US1448886A - Building construction - Google Patents

Description

Mar. 20, 1923. I 1,448,888.

C. 0. WALPER.

BUILDlNG CONSTRUCTION.

FILED AUG-20.1921.

CURRY ORA. WALPER,OIE' DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR 0F ONE-THIRD TO FR A. BMSLEN AND ONE-THIRD T0 BERNARD E. CLARK, BCTH- 0F DETROIT, MICHIG.

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION.

Application filed August 20, 1921. Serial NO. 4i93,921.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CURRY ORA WALPER,

a citizen of the United States of America,

residing at Detroit, in the county of Wayne and State of Michigan, have invented ceris a specification, reference beinghad there-' in to the accompanying drawings.

This invention has for its primary object to provide a system of finishing a wall or ceiling made of plaster boards so that cracks will.not appear in the finished wall at the points where the various panels meet.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a section. of a preferred embodiment of the invention in place upon a supporting framework.

Fig. 2 is an elevation of the construction shown in Fig. 1, parts being broken away;

Fig. 3 is a section showing the manner of protecting the nail heads used in securing the boards to their supports and also the means for reinforcing the joint to prevent cracking of the finishing coat.

Many forms of wall boards have been proposed and some are now upon the market, in which paper pulp forms an important or principal portion of the material. Such boards are usually not sufficiently resistant to flames and hence are not approved by the buildingcodes for use in structures above a certain size or within certain areas. Warping and shrinking caused by atmospheric changes render such plaster substitutes generally unsatisfactory. Other boards are in use in which gypsum plaster is an important constituent, the surfaces of these boards usually being covered with pasteboard. In ship-ping and handling, such boards are frequently broken especially at the edges and the pasteboard is not of sufficient strength to prevle-nt the boards from pulling loose from the nails used to secure the material to its support. Reinforcing corner pieces and cords or wires along the edges have been proposed for such boards, but the lack of uniformity in areas to be covered necessitates cutting the boards, thus rendering corner pieces useless and edge cords of no value. Moreover, plaster boards with paper surfaces are not suited to receive a plaster finishing coat and are not permitted by the codes in many structure's.

When such plaster boards are used, expansion and shrinkage cause the finishing coat to crack along the line of the joint, spoiling the appearance of the wall.

In the preferred construction of wall board a substantially fireproof plastic composition is used for the body of the board, and substantially inextensible reinforcing and nailing strips are embedded within the material to extend substantially the; full Width of the board adjacent to the rear surface. Into whatever width the material may be cut, the nailing strips are at the edges to receive the securing nails, and are so located as to resist pressure applied between the supports, thus furnishing the necessary tensile strength at the point where it is most needed. In addition, a secondary reinforcing fabric is embedded within the material adjacent to the front surface to support the plastic body during shipment and while it is being handled, but this secondary reinforcement lies beneath the surface of the plastic body so that the outer face is of the proper material to receive an adhering finishing coating of plaster.

In the embodiment illustrated in Figs. 1 and2, the backing 1 is-a sheet of wirecloth which ma be of the kind used for flyscreens. pon this backing, strips 2, 2, of sheet iron, which may be galvanized or otherwise rust-proofed, or cut from tin or terne plate, are laid substantially parallel with each other transversely of the sheet from edge to edge, these fiat strips being of a width suflicient to receive the securing nails driven therethrough into the supporting studs or joists 3, 3. The nailing strips or straps 2 are secured by spot welding directly to the wire mesh and the securing nails 4 are driven through these straps and through the Wire mesh at 5 into the studs or joists 3.

The surface of the-board will be provided with marks 7 which may consist of indentations of any desired form to indicate the position of the-nailing strips, so that the nail may be driven through the center of the strip. 'Ihese strips will of course be of sufficientwidth to permit a reasonable amount of variation in the driving of the securing nails.

As a means of securing the nailing strips 2 firmly in place in the plastic body of the boards, lugs 9 may be formed upon, or secured to the strips 2, a preferred shape bein shown in Fig. 2, in which the upwar ly bent member 9 is dovetailed to ofim the maximum resistance to withdrawal of the member from the composition 8.

The metallic reinforcement will be treated with a special heavy coating of some rustproofing material before embedding it in the cement.

After the reinforcement is set in place, the plastic composition is poured over and around the strips and backing, which may rest upon any suitable support until the cement begins to set.

A secondary reinforcing fabric 11 is then placed upon the top. At the proper stage of setting of the plaster, pressure is applied to render the composition 8 denser and to force it into the backing 1 and reinforcement 11. The plastic composition passes through the meshes of the backing and of the secondary reinforcement so that the surface layer is a coating of plastic material, to which the ordinary finishing coat of plaster will firmly adhere for interior work, or to which stucco will cling to form a decorative surface for exterior work.

