots provided in the front panel and communicating with an inner surface of each of selected cells, said slots each comprising a first pair of opposed walls meeting said front panel at opposed corners and extending rearwardly therefrom to a second pair of opposed walls extending further into said block toward said inner surface and meeting a third pair of facing walls which extend to said inner surface,

ties each having a head and a pair of arms integral with the head and twisted together within the slots, said arms having portions lying outside the outer surface of the panel with portions of said head and said arms of each tie in each slot contacting said inner surface and said second pair of opposed walls, respectively,

5 6 and a facing covering the outer panels of the block 2,007,130 7/1935 Munroe et al 52-144 X courses and anchored to the blocks by the ties. 2,309,420 1/ 1943 Taylor 52714 X 2. A wall construction in accordance with claim 1 2,933,146 4/1960 Zaldastani et a1. 52-405 X wherein said first pair of opposed walls are parallel and 2,954,838 10/1960 Nuorivaara 52144 X said third pair of facing Walls are parallel to each other. 5 FOREIGN PATENTS References Cited by the Examiner 548,589 11/ 1957 Canada.

257,351 8/1926 Great Britain. UNITED STATES PATENTS 330,391 7/1958 Switzerland. 822,510 6/1906 Davidson 52-375 9 0 8/19 Raster 52-5 10 FRANK L. ABBOTT, Primary Examiner. 1,304,219 5/1919 Thompson 52--379 X 1 5 077 5/1926 Lona 52 372 A. C. PERHAM, Assistant Examiner.

Claims

1. A WALL CONSTRUCTION COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF COURSES OF HOLLOW BLOCKS, SAID BLOCKS IN EACH COURSE DEFINING A ROW OF VERTICALLY EXTENDING CELLS AND A CONTINUOUS FRONT PANEL, SPACED VERTICALLY EXTENDING SLOTS PROVIDED IN THE FRONT PANEL AND COMMUNICATING WITH AN INNER SURFACE OF EACH OF SELECTED CELLS, SAID SLOTS EACH COMPRISING A FIRST PAIR OF OPPOSED WALLS MEETING SAID FRONT PANEL AT OPPOSED CORNERS AND EXTENDING REARWARDLY THEREFROM TO A SECOND PAIR OF OPPOSED WALLS EXTENDING FURTHER INTO SAID BLOCK TOWARD SAID INNER SURFACE AND MEETING A THIRD PAIR OF FACING WALLS WHICH EXTEND TO SAID INNER SURFACE, TIES EACH HAVING A HEAD AND A PAIR OF ARMS INTEGRAL WITH THE HEAD AND TWISTED TOGETHER WITHIN THE SLOTS, SAID ARMS HAVING PORTIONS LYING OUTSIDE THE OUTER SURFACE OF THE PANEL WITH PORTIONS OF SAID HEAD AND SAID ARMS OF EACH TIE IN EACH SLOT CONTACTING SAID INNER SURFACE AND SAID SECOND PAIR OF OPPOSED WALLS, RESPECTIVELY, AND A FACING COVERING THE OUTER PANELS OF THE BLOCK COURSES AND ANCHORED TO THE BLOCKS BY THE TIES.