In assembling wall boards upon their supports it is customary to leave a little space between their edges. It is not practicable to assemble boards to form an absolutely perfect joint, since the corner angles will vary from a true right angle and where the edges are struck or otherwise damaged during shipment or handling, portions will be broken out and the edges will not meet to form a straight line. The expression in abutting relation, is therefore intended to define a relationship of two boards such that they lie with their edges in close proximity even though the joint may be irregular and though the boards may not lie in actual contact with each other.

One of the principal objections to the use of plaster boards has been the difficulty in securing a proper finish along the joints where the boards meet. Where such boards are made of paper pulp or other fibrous material, there is almost always a certain amount of swelling and shrinking with atmospheric changes, and this action produces cracks so that in some cases almost every joint can be discerned.

driven into the boards and cesses left by countersinking the nails. Into this wet plaster, a reinforcing strip 12 of wire mesh is placed, the strip being of sufficient width to overlap the nail heads on both of the meeting boards. Since the ordlnary studding is about two inches in thickness, the wire reinforcement 12 need not greatly exceed this width. The setting of the plaster holds the reinforcing strip in place without the use of nails. The finishlng coat 13 completely conceals the flat ridge made by the wire and plaster reinforcement along the joint and cracking is entirely prevented.

The strips 12 are preferably of wire, woven as a narrow band about two or three inches in width. It will be supplied conveniently in rolls or bundles. By making a special narrow strip, the danger is avoided of having projecting wire ends to interfere with the working of the finishing coat.

If the strips are cut from a wide sheet, the edges will preferablybe folded back upon the surface of the strip.

"When a broad sheet of plaster board is supported at its edges and along the center line as shown in Fig. 1, sudden heavy pressure applied between the studding on both sides of the intermediate stud may cause a crack due to the bending of the board over the central support.

To prevent this, a reinforcing strip 22, made of any of the fabrics suggested above in the desription of strips 12, is placed at right angles to the mailing strips 2 along the center of the board either before or after the fabric reinforcement 11 is placed in position.

In practice the boards will be made thirtytwo inches wide and about twenty-seven inches high, the joints of all the boards being on as few lines as possible so that the reinforcing strips 12 can be run along the edges of several boards at a time.

When nails are driven through a board 110 having other than a paper surface, the heads are ordinarily left exposed and the metallic nail transmits the heat of flames to the wooden supporting beams causing a rapid charring. The hot nails in the III charred wood cannot resist the outward pull caused by the heavy material and the entire board pulls loose and falls, leaving a passage for the fire.

In the present system the nails are coun- 12 0 tersunk and a considerable thickness of plaster lies between the heads and the ex- .posed surface. The nails cannot be reached protecting layer intact over the entire surface. The long projecting anchors on the nailing strips engage firmly with the composition being interlocked with a large portion of the mass and the nailing strips are welded to the 'wire mesh. When the nailing strip and reinforcing mesh are fastened to the supports, the plastic material cannot fall off in sheets as in the case of those forms of board in which the sole support of the composition is an inflammable aper surface.

Many variations and modifications can obviously be made in the structure herein illustrated, and I do not therefore wish to be limited to the exact details shown and described, but desire to claim my invention in any of its forms and modifications within the legitimate and valid scope of the appended claims.

lVhat I claim is 1. A building structure comprising a plurality of plastic composition panels ar ranged with their edges in abutting relation, a fabric reinforcing strip overlapping the abutting edges, and a surface coating of plastic material covering the panels and re inforcing strip.

2. A building structure comprising a plurality of plastic composition panels arranged with their edges in abutting relation, fastening means adjacent to the edges of the panels, a reinforcing strip overlapping the abutting edges of the panels and overlying the exposed portions of the fastening means, and a surface coating of a plastic material tion of the panels adjacent thereto.

3. A building structure comprising a wooden support, substantially fireproof composition boards having their meeting edges adjacent to each other upon the support,

securing nails countersunk within the body ering therefor consisting of a substantially fireproof composition having a metallic reinforcement embedded therein, securing means passing through the composition into the support, and insulating means overlying the outer ends of the securing means toprovide a substantially fireproof surface.

5. A building structure comprising a support, two composition boards secured to the support adjacent to their meeting edges, reinforcing nailing strips extending adjacent to the meeting edges within the composition body, securing means passing through the strips, a reinforcing strip extending along the joint at the meeting edges and over the ends of the securing means, and a plastic composition covering the portion of the composition boards and the reinforcing strip adjacent to their meeting edges.

In testimony whereof I affix'my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CUR-RY ORA WALPER.

Witnesses:

Lnwrs E. FLANDERS, ARTHUR MINNIGK.

